Tanzania Travel Guide Best Places to Visit & Things to Do in Tanzania

Tanzania is one of the few countries where a single trip can combine world class safari with genuine beach relaxation, and the northern circuit makes that easy to plan a strong reason it dominates most things to do in Tanzania searches. Arusha, at the foot of Mount Meru, is the launchpad from there, Tarangire National Park’s elephants and baobab trees lead into the Serengeti, home to the Great Wildebeest Migration and more than 1.5 million wildebeest moving across 14,750 square kilometers of plains, the centerpiece of any real Serengeti National Park safari. The Ngorongoro Crater adds something the Serengeti can’t: a self contained volcanic caldera holding roughly 25,000 large animals, including the rare black rhino, visible in a single day’s game drive best booked as a dedicated Ngorongoro Crater tour. Climbers can add a Mount Kilimanjaro climb, Africa’s tallest peak, via routes out of nearby Moshi, while Zanzibar closes out most itineraries with Stone Town’s Swahili architecture, spice tours, and some of the finest Zanzibar beaches at Nungwi and Paje. Few countries let you move from wildebeest crossings to a coral reef in the same week, which is exactly why most first-time visitors build a 10 to 14 day trip around this loop.