Tanzania

Tanzania holds the largest concentration of protected land in East Africa, and most first safaris here follow the northern circuit: Tarangire for dry-season elephant, the Ngorongoro Crater for a dense resident population including black rhino, and the Serengeti for the wildebeest migration and resident big cats. The circuit works because the parks sit within a day's drive of Arusha and complement rather than repeat each other. Beyond it, the southern parks of Nyerere and Ruaha offer far lower vehicle density for visitors willing to fly, the Mahale and Gombe forests on Lake Tanganyika are among the few places to track wild chimpanzees, and Zanzibar and the Indian Ocean coast make the standard end to a trip. Park fees are charged per person per day and are usually bundled into lodge or operator pricing, so the headline nightly rate is rarely the whole cost — worth confirming before you compare quotes.