Tanzania, crater floor to reef.
Which Kilimanjaro route actually gets people to the summit. Whether the crater deserves a second morning. Which Zanzibar boat trip leaves before the crowd. Every tour in the country, reviewed.
The crater, the migration, the mountain, the reef.
Four things bring almost everyone to Tanzania, and a fifth keeps them an extra week on the coast. Here is how each one is actually booked, and what it costs.
Forty dollars or four thousand. Both are Tanzania.
No other country splits this hard. A dhow sunset costs less than a taxi from the airport; a week in the Serengeti costs more than the flight. Every tour on the site, grouped by what you would actually pay.
Stone Town on foot, the spice farms, dhow sunsets and the boat runs out to the sandbanks. Most of Zanzibar lives in this band.
A day inside a national park: gate fees, a Land Cruiser with the roof up, a driver-guide who spots things you never would, and lunch in a box.
The trips people save a year for. Multi-day camping circuits through the crater and the Serengeti, fly-in safaris, and the nine days Kilimanjaro takes.
- 14 Days Group Camping Safarifrom $900
- 25 Days Group Camping Safarifrom $1,100
- 3Kilimanjaro climb by Lemosho Route (7-day)from $3,476
What travellers actually book between Arusha and Zanzibar.
Every review →The tours with more traveller reviews behind them than anything else in the country, and what makes each one earn its day.
1
Serengeti Balloon Safari and authentic bush breakfast
Sunrise hot air balloon over Serengeti with bubbly and a bush breakfast. Small groups, scenic regional launches, and easy pickup included.
From · $550
Read our review →
2
Balloon Safari & Bush Breakfast in Serengeti – Miracle Experience
from $599
3
Mikumi Safari Day Trip with Flights and Meal
from $451
4
Stone Town, Spice Tour, Prison Island with Lunch
from $68
5
4 Days Group Camping Safari
from $900
6
Mnemba Boat Trip and Dolphin Snorkel Adventure
from $50
7
Day Selous Game Reserve Safari with Flights
from $470
8
Prison Island and Nakupenda Boat Trip with Lunch
from $39
Zanzibar runs on tide tables, not timetables.
The sandbank you were promised is underwater by two. The spice farm smells of nothing until someone scratches a leaf. The reef boats leave Nungwi at six because the dolphins do not wait. Book the island around the water, not the clock.
Every safari in the north still leaves from Arusha.
A working town of coffee traders and tour offices under Mount Meru, and the gate to all four northern parks. Nobody comes for Arusha itself. Everybody spends a night there anyway, sorting a vehicle for the morning.
Three things that exist between the Rift and the reef, and nowhere else.
Plenty of Africa has lions and beaches. The two-million-strong river crossing, the free-standing snow peak on the equator and the monkey that lives in one forest on one island are Tanzanian alone.
The Great Migration
Close to two million wildebeest and zebra walk a rough clockwise loop through the Serengeti and back, following rain they can apparently smell from fifty kilometres. Calving is on the southern short-grass plains around February; the Mara River crossings run July to October. Where the herd is decides which camp you book, so pick the month first and the lodge second.
- 1Serengeti Balloon Safari and authentic bush breakfast★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,480 reviews
- 2Balloon Safari & Bush Breakfast in Serengeti – Miracle Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,646 reviews
- 33 Days Serengeti & Ngorongoro Group Camping Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 574 reviews
Kilimanjaro
The highest free-standing mountain on earth, three degrees south of the equator, and no technical climbing anywhere on it — which is exactly why so many people underestimate it. Altitude decides the summit, not fitness, so the extra acclimatisation day on the longer routes is worth more than any amount of training. Summit night starts around midnight in the dark and the cold.
- 1Kilimanjaro climb by Lemosho Route (7-day)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 651 reviews
- 2Kilimanjaro climb, Machame Route (7-day)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 262 reviews
- 38-Day Small-group Lemosho Kilimanjaro Summit Trekking★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 186 reviews
The Red Colobus
Zanzibar red colobus live in Jozani and nowhere else on the planet, down to a couple of thousand animals in a patch of groundwater forest an hour from Stone Town. They are entirely unbothered by people, which makes them absurdly easy to photograph. The same ticket walks you out over the mangrove boardwalk behind the forest.
- 1Jozani Forest & Sea Tortoises Sanctuary Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 204 reviews
- 2Dolphin tour, Jozani Forest, Jambiani Kuza Cave, Paje Beach &The Rock restaurent★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 164 reviews
- 3Zanzibar full day Jozani forest + Spice farm and stone town★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 90 reviews
Some of Tanzania cannot be booked once you have landed.
Most of the coast can be arranged from a hotel desk the night before. The mountain and the plains cannot — they run on park permits, licensed crews, fixed departure dates and animals that move on their own schedule.
- 01Kilimanjaro climb, Machame Route (7-day)Park permits and a licensed guiding crew are arranged for you well ahead. Nobody sells a walk-in place on the summit route.
- 02Serengeti Balloon Safari and authentic bush breakfastOnly a handful of baskets lift off each dawn over the plains, and in migration season they are spoken for months out.
- 034 Days Group Camping SafariMulti-day camping circuits run on set departure dates with a fixed number of seats per vehicle. The cheap ones fill first.
- 048 Days Great Wildebeest Calving Migration Safari from ArushaThe herds move on rain, not on bookings. Choose the dates around where they will be, then find the camp.
Kilimanjaro is a nine-day commitment. Or an afternoon.
Under the mountain, Moshi sells two entirely different holidays. One is a licensed crew, a permit and a 1am start for the crater rim. The other is a waterfall, a coffee farm and a hot spring you can reach before lunch and be back from by four.
- 1Kilimanjaro climb by Lemosho Route (7-day)from $3,476
- 2Safari Serengeti And Ngorongorofrom $2,845
- 3Kilimanjaro climb, Machame Route (7-day)from $3,377
On Zanzibar, the best hours are the ones after the boats come in.
All sunset trips →
Dolphin tour, Jozani Forest, Jambiani Kuza Cave, Paje Beach &The Rock restaurent
Read our review →
Swim with Sea Turtles, Kuza Cave, Paje Beach, The Rock Lunch
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The long rains green the plains and empty the lanes of Stone Town.
March to May is the masika, and November brings the shorter vuli. Roads soften, prices drop and the crowds vanish. Almost everything worth doing on the coast still runs: the spice farms are better wet, the coral-rag lanes are shaded anyway, and the caves and coffee farms never noticed.
By region — mainland and islands
Zanzibar418 tours
Arusha703 tours
Moshi & Kilimanjaro431 tours- Mikumi & Morogoro107 tours
Dar es Salaam114 tours
Nungwi & Kendwa47 tours- Every region →
By experience — plains, peak, forest or reef?
The northern circuit, then the short flight east.
Tarangire
Ngorongoro
SerengetiNew reviews from the circuit and the coast.
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Private Catamaran – Stone Town Islands & Sandbanks (5 hrs)
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Zanzibar Stone town historical walking tour with Mohamed
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Blue Safari Full Day Private Trip Zanzibar With Sea Food BBQ
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Private Transfer from Abeid Amani Karume Airport to Zanzibar
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