An African Safari is an unforgettable travel experience, it touches something deep within us and it is an experience that will never be forgotten.

Over 28% of Tanzania’s almost 1 million sq km is set aside as national parks, conservation areas, game and forest reserves, and as game controlled areas. This total includes the Selous Game Reserve that is larger than Switzerland.

There are 14 national parks on mainland Tanzania plus 31 game reserves, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, five forest reserves, two biosphere reserves and four UNESCO World Heritage sites.

The list also includes the country’s marine parks and reserves, the Selous Niassa corridor linking the wildlife populations of Mozambique and Tanzania and new game reserves uniting the two countries along the Ruvuma River in the hitherto “forgotten” south on Tanzania.
No other country in Africa or the world can boast such a unique policy of nature conservation and wildlife protection at a national level.

Tanzania's best known park internationally is the Serengeti, declared in 1951. The 14,763 sq km of Serengeti National Park, being larger than Northern Ireland, is home to more than two million wild animals.

Mount Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Zanzibar are all in the United Republic of Tanzania. So too is Olduvai Gorge, hailed as the birthplace of humans, the Selous Game Reserve, more parks and reserves than any other country, and innumerable historical monuments.

Louis and Mary Leakey devoted 60 years of their lives to Olduvai Gorge in their search for the origins of our early forebears. There they were to find the jaw of Homo habilis, nicknamed the "Toolmaker", and Homo erectus, a direct descendant of ours.

Ngorongoro Crater has its own majesty and is the largest extinct volcano in the world. Here the visitor finds the most easily seen group of black rhinocerous in Tanzania, as well as innumerable other species ranging from five prides of lions to wilderbeest and zebra. And the Lerai Forest has the most heavily tusked elephants you are likely to see anywhere.

The islands of Zanzibar, once fiercely contested by Arabs and Europeans, have their own special allure. Approached from the sea, the House of Wonders dominates the main island's skyline. Inland, particularly on Pemba, are the cloves for which the islands are famous.

Zanzibar, and much of the coastal mainland, has pristine white sand beaches. Beyond them is the Indian Ocean containing innumerable spices of very colourful fish and coral. And Tanzania so far has two marine parks and several marine reserves.

In between these highlights are a myriad of other attractions. On the southern circuit are Mikumi and Ruaha with vast herds of elephants, and the little known Udzungwa Mountains National Park that is ideal for hikers and which has the largest altitudinal range of closed forest.

To the west is Katavi National Park with its vast herds of buffalo and pods of hippopotamus, and the Mahale and Gombe National Parks are the habitat for chimpanzees. They border on Lake Tanganyika, Africa's deepest lake.

To the northeast is Lake Victoria, a vast shallow lake that the British explorer, John Hanning Speke, found was the source of the River Nile. Located only a few km from the western gate of the Serengeti, this lake also contains Rubondo Island National Park.

On the coast is Saadani, Tanzania's first coastal national park, north of Bagamoyo, the old slaving and ivory entrepot. Near Mbeya, in the southern highlands, is the Kitulo Plateau, a mountain grassland notable for its wild orchids and other flowers.