TOP 10 TRIP REASONS ON WHY TO VISIT TANZANIA

Why Go To Tanzania For A Safari, Cultural, Historical Trip & Marine Beach Vacation

An authentic and discerning tour of Tanzania with AfricanMecca Safaris presents the whole of Africa in microcosm, providing outstanding examples of sustainable tourism in a country with unbeatable natural resources. Stunning landscapes, spectacular wildlife diversity and concentration, safari adventures to remember for a lifetime, challenging mountain and active watersports, barefoot beaches and idyllic islands, historical and cultural riches, all wait for you in dream vacation venues where you can relax in luxurious self-indulgence .

1. Be Transformed By The Magic Of Tanzania, A Country Of Amazing Beauty & Matchless Wonders
2. Experiential Ecotourism & Cultural Experience
3. Witness Tanzania's Great Wildebeest Migration In Serengeti
4. Experience Authentic & Diverse Tanzania Adventure Activities
5. Explore Premier National Parks & Also Go Off-Beat In Game Reserves & Private Conservation Areas
6. Enjoy A Distinct Indian Ocean Beach Vacation On Zanzibar Island Or On The Coast Of Tanzania
7. Join A Specialized Chimpanzee Safari On The Mountains Of Mahale & Gombe
8. Relish Marine Life Safaris & Underwater Sea Voyages
9. Relive Evolution & Primal History
10. Relax In The Unspoiled Peace & Tranquility Of Tanzania

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1. Be Transformed By The Magic Of Tanzania, A Country Of Amazing Beauty & Matchless Wonders

Tanzania has seven official World Heritage Sites. Teeming with diverse wildlife and a spectacular sight, Ngorongoro is the largest unbroken and unflooded volcanic caldera in the world. Serengeti is the breathtaking outback venue of the annual migration of millions of wildebeest combined with an evolutionary trip to Olduvai Gorge, Laetoli and the Kondoa Rock Art Cave Sites takes you back to your human origins.

Selous, Ruaha and Katavi are unspoiled remote wildernesses, home to thousands of elephants and bovines, and packs of rare African wild dogs and other diverse predators. Lake Tanganyika is among the most beautiful lakes in the world. Lake Manyara was a personal favorite of Ernest Hemingway.



Climb the Kilimanjaro on an uphill strenuous stroll, the highest mountain in Africa, shining in the morning sun above a pedestal of cloud. Trek past its glaciers to the highest peak, or peer into the magma pits of the Mountain of God – Ol Doinyo Lengai by Lake Natron. Silver beaches and limpid seas set off the wonderful Swahili architecture of Stone Town in Zanzibar, important as a significant trading port, a heady blend of cultures and focus of the abolition of slavery.

Combine Zanzibar with a history trip to Bagamoyo or even Kilwa to see the ruins of Kisiwani and Songo Mnara. Thereafter, head off to the private island of Fanjove or Lazy Lagoon for an unadulterated beach escape. Find all the fascination of African travel in the inimitable richness of Tanzania.

2. Experiential Ecotourism & Cultural Experience

AfricanMecca believes that ecotourism changes the way visitors interact with the wilderness and local communities whilst on an ethnic holiday in Tanzania. Guests are encouraged to experience Tanzania cultural tours of local villages, farms, and sustainable projects such as Swala Camp’s beekeeping in Tarangire.

They join in Maasai marriage rituals and celebrations, as at Gibb’s farm near Ngorongoro. They work together at schools like St Jude in Arusha and orphanages like that supported by Rhotia Lodge. Accommodation is often on tribal Maasai land, like Shu'mata Camp in western Kilimanjaro, hosted by the friendly and dignified Maasai tribe. They give a truly authentic Tanzanian experiential safari experience.



Chumbe Island off Zanzibar is a private, non-profit ecotourism project to protect its staggeringly beautiful coral garden. Accommodation is built from natural materials. Food is fresh and locally produced. Guests can snorkel on the reef. Disposable income funds environmental education and other benefits for local people. Chumbe uses progressive solar, photovoltaic and recycling technology to preserve this unique coral island from un-natural degradation so that the marine tour wonders of Tanzania are maintained authentically, so that they will still be here for future generations.

3. Witness Tanzania's Great Wildebeest Migration In Serengeti

During your specialist migration safari with AfricanMecca, you can witness over a million wildebeests along with hundreds of thousands of zebras and antelopes brave the dangers of drought, grasslands fire and starvation on their epic life and death trek in search of forage and water, from the calving Ndutu plains in Southern Serengeti across perilous crocodile infested rivers to reach the fertile Masai Mara in Kenya. This breath-taking spectacle is the largest gathering of wild animals in the world, acclaimed as a distinctive natural wonder.



A plunging mass of heads and horns, they pour down river banks and across endless grasslands, picked off by predators as they travel. Lions, leopards, cheetahs, giant crocodiles and hyenas pull down the exhausted animals, while jackals, vultures and other carrion eaters feast in their wake. Back in their calving grounds in southern Serengeti, half a million calves are dropped in three weeks of synchronized birthing which overwhelms predators by sheer numbers and gives the jaunty newborns the best chance to survive as they are nudged to their feet within minutes of their emergence into a hostile world.

4. Experience Authentic & Diverse Tanzania Adventure Activities

The supreme personal challenge on a trip to Kilimanjaro is to climb the highest free-standing mountain in the world and the highest mountain in Africa. The trek can be made by the determined plodder on a seven to eight day Uhuru Trails journey by AfricanMecca from summer to winter, from tropical forest to arctic snow plains. It has been summited by a 7-year-old from India, United States and an elderly couple from Canada aged 84 and 85 years. But even the fittest climbers need time to acclimatize. Mount Meru provides a demanding, but beautiful climb up steep crater walls while viewing the ethereal sky island of Kilimanjaro in the distant.



The highly intrepid traveler can hike to the lunar landscape in the Natron outback at the summit of Ol Donyo Lengai – The Mountain Of God, possibly above erupting hot magma in its crater. Experience a walking safari with armed guides in the Selous and Katavi wilderness, boating safaris on the Rufiji River or an equestrian safari in Grumeti Reserve in western Serengeti. Canoe amongst pink flamingos and elephants on Momella Lakes in Arusha Park, or in the flooded crater Lake Duluti. Fight billfish, marlin, sharks and barracuda on a deep sea game fishing excursion off Zanzibar for sporting thrills on your Indian Ocean safari.

5. Explore Premier National Parks & Also Go Off-Beat In Game Reserves & Private Conservation Areas

Possibility to see the iconic Big Five on your expedition safari with AfricanMecca to fantastic Tanzanian National Parks where vast concentrations of wild animals are protected. The 2000 feet high rim of Ngorongoro Crater, a collapsed volcano two million years old, shelters the largest concentration of fauna on the African continent. 30,000 mammals: buffalos, lions, leopards, pods of hippopotamus, varied ungulates, elephants, giraffes, rhinos and more roam 100 square miles of the crater floor. Serengeti and Tarangire can be overflown by hot air balloon to appreciate their teeming gazelles, impalas, buffalos, wildebeests and zebras.



In Tarangire, a quarter of a million animals migrate, with oryx, kongoni and gazelles as well as thousands of traversing elephants. Go off-the-beaten track to Selous, the largest reserve in Africa, with over 3000 lions, or untamed Ruaha, with packs of endangered African wild dogs and herds of precarious buffalos roaming its pristine wilderness. Vicious, remote Katavi is the ultimate unspoiled remnant of Africa, accessible to only the most determined adventurers on tour.

6. Enjoy A Distinct Indian Ocean Beach Vacation On Zanzibar Island Or On The Coast Of Tanzania

There can be no divine setting for a barefoot African beach holiday or honeymoon than the exotic spice island of Zanzibar. Endless miles of unspoiled white, sandy beaches backed by lush tropical forests are lapped by the limpid azure waters of the tepid Indian Ocean. Dive at the Mnemba coral atoll alive with jeweled fish, turtles and dolphins or snorkel at the pristine Chumbe Island Coral Park. Sail the sparkling deep seas of Pemba and Mafia, or pit yourself against hard-fighting game fish in the Nungwi waters.



The entire seaboard coast of Tanzania is a feast for the senses. Dine on the succulent fruits of the sea or sample the rare and tasty shoki-shoki (rambutan), fenesi (jackfruit) and 22 varieties of bananas. Refresh yourself with the clear madafu juice of young coconuts. Appreciate the lissome grace of the Zanzibaris and the liquid sounds of their Taarab Swahili music. Indulge in a luxury, private and rustic-chic retreat on the mainland south coast of Dar es Salaam, an ultimate spot for AfricanMecca seaside lovers who simply want to relax in an exotic Shangri-La rich with history and romance.

7. Join A Specialized Chimpanzee Safari On The Mountains Of Mahale & Gombe

Western Tanzania’s National Parks, Mahale Mountains and Gombe Stream, are home to mankind’s nearest living genetic kin, the fascinating chimpanzee with its 98% shared genes. A member of the hominid family along with gorillas, orangutans and humans, the chimps show many behaviors previously attributed only to mankind, including laughter, tool-making and collective violence in pursuit of personal status. Jane Goodall spent 50 years studying social behavior in the Kasakela community of chimpanzees, which you can observe for yourself on a guided trek in Gombe Stream National Park.



At Mahale Mountain National Park, there are more chimps, most of them wilder and testing to find, but the “M” group were studied by a Japanese team led by the Dr. Toshisada Nishida, and are more habituated to human beings. There are strict rules limiting interactions in order to protect the primates. The parks are very remote. African logistical travel is difficult and expensive, by air and then by boat along the coast of Lake Tanganyika, but this specialist experience is utterly unique and well worth the effort. Plan your Tanzania primate safari today with AfricanMecca.

8. Relish Marine Life Safaris & Underwater Sea Voyages

Tanzania prides herself in the beauty and tranquility of her coastal expanses on the East Coast, beside the striking Indian Ocean, and on the freshwater inland sea of Lake Tanganyika, the deepest and largest by volume, and arguably the most beautiful lake in Africa. The largest surface area lake being Victoria best accessed via Mwanza or Rubondo Island. Idyllic, isolated beaches beneath towering, forest-clad mountains and islands form a delightful backdrop against which to enjoy sailing safaris, game fishing, snorkeling and PADI scuba diving.

Tanganyika lake is rich with hundreds of species of colorful cichlid fish, beloved of aquarists. Even crabs and jellyfish have evolved in this lake, undisturbed for over 12 million years.



The Indian Ocean Marine Coast of Saadani National Park, Dar es Salaam, Bagamoyo, Kilwa and the Islands of Zanzibar, Mafia and Pemba offer miles of pristine, silver beaches lapped by crystal clear turquoise sea where you can also sail, swim, fish, canoe, snorkel and dive on fantastic coral reefs teeming with marine life, playful dolphins and green turtles are plentiful with migratory hump-backed whales.

Vertiginous underwater canyons and corals harbor octopus, blue spotted rays, ribbon eels, whip barracudas, moray eels, nudibranchs, gobies, pipefish and many more. Deep ocean travel in Tanzania affords superlative game-fishing for hammerhead shark, marlin, billfish, tuna and barracuda, delighting the heart of a hard-fighting angler. The Pemba Channel offers many year-round prospects for angling.

9. Relive Evolution & Primal History

In Olduvai Gorge near Ngorongoro, the Leakeys found primitive tools and fossilized bones of the earliest men, and footprints over 3.5 million years old at Laetoli. 10,000 years ago, the people of Tanzania were Khoisan hunter and gatherers, joined 5,000 years ago by Cushitic farmers. 2,000 years ago, Bantu tribes brought their iron-working abilities.

Their rock paintings can be seen at Kola, southwest of Tarangire. Greek, Roman and Persian spice and ivory trading centers along the East Coast were later taken over by Arab slavers. Stone Town in Zanzibar, where slave prisons can still be seen, encapsulates all these influences. In this heady mix, Swahili civilization flourished from Unguja to Kilwa until Portugal, Belgium, Germany and Britain negotiated colonial rights in the 1800-1900’s.



Big game hunters from Frederick Selous, Richard John Cuninghame, Leslie Tarlton to Theodore Roosevelt fashioned the foundations of African expedition safaris that has evolved primarily into sustainable photo safaris, and European explorers like Livingstone, Burton and Speke searched for the source of the Nile by ending up in Lake Victoria.

The missionary, David Livingstone, was also found in Ujiji near Kigoma by Lake Tanganyika by journalist Stanley, whose famous greeting, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume”, was probably as fabricated as Queen Victoria’s supposed gift of Mount Kilimanjaro to her German nephew. Follow their Tanzania primeval adventure and review the evidence.

10. Relax In The Unspoiled Peace & Tranquility Of Tanzania

A tranquil vacation in the wilds of Tanzania offers the ultimate escape from the stress of modern life. You can return to the simplicity of the wilderness, surrounded by the vast skies and endless plains of the Serengeti, or the seclusion of a river camp in Selous by the miombo woodlands. Sleep under the stars on fly camping treks in remote Katavi or Ruaha, or return to the opulent self-indulgence of a Hemingway-style safari with every luxury and personal service in Tarangire. Sing and dance with the joyful Maasai tribe in Ngorongoro.



Revel in barefoot beachfront holidays by the Indian Ocean or inland lake, soothed by lapping water, or become a pampered AfricanMecca guest at a sophisticated chic-beach lodge offering massages, spa treatments and superlative cuisine amongst beautifully manicured but wild lush gardens. Live in a luxurious treehouse in Tarangire or Manyara, serenaded by birdsong and the chatter of bushbabies, or swing in a hammock by an infinity pool overlooking the Rift Valley Escarpment, or the waterfalls of the Ngorongoro Crater wall.

Choose a private island vacation at Lupita offering perfect seclusion and privacy, overlooking Lake Tanganyika and the distant mountains of the Congo. Or, lay shoeless at the rustic boutique Mnemba Island Lodge and snorkel or dive at its atoll.