There are at least 6 types of safari in Tanzania that are very popular. Here is a short description of each…
- Game Drive Safari
- this is the most common form of safari in Africa, where your tour operator provides you with a safari guide/driver and sometimes a cook. You would visit National Parks or Game Reserves in order to see the wonderful and varied Tanzanian wildlife. The “Big Five” is the most common target for game drives. In Tanzania you can see them all and much more. The big five are: Elephant, Lion, Buffalo, Rhino and Leopard! Some National Parks will have all of them others perhaps only four. but you will have a good chance of seing them all – given a little luck!
- Cultural Safari
- not all tour operators can give you this in a true, cultural fashion. Yes there are some cultural villagess and show houses but they are for the less adventourous tourists. Kanuth has the connections and the permissions to get you way beyond the tourist scene into the wild bush and the real, traditional villages. Visit Maasai Boma’s, Mbulu villages, Hadzabi Bushmen and more!
- Walking Safari
- Here we make a difference between a walking safari and trekking (see below). A walking safari will take a matter of hours – a morning or afternoon, with time for a drink and maybe a meal in a local town. Some walking safaris take you into the planations or to the heart of the township community. Perhaps a three or four hour walk across the savannah, or into the forest, with an armed ranger. Or a walk up or down the Rift Valley escarpment (which might be a bit more tiring!). There is a lot more to choose from!
- Trekking Safari
- Somewhat more exhaustive than a walking safari and usually longer. For example a mornings hunt with the hadzabi bushmen, running with them into their forested hillsides near Lake Eyasi and watching them hunt. Or a five day trek up Mount Kilimanjaro, or three days up Mount Meru. We can also arrange a trek with local guides into the Crater Highlands – 6 days up and down volcanoes, across lowland savanna and on to Lake Natron, with donkeys to carry the water and tents.
- Bicycle Safari
- Some smaller towns out in the bush now offer local bicycle tours, like the one from Mto wa Mbu where a cyclist guide takes you into Lake Manyara N.P. on a three hour bike ride, explaining the plantations that you drive through, the acacia forest and finally the savanna plains that stretch out to the soda banks of Lake Manyara. An amazing birdlife, culture and botanical tour, and you will certainly see, close up, gazelles and probably zebra and giraffe too!
- Canoeing Safari
- Lake Manyara and Momella lakes in Arusha National Parks are just two places where guided canoe trips can be arranged. In the southern circuit, on the Rufiji river, you can also take a guided motor vessel along the river and will be very close to crocodiles and hippos and elephants on the banks, perhaps even a pride of lions coming down to drink. The birdlife is phenominal.
Checkout the four Tanzanian safari circuits here!
