Northern Zone

The Ngorongoro conservation area covers 2286sq km and encompasses the volcanic area around Ngorongoro crater including the still active Oldonyo Lengai, and the famous Oldvai Gorge. The Ngorongoro conservation area is quite simply the most spectacular tourist destination in Africa unequaled in its magnificence, its wildlife and its atmosphere. Added to the beautiful scenery, the archaeological wealth and the wildlife, is a proud people – the Maasai – a pastroral tribe.

Ngorongoro crater is hard to beat for its beautiful scenery, its animal densities and its wildlife – watching opportunities. The crater – actually a caldera or collapsed volcano – has been declared a Unesco World Heritage site and the open grasslands on the crater floor host an astounding amount of wildlife. Highlights include the black rhinoceros and a large number of lions. Only giraffes and impalas seen not to find the crater to their liking. The surrounding Ngorongoro highlands offer many hiking routes to combine with your crater safari.

Tarangire National Park is probably the least visited of the northern Tanzania game parks, and retains real air of undiscovered Africa, particularly in the south of the park. Much of the park is grassland together with swamplands and flood plains, which feed the Tarangire River.

Tarangire in Northern Tanzania is a park that remains calm and quiet and is a good park for a day visit.  It is a superb little park that offers great value compared to its high rated neighbors such as the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro. The breathtaking scenic beauty that is displayed with the acacia woodland, open bush and groves of palm trees are superb to enjoy. Most amazingly you would find some of the trees aged to be more than 100 years.  Due to its proximity to some of the high rated parks in Tanzanian it never lags behind in game viewing. Enjoying the African games in a quite atmosphere is an experience of difference. Another attraction of Tarangire is elephants that follow age-old migration routes through the park in enormous numbers. In season it is common to see several hundreds of elephants in a single day.

Tarangire can be visited year around, but August through October is best months for elephants and other wildlife.

Lake Manyara National Park covers about 330km square, of which about two-thirds is underwater, it is a small park by African standards. However it is also very beautiful and contains a tremendous diversity of habitats and wildlife. Set beneath the spectacular backdrop of the Great Rift Valley’s steep western escarpment, this long, narrow park protects an area between the escarpment and Lake Manyara.

Being with Bujo Tours at Lake Manyara means the chance to spot the park’s famous tree-climbing lions, thousands of flamingos and amazing variety of other birds. Over four hundreds species have been sighted here.

Binoculars are a must in Manyara, partly for birds, and partly to allow you to keep track of all the wildlife activity in the lake from the terrace of your lodge or from vantage points around the shoreline. Manyara can be visited at any time of year, but wildlife is most abundant during the dry months from June to October.

Arusha National Park can be reached by means of an easy 60 minute drive North West from Moshi. Despite the closeness of this Park to Arusha, is probably one of the least visited, making it a wonderful and rewarding off-track excursion. Arusha National Park covers 137 sq km and has three major attractions which can all be visited in the course of a day outing.

Kilimanjaro, by any name, is a metaphor for the compelling beauty of East Africa. When you see it, you understand why. Not only is this the highest peak on the African continent; it is also the tallest free-standing mountain in the world, rising in breathtaking isolation from the surrounding coastal scrubland – elevation around 900 metres – to an imperious 5,895 metres (19,336 feet).

Kilimanjaro is one of the world’s most accessible high summits, a beacon for visitors from around the world. Most climbers reach the crater rim with little more than a walking stick, proper clothing and determination. And those who reach Uhuru Point, the actual summit, or Gillman’s Point on the lip of the crater, will have earned their climbing certificates.
And their memories.

But there is so much more to Kili than her summit. The ascent of the slopes is a virtual climatic world tour, from the tropics to the Arctic.
Even before you cross the national park boundary (at the 2,700m contour), the cultivated footslopes give way to lush montane forest, inhabited by elusive elephant, leopard, buffalo, the endangered Abbot’s duiker, and other small antelope and primates. Higher still lies the moorland zone, where a cover of giant heather is studded with otherworldly giant lobelias.

Above 4,000m, a surreal alpine desert supports little life other than a few hardy mosses and lichen. Then, finally, the last vestigial vegetation gives way to a winter wonderland of ice and snow – and the magnificent beauty of the roof of the continent.

About Kilimanjaro National Park
Size: 1668 sq km 641 sq miles).
Location: Northern Tanzania, near the town of Moshi.