Tarangire National Park

Underrated National Park.

We were pleasantly surprised with Tarangire, our travel consultant told us we would see plenty of elephants and baobab trees, but Tarangire is far more than that. The wildlife viewing is exceptional, highlights were a leopard kill, a serval hunting at night and observing lions mating. Our total mammal count was higher than we saw in the Serengeti, including some rarities. Elephant numbers are high, and those found around the Silale Swamp, are covered in an attractive red/brown mud sunscreen. Lion numbers also high. Bird species observed appeared significant although we are not specialists. We had some great sightings in the Serengeti but found Tarangire equally interesting, a very different ecosystem. The two very much compliment each other. Photographic opportunites were excellent and the quality of guiding was exceptional.
We stayed at Oliver's Camp which was excellent in every respect, we have stayed in several 'top end' camps in southern Africa in recent years and this would probably be our favourite, a truly authentic safari experience. The walking safari and night drive were both well worth doing. What makes Oliver's special is the staff at all levels, their work is a vocation, not a job. The food was great and it was a fantastic start to each day to check the camera trap to see which uninvited guests had visited camp during the night. We intend to visit Tarangire again in the future and Oliver's camp in particular.

We saw our first lion here and we had stunning views from our lodge. The elephants visited the camp in the evening and early morning in front of the tent. You definitely need to stay here for 2 nights (Tarangire River Lodge)

I love Tarangire. Except for the tsetse flies, that is.

Magnificent!!

What an amazing destination! The national park is not the biggest put its quality is awesome! I can't believe how many elephants we saw. I thought we may see into early double figures yet we saw probably over 40 at least. So many wildebeest and antelope too, apparently more had stayed due to the wettest dry season in Tanzania for many years, and the animals hadn't moved on in to Kenya as normal. We also saw two young lions and a leopard, plus a very quick moving black civet cat. As well as vultures, Eagles, warthogs and a massive crane that must be 5ft tall. The weather in the day was great as it was a little overcast and cleared later on in the afternoon, making the middle of the day a little cooler. The scenery was incredible and seeing the size of baubob trees, which are hundreds if not thousands of years old in some cases is phenomenal. The quality of vehicles at Bobbys tours was awesome and so was our guide King Julius, our nickname for him. The day was our highlight of our month long trip to Tanzania.

not as the Serengeti .. but second best. we saw our first leopard .. he was Amazing and few sleeping young males .. they really sleep as our domestic cats!! it is great!

Our first visit was to Tarangire. We were really impressed by the park, as our first safari experience. By comparison, I feel the Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater are a step up. Nonetheless, Taragire was still an amazing place to visit. Lots of zebras and elephants. Out of the three we visited, it seemed to me that there were more various types of birds as compared to the Serentgeti and Ngorongoro.

Tarangire National Park was our first stop in Tanzania (after stopping in Arusha for a meal). It had a wide variety of wildlife, from very large numbers of elephants to lions, giraffes, zebras and a wide variety of birds. It was a very nice park for game drives, and I would highly recommend including it in a safari tour if time allows.

Decent wildlife experience

Incredible Density of Elephants

We were blown away by the number of elephants we saw during our trip to Tarangire National Park. We sat by a mud hole at one point and saw four different groups of elephants with 20-30 elephants per group come through and take a mud bath. In total we saw at least 200 elephants in just a few hours at the park. There are also many great baobab trees to admire. The variety of animals is fairly low and we didn't see much density outside of the elephants. We saw a few giraffe, zebra, and buffalo. The one word of caution I would give is to avoid East African Safari Touring Company (EASTCO). Our guide was rude, unprofessional, unsafe, and had terrible communication. The owner, Simon, was completely unhelpful when we brought complaints to him. But I'm sure there are many much better companies that can help you explore this beautiful park.

A beautiful park with large herds of elephants.