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Tanzania national parks and game reserves are home to an amazing diversity of wildlife, making for incomparable Africa game watching safaris. Among these game reserves, the five parks below stand out as the best of the best.

Ruaha National Park

Ruaha national park occupies 12,950 sq km, making it the second largest national park in Tanzania. Located 128 km from Iringa, this park is named after the great Ruaha river, which attracts many thirsty animals to its banks, among them lions, leopards, hyenas, water bucks, and reed bucks. The river also hosts several hippos and crocodiles. Other animals found in Ruaha include zebras, wild dogs, giraffes, lesser and greater kudu, impala, and several antelope species. Ruaha national park is unique in that it combines Southern Africa and Eastern Africa flora and fauna.

Ruaha’s topography is ideal for hiking and walking safaris. In the rainy season between March to April and October to November, the bird population peaks to a high of over 350 bird species – including some Eurasian migrants. Ruaha’s climate is hot and dry, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius in October. The Ruaha is was until recently totally inaccessible, but there is now a year round road access to the park. From Dar es Salaam, road travel takes 10 hours while a charter flight takes 1 and and half hours. The best time for a safari is over the dry season- May to December.

Lake Manyara National Park

The Lake Manyara National Park is without doubt the best destination for birdwatching in Tanzania due to its unrivaled birdlife. The waterfowl and several migratory birds are some of the bird species found here. Lake Manyara national park is also one of the greatest places for viewing leopards atop the lush green vegetation. Tree-climbing lions are also common in parts of the park. The National Park is located between Lake Manyara and the walls of the great Rift Valley, which rise up to 610 meters above.

The periods between December and February and between August and September constitute the best times for going on safari in Lake Manyara national park. However, it is still possible to see animals throughout the year. Most parts of the park are easily accessible, making it possible for you to see all its major attractions in two hours. Lake Manyara National park has three habitats: groundwater green forests, acacia woodlands, and open floodplains.

Tarangire National Park

Named after the Tarangire River, Tarangire National Park is also part of the northern tourism circuit. The park area is approximately 2,600 sq km and has a high concentration of wildlife during the dry seasons as well as a high number of elephants. With over 570 bird species, the place is surely a birdwatchers’ paradise.

The best time to go on safari in Tarangire national park is in the dry months from June to September. The dry weather at that time force many animals to congregate at the river to drink water. There is also less vegetation cover at this time, giving you great animal spotting chances. You also stand a better chance of seeing pythons at Tarangire than in any other places, particularly because Tarangire pythons have love climbing trees.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Located towards the north of Tanzania on an area of over 7,000 square miles the Ngorongoro conservation area was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in’79. The park joins up with the Serengeti to the north-west and it is through here that wildebeest horde through during their world famous migration from the Masai Mara to Serengeti, then to Ngorongoro.

At the center of this conservation area lies the 264 sq km Ngorongoro crater, whose floor is inhabited by a great array of wildlife. Since the crater provides one of the greatest and very satisfying game watching experience, it is not a big surprise that it remains one of the most popular Tanzania destination for wildlife safaris.

Great herds of gazelle, antelope and zebra can be seen grazing along the river beds as well as large herds of elephants moving from one corner of the park to the other. It is also possible to see prides of lions sleeping lazily under the shady trees or at least hear a lion’s roar echoing off the walls of the crater. This is an exciting, though at times, shocking experience. Birdwatchers will also enjoy visiting Ngorongoro. Lake Ndutu in the area is home to a thriving population of birds. Some of the bird species you will see here include stocks, ducks and flamingos among may more.

Serengeti National Park

In the local Masai language, the word “Siringit” means unending plains. Serengeti’s name is derived from this word, describing the national parks open grassy plains. Occupying 12,950 sq km, this national park is part of the same ecosystem with Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya. This vast plain is the home of over 30 large mammal species and about 500 bird species.

The Serengeti hosts the largest and longest overland migration in the world, dubbed the Great Wildebeest Migration. The semi-annual occurrence that is said to be the world’s most spectacular wildlife show is one of the ten natural travel wonders of the world. Others include the Ngorongoro Crater and Victoria Falls.

The great wildebeest migration from Serengeti to the Mara generally takes place between July and August. It is however impossible to correctly predict its timing as it is largely dependent on the rain and pasture availability patterns. The reverse journey of the migration happens around October. About 2 million herbivores participate in the migration, with some of the most interesting moments being when they cross the Mara river in pursuit of greener pastures.

Serengeti is reached by both road and air. The road trip from Arusha, situated some 320km from the park, takes approximately 8 hours. International visitors to Serengeti are served by the Kilimanjaro International Airport in Arusha. From there, the visitors can travel by road to the park or take either scheduled or charter flights to Serengeti airstrips like Kirawira or Seronera.

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In the recent past, Robben Island has undergone a great change from a place for banishment and imprisonment, to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Situated 12 km from Cape Town in the West Cape Province, the island was for more than three centuries used by rulers as an incarceration center for political prisoners. Many political and human rights activists were brought here in an attempt to thwart their quest for freedom.

Robben Island was also previously used as a military base during the second world war (1939-1945), and as a hospital center for people with diseases that require isolation e.g. lepers, the chronically ill and other outcasts (1846-1931).

Though Robben Island has existed for long, it gained international fame in the late 20th century, during the apartheid era. The apartheid years saw the imprisonment of such South Africa freedom fighters as Nelson Mandela, and Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (a founding leader of Pan Africanist Congress). Mandela was in this 6 sq km island for 27 years while serving a life imprisonment sentence passed on him in 1963.

Political prisoners in Robben Island were often jailed together with common-law prisoners, and the only contact they had with the outside world was limited to two letters a year. After the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990, the remaining political detainees were set free in 1991. In 1996, the common law prisoners were also transferred to the South Africa mainland.

In 1997, the island was changed into a museum, the Robben Island Museum, which is today a cornerstone of South Africa’s heritage. By running educational programs for schools and other visitors, and facilitating more research about the island, the museum promotes tourism development and archives South Africa historical information. In 1999, UNESCO declared Robben Island as a World Heritage Site.

According to UNESCO, the declaration of Robben Island as a world heritage site symbolizes the triumph of the human spirit, freedom, and democracy over oppression. South Africa has seven other world heritage sites including the Swartkrans, Sterkfontein, and Kromdraai environs, often known as “the cradle of humanity” due to the discovery of the famous Taung Skull fossil here in 1924.

Apart from the Museum, other attractions in Robben Island are the breeding colonies of bank cormorants, crowned cormorants and Hartlaub’s gulls. The island also hosts approximately 5 percent of the global population of African black oystercatchers.

Getting to Robben Island is easy by the ferries that operate from V&A waterfront in Cape Town. The ferries depart daily from the Nelson Mandela Gateway with schedules for 9am, 10am, 12pm, 1pm, and 3pm. On the island itself, visitors get to tour the former prison to get an overview of the former life of the political detainees imprisoned there from the 1960′s to the 90′s. Some of the tour guides in the Island are themselves former Robben Island prisoners. A standard Robben Island tour will take three and a half hours, including the two 30-minute rides to and from the island.