Why Visit Tanzania On A Holiday

Visit Tanzania on a holiday because it has natural splendor, incredible wildlife, seductive beaches, charming ancient towns, archaeological sites, and geological wonders.

On holiday in Tanzania, you’ll watch Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain rising from lush, grassy plains and towering over Tanzania’s landscape with a breathtaking snow-capped peak. 

In Tanzania’s wilderness and beach expenses, you’ll witness the mighty herds of the Great Migration thundering across the Serengeti plains. You’ll most probably end your unforgettable safari holiday with a serene beach holiday on Tanzania’s exotic coast or the intoxicatingly beautiful Zanzibar Islands.

There are needless reasons why you should visit Tanzania on a holiday. We’ll explore some of them in the following text.

Following the Great Wildebeest Migration

The most thrilling animal spectacle on the African plains is undoubtedly the year-round Great Wildebeest Migration in northern Tanzania. The phenomenon is a huge reason many tourists visit Tanzania on a Holiday. It is the largest gathering of wild animals in the world and a distinctive natural wonder.

A Tanzania safari holiday will bring you among over a million wildebeests with hundreds of thousands of zebras, gazelles, and eland following along to brave the arduous journey to new grazing grounds across the northern Serengeti to Masai Mara and back. And where there are such mass gatherings of ungulates, predators lack in their frontiers hoping to catch an easy meal. And when the whole spectacle gets most interesting.

Witnessing the fragile life and gruesome deaths on the plains leaves a mark on your adventurous life. From the calving season on the Ndutu plains in Southern Serengeti to treacherous river crossing where hundreds die, braving the most dangerous route to grazing havens. 

Lions, cheetahs, leopards, giant crocodiles, and hyenas pick out the frail one while jackals, vultures, and other carrion scavengers clean up the remains. 

The best time to watch this phenomenon is July to October when the wildebeest are in the northern Serengeti plains. Here you see the dramatic Mara River crossing of up to thousands. It is the highlight of most Great Migration Safaris in Tanzania and Kenya’s Masai Mara.

December to March, the wildebeest are in the southern Serengeti, more specifically in Ndutu Plains, and it is calving season. It is also a fabulous time to witness the river crossings and see the herds congregate on the dramatic sweeping plains of the south. 

February is the only time when you are almost guaranteed to witness large herds congregating south for calving season. 

Climbing The Magnificent Mount Kilimanjaro

Mount Kilimanjaro, reaching an elevation of 5,895m (19,340ft), is the highest peak in Africa and the world’s tallest freestanding mountain. This dormant volcano towers almost 5km (3 mi) above the hot and dusty ash-strewn plains of northern Tanzania. It is a huge reason for many travelers to visit Tanzania on a Holiday.

Viewed from its surrounding base, Mount Kilimanjaro’s distinctive silhouette and snowcap that illuminates the jagged glacial peaks is one of Africa’s most breathtaking scenes.

Kilimanjaro stands out as a hikers’ destination not only because it’s the highest mountain but also because it’s one of the simplest mountains to climb. Ordinary hikers can ascend it without specialized mountaineering experience or equipment and a reasonable fitness level, some determination, at least five days visiting Tanzania. 

Marveling at Tanzania’s abundant resident game

Marveling at the country’s sheer number of wildlife roaming throughout the country and for the variety on offer is a big reason a massive number of tourists visit Tanzania on a holiday. 

There are more than 4 million wild animals in Tanzania, including 430 distinct species and subspecies. The country harbors some twenty percent of Africa’s large mammal population. There’s no better place to watch Africa’s BIG Five game than on a safari in Tanzania. Elephant, giraffe, hippo, buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, and predators like lion, cheetah, leopard, hyena, and African wild dog are common sightings on any safari.

The destination is home to approximately 60,000 insect species, 25 species of reptiles and amphibians, around 100 snake species, and many fish species. Birds freely fly in Tanzania with about one thousand species, including flamingos, kingfishers, and hornbills.

Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area are two of the best places to marvel at this abundance of wild game when you visit Tanzania on a holiday. Serengeti National Park is home to the world-famous wildebeest migration (see above). 

Ngorongoro Conservation Area lodges a deep, volcanic crater, the largest un-flooded caldera in the world, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Ngorongoro contains over 25,000 large animals, including the endangered black rhino, wildebeest, gazelles, zebras, elephants, leopards, lions, hyenas, cheetahs, and hundreds of other species. Ngorongoro is literally where the Great Wildebeest Migration is birthed.

Going back in evolution history at Olduvai Gorge

If you’re interested in knowing the lives of our ancestor hominids from more than a million years ago, then a tour of Olduvai Gorge is your best reason to visit Tanzania on a holiday.

Olduvai Gorge is a paleoanthropological site in Tanzania that holds some of the earliest evidence of human existence in East Africa. The site is a source of fossilized bones and stone tools dating back millions of years. 

Since Mary Leakey and her husband Louis discovered the Gorge’s riches in 1959, Olduvai has become one of the most important paleoanthropological sites and a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

The Gorge is 30 miles long and 295 feet deep. Scientists have continued working in the Gorge beyond the Leakeys’ lifespans, collecting evidence to reconstruct a picture of our ancestral life 1.8 million years ago. 

The evidence suggests that hominids living in the Gorge competed with predators like lions, leopards, and hyenas. Our ancestors scrambled for carcasses of giraffes, elephants, wildebeests, and antelopes elsewhere. They then ate in the woods, where they felt safer. 

Visit Olduvai Gorge to discover for yourself the place where the human’s evolutionary history unraveled.

Tracking wild chimpanzees in Mahale & Gombe Forests

Spend an adventure-filled holiday searching Gombe stream and the forested slopes of the Mahale Mountain National Park for wild chimpanzees – a once-in-a-lifetime reason to visit Tanzania on a holiday.

You may be excused to associate Tanzania with only herds of wildebeest and iconic predators spreading on extensive grasslands. Let me be the one to surprise you that Tanzania also has chimpanzees swinging through forest canopies. There are two national parks, Gombe Stream and Mahale Mountains National Parks, where visitors can combine the safari holiday experience with chimpanzee tracking. 

Both chimpanzee sanctuaries are positioned on the Lake Tanganyika’s eastern shores, with the tiny Gombe northern-most of the two parks not far from the town of Kigoma.

Ideally positioned on the banks of Lake Tanganyika on Tanzania’s western border, the Mahale Mountains is one of only two primates protected areas in the country. It also boasts of a large chimpanzee population.

The topography of Mahale illustrates mostly craggy and rolling hills, running across the towering Mahale Mountains that dominate the northwest and southeast sectors of the park. 

Take a walking safari across the stunning lowland woodlands and tread the diverse wildlife and birdlife paths that call the park home. Mahale National Park has over 80 mammal species, including a group of habituated chimpanzees that are the star of any visit to the park.

While chimpanzee sightings are never guaranteed, your chances of viewing this charismatic primate are increased with daily walking treks hosted by knowledgeable and experienced guides. Once you find the resident chimp troop, you will have an hour to observe the chimpanzees’ cheerful antics and social behavior before heading back to the lodge.

Although you may liken it to the chimpanzee trekking in Uganda’s Kibale, the experience in Mahale is more remote and secluded away from the world. It’s more for the adventurer who enjoys disappearing out into the wilderness, which is why many visit Tanzania on a holiday.

In contrast to the impressive Mahale, Gombe is a tiny park with 56km² (5,600 hectares) of a fragile and precious patch of chimpanzee habitat 16km north of Kigoma. Despite its tinyness, this wilderness packs exceptional biodiversity and is celebrated as the home of chimpanzee study. Jane Goodall pioneered her primate studies here in the 1960s.

Like in Mahale, Gombe is open to guided chimpanzee trekking excursions and is best experienced in the park for a couple of days.

Experience the pristine coast and Zanzibar island vacations

The east coast of Tanzania is dazzling white beaches, and the Indian Ocean’s warm waters are excellent on a summer holiday. Here you can experience world-class scuba diving and exciting deep-sea fishing. It is one of the great reasons travelers visit Tanzania on a Holiday. 

Tanzania’s beaches are idyllic with long stretches of deserted sand, sleepy Swahili towns, and tiny fishing villages. Once, important trade centers to Arab slavers, Swahili merchants, and German colonials. Now, quiet and serene holiday towns. The beautiful beaches, however, remain to attract a plethora of holiday travelers to Tanzania. 

The colorful and exotic Zanzibar fires the imagination with its beautiful scenery and fascinating trading history. Its capital, Stone Town, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, hides its distinct charm within a maze of winding alleyways and ornate doorways.

Zanzibar is a holiday destination steeped in culture and Seatrade adventure history. The island’s attraction to holidaymakers is not a disappointment. It should be one of the very reasons you visit Tanzania on a holiday.

If you’re tired of the sites and people, head to the Island’s Jozani Forest Reserve, where you’ll encounter the rare Kirk’s red colobus monkey and Aders’ duiker. Off the Islands, the north-eastern coast is Mnemba Island. On this idyllic private island, you’ll find luxurious accommodation, breathtaking scenery, and rich marine diversity.

Best time to visit Tanzania on a holiday

The best time to visit Tanzania on a holiday is during the dry season of late June to October, perfect for wildlife viewing. The best chance for seeing the Great Wildebeest Migration is during June and July.

The Wet season of November-May often brings out the more beautiful scenery, and tourist numbers are lower during the wet season. However, the Southern and Western safari circuits are less accessible in the long rains of March to May, and some lodges may be closed in that period.

Booking your Tanzania safari holiday

Planning a holiday visit to Tanzania’s Serengeti for the wildebeest migration combined with a gorilla trekking experience in Uganda or Rwanda is what we do best. Allow Encounter Africa Safaris Ltd to help you through the local logistics and plan your safari holiday with the best local knowledge.

We will book your accommodation, pay for your permits and fees, organize your transport, plus manage your entire holiday visit. Send us an email at info@gorilla-tracking-uganda.com.