Tanzania’s Wild Secrets: 5 Parks Most Climbers Never See

Everyone knows the Serengeti. Fewer travellers know that Tanzania hides a whole southern and western circuit of vast, wild parks where you can drive for hours and see no one but the animals. If you have already ticked off the classics, these five are the reward for going a little further.

1. Ruaha

The largest national park in the country, and one of the great secrets of African safari. Ruaha holds a huge slice of the world’s remaining lions, along with leopard, cheetah and wild dog, with barely another vehicle in sight.

2. Nyerere (Selous)

One of the biggest protected areas on the continent, where you swap the game drive for a boat safari on the Rufiji River, gliding past hippos, crocodiles and drinking elephants.

3. Mahale

Forested mountains falling into the clear water of Lake Tanganyika, and a community of wild chimpanzees to trek. It is remote, it is magical, and it is unlike anywhere else in Tanzania.

4. Katavi

Raw, roadless and gloriously empty. In the dry season the rivers shrink to pools crowded with hippo, and buffalo move across the plains in herds a thousand strong.

5. Lake Natron

Not a game park at all, but an otherworldly red soda lake beneath the active volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai, and the single most important flamingo breeding site on earth.

Worth the detour

These parks ask for a little more time and a little more flying, and they give back solitude, drama and bragging rights. If you want a safari that feels genuinely wild, this is where to point the compass.

Ask us to weave one of these hidden parks into your next Tanzania trip.