Zan Maldive Tours and Safaris

Duration: Multi-day

  • Serengeti National Park

    The Serengeti covers roughly 14,750 square kilometres of northern Tanzania and is the country’s best known national park. Its name comes from the Maa word Siringet, meaning the place where the land runs on forever, and the southern plains make the point.

    The park is the core of an ecosystem carrying well over a million wildebeest, several hundred thousand zebra and the predators following them. The great migration is not an event on a fixed date but a continuous circuit: calving on the short-grass plains of the south around February, movement north and west through the middle of the year, and the river crossings at the Grumeti and Mara from roughly July to October.

    Outside the migration the Serengeti holds resident lion prides on the kopjes, leopard in the riverine woodland along the Seronera valley, cheetah on the open plains and large elephant and buffalo populations. Big cat viewing here is as reliable as anywhere in Africa.

    The park works as a three or four night stay on its own, or as the centrepiece of a northern circuit trip taking in Ngorongoro, Tarangire and Lake Manyara. It combines naturally with a Zanzibar beach stay afterwards, which is the route most of our guests take.

  • Ngorongoro Crater

    The Ngorongoro Crater is the caldera of a volcano collapsed in on itself some two and a half million years ago. The walls stand about 600 metres above a floor covering roughly 260 square kilometres, and the whole enclosed system holds a permanent population of around 25,000 large animals.

    The result is unlike anywhere else on a Tanzanian safari. Grassland, swamp, soda lake and acacia forest sit within a single morning’s drive of each other, and the density of animals within that space means a half-day on the crater floor often produces more sightings than a full day elsewhere.

    The crater is one of the few reliable places in Tanzania to see black rhino, and it holds large lion prides, elephant bulls with notably heavy tusks, hippo, buffalo and flamingo on Lake Magadi. It sits within the wider Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where Maasai communities continue to graze cattle alongside the wildlife.

    Olduvai Gorge, where the Leakeys uncovered some of the earliest known hominin remains, lies on the road between the crater and the Serengeti and is worth an hour on the way through.

  • Tarangire National Park

    Tarangire covers roughly 2,850 square kilometres south-east of Lake Manyara, and it is the elephant park of the northern circuit. In the dry months the Tarangire River is the only permanent water for a long way in any direction, and the animals concentrate along it in numbers matching anything in the Serengeti.

    The landscape is distinctive. Ancient baobabs stand across the ridges, giving the park a look nothing else on the circuit has, and the river valley cuts through swamp and acacia woodland below them.

    Beyond elephant, Tarangire holds lion, leopard, cheetah, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and large buffalo herds, plus dry-country species scarce elsewhere on the circuit, including fringe-eared oryx and lesser kudu. The birdlife is exceptional, with over 500 recorded species.

    Most northern circuit itineraries treat Tarangire as a first or last stop, one or two nights on the way in or out of Arusha. It rewards more time than it usually gets.

  • Lake Manyara National Park

    Lake Manyara covers about 330 square kilometres, two thirds of it lake, squeezed between the Rift Valley escarpment and the shallow soda water of the lake itself. It is a small park by Tanzanian standards and packs a surprising range of habitat into that space.

    The entrance opens into groundwater forest fed by springs at the base of the escarpment, dense and green and full of blue monkeys and baboons. Beyond it the forest gives way to acacia woodland, then open floodplain, then the lake shore where flamingo, pelican and storks gather in numbers.

    Manyara is best known for its tree-climbing lions, which rest in the acacias through the heat of the day. The behaviour is not guaranteed and not unique to this park, but Manyara is one of the more reliable places to look for it. Elephant move through the forest, hippo lie in the pools near the entrance and the birdlife is excellent throughout.

    The park is usually visited as a half day or full day on the road between Arusha and Ngorongoro, and it works well as an opening stop before the larger parks.

  • Nyerere National Park

    Nyerere National Park was created in 2019 from the northern section of the former Selous Game Reserve, and at roughly 30,900 square kilometres it is one of the largest national parks on the continent. It sits in southern Tanzania, and it is a very different experience from the northern circuit.

    The park is built around the Rufiji River and its network of channels, lakes and sandbanks. That water changes what a safari here looks like. Alongside game drives you take boat safaris along the river, drifting past hippo pods, enormous crocodiles and elephant coming down to drink, and walking safaris with an armed ranger are permitted in ways they are not in the northern parks.

    Wildlife includes large elephant and buffalo herds, lion, hippo, crocodile, giraffe and one of the more significant remaining African wild dog populations. Visitor numbers are a fraction of the northern circuit, so sightings are often yours alone.

    Nyerere is reached by light aircraft from Dar es Salaam or Zanzibar in under an hour, which makes it the natural safari choice for guests already on the coast.

  • Mikumi National Park

    Mikumi covers roughly 3,230 square kilometres in southern Tanzania and is the most accessible large park from Dar es Salaam, reachable by road in around four to five hours. That accessibility makes it the practical choice for a short safari added to a coastal holiday.

    The heart of the park is the Mkata floodplain, open grassland with scattered acacia and borassus palms, and the landscape has drawn comparisons with the Serengeti plains. The openness makes game spotting straightforward.

    Wildlife includes large buffalo and zebra herds, wildebeest, impala, giraffe, elephant, lion and hippo in the pools near the park entrance. Eland, greater kudu and sable antelope live in the wooded hills to the south. Over 400 bird species have been recorded.

    Mikumi borders Nyerere National Park, so the two combine well into a southern circuit trip of five or six nights without long transfers between them.

  • Ruaha National Park

    Ruaha is the largest national park in Tanzania, covering roughly 20,200 square kilometres in the centre of the country, and it receives a fraction of the visitors the northern circuit sees. For anyone who has already done the Serengeti, or who wants wilderness over convenience, it is the best park in the country.

    The Great Ruaha River runs through it, and in the dry season the sand rivers and remaining pools draw enormous concentrations of game. Ruaha holds one of the largest elephant populations in East Africa and some of the biggest lion prides recorded anywhere, prides of twenty and more being regular sightings.

    The park sits on a transition zone between eastern and southern African ecosystems, so species from both appear here. Greater and lesser kudu, sable and roan antelope live alongside the more familiar plains game, and African wild dog are seen with reasonable regularity.

    Ruaha is reached by light aircraft from Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar or Arusha. The distance keeps visitor numbers low, which is precisely what makes it worth the flight.

  • Tanzania Safari and Zanzibar Beach

    The most requested trip we build, and the reason a Zanzibar-based operator is the right company to build it. You see the wildlife first, while you have the energy for early starts, then fly to the coast and stop moving.

    Two routes work. The northern circuit runs Arusha, Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti, and then a flight from the Serengeti or Arusha to Zanzibar. It is the classic, and it is where the migration is. The southern circuit runs Nyerere and Ruaha, reached by light aircraft directly from Zanzibar, with boat safaris, walking safaris and almost no other vehicles.

    Most trips run seven to fourteen nights in total. A workable minimum is four nights on safari and four on the beach. Longer is better, particularly if you want more than one safari area.

    We handle the whole route: the safari, the internal flights, the Zanzibar hotel, every transfer, and the excursions once you are on the island. One company, one point of contact and one invoice.

    Note for the operator: the source material supplied no safari itineraries or prices. Add your day-by-day itineraries and rates here before this page goes live, or leave it as an enquiry page and quote each trip individually.