Tarangire · Five Days

Tarangire: elephants and baobabs

Three nights in one park in the months when the river is the only water — the herds, the southern swamps, a morning on foot and a drive after dark.

Days

Nights

Park

Jul – Oct

Season

I · Overview

The route, and why this shape

One park, three nights, in the four months when the river is the only water.

Most five-day safaris out of Arusha try to do two parks, and the usual pairing is Tarangire and the crater. This one does not. It spends three nights in Tarangire and nowhere else, and the reason is the calendar: between July and October the Tarangire River is the only water for a long way, and the elephant concentration on it is the densest in northern Tanzania. That is worth a whole trip, and it only happens in these months.

Three nights in one park buys three things a two-park itinerary cannot. A full day to reach the Silale swamps in the south, which the day-trip vehicles never see. A walking safari with an armed ranger. And a night drive, which Tarangire is licensed for and the Serengeti and the crater are not. The park is 2,850 square kilometres, and one afternoon on the river circuit is a fraction of it.

The honest trade is this: no crater, no rhino, no plains. You will see more elephants in one afternoon than most people see in a fortnight anywhere else, and you will see the park at night and on foot, which almost nobody does. If you come outside July to October the herds disperse and this itinerary stops making sense; we will say so and build you something else.

Length

5 days / 4 nights

Country

Tanzania

Start / end

Arusha → Arusha

Tour type

Private safari

Group size

Private — 1 to 6 guests per vehicle

Meal plan

Full board in the park, bed and breakfast in Arusha

Best months

July – October only

Activity level

Easy to moderate — one morning on foot

Vehicle

Toyota Land Cruiser 4×4 with a pop-up roof, a window seat for every guest, charging points and a cool box

II · The days

Day by day, all five

Every day opens. A night in Arusha, three in Tarangire, and the road home. See every lodge and camp we use

Day

Arrival

Landing, and a night in Arusha

03°22′S 36°41′E

Dinner

Landing, and a night in Arusha

03°22′S 36°41′E

You land at Kilimanjaro International, fifty kilometres east of Arusha, and most long-haul routings put you down in the afternoon or evening. Your guide meets you at the door. The drive in takes about an hour, through coffee shambas under the southern slopes of Mount Meru, and you will not feel like talking, which is fine.

On a five-day trip the temptation is to push on to Tarangire tonight and buy yourself a morning. We do not do it. The park gate closes at six, the last hour of that road is in the dark, and you would reach camp too late to see anything and too tired to want to. Arusha is at 1,400 metres and the first evening feels longer than it is.

So tonight is a bed, an early dinner and one piece of admin: repack into a soft bag, because hard cases do not fit under the bench seats of a safari vehicle, and change money for tips now rather than on the road. Tomorrow starts after breakfast, not before it.

Meals

Dinner

Travel

Kilimanjaro International to Arusha · 50 km, about 1 hour

Highlight

Nothing scheduled, on purpose

Meet at Kilimanjaro International

Arusha, 1,400 m

No game drive today

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Kahawa House

★★★★☆

Arusha, garden lodge on the edge of town

Quiet, en-suite, bed and breakfast, and close enough to the Great North Road for a clean start south in the morning.

LUXURY

Onsea House & Machweo Wellness Retreat

★★★★★

Arusha, boutique lodge under Mount Meru

Larger rooms, a garden to sit in after the flight, and dinner served whenever you land.

Day

Tarangire

South to the river, and the baobabs

03°50′S 36°00′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

South to the river, and the baobabs

03°50′S 36°00′E

Out of Arusha after breakfast, south-west on the tarmac of the Great North Road, then the turn onto the park road. The country changes twice in ninety minutes: cultivated highland, then Maasai grazing land, then baobab. You will see your first giraffe before the gate, and often your first elephant.

Tarangire holds the highest elephant density in northern Tanzania, and between July and October it all comes down to one river. The Tarangire River runs through the middle of the park and in these months it is the only reliable water for a long way in any direction. Families of fifteen and twenty dig for it in the sand; where several families have converged on the same stretch of riverbed you can count into the hundreds.

The afternoon is the river circuit south of the gate, and it is where the big baobabs stand. The large ones are somewhere between six hundred and a thousand years old, and most of them are scarred at elephant height where the herds have stripped the bark for moisture in bad years. You are back at camp before the gate closes at six. Three nights here means there is no hurry to see everything today.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Arusha to the Tarangire gate · about 120 km, 2 to 2½ hours

Highlight

First elephants from the tarmac, then the river circuit

Elephant herds on the river

Baobab country

Afternoon game drive

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Mbali Mbali Tarangire River Camp

★★★★☆

Tarangire, tented camp near the river

Tented, en-suite, full board. Your base for three nights, so you unpack once and the mornings start inside the park.

LUXURY

Lemala Mpingo Ridge Lodge

★★★★★

Tarangire, lodge on the escarpment above the river

Larger tents with a view down the river valley, and a deck facing the crossings for the last hour of light.

Day

Full day

South to the Silale swamps

04°05′S 36°10′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

South to the Silale swamps

04°05′S 36°10′E

You leave at first light with breakfast in a box, which is a small indignity that buys you the best two hours of the day. The route runs south along the river and then on, past where the day-trip vehicles from Arusha turn back because they have to be out of the gate by mid-afternoon. You do not.

The Silale swamps in the south are the reason to give Tarangire three nights rather than one. In the dry season they hold buffalo in numbers and the lions that follow them, and the game concentrates there with a density that surprises people who thought yesterday was Tarangire. Leopard live in the acacia along the watercourses and are genuinely findable; do not expect one, and if it happens it will be because your guide stopped for no reason you could see and waited.

Lunch is under a tree in the south. You work back north through the afternoon with the light getting long on the baobabs, which is when the photograph everyone takes of this park actually works, and you are through the last stretch of the river circuit as the elephants come down to drink. Back at camp before six.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Full day in the park · boxed breakfast and lunch

Highlight

The southern circuit most vehicles never reach

Silale swamps

Buffalo and lion

Long afternoon light

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Mbali Mbali Tarangire River Camp

★★★★☆

Tarangire, tented camp near the river

Second night at the same camp. No packing, no transfer — a full day in the park instead.

LUXURY

Lemala Mpingo Ridge Lodge

★★★★★

Tarangire, lodge on the escarpment above the river

Second night. Staying put is what makes the late return possible.

Day

Walk & night drive

On foot at dawn, and out after dark

03°50′S 36°00′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

On foot at dawn, and out after dark

03°50′S 36°00′E

This morning you leave the vehicle. A walking safari in Tarangire is led by an armed park ranger with your guide alongside, two to three hours in the early cool, and it is for guests aged sixteen and over. You will not walk up to an elephant. What you get instead is the ground: tracks in the sand, the dung beetles, the way the baobab smells up close, and how quiet the park is when there is no engine.

The middle of the day is a rest at camp, because the second half is late. You go out again mid-afternoon and stay out past the hour when every other vehicle has to be back, because Tarangire is one of the parks where TANAPA licenses night drives; the Serengeti and the crater are not. Night drives run in an open vehicle with a filtered spotlight, a permit fee is charged on top of the park fee, and the minimum age is sixteen.

What the spotlight finds is different from the day. Genet, civet, bat-eared fox, spring hare, bushbaby in the sausage trees, and, when it goes well, lion on the move rather than asleep. Leopard are seen at night more often than by day. None of it can be promised; the dark does its own casting.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Morning walk · midday rest · afternoon drive running into a night drive

Highlight

Two things the Serengeti and the crater cannot offer

Walking safari, armed ranger

Night drive, permit fee

Ages 16 and over

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Mbali Mbali Tarangire River Camp

★★★★☆

Tarangire, tented camp near the river

Third night. A late dinner is held for you after the night drive.

LUXURY

Lemala Mpingo Ridge Lodge

★★★★★

Tarangire, lodge on the escarpment above the river

Third night. The walk leaves from the lodge itself where the property is inside the park.

Day

Departure

A last morning on the river, then north

03°22′S 36°41′E

Breakfast · Lunch

A last morning on the river, then north

03°22′S 36°41′E

You do not leave the park at breakfast. The morning is a game drive north along the river circuit towards the gate, which is the coolest and emptiest drive of the trip, and the one where the elephants are most likely to be crossing in front of you rather than standing in the distance.

Out of the gate by late morning, then the tarmac north to Arusha, about two and a half hours with a stop, and lunch in town or on the road depending on your flight. Kilimanjaro International is another hour east of Arusha.

An evening departure works comfortably. If your flight leaves in the early afternoon, tell us before we book, because it costs you the morning drive and changes the shape of this day. If you are going on to the crater or the coast, this is where that trip begins.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch

Travel

Tarangire gate to Arusha · about 120 km, 2 to 2½ hours · JRO a further 50 km

Highlight

Morning game drive on the way out

Morning game drive

Arusha by early afternoon

Airport transfer

Where you sleep

Departure day — no overnight

III · Rates

What it costs, by group size

A safari gets cheaper per person as the vehicle fills. Choose a tier to see the table.

Comfort rates by group size, per person and group total
Group size	Rooms	Per person	Group total
1 guest	1 room	$4,570	$4,570
2 guests	1 room	$3,250	$6,500
3 guests	2 rooms	$3,300	$9,900
4 guests	2 rooms	$2,960	$11,840
5 guests	3 rooms	$3,050	$15,250
6+ guests	3 rooms	$2,860	$17,160

Single supplement

$750

Added when a guest does not share a room

Child, 3 – 11 years

30% off

Sharing with two adults — game drives only; the walk and night drive are 16+

Peak season uplift

Included in the rates above

July – October, which is the whole season for this route

Luxury rates by group size, per person and group total
Group size	Rooms	Per person	Group total
1 guest	1 room	$9,330	$9,330
2 guests	1 room	$6,760	$13,520
3 guests	2 rooms	$7,230	$21,690
4 guests	2 rooms	$6,470	$25,880
5 guests	3 rooms	$6,810	$34,050
6+ guests	3 rooms	$6,370	$38,220

Single supplement

$1,990

Added when a guest does not share a room

Child, 3 – 11 years

30% off

Sharing with two adults — game drives only; the walk and night drive are 16+

Peak season uplift

Included in the rates above

July – October, which is the whole season for this route

All figures in US dollars, per person sharing unless stated. Valid for travel until 30 June 2027. Park fees, guiding, vehicle, accommodation and full board are included — see what is and is not covered below.

IV · Included

What is in the price, and what is not

Stated in full, both ways.

What is included

All game drives in a private 4×4 with a roof hatch
A professional guide throughout, English-speaking
All accommodation as listed — full board in Tarangire, bed and breakfast in Arusha
Tarangire National Park fees for three days
One walking safari with an armed park ranger — ranger fee included
One night drive — permit fee included
Airport transfers, Kilimanjaro International, both ways
Drinking water in the vehicle throughout
A licensed, English-speaking professional guide, trained in wilderness first aid
Round-the-clock support from our Arusha office, and a first-aid kit in every vehicle

What is not

International flights to and from Tanzania
Tanzania visa — USD 50, or USD 100 for United States passports
Travel insurance, which we ask every guest to hold
A second night drive or second walk, if you want one
Drinks at the lodges, beyond what is listed
Tips for your guide, the ranger and lodge staff
Personal spending and souvenirs
Anything listed under optional extras below

V · Add-ons

Worth adding, if you have the days

Priced separately and arranged on request.

Tarangire · any evening

A second night drive

One is built in. If the first one goes well you will want another, and the park allows it on any of the three nights. Permit fee per person on top of the park fee; ages sixteen and over.

USD 190 per person

After day 4 · 1–2 nights

Add the crater

The obvious extension. Ngorongoro is about ninety minutes beyond Tarangire by road, and a night on the rim followed by a dawn descent adds black rhino to a trip that otherwise has none. It turns five days into six or seven.

USD 1,020 per person, for 2 guests

Day 2 or day 5

A Maasai morning near the park

Tarangire is bordered by Maasai grazing land, and a morning with a family we work with directly can be fitted either side of the park days. Payment goes to the household, not an intermediary.

USD 100 per person, for 2 guests

After day 5 · 3–5 nights

Zanzibar, afterwards

Flights from Arusha and Kilimanjaro run daily and take under two hours. Three nights on the east coast or in Stone Town, added to the end. Five days of dust then the sea is the right order.

From USD 1,340 per person, 3 nights

VI · The ground

Where this itinerary takes you

One park and its southern swamps, on the floor of the Rift south-west of Arusha.

Tarangire National Park

2,850 square kilometres along a single permanent river, an hour and a half south-west of Arusha. In the dry months the river concentrates the largest elephant population in northern Tanzania, and the park holds more breeding bird species than any other habitat of its size on earth. Night drives and walking safaris are permitted here, which sets it apart from the Serengeti and the crater.

The Silale swamps

The southern third of the park, two hours from the gate and beyond the range of a day trip. Permanent swamp in a dry landscape: buffalo herds, the lions that follow them, elephant bulls, and leopard in the acacia along the drainage lines. Reached on the full day, and the reason for the third night.

The question everyone asks

Why only July to October?

1 river

The only permanent water in 2,850 square kilometres

Tarangire has a pronounced season, more than any other park on the northern circuit. In the dry months the river is the only water, and the elephants, buffalo, zebra and wildebeest that range across the Maasai steppe to the east all walk in to it. That is the concentration this itinerary is built around, and it is at its densest between July and October.

From November the rains fill pans across the steppe and the herds walk back out. The park is still open, still green and still has resident elephant, but the density that makes three nights worth spending here is gone. Between November and June we would rather put you in the crater and the Serengeti than sell you this route in the wrong month.

VII · Season

The best time to travel

Four months that work, and eight we will tell you to avoid for this route.

July to October is the only window this itinerary is offered in. The river is the water, the herds are on it, the grass is low enough to see a lion at a distance and the swamps in the south hold buffalo in numbers. It is also the busiest period on the northern circuit and rates sit at the top of the band, though Tarangire carries far fewer vehicles than the Serengeti.

June is the shoulder. The rains have stopped and the concentration is building, but the pans on the steppe still hold water and the herds are not all in. Good, cheaper, and less certain — ask us before booking a June date.

November to March the short rains and then the hot green months disperse the game away from the river across the Maasai steppe. Birding is excellent, the baobabs are in leaf, and the park is nearly empty of vehicles. It is not the elephant spectacle; on these dates we would build a crater and Serengeti route instead.

April and May are the long rains. Some tracks in the south become impassable and the Silale circuit is often unreachable, which removes the full day from this itinerary. We do not sell this route for those months.

VIII · Flights

Getting there and back

Fly into Kilimanjaro International. An evening arrival is fine; day 1 is an Arusha night regardless.

Fly into Kilimanjaro International (JRO). It is about an hour east of Arusha and the itinerary is built around it. Nairobi and Dar es Salaam both work but both add a day, which on a five-day trip is a day you do not have.

Arrival time matters less than on a longer route because day 1 is an Arusha night whatever time you land. A late evening arrival is fine; the drive south starts after breakfast.

Coming home, day 5 is a morning game drive followed by two and a half hours to Arusha and another hour to JRO. An evening departure works. An early-afternoon one costs you the last drive, so tell us the flight before we confirm.

Tanzania requires a visa for most passports — USD 50, or USD 100 for United States citizens, valid up to 90 days. Apply online in advance rather than on arrival.

IX · Other costs

What else you will spend

Visas, insurance, tips and drinks — set out so there is no surprise on the ground.

Visa and entry

USD 50 — USD 100 for US passports

Tanzania issues a tourist visa online (eVisa) or on arrival at Kilimanjaro. Applying in advance is faster and avoids the queue at immigration, which after an evening arrival can be long.

A yellow fever certificate is required only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is endemic. Coming directly from Europe or North America, it is not.

Travel insurance

Typically USD 60 – 150 per trip

We ask every guest to travel insured. Medical cover and evacuation are the parts that matter — Tarangire is closer to Arusha than the Serengeti is, but it is still two and a half hours from a hospital.

Check that your policy covers walking safaris and night drives specifically. Some policies list them as excluded activities, and this itinerary includes both.

Tips

Usual range USD 10 – 25 per guest per day

Tipping is customary in Tanzania and it is genuinely optional. The figures below are what guests commonly give, not what is expected of you, and no one will treat you differently for giving less.

Guide tips are usually handled at the end of the trip. The park ranger who leads the walk is tipped separately on the morning. Lodge staff tips go into a shared box at reception so that housekeeping and kitchen are included.

Drinks

USD 3 – 20 at the lodges

Drinking water in the vehicle is included throughout. Everything at the lodge bar is charged to your room unless your camp is explicitly all-inclusive, and most in Tarangire are not.

Personal spending

Entirely up to you

Souvenirs, laundry at the lodge, and anything you forgot to pack. Cash in small US dollar notes is more useful than a card once you leave Arusha — the camps in Tarangire have patchy connections and cards fail more often than they work.

Notes dated before 2009 are refused across Tanzania. Bring newer ones.

X · Why us

Why book this with us

Arusha-based, and Tanzanian-owned

We are not a booking agent forwarding you to an operator. The vehicles, the guides and the office are ours, in Arusha, ninety minutes from the Tarangire gate.

One park, not two

Every other five-day itinerary out of Arusha splits the time. This one gives Tarangire three nights, which is what it takes to reach the swamps, walk, and drive after dark. You will see less on the map and more in the field.

The things the other parks cannot do

Night drives and walking safaris are permitted in Tarangire and not in the Serengeti or the crater. They are built into the price here rather than offered as an afterthought.

We will tell you not to come in November

This route works for four months of the year. If your dates fall outside them we would rather move you onto a different itinerary than take money for one we know will disappoint.

XI · Questions

Frequently asked

What guests ask before booking this itinerary.

How much does a 5 day Tarangire safari cost?

The rate depends on your group size and which accommodation tier you choose. The table above sets out the per-person price for every group size from one to six. Our rates for this itinerary are set out in the table above — ask us and we will quote for your exact dates. The night-drive permit and the ranger fee for the walk are included once each.

Why not add the Ngorongoro Crater?

You can — see the add-on above, and it is the extension most guests choose. But within five days, adding the crater means giving up the third night in Tarangire, and with it either the swamps, the walk or the night drive. If the crater matters to you, take six or seven days, or look at our seven-day northern circuit.

Are night drives really allowed in Tarangire?

Yes. Tarangire is one of the parks TANAPA licenses for night drives, along with Lake Manyara, Ruaha and Nyerere. The Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater are not. Night drives run in an open vehicle with a filtered spotlight, a permit fee is charged per person on top of the park fee — USD 59 per person, including VAT — and the minimum age is sixteen. There is more on what a night drive is like in this story.

What is the walking safari like, and is it safe?

Two to three hours on foot in the early morning, led by an armed park ranger with your guide alongside, in a small group. You walk away from the big herds rather than towards them; the point is the ground, the tracks and the quiet. Minimum age sixteen. A reasonable level of fitness is enough — it is flat and slow.

Is this safari suitable for children?

Partly. The game drives are fine for children of six and over in a private vehicle. The walking safari and the night drive are for guests of sixteen and over, so with younger children one adult would sit those out, or we swap them for a second day on the river. Child rates are 30% below the adult rate for children sharing with two adults.

What if my dates are outside July to October?

Then we will tell you plainly that this is the wrong route. From November the herds disperse away from the river and the concentration that justifies three nights is gone. June can work; ask us. For other months we would build you a crater and Serengeti itinerary instead.

How much driving is there?

Less than on any other route we sell. Arusha to the park gate is about 120 kilometres of mostly tarmac, two to two and a half hours, driven once each way. Everything in between is game driving inside the park. The full day south to the swamps is the longest day in the vehicle.

Do I need vaccinations for Tanzania?

Yellow fever is required only if you are arriving from a country where it is endemic — not from Europe or North America. Beyond that, speak to a travel clinic six weeks before you fly. Malaria prophylaxis is advised for Tarangire, and the tsetse fly is present in parts of the park — long sleeves in neutral colours help.

Can the itinerary be changed?

Yes. This is a private safari and the route is a starting point. Swapping the walk for a second night drive, adding a night, or continuing to the crater or Zanzibar afterwards are all normal requests.

XII · Your trip

Request your personalised safari proposal

Tell us how you like to travel and we will put together a personalised proposal for this route — dates, camps and a firm price per person. No payment is required at this stage.

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