Tarangire is the northern circuit's elephant park, and the reason is a river. The Tarangire runs through it year round and in the dry months it is the only permanent water for a very long way, so from about July to October the animals come to it in numbers that are hard to believe, including herds of elephant several hundred strong.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, Roman Trail earns a small commission at no extra cost to you.
WHICH MEANS THE SEASON DECIDES WHETHER THIS IS A GREAT PARK OR A QUIET ONE, more than at any other stop on the circuit. In the wet season the river stops being special, the animals disperse across an ecosystem many times the size of the park itself, and visitors who came expecting the photographs leave disappointed. IN THE DRY SEASON IT IS ARGUABLY THE BEST ELEPHANT VIEWING IN EAST AFRICA. Our Tanzania travel guide for women covers the country.
IT IS ALSO THE BAOBAB PARK, and this post has to be honest about something. Tarangire's landscape is defined by enormous baobabs standing over open grassland, and they are what every piece of marketing for the park shows. We illustrate this post with the river from the air, an elephant and the balloons over the plain, because those are the photographs that exist under this destination's own name at the attribution standard we hold ourselves to. THE BAOBABS ARE REAL AND THEY ARE THE BEST THING TO LOOK AT; we just cannot show you one here.
AND IT IS THE QUIETEST OF THE BIG THREE. Most itineraries give Tarangire a single night or treat it as a stop on the way to Ngorongoro, which means the tracks are emptier than the Serengeti's and considerably emptier than the crater's. Two nights here is the upgrade almost nobody makes.
The River, the Elephants and the Baobabs
Two thousand eight hundred square kilometres, a river, the biggest elephant herds on the circuit and trees you can park a car behind.
THE TARANGIRE RIVER VALLEY is where you spend your time, and the game drive strategy is simple in the dry season: follow the water. Elephant, zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, giraffe, impala and eland concentrate along it, with lion on the banks and leopard in the riverine trees.
THE BAOBABS are the landscape. Some are enormous and centuries old, many carry elephant damage where the animals have stripped the bark for moisture, and the way they stand alone over open grass is what makes Tarangire look unlike the Serengeti's plains or the crater's enclosed floor.
THE TERMITE MOUNDS are a smaller pleasure worth knowing about: abandoned ones are regularly occupied by dwarf mongoose colonies, and your guide will stop at one if you ask.
TREE-CLIMBING PYTHONS AND TREE-CLIMBING LIONS both get mentioned in Tarangire marketing. The pythons are genuinely a local phenomenon, in the riverine figs, and are rarely seen. Treat the lions as the lottery they are.
THE BIRDS ARE EXCEPTIONAL and this is a serious birding park rather than a place that happens to have birds: over five hundred species recorded, with the swamps in the south holding the specials. Yellow-collared lovebirds and ashy starlings are Tarangire endemics of a sort, found essentially only in this ecosystem.
SILALE AND GURSI SWAMPS in the south are where the serious game and the fewest vehicles are, and reaching them needs a full day or a camp inside the park rather than a morning drive from the gate.
BALLOON SAFARIS operate here, which is one of only a few places in Tanzania where they do. They are expensive, they launch before dawn, and the landing is followed by a breakfast in the bush. If you are going to do one anywhere, the baobab landscape from the air is a better subject than open plains.
NEARBY: Arusha is two hours north east and is where trips begin, Lake Manyara is on the same road, and the Ngorongoro Crater is three hours west, with the Serengeti beyond it.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Getting There, Fees and Getting Around
Two hours from Arusha, and the park fee is charged per twenty-four hours.
FROM ARUSHA it is about two hours on tarmac to the main gate at Kwa Kuchinja, which makes Tarangire the easiest of the big parks to reach and the obvious first stop on a northern circuit itinerary. Kilimanjaro International Airport is an hour beyond Arusha. There are airstrips inside the park for fly-in camps.
PARK FEES ARE SET BY TANZANIA NATIONAL PARKS and are charged per person per TWENTY-FOUR HOUR PERIOD, which is the mechanism to understand rather than the number: the clock starts when you enter, so a late-afternoon arrival and a full next day is better value than a mid-morning one. Camping and concession fees are separate where they apply. FEES ARE PAID BY CARD AT THE GATE AND ARE REVISED, so no figure is printed here, and the question to ask your operator is which fees are inside the quoted price.
YOU WILL BE IN A FOUR WHEEL DRIVE WITH A GUIDE. Self-driving is legally possible and almost nobody does it, because the tracks are rough, the distances are long and a guide finds in an hour what you would not find in a day. GETTING OUT OF THE VEHICLE IS PERMITTED ONLY AT DESIGNATED PICNIC SITES.
WALKING SAFARIS ARE AVAILABLE HERE WITH AN ARMED RANGER, which is not true in the Serengeti or on the crater floor, and it is one of Tarangire's genuine advantages. Arrange it in advance through your camp.
When to Go
June to October, and the difference between seasons here is larger than anywhere else on the circuit.
JUNE TO OCTOBER IS THE DRY SEASON AND IT IS WHY YOU COME. The grass is short, the river is the only water, and the elephant concentrations build through August, September and October to their peak. Days run 25 to 30C, nights are cool at 13 to 16C, and dust is the dominant fact of a game drive.
JANUARY AND FEBRUARY are a hot dry gap between the two rains, green and pleasant, with calving, fewer vehicles and lower prices. A good compromise.
MARCH TO MAY IS THE LONG RAINS AND IS THE ONE PERIOD TO AVOID IN THIS PARTICULAR PARK. The animals disperse out of the park entirely, the black cotton soil tracks become difficult, some camps close, and the park can be genuinely quiet in the wrong sense. It is cheap and it is green, and if wildlife is the point of the trip then go elsewhere in those months.
NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER bring the short rains, usually a heavy afternoon hour rather than days of it, and the park is still good.
THE ALTITUDE IS MODERATE, roughly 1,000 to 1,500 metres, so Tarangire is warmer than the crater rim and cooler than the coast. NIGHTS AND EARLY MORNINGS ARE COLD IN AN OPEN VEHICLE in the dry season, which is the thing people underestimate: a 6am game drive at 14C with the vehicle moving feels considerably colder than 14C.
Is Tarangire Safe for Women Travelers
Safe. Animals, tsetse flies and a remote-park evacuation picture.
US State Department travel advisory: the Tanzania advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/tanzania, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
UK FCDO: Tanzania has ONE advised-against area and it is at the opposite end of an enormous country from the northern and lake circuits. The FCDO advises against all but essential travel to within 20km of the Tanzanian border with the CABO DELGADO province of MOZAMBIQUE, in MTWARA in the far south east, because of attacks by groups linked with Islamic extremism across that border. It separately warns about the KIGOMA region on the Burundi border, where there have been armed robberies and vehicle hijackings, with the instruction to DRIVE ONLY IN HOURS OF DAYLIGHT. What applies nationally is more relevant to most trips: the FCDO records A RISK OF ARMED CRIME INCLUDING ARMED ROBBERY THROUGHOUT TANZANIA, with particular care advised in places frequented by visitors and foreign residents, and it names parts of Dar es Salaam specifically. It also notes that SOME NATIONAL PARKS ARE EXTREMELY REMOTE AND THAT EMERGENCY ACCESS AND EVACUATION CAN BE DIFFICULT, which is the sentence to weigh when booking a camping safari.
TARANGIRE IS NOWHERE NEAR EITHER NAMED AREA. The only advised-against zone is within 20km of the Mozambican border in Mtwara, close to a thousand kilometres south east, and the Kigoma warning concerns the Burundi border several hundred kilometres west. Tarangire sits on the main Arusha road in the north and is named nowhere in the regional risks. THE CLAUSE THAT DOES APPLY is the FCDO's note that emergency access and evacuation from some parks can be difficult, which is true of the southern swamps and much less true of the gate area two hours from Arusha.
The FCDO's sexual assault warning for Tanzania names beach resorts specifically. Its safety and security page records that INCIDENTS OF ASSAULT, RAPE AND SEXUAL AGGRESSION AGAINST FOREIGNERS HAVE OCCURRED, INCLUDING AT BEACH RESORTS, and sets out steps that are worth following rather than skimming: avoid walking alone at night, do not leave drinks unattended, and be wary of strangers and of anyone offering a lift or an invitation. That last clause is the one that tends to be dismissed, and it is the one the advice puts its weight on.
THAT PATTERN IS A BEACH RESORT PATTERN AND THIS IS A NATIONAL PARK, so the resort half does not describe a tented camp. The general clauses hold: no walking alone after dark, no unattended drinks, and caution about an invitation from someone just met. In a safari camp the night-walking rule exists because of animals rather than people, and the escort between your tent and the mess is not a formality.
THE ANIMALS ARE THE HAZARD AND TARANGIRE'S VERSION IS ELEPHANT-SHAPED. This park holds very large elephant herds at close quarters and elephants are not placid: a cow with a calf will warn and then charge, and the rule is that your guide decides when to move, not you. Stay in the vehicle outside designated sites, do not stand through the hatch when an elephant is close, and never put a hand or a lens outside. In camp, keep the tent zipped against baboons and vervets, and expect buffalo and hyena to walk through at night.
TSETSE FLIES ARE TARANGIRE'S OWN NUISANCE AND NO ADVISORY WILL TELL YOU ABOUT THEM. The riverine woodland here holds them, they are the size of a large housefly, they bite hard enough to make you jump, and they will bite straight through thin cotton. They are attracted to DARK BLUE AND BLACK, which is why safari clothing convention is khaki, olive and tan and why that convention is practical rather than aesthetic. Sleeping sickness transmission from them is very rare in Tanzania and the bites are the real problem. Long sleeves, long trousers, permethrin-treated fabric and avoiding navy and black is the whole answer.
Tanzania has no reciprocal health agreement with the UK or the United States, so insurance with medical cover and REPATRIATION is essential, and it should cover any safari, diving or trekking you intend to do, which standard policies often exclude. Private hospitals in Dar es Salaam and Arusha are used to foreign patients; provision thins quickly outside the cities, and the FCDO notes that emergency access and evacuation from remote parks can be difficult. MALARIA IS PRESENT THROUGHOUT and prophylaxis is a conversation to have with a travel clinic well before departure. A YELLOW FEVER CERTIFICATE is required if you arrive from a country with a risk of transmission, which includes several Tanzania is commonly combined with. Do not drink the tap water.
MALARIA IS PRESENT AT THIS ALTITUDE and the dry season reduces mosquito numbers without removing them. Prophylaxis from a travel clinic weeks ahead, permethrin on clothing, DEET on skin, covered arms and legs from dusk, and a net or screens at night.
Socially a woman travelling alone on an organised safari here is completely ordinary. Camp and guide staff are professional and used to solo travellers, and the camps are secure. Keep covered shoulders and knees for Arusha and the towns rather than the park, which is the Tanzanian norm.
The Tarangire Packing List
Permethrin on your clothing, and here it is for the flies as much as the mosquitoes
Permethrin clothing treatment, applied to trousers, long sleeves and socks before you travel. Tarangire's riverine woodland holds tsetse flies that bite through thin cotton, and treated fabric is the one thing that reliably reduces it.
Long trousers in a neutral colour, not navy and not black
Lightweight hiking trousers in khaki, olive or tan. This is the one destination in the library where garment COLOUR is a practical decision rather than a convention: tsetse flies are drawn to dark blue and black, so a navy pair will be bitten through and a khaki pair will not, and that is the entire reason safari clothing looks the way it does.
A merino base layer for a 6am open vehicle
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women solves the two things Tarangire does. A dry-season dawn at 14C in a moving open-sided vehicle is genuinely cold and the same day reaches 30C by eleven, so you want one garment that handles both rather than a jacket you carry all day; and a long sleeve covers your arms against tsetse flies and dusk mosquitoes at the same time. Merino also survives several dusty days without holding smell, which cotton in this much dust does not.
DEET for skin
A DEET insect repellent at 30 to 50 per cent, for the mosquitoes at dusk and as some help against the flies by day.
Sun protection and dust protection in one
A wide brim sun hat that will stay on in a moving vehicle, plus high factor sunscreen. The equatorial sun on open grassland is severe and a game drive vehicle's roof shades your head and not your arms.
Closed shoes
Walking shoes with closed toes. Essential if you do the walking safari, which is one of this park's advantages, and sensible anyway for picnic sites and camp paths at night.
Water you can keep cold
An insulated water bottle. The tap water is not drinkable and camps supply filtered water. In dry-season dust you drink more than you expect.
The small things
BINOCULARS, and in a five-hundred-species birding park they matter more than the camera. A dust-proof bag for anything with a lens, because Tarangire in September is fine dust in everything. A buff or scarf for the same reason. A warm layer for the dawn drive. Antimalarials on the clinic's schedule. A head torch for camps running on generator hours. A card for the gate fees. A type G, D or A adapter for 230V. AND NOTHING NAVY OR BLACK, which bears repeating because it is the one packing decision unique to this park.
Essential Resources for Women in Tarangire
Emergency numbers: 112 is the general emergency number in Tanzania, 114 the police and 115 ambulance and fire. INSIDE THE PARK, YOUR GUIDE, YOUR CAMP AND THE TANAPA RANGERS ARE THE FASTEST ROUTE, and the rangers handle any wildlife incident. Save your insurer's 24-hour medical line before you travel, because an evacuation is arranged by the insurer rather than by a local call.
Police and support: the nearest police presence is at the gate and in the towns on the Arusha road. The TANZANIA POLICE GENDER AND CHILDREN'S DESK at major stations is the unit for sexual or gender-based violence rather than a general counter. A theft needs a written police report for an insurance claim, and your camp can help arrange it.
Main hospital or clinic: camps carry first aid and some have a nurse. There are clinics in the towns along the main road, and THE NEAREST FULL FACILITIES ARE IN ARUSHA, about two hours away, where the Arusha Lutheran Medical Centre and the regional hospital are the referral points. That two hours is the shortest evacuation distance of any park on the northern circuit, which is a genuine advantage of Tarangire over the Serengeti. For anything major an air evacuation from a park strip to Arusha or Nairobi is the route and AMREF Flying Doctors is the service most insurers use. MALARIA TESTING IS QUICK AND WIDELY AVAILABLE: test a fever the same day.
Official health authority: the Tanzanian Ministry of Health. There is no reciprocal health agreement, so insurance with medical cover AND AIR EVACUATION is essential and must cover a safari. Arusha is about two hours from the main gate, which is the shortest evacuation distance on the northern circuit, and malaria is present at this altitude
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Dar es Salaam. The US Embassy is in Dar es Salaam, a flight rather than a drive from the northern circuit
Official tourism authority: the Tanzania Tourist Board. And TANZANIA NATIONAL PARKS, which runs Tarangire and publishes the current fees. Note the mechanism rather than the figure: entry is charged PER PERSON PER TWENTY-FOUR HOURS from the moment you enter, so an afternoon arrival plus a full day is better value than a late-morning one, and camping and concession fees are separate
The season matters more here than anywhere else on the circuit. June to October the animals concentrate on the river; March to May they leave the park altogether.
Do not wear navy or black. Tsetse flies are drawn to them and bite through thin fabric, which is the real reason safari clothing is khaki.
Park fees run per twenty-four hours from entry. A late afternoon arrival and a full next day gets more out of one fee.
Solo women safety assessment: Tarangire is an easy and safe place to travel alone, because you arrive with a guide and a vehicle and stay in a secure camp, and a solo woman on an organised safari is unremarkable here. The park is roughly a thousand kilometres from Tanzania's only advised-against area, the Mozambique border strip in Mtwara, and the Kigoma border warning is several hundred kilometres west, so neither touches the northern circuit; Tarangire is named nowhere in the regional risks. The FCDO's national armed-crime note concerns Arusha and Dar es Salaam rather than a national park, and its sexual assault warning describes a BEACH RESORT pattern that a tented camp does not match, while the general clauses, no walking alone after dark and no unattended drinks, still hold. In camp the night rule exists because of animals rather than people, so take the escort between your tent and the mess. THE HAZARDS ARE ELEPHANTS, FLIES AND MALARIA. This park holds very large elephant herds at close range and a cow with a calf will charge, so your guide decides when to move and you stay in the vehicle outside picnic sites. Tsetse flies in the riverine woodland bite through thin cotton and are attracted to dark blue and black, which is a packing decision rather than a nuisance. Malaria is present, so prophylaxis, permethrin, DEET and covered arms from dusk, all four. Arusha is two hours away, the shortest evacuation distance on the circuit, and insurance must still cover air evacuation. 112 or 114 for emergencies, the Gender and Children's Desk for sexual violence, your insurer's line for an evacuation.
Reading On
Start with the Tanzania travel guide for women and the Tanzania packing list. For the rest of the northern circuit, the Ngorongoro packing list, the Serengeti packing list and the Arusha packing list, plus the safari packing list for what a game drive asks of you. For the mountain, the Kilimanjaro packing list. For the coast, the Zanzibar packing list and the Stone Town packing list. Across the border the Maasai Mara packing list covers the Kenyan side of the same ecosystem. For why merino rather than cotton when a 14C dawn in an open vehicle becomes a 30C morning, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
