Often called the “Northern Circuit”, Northern Tanzania offers by far the most popular wildlife parks in Tanzania.

In fact, if you start paying attention to those wildlife programs on tv, you’re likely to realize that most of them were filmed in Northern Tanzania, especially Serengeti National Park.

There are 5 major parks in Northern Tanzania and even the least-popular are quite impressive in their own right.

The vast majority of Tanzanian tour operators are based in Arusha, a city in the heart of the Northern circuit and so Arusha is the base for most Northern Circuit safaris.

Pros of the Northern Circuit:

• The Serengeti & the wildebeest migration.
• The nearby international airport.
• Proximity to Kenya (and Nairobi’s very busy and popular airport)
• The abundance of wildlife (other parks have this too)
• Ease of travel (many of the roads are either paved or relatively well-maintained)
• Wide selection of accommodation options, leading to a wide range in price options
• Animals are quite accustomed to safari vehicles so it’s easy to get quite close to them without disturbing them.
• It is easy to do a northern circuit tour without changing vehicle or guide.
• The roads are passable year-round.
• There are many opportunities for cultural interaction and a variety of activities that get you out of the car.

There is really only one potential drawback/con to the Northern Circuit: The Northern parks get substantially more visitors than the Southern or Western.

This means that there may be more people around, especially in the Ngorongoro Crater. However, the parks are quite large and if private viewings are a priority, a good safari guide should be able to get away from the ‘crowds’ and still find the animals.

Northern Tanzan is full of beautiful terrain and some of the most spectacular views in the country.

Visit Northern Tanzania below.

Arusha National Park

Often over-looked by visitors, Arusha National Park has incredible volcanic scenery, wonderful views of Mt Kilimanjaro (on clear days), a beautiful rainforest and plenty of wildlife.

Lake Manyara National Park

Lake Manyara has a considerably different landscape from any of the other parks. Picture lush woodlands and the beaches of this Rift Valley lake where giraffe, elephants and wildebeest enjoy an endless supply of water.

Lake Natron

Lake Natron is a soda lake with extreme alkalinity since some of its water leaks through the lava flow of the nearby active volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai.

Ngorongoro Crater

The Ngorongoro Crater is a sunken volcano, or better termed the largest intact volcanic caldera.

Serengeti National Park

The Serengeti is the setting for so many wildlife documentaries with good reason.

Tarangire National Park

This park is known for its elephants.  You will see these enormous creatures travel in families and you surely will not miss the extraordinary care they take of their young.

| More...