Flat-topped acacias and grazing herds on the Serengeti plain

Every one of them

The national parks

Twenty-two national parks and one conservation area, covering roughly 105,096 square kilometres — about an eighth of the country's land area. Count the game reserves, forest reserves and other protected land as well, and it is about 40 per cent (World Bank, 2025). Most visitors see four of them.

National parks

21 mainland under TANAPA, plus Jozani in Zanzibar

Conservation area

Ngorongoro — run by the NCAA, not TANAPA

30,893

km², the largest

Nyerere, gazetted 2019

2.18

km², the smallest

Saanane Island, in Lake Victoria

A distinction worth making

Ngorongoro is not a national park. It is a conservation area, managed by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority rather than TANAPA, under a model that allows Maasai pastoralists to live and graze inside it. Its fees, permits and rules are separate from the national parks'. Everyone calls it a park. It is listed here because visitors look for it here, and labelled honestly because the difference is practical, not pedantic.

01Northern circuit

7 parks

A flat-topped acacia on the open Serengeti plain

14,763 km²

June–October for the crossings

Serengeti

Grass to the horizon, and the migration that moves across it.

The floor of the Ngorongoro Crater seen from the rim

Conservation area

Year-round

Ngorongoro

A collapsed volcano holding its own ecosystem — and not a national park.

Kilimanjaro's glaciated summit above the cloud line

1,712 km²

January–March and June–October

Kilimanjaro

The highest point in Africa, and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level on earth.

Baobab trees scattered across the dry grassland of Tarangire

2,850 km²

July–October

Tarangire

Baobab country, and the largest elephant concentrations in the north.

Lake Manyara from the rift escarpment above it: the dark belt of groundwater forest, then the floodplain, then the lake

648.7 km²

June–October for game

Lake Manyara

A narrow strip between the Rift wall and a soda lake.

The breached caldera of Mount Meru, seen from the north

322 km²

Year-round

Arusha

Mount Meru, the Momella lakes, and a park you can walk in.

A black rhino in the sanctuary at Mkomazi

3,245 km²

June–October

Mkomazi

Dry thornbush under the Pare and Usambara mountains, and a rhino sanctuary.

02Southern circuit

5 parks

The Rufiji River, the artery of Nyerere National Park

30,893 km²

June–October

Nyerere

Tanzania's largest national park, carved out of the Selous in 2019.

Dry bush and open grass in Ruaha National Park

19,822 km²

June–October

Ruaha

The second largest park in the country, and one of the emptiest.

Open floodplain and distant hills at Mikumi

3,230 km²

June–October

Mikumi

The most accessible big park from Dar es Salaam — a morning's drive.

Forested slopes of the Udzungwa Mountains falling away to the plains

1,990 km²

June–October

Udzungwa Mountains

Rainforest, waterfalls and primates found nowhere else on earth.

The grassland of the Kitulo plateau in the southern highlands

465.9 km²

Late November–April, during the flowering

Kitulo

A high grassland plateau that flowers — the first park in tropical Africa created mainly for its plants.

03Western circuit

7 parks

Evening light on a river pool and woodland in Katavi

4,471 km²

August–October

Katavi

Remote, difficult to reach, and in the late dry season almost unbelievable.

A chimpanzee mother and infant in the Mahale forest

1,613 km²

June–September, between the rains

Mahale Mountains

Chimpanzees on a forested mountainside falling into Lake Tanganyika.

56 km²

Late June–October

Gombe

A narrow strip of forest above Lake Tanganyika where Jane Goodall changed what we know about ourselves.

Western

Burigi-Chato

4,707 km² · est. 2019

4,707 km²

June–October, and January–March

Burigi-Chato

Lakes, wetland and savanna in the far north-west, gazetted in 2019.

Western

Ugalla River

3,865 km² · est. 2019

3,865 km²

June–October

Ugalla River

Miombo woodland along a river that floods and empties with the seasons.

Western

Rumanyika-Karagwe

247 km² · est. 2019

247 km²

January–February and June–August

Rumanyika-Karagwe

A small Kagera park with a nineteenth-century kingdom behind its name.

Western

Ibanda-Kyerwa

294 km² · est. 2019

294 km²

July–September and December–February

Ibanda-Kyerwa

Savanna and river valleys on the Kagera, where Tanzania meets Rwanda and Uganda.

04Coastal circuit

1 park

A vervet monkey crossing the beach at Saadani, with coastal bush on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other

1,100 km²

June–September, January–February

Saadani

Where the bush runs down to an Indian Ocean beach — the only national park in Tanzania on the sea.

05Lake circuit

2 parks

A sandy beach on Rubondo Island, looking out over Lake Victoria

456.8 km²

June–September, between the rains

Rubondo Island

A forested island in Lake Victoria, and a chimpanzee experiment that worked.

Lake

Saanane Island

2.18 km² · est. 2013

2.18 km²

Year-round

Saanane Island

Tanzania's smallest national park, a short boat ride from Mwanza city.

06Zanzibar circuit

1 park

A Zanzibar red colobus monkey in Jozani Forest

50 km²

Year-round

Jozani Chwaka Bay

Zanzibar's only national park, and the last refuge of an endemic monkey.

Areas and establishment dates are as published by TANAPA and in the public record; each park page lists the sources its figures were checked against. Park entry and conservation fees are set by government and revised annually, so check the current rate with the park authority before you travel.