Hiking

Most people come to Tanzania to sit in a vehicle and watch. That is entirely understandable, but also entirely limiting.

The country rewards those who get out and walk in ways that a game drive cannot replicate. The scale of the landscape changes when you are standing in it rather than observing it through a window. Sounds carry differently. You notice tracks, insects, the smell of the soil after rain. An elephant at 200 metres on foot is a fundamentally different experience to an elephant at 20 metres in a Land Cruiser.

Walking safaris are permitted in several of Tanzania’s parks and conservancies. Many parks offer guided walks, but also outside the parks a hike can be amazing. Sometimes you can go on yourself, sometimes with an armed ranger alongside you. The experience of moving through buffalo and giraffe country at ground level, reading the landscape as you go, is available to anyone fit enough to walk a few hours at a comfortable pace.

Beyond the parks, the mountains offer something else entirely. Kilimanjaro is the obvious draw: a multi-day trek through five distinct climate zones, from dense rainforest to arctic summit, that requires no technical climbing and rewards anyone prepared to take it seriously. Mount Meru, in the shadow of Kilimanjaro, offers a crater rim walk and wildlife encounters in the forest that most trekkers miss entirely by heading straight for the higher peak. On the slopes of Kilimanjaro itself, day hikes to Materuni Waterfall pass through coffee farms and forest before reaching a cascade that most visitors to Tanzania never see.

For those who want to go further, the Usambara Mountains in the northeast offer multi-day hiking through villages and tea plantations, largely off the tourist trail. Ol Doinyo Lengai in the Rift Valley is an active volcano climbed at night, its carbonatite lava fields unlike anything else on the continent.

Tanzania’s trails are as varied as its wildlife. Tell us what kind of walking appeals and we’ll find the right route for you.