Weather & when to go to Tanzania

Tanzania can be visited all year round. Use our guide below to help you make your decision on when you’d like to go.

Most popular time to visit:

Jul-Aug: During this time, the weather is cool. Dry season parks, like Tarangire, are at their prime. This is the best time to visit the Serengeti, because during the height of the dry season, almost all the animals will go away on their own holiday in Kenya.

Dec- Jan: It’s hotter, but still quite bearable.

Best time for coastal Tanzania (Zanzibar):

June-Sept: There’s not much rain and temperatures are nice and mild, around 28°C (83°F). It’s not as warm as you go inland on the plateau, and the little rain over there also doesn’t make any difference to your experience.

Worst time to visit:

March-May; Nov-Jan: The long rainy season. Be ready for a lot of inaccessible roads, especially in the south coast. They get way too squishy to drive on.  

Best things to do in Tanzania

1. When in the Serengeti, sleep in an open campsite with the lions and make sure you get to witness the wildebeest migration.

2. Give yourself a lifelong, incredibly beautiful memory, by watching the sun in the Ngorongoro Crater.

3. If you’re quite the adventurer, conquer Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro.

4. If you’re planning to go to Zanzibar, go on a diving safari and swim with the dolphins. You definitely have to go to on the Spice Tour, where you get shown all the plants these spices come from, and afterwards get treated to a massive meal that incorporates all these spices. And oh, did we mention they sell the most exquisite perfumes on this Spice Farm, all made from 100% natural spices? If you’re still hungry, go and eat an amazing seafood meal at the fresh fish night-market.

Areas of interest in Tanzania

Serengeti National Park

Alan Moorehead had it right when he said: “Anyone who can go to the Serengeti, and does not, is mad.” This is a place where you let the world swallow you and you just sit back and watch herds of wildebeest sweep by you. Being amongst almost every animal you’ve ever read about in an out-of-Africa book, and with golden grasses waving all around you as you watch animals roam between flat-topped acacia trees and on distant blue hills, you’d think you’ve been captured in a clichéd postcard.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Our top destination in the Africa!)

The Ngorongoro Crater makes you feel like you’re standing on the edge of something huge about to happen, something spectacular, and that somehow, you’re part of something bigger, better and absolutely phenomenal. Seriously, this place so spectacularly wonderful, that you won’t help feeling inspired somehow.

A volcanic caldera, the Ngorongoro Crater is the collapsed upper cone of an ancient volcano. Its high walls contain an entire microcosmic ecosystem, complete with lakes, forests, and plains, and in there live hundreds of species of wildlife. Saying that the views from the misty highlands of the rim are truly, unbelievably beautiful is a gross understatement. The same sentiment is shared of the abundant wildlife roaming on the crater floor.

Zanzibar Island

From the Tanzanian mainland, you can take a quick flight to The Zanzibar Archipelago, a destination waiting to wow you and vow to return one day with your romantic other half. The locals are friendlier than those in Thailand, and their sincere enthusiasm to show off their humble, yet incredibly beautiful habitat to you, is heart-warming.

Locally known as Unguja, Zanzibar Island gets most of the headlines, but the archipelago also consists of lush Pemba to the north and many more smaller islands and islets poised in amazingly turquoise seas.

A week won’t even give you enough time to get to do everything Zanzibar has to offer, such as the Spice Tour, Swimming with the Dolphins, The Blue Tour, The Slave Tour, and any other tour your mind can come up with. The Blue Tour, for example, involves going to three little islands on a boat, and when stopping at each one, snorkelling your heart out in the warm, clear waters and indulging in a feast of coconuts, fresh tropical fruit, and, at the last destination, more seafood than you’ve ever laid your eyes on.

Visiting the museums and taking a walk through Stone Town is a good way of getting an idea of Zanzibar’s rich and turbulent slave-trade past. The architecture will surely fascinate you, as will the street markets. 

Remember, when going to Zanzibar, try and take lots of sweets, pens and magazines with you. The local children absolutely love sweets (just remind them to remove the wrapper), and pens are a luxury to them and give them kudos for actually having one. The more pens, the cooler you are at school! The ladies love magazines, also seen as a luxury, and the thankful smiles on their faces is a reward you’ve got to experience!

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Stone Town

The old city of Stone Town is the cultural heart of Zanzibar, and little has changed there for hundreds of years. As you weave through the narrow alleys, grand Arab houses and crumbling mosques, you’ll come across numerous little Masai-run stalls, fruit stalls, sarong and silk shops, spice stalls, galleries, cobblestone roads, seafood stalls and an incredible place where the ancient trade of door-making is still thriving. These doors are not just ordinary doors, but the kind that people sought for from all over the world. They’re elaborate, hand-made, brass-studded, mostly colossal pieces of art.

You can also buy some great souvenirs here, like beaded leather shoes, wooden carvings, jewellery and colourful clothes. If you’d like to draw any cash with your credit card, you better do it in Stone Town, because you won’t have that opportunity again until you get back to the airport.

The majority of Stone Town’s buildings were built by Omani sultans in the 19th century when Zanzibar was one of the most important trading centres in the Indian Ocean. In order to preserve these architectural markers of history, the Stone Town Conservation Authority has luckily been working towards restoring this ancient town. 

Nungwi Beach

Of course, no one goes to Zanzibar just for Spice Tours, shopping and architecture. Its beaches are the major draw-card for everyone who wants a postcard-perfect island experience.

The chilled out resort of Nungwi is on the northern tip of the island, which is the busier, more commercial side. It’s regarded as one of Zanzibar’s best beaches, because here you can swim to your heart’s delight, as it’s one of the few beaches with no coral reef. Also, it doesn’t matter at what tide you’re swimming, because the tide doesn’t draw back for miles as on the east coast, which means a long walk before you can frolic in the water.

The resort consists out of a collection of beach cottages, lively and rustic outdoor bars and restaurants and some dive schools. It’s commonplace to find beautifully carved furniture stacked out on the beach for your personal enjoyment. Nearby is a turtle sanctuary built by local villagers which you can visit, where turtles and other marine animals are nursed back to health and released into the ocean.

The East Coast

This is the less commercial, more traditional side of the island, where you can literally just chill out on the beach on one of the wooden beds with a good book and maybe, if you so please, a traditional masseuse! They, along with one or two “kikoi”-selling locals walk up and down the beach to sell you a little something of Zanzibar.

Some locals offer you a ride on their dhow, taking you out to sea where they hunt for your lunch as you snorkel along with them, and then taking you back to their village where they prepare your meal for you. Honestly, a truly worthy and authentic experience.

Nothing beats just lying back in a hammock, under the stars with an exotic cocktail in hand. There are many little rustic beach bars on the beach, where you can watch the sun paint the sky as it sets over the ocean.

Because of the coral reefs, the ocean does draw back a mile or two during low-tide, and this phenomenon is quite a site to see. Walking into the ocean for miles, is an almost surreal experience.

Dar es Salaam

Olduvai Gorge ‘Cradle of Mankind’

In 1911, a German professor looking for butterflies accidentally came across prehistoric fossilized bones. That was only the beginning.

Today, Olduvai is often referred to as the ‘Cradle of Mankind’, and has a museum that’s documented all its remarkable findings. It lies between the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti’s Naabi Hill gate, on the infinite plains, and is basically a crack in the flat earth.

A fragmented skull of the ‘Nutcracker Man’ has been found here, dating back to 1.75 million BC. A year later, another skull and a set of bones were discovered. These were the remnants of a small, hunched, ape-like creature with a big brain that lived in Tanzania about 2 million years ago. Because stone tools were found nearby, he’s been nicknamed ‘Handyman’, and is believed to be our direct ancestor!

Then, in 1979, history was made again. Fossilized footprints of upright two-legged creatures (a man, woman and child) were discovered. More interestingly, is that they’re believed to be over 3.5 million years old! In total, 35 human remains and those of two prehistoric animals have been discovered in Olduvai Gorge, the animals being a Deinotheruium, an elephant-like creature with downward-curving tusks, and the Hipparion, a three-toed horse.

Mt Kilimanjaro National Park

Jutting out from Tanzania’s north-eastern plains is Mt Kilimanjaro, an almost perfectly shaped volcano. It’s truly a sight to behold. At a solid 5896m (19343ft), its snow-capped peak is the highest in Africa.

On the lower levels, there are cultivated farmlands. Then you get a little higher, and you’re in a flourishing rainforest. A little higher, and you’re in an alpine meadow, and then, finally you’re crossing a barren lunar landscape before reaching the twin summits.

A great thing about this mountain is that it’s not only for champion mountaineers. If you’ve got warm clothes, a properly equipped guide and a hell of a lot of determination, you’re almost halfway there! Of course, it won’t be without blood and sweat, but the point is that anyone who puts his mind to it, can summit Africa’s highest mountain, and reaching the top, is an utterly exhilarating reward that can only be explained by actually experiencing it. Seeing the sun rise over what seems like half of Africa spread out below, is just one of the wonders awaiting you up there…

Selous Game Reserve

One of our planet’s last great wild places, the 55,000 sq km (21,235 sq mi) Selous Game Reserve offers you the full deal: untamed bush, emerald green floodplains and crocodile-filled lakes. Once you’ve entered in the northern section - the only accessible bit – you’ll find yourself above the great muddy sweep of the Rufiji River. Here you’ll be greeted by elephants, zebras, hippos, the rare African wild dog and a maneless variety of lion.

Lake Manyara

Often overlooked because of the other two big, famous parks, the small-in-size-yet-large-in-wildlife 325km² Lake Manyara offers really unusual and scenic game viewing. It lies about 130km from Arusha near the small town of Mto Wa Mbu.

Two thirds of the park is covered by the alkaline Lake Manyara, while the remaining third is a slice of marches, grassland and acacia woodland tucked between the Rift Valley escarpment and lake itself. The views from here are just to die for.

Along with buffalo, hyena, storks, pods of hippo, wildebeest, pelicans, geese, herons and cormorants, you’ll come across migrant flamingos. These pink creatures turn the crystalline edges of the soda lake a vibrant pink.

Another special resident of Manyara is the renowned tree-climbing lion. Because of the park’s many trees and plants, it’s home to Tanzania’s highest population of elephant per square km.

Recent history of Tanzania

In 2000 President Mkapa got re-elected president. Under his leadership, Tanzania has continued its relatively stable course. It even managed something of an economic upturn.

President Jakaya Kikwete took over in 2006, and maintained the stability.

During the last few years, economic and political ties between Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda have become greater, and so has the growth of opposition parties. The long-dominant CCM still sits firmly in the driver's seat, though.

Tanzania’s economy has received major boosts by not only tourism, but also the recent opening of the Songosongo natural gas field just off the southern coast.

In December 2003 the tsunami caused 13 people to lose their lives. Fortunately, there wasn’t too much damage along the Tanzanian coastline.

Highlights of Tanzania

1. Sleep in an open campsite in the Serengeti
2. Witness the wildebeest migration
3. Watching the sunrise in the Ngorongoro Crater
4. Conquer Africa’s highest mountain
5. Diving and swimming with the dolphins
6. Go on the Zanzibar Spice Tour
7. Go and eat an amazing seafood meal at the fresh fish night-market in Zanzibar

Quick facts of Tanzania

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Medical matters

• Hepatitis
• Yellow fever
• Malaria
• Schistosomiasis (Bilharzia)
• Cholera
• Meningococcal meningitis
• Typhoid
• HIV/AIDS

Getting there

You can fly into Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar or Kilimanjaro International. You can also fly into Nairobi and get a transfer.

Safety in Tanzania

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