1 of our itineraries spend time in Tarangire National Park. Every one is private, and every one can be changed.
Places Tarangire, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara, Lake Eyasi
Seven days through Tarangire, Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater, ending with a morning at Lake…
Tarangire is two hours from Arusha on a good road. It is the closest big park to the city, and for many of our itineraries it is the first one you see.
That works well. Tarangire is easy on a first day. The drive is short, the park is not crowded, and the animals are close to the road. Elephants walk past the vehicle. Giraffe browse the acacias at the roadside. Baobab trees stand across the plains like something drawn by a child.
The park covers about 2,850 square kilometres. The Tarangire River runs through it, and in the dry season it is the only water for miles. Everything comes to drink. That is when the park is at its best.
A night here on the way to the crater and the Serengeti is the classic start. The listing above shows which of our safaris begin this way.
Tarangire has the largest elephant population in northern Tanzania. In the dry season herds of a hundred or more gather along the river. You see families with calves, old bulls on their own, and elephants digging in the sand of the riverbed for water.
The baobabs are the other signature. Some are more than a thousand years old. Elephants strip the bark for its moisture, and many trunks are hollowed and scarred.
The river is the heart of the park. Zebra, wildebeest, buffalo and antelope come down to drink, and lions wait for them. Tarangire has good lion numbers and a fair chance of leopard in the sausage trees along the banks.
Birds are a strength. Over 500 species have been recorded, including the yellow-collared lovebird and the ashy starling, which live almost nowhere else. The Silale swamp in the south is the place for birds and for elephants in the driest months.
Python in the trees, fringe-eared oryx and gerenuk are the rarities. Ask your guide to look.
Dry Shoulder Green Long rains
The dry season begins. Animals start to gather on the river. Green fading to gold.
Peak. The river is the only water and the herds are dense. Dusty, warm, and the best elephant viewing in Tanzania.
Short rains. The animals spread out into the wider ecosystem. Green, fewer visitors, good birds.
Warm, some rain. Migratory birds arrive. Elephants still around but dispersed.
Long rains. Some tracks close. The park is quiet and very green. Lowest rates.
One night is enough to see the river and the elephants. You arrive by late morning, drive the river circuit in the afternoon, and leave the next morning after a second drive. Most of our itineraries do exactly that.
Two nights let you reach the southern part of the park. The Silale swamp and the area beyond it are far from the main gate, and most day visitors never get there. In the dry months the south has the largest elephant gatherings and almost no other vehicles.
A day trip from Arusha is possible. You leave at dawn and are back by evening. It works for someone with one spare day. It does not replace a night in the park, because the best hours are the ones before day visitors arrive and after they leave.
If you have to drop a park from a short itinerary, the choice is usually between Tarangire and Manyara. From June to October, keep Tarangire.
Camps and lodges inside the park put you on the river at dawn. The northern part near the gate has the widest choice. The south has a few remote camps where you see nobody else.
Outside the park, lodges along the Arusha road and around the gate cost less. You pay the park fee for each day you enter, so a lodge outside and two days inside means two fees.
Tented camps here are the classic safari experience. Canvas walls, a proper bed, a bathroom behind the tent, and elephants walking through at night. Ask us for one if that appeals.
The packages above use lodges and camps at different levels. Tell us your budget and we will match the camp to it.
Tarangire and Lake Manyara are close together, both a short drive from Arusha. Many itineraries do one on the first day and the other on the second, then climb to the crater on the third.
In the dry season, Tarangire is the stronger park. In the green season the elephants disperse, and Manyara, with its forest and lake, holds up better.
From Tarangire the road runs west through Mto wa Mbu, past Lake Manyara, up the rift escarpment to Karatu and the crater. That is a half day of driving with the crater at the end of it.
A short safari can be Tarangire and the crater alone. A longer one adds the Serengeti. A Tarangire day also fits at the end of a trip, on the way back to Arusha from the crater, when you want one more park before the flight home.
Every itinerary on this page visits Tarangire. The listing above shows how many nights each one spends here.
Game drives in Tarangire follow the river. The main track runs along the Tarangire River from the gate southwards, with loops out onto the plains and back. In the dry season you barely need to leave it. The animals come to the water, and you wait for them.
A typical day starts at the gate around seven. The morning drive runs the river circuit and the Matete woodland, where the elephants are usually first. Lunch is at a picnic site on a bluff above the river, with vervet monkeys watching your sandwiches. The afternoon drive goes further south, or back along the river as the light softens and the herds come down to drink.
The Silale swamp, in the south, is a long drive and a different landscape. Open marsh, tall grass, huge elephant herds in the dry months, and often lions on the edge of it. Pythons are seen in the trees around the swamp more than anywhere else in northern Tanzania.
Tarangire is a tsetse fly park. The flies bite, and they are worse in the woodland in the middle of the day. Wear neutral colours, not dark blue or black, and keep long sleeves in the vehicle. Your guide will keep moving through the worst patches.
The park is quieter than the crater and the Serengeti. On many drives you see a handful of other vehicles all day. That calm is a large part of why we put it first.
Add a day, swap a park, upgrade the lodges, travel in a different month. Tell us what you want and we will rebuild the itinerary around it.
