23 April 2023
If you are looking for a beautiful African country to visit for a luxury vacation, then look no further than Tanzania. Read further about the best tourist attractions in Tanzania.
Tanzania is packed with natural beauty and the opportunity to experience wildlife in a way that you can nowhere else in the world.
Tanzania really is a once in a lifetime holiday destination. So, if you are thinking of visiting, it is likely that you will want to fit in as many tourist attractions as possible during your trip. If so, you are in the right place.
In this guide, we’ll take a look at 20 of the best tourist attractions in Tanzania to help you plan for your luxury vacation. So, if you want to find out more, keep on reading!
First up, it goes without saying that you have to travel to the Serengeti during your trip to Tanzania. Just like Mount Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti is one of the biggest tourist attractions of Tanzania, and it is perfect for any animal lover.
These vast plains are home to millions of wildlife, and animals passing through. It is home to the Big Five, and a very popular location for game drives.
It is also the second-largest national park in Tanzania, and the location of the great wildebeest migration every year. Many people visit Tanzania purely to go on a safari to the Serengeti.
If you want to go to an area where you can see both immense natural beauty, and lots of wildlife, then you should head to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. This area is home to thousands of animals, including some of the Big Five.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area literally combines both nature and wildlife. This is because the biggest geographical draw to this area is the Ngorongoro Crater.
However, this crater is also home to all the thousands of wildlife that we mentioned earlier. It really is a tourist attraction in Tanzania you don’t want to miss!
Another great national park to visit for wildlife is Tarangire National Park.
This National Park is perfect for people who aren’t overly interested in seeing the big five, and are instead happy to see more-relaxed animals in their natural habitat.
It is world famous for its baobab trees that are enormous with unique shapes that are magnificent to look at.
Tarangire is the national park to go to if you want to spend a significant amount of your vacation bird-watching.
It is also great if you are interested in migratory wildlife, such as buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, and elephants as all these animals live in the National Park.
Tarangire actually has the highest concentration of elephants in the world, so if you want to see elephants, this is the place for you!
As you have probably noticed, quite a lot of the tourist attractions in this guide are national parks.
Tanzania isn’t a country that you visit to spend your time indoors, instead it is somewhere that you visit to immerse yourself in nature. One of the best places to do this is Lake Manyara National park.
This national park is incredibly diverse, with areas of grasslands, swamps, woodlands, and forests. A large amount of the national park is composed of water, so it is the place to go if you love birds.
It is also home to the largest concentration of baboons on the planet, so if you want to see these beautiful creatures, consider a trip to Lake Manyara.
Another huge attraction in Tanzania is Mount Kilimanjaro. For many people, Mount Kilimanjaro is the main reason why they visit Tanzania.
If you are somebody who loves climbing and hiking, climbing Kilimanjaro is the ultimate challenge, and it is something that many people spend years training for.
Mount Kilimanjaro definitely isn’t a tourist attraction for the faint-hearted, and it isn’t one that you can do on a whim either.
But with planning and preparation, you should definitely consider fitting this into your Tanzania vacation.
Zanzibar is famous for its crystal clear waters and sparkling white beaches, so we won’t say too much about them.
But what we will say is that you shouldn’t make a trip to Tanzania without fitting in a trip to at least one of these beaches. If you do, you will live to regret it!
Some of the best beaches in Zanzibar to visit are Paje, Jambiani, Kendwa and Nungwi, so these are excellent areas to explore during your trip.
On the topic of Zanzibar, we have to mention Stone Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it is easy to see why. It is totally unique, and very different to all the other attractions in this list. We definitely recommend giving it a visit!
While you’re there, you might also want to pay Changuu Island (a.k.a. Prison Island) a visit to really immerse yourself in this country’s history.
Julius Nyerere National park was formerly known as Selous Game Reserve and it was the largest game reserve in Africa, and it covers around 5% of Tanzania’s land mass.
It had been a game reserve since the 1920s, and to this day there are still forbidden areas of the reserve where humans cannot go. Of course, it is now a National Park rather than a game reserve.
Julius Nyerere National Park is home to more than 350 recorded species, and it is truly beautiful. It is definitely worth spending a day exploring this area during your vacation.
Ruaha National Park was the largest national park in Tanzania, until Selous Game Reserve became Julius Nyerere National Park.
It is an area of immense natural beauty, and it has outstanding viewing platforms where you can observe wildlife in their natural habitat.
Ruaha National Park is one of the most difficult National Parks in Tanzania to access, but this only adds to its beauty.
Tourist visits are possible if you go with a guide that knows the way, and this is often a good idea because Ruaha National Park is in a very remote area.
Tanzania really is jam packed with National Parks, and another one that attracts many tourists to Tanzania is Mikumi.
There are lots of different animals that reside in Mikumi, including zebras, buffalo, elephants and more.
Of all the different National Parks in Tanzania, Mikumi is the best place to go for lions. Specifically, tree-climbing lions as the chances of you seeing tree climbing lions in this National Park are the highest in Tanzania.
So it is definitely worth a visit!
If you are interested in chimpanzees, then you will likely be familiar with Gombe Stream National Park.
This national park is most commonly associated with British conservationist Jane Goodall, and the work that she did here with chimpanzees.
If you want to see chimps in their natural habitat, then this is the national park to go to.
It is a little off the beaten track, but you can immerse yourself in nature in a guided-tour of this area, and hopefully see some chimpanzees on the way.
Many people consider Mafia Island to be a step back in time. Even when Tanzania was becoming a tourist destination, Mafia Island remained untouched, and this is why it is still so beautiful today.
If you enjoy diving or snorkeling, you have to go to Mafia Island during your vacation. It is packed with lots of different varieties of fish and coral gardens too.
Perfect for anybody who enjoys spending time exploring the water. Mafia Island also has a whale shark season, so it is a great place to go diving with whale sharks if this is something that you are interested in.
The Beaches of Zanzibar are some of the most beautiful in the world, but if you want to see blue seas and sandy beaches, Pemba Island is definitely worth a visit!
Not only is Pemba Island filled with beautiful water and beaches, but it is also the home of luscious green vegetation and clove plantations.
The water around Pemba Island is filled with coral reefs and a whole variety of different marine life.
So, on your journey over to Pemba Island, you will likely get to see all sorts of wildlife that you wouldn’t see if you stuck to mainland Tanzania.
A lot of the attractions that we have spoken about in this list have been natural attractions, but Dar es Salaam is a little different.
Dar is the biggest cities in Tanzania, and it is somewhere that you should definitely try to visit during your trip!
Dar itself is packed with different attractions, such as the Open Air Village Museum, and it is a great opportunity to explore a built-up city that is located in a country that is mainly associated with nature.
You should definitely squeeze a visit to Dar into your Tanzania trip.
We couldn’t make this guide without mentioning Materuni Waterfalls. These waterfalls are actually located in the Kilimanjaro region of the country, so if you are planning on hiking this mountain, you could easily squeeze in a trip to these waterfalls.
As well as being able to see these beautiful waterfalls, you can also do a coffee tour of the area. So, if you love natural beauty, and you love coffee, this is the attraction for you!
Similar to Dar which we mentioned earlier, if you are interested in visiting cities during your trip to Tanzania, we would definitely recommend going to Mbeya.
Mbeya is a city in the Southwest of Tanzania and it is located at the base of Mbeya and Poroto Mountain Ranges.
This city is the perfect place to experience man-made and natural beauty alongside one another, and it is very different to cities that you might visit in other countries.
It is totally unique, thanks to its green lakes, exciting waterfalls, and the garden of God, and well worth visiting if you are in the area.
A great National Park to visit if you are interested in encountering a range of different habitats is Udzungwa Mountains National Park.
In this single National Park, you will encounter rainforests, mountain forests, woodlands, grasslands and steppe too. So, it is well worth visiting if you want to immerse yourself in nature.
Especially if you want to encounter a variety of different birds, and monkeys too!
If you want to explore the history of Tanzania, then we would recommend a visit to Bagamoyo. Bagamoyo is a historic coastal town that was founded in the 1700s, and it is truly beautiful.
If you want to learn more about Tanzania during your trip to the country, we would recommend adding a trip to Bagamoyo to your itinerary.
You will also be able to find out lots of information about the slave trade that occurred in Bagamoyo during your trip, as this is the location from which slaves were shipped to Zanzibar.
Another peaceful and tranquil place to visit is Kikuletwa Hotsprings. These hot springs are located along Arusha and Moshi, and they are essentially a jungle oasis.
The Kikuletwa hot springs are a beautiful turquoise color, so they are perfect for any Instagram posts. They are also perfect for swimming, relaxing, and being at one with nature.
This really is a hidden gem that not many people speak about.
Finally we would recommend a visit to Mwanza and Lake Victoria. Lake Victoria spans across multiple African countries, and it is a very popular destination for tourists.
However, the banks of Lake Victoria in Tanzania are some of the most sparsely visited, so why not take advantage of this?
It is the same lake that you will see in Kenya and Uganda, it is simply less busy, so why not enjoy the peace and explore Mwanza while you’re there during your trip?
In short, in this guide, we have taken a look at 20 of the best tourist attractions in Tanzania. So if you are planning a luxury vacation, you should consider fitting these into your trip.
Thank you for reading!
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