Located in Tanzania’s Northern Safari Circuit, Tarangire National Park is a safari park known for its remarkable elephant population. Parks like Serengeti, Amboseli, and Ngorongoro are famous for their unique landscapes and backgrounds and have become the most popular for safari travelers. This has overshadowed other parks such as Tarangire, making it one of the most undervalued parks in Tanzania!

Some of the advantages of Tarangire park:

Landscape Variety

While some parks as Ngorongoro only have animals in the plains of the park, Tarangire National Park has a mix of hilly terrain and flat plains with lakes. Although the park is not that big, the variety in landscapes makes it very interesting for its size as you can see wild animals in different habitats (e.g. lions on trees, elephants walking across hills). We spent one day exploring the hilly area of the park and a second day on the plains. This was a perfect balance and it even felt like we had been to two different parks.

Affordability

Because Tarangire is not as touristy as other safari parks, the park fees are also lower and the same goes for accommodation. You will still see a lot of wild animals at the park, so it’s definitely worth it to spend a night or two in Tarangire and then make your trip to another park. The park has some amazing lodges, and if you manage to find a lodge right on the edge of the park this is even better as you don’t have to pay the overnight park fee but the animals still visit your lodge in the evening (Tarangire Simba Lodge is a good example of this!).

Elephants

If elephants are your favorite wild animal, you must definitely visit Tarangire National Park at least once in your life! I had been on safari several times before, but the amount of elephants in the park doesn’t come close to anything I’ve experienced before. You will see tons of elephant families at the park- including of course cute baby elephants! The elephants in the park are well protected from poachers and since they haven’t been attacked for their ivory, the elephant herds are quite relaxed around humans. It was incredible seeing dozens of elephants silently crossing in front of you on their way to the waterhole. Tarangire is even known by some as the elephant sanctuary. Since there are so many young elephants in the park, and they all compete for resources, elephants here are a bit smaller than the majestic pair you might see crossing Ngorongoro for example, but you will see them up close and almost interact with them.

Having the park to yourself

Although elephants take the spotlight in this park, there are also numerous giraffes, zebras, and other wild animals. The concentration of animals matches that of the large parks during the months July-October. While the likelihood of seeing lions is lower because they camouflage well in the trees, when you do see animals you will have the whole area to yourself. Guides do tell each other via radio when they find something interesting, but usually they give you a little while to appreciate it on your own first. Because Tarangire is less touristy, most of the time that you’ll spend cruising around the park in your safari jeep you will be alone (with the animals), which makes the experience even more special and romantic.

Nice eco lodges

Tarangire has great eco-lodges both inside and outside the park. If you want to stay in something that is not an extremely expensive luxury tent or a basic build-it-yourself tent with shared public bathrooms, look into the lodges at Tarangire! There are small lodges with rooms that will make you feel completely spoiled in the middle of the nature and that will offer perfect relaxation spots overlooking the wildlife. Look for a room with an outside shower so you can shower during sunrise, you won’t regret it! If you stay inside the park, or close enough to it, you will have the experience of animals visiting your tents at night. You might not be able to sleep through this the first night, but the second one you will be so tired that you will sleep through all the wild animal growling and walking!

All in all, Tarangire is a great surprise within Tanzania’s safari Northern Circuit living under the shadow of its larger brothers Ngorongoro and Serengeti, but offers great value – especially if you love animals.

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