Tanzania safari & beach holidays

What better way to soothe bottoms bumped along the Serengeti’s safari tracks than with a wiggle in Zanzibar’s powdery sand? Safari and beach holidays in Tanzania are a match made in East African heaven, where really wild Big Five adventures are coupled with coastal bliss on beaches so white and in water so turquoise it would be a cliché to write more.

Not all safari and beach holidays were created equal in Tanzania, so there’s plenty of choice dependent on your budget or style of travel. The Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti and the other parks in Tanzania’s northern safari circuit offer a range of accommodation options and excellent game viewing opportunities, commonly combined with time on the Zanzibar coast. Selous Game Reserve, and southern Tanzania’s other less-visited national parks are the domain of heart-thumping walking safaris and serene boat cruises. Quieter and more exclusive than the northern circuit, these parks lie close to some of Tanzania’s most isolated, untouched islands.

Tanzania’s Indian Ocean beaches are not one homogenous stretch of soft white sand either. Zanzibar offers a fascinating insight into the spice and slave trades with a tantalising melange of Swahili, Arabic, Indian and European cultures, while Pemba boasts world-class scuba diving and a fraction of the visitors. Then there’s Mafia Island, part of Tanzania’s first marine park and an ecotourism haven, or Fanjove in the southern Songo Songo Archipelago where you’ll enjoy a Robinson-Crusoe-esque sense of near tourist-free seclusion.

Realistically to combine beach bliss with your wildlife adventures you’ll need to be prepared to fly. Light aircraft make short work of the distance between Tanzania’s top safari spots and its Indian Ocean islands. Flights depart from Arusha and airstrips in Selous, Ruaha and the Serengeti to Zanzibar, Pemba and Mafia Island, with all journeys taking somewhere between approximately one and three hours (dependent on stops). These flights are part and parcel of the safari adventure; keep your eyes peeled for big game wandering the runways as you depart and land.

Some small group tours will travel overland from the northern National Parks to Dar es Salaam and take the fast ferry (two to three hours) across to Stone Town in Zanzibar. It’s longer, but you'll pass through local villages and stay in another historic colonial trading port, Bagamoyo, along the way.

Home to some 3,000 lions and the Great Migration, one of the world’s biggest wildlife spectacles, the Serengeti is legendary. Travel in July to September to catch the migration at its peak, as the vast herds of wildebeest, zebra and antelope brave huge Nile crocodiles to cross the Mara River, or in January to February to see thousands of babies born on the southern Serengeti's short-grass plains.

Semi-autonomous Zanzibar is the epitome of exotic cool. With a Swahili-Arabic-Indian-European culture rooted in the spice and slave trades, a stay here isn’t complete without a wander round crumbling UNESCO-listed Stone Town, or tours of local spice plantations. Its coral reef-fringed northeast beaches – with excellent diving and snorkelling – are near perfect as well. Pemba, the Zanzibar archipelago’s second-largest island, offers fewer tourists and more seclusion.

The shorter January to February dry period, after the end of the short rains, can offer a pleasant, greener safari alternative without peak season rates. Thousands of baby wildebeest are born in the southern Serengeti meaning predators are on the prowl. Whale sharks visit Zanzibar and Mafia Island from November to April, and visibility for diving and snorkelling can reach 20 to 30m.

Just avoid the long rains from March until early May. Rates may be lower but wildlife disperses and becomes much more difficult to spot – although the Ngorongoro Crater still offers excellent opportunities to see the Big Five. The coast swelters in high humidity with regular afternoon downpours, and underwater views of the coral reefs are clouded by river run-off.