This new, thoroughly updated ninth edition of Bradt's Tanzania Safari Guide remains the only practical guidebook to the country that reflects tourism's shift away from backpackers and budget camping safaris to upper-end and mid-range safaris and beach holidays. Unlike other guidebooks, the main focus is practical information about Tanzania's peerless collection of national parks, game reserves and other safari destinations, including the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire, Ruaha, Katavi, Gombe Stream, Mahale Mountains, and four new national parks designated in 2019, including Nyerere, which encompasses much of the former Selous Game Reserve and is thought Africa's largest National Park. Every major reserve is given a dedicated chapter detailing its ecology, wildlife, accommodation options, game drives and other activities.
Written by acknowledged Africa experts and prolific guidebook writers Philip Briggs and Chris McIntyre, Bradt's TanzaniaSafari Guide also focuses on other popular and off-the-beaten-track tourist attractions, including Mount Kilimanjaro, the 'Spice Island' of Zanzibar and the mysterious Kilwa Ruins and Kondoa Rock Art (UNESCO World Heritage Sites often relegated to the small print of other guides).
Accommodation listings for the safari destinations are the most detailed and authoritative available, the authors weeding through the ever-growing number of lodges and camps to create a critically selective list of the best properties in every price bracket (upmarket, mid-range and budget). Meanwhile, a 48-page wildlife color field guide details all species a visitor can expect to find on a safari.
Since the mid-1980s, when only basic camping safaris were feasible, Tanzania has grown to be one of Africa's top safari destinations. This new edition actively responds to this evolution by focusing on the country mainly as a safari and short-stay fly-in holiday destination. It also reflects the growing trend away from large lodges towards small, exclusive eco-friendly camps in remote parts of national parks and bordering community concessions.
Beyond spectacular year-round game-viewing, Tanzania is one of Africa's most varied countries, its long palm-fringed coastline offering post-safari relaxation and complemented by the Great Rift Valley, portions of Africa's three largest lakes, and impressive mountains. Use this guide to discover everything Tanzania has to offer.
About the AuthorPhilip Briggs has been exploring the highways, byways and backwaters of Africa since 1986, when he spent several months backpacking on a shoestring from Nairobi to Cape Town, and first visited Tanzania, bussing from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam then catching the Tazara Railway to Zambia. He has returned to Tanzania numerous times, including to research and author the first Bradt guide to Tanzania in 1992/3, as well as all subsequent editions. Tanzania aside, he has visited more than two dozen African countries and written about most of them for specialist travel and wildlife magazines, including BBC Wildlife, Travel Africa and Wanderlust, and in ten other Bradt guidebooks. He still spends at least four months on the road every year, usually accompanied by his wife, the travel photographer Ariadne Van Zandbergen, and spends his rest of the time battering away at a keyboard in the sleepy South African coastal village of Wilderness.
Chris McIntyre went to Africa in 1987, after reading Physics at Queen's College, Oxford. He taught with VSO in Zimbabwe for almost three years and traveled extensively, before writing his first guidebook (Bradt's guide to Namibia and Botswana) in 1990. He has since written all Bradt's guides on Namibia, Botswana and Zambia - and co-authors (with his wife, Susan) Bradt's guide to Zanzibarand (with Philip Briggs) Bradt's guides to Tanzania. When not traveling, Chris is managing director of the specialist tour operator Expert Africa, where he leads a team of dedicated Africa addicts who provide impartial advice and organize great safaris to Africa, including Tanzania and Zanzibar, and also includes the Wild about Africa trip program, led by top professional guides. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, McIntyre now lives in Surrey with his wife Susan and two children
