Tarangire
An army of thousand-year-old baobab giants and the largest elephant herds in northern Tanzania: Tarangire is the opening act the rushed circuits skip.
Suggested stay — 1 to 2 nights
Two hours from Arusha, Tarangire is the northern circuit's first real thrill — and its most underrated park. In dry season, the Tarangire River becomes the only bar open for a hundred kilometres around: elephants converge on it in herds several hundred strong, digging the sand with their trunks to reach the filtered water, under the gaze of lions sprawled on the banks. The scenery nearly steals the show: enormous baobabs, some a thousand years old, scarred by the tusks of pachyderms that chew their bark.
The park hides its eccentricities too: pythons that climb up to nap in the trees, lions with the same arboreal habit, and 550 bird species — the national record. Self-driving, the river loop and the Silale swamp circuit cover comfortably in a day and a half; the public campsite, set under the baobabs themselves, ranks among the finest of the circuit.
Don't miss
- The Tarangire River loop in late afternoon, when the elephant herds come down to drink
- The giant baobabs of the main track — some are as old as Chartres cathedral
- The Silale swamps, a magnet for buffalo, lions and birds in the park's south
- The Matete viewpoint picnic site, above an elephant-filled meander
Our tips on the ground
- Come June to October if elephants are your priority: in the rains the herds scatter outside the park and Tarangire becomes a 'normal' park again.
- Tsetse flies love blue and black: dress in khaki or beige and keep windows shut in the wooded sectors — their bites are painful but harmless here.
- Make Tarangire your shakedown run: first night of camping, first gate routines, two hours from Arusha — mistakes are easier to fix here than deep in the Serengeti.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“Tanzania on Your Own”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
Before you go
Readers' questions about Tarangire
Is Tarangire worth it next to the Serengeti?
It's not the same film: Tarangire plays concentration — massed elephants, baobab scenery, a compact park — where the Serengeti plays immensity. In dry season its elephant density is unbeatable in the north of the country. One or two nights as a circuit opener are all the more obvious since it sits right on your route.
Can you camp inside the park?
Yes: the main public campsite, perched among the baobabs with a communal kitchen and simple ablutions, is booked with your entries via TANAPA. Elephants sometimes cross the camp at dusk — you store food in the vehicle, keep a headlamp within reach of the sleeping bag, and collect one of the great memories of the trip.