Mt. Kilimanjaro
The highest freestanding mountain in Africa, Mt. Kilimanjaro towers at 19,340 feet / 5895 meters near the border of Kenya. Mt. Kilimanjaro is the most famous mountain in Africa. Early explorers, such as David Livingstone and Henry Speke, would use the mountain as a guide for exploring deeper into so-called "dark continent." Nowadays, top-notch mountain climbers from all over the world come to conquer and hopefully summit the "roof of Africa." The attraction for Mt. Kilimanjaro is that it can be climbed by a semi-fit person. It doesn't take any special equipment or intense training, and is basically a somewhat of a hike to the top (keep in mind this is taking the easy route). While it's fairly easily to climb Kilimanjaro, only 40 percent of the people reach the top, because many refuse to take an extra day, and pay the extra fees, and TO? let their bodies acclimate to the high altitude.

Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, Tarangire
This is the reason why people come to Africa - these are the classic well-traveled, somewhat famous, safari parks of northern Tanzania. While "each one of these" parks offer unique landscapes and diverse ecosystems, each one has huge concentrations of wildlife. From lions to buffaloes to giraffes (and perhaps even a black rhinos), this is what makes Tanzania spectacular. These four wildlife parks, all relatively close together, are usually combined into a five to seven day safari where tourists can experience camping under the Africa sun and hearing the sounds of animals exploring your campsite at night.

The costs for safaris are very expensive, usually around $100 per person, per day - and that's if you have a group of at least 3. The more the people, the cheaper the price. You would think the tour companies are making a lot of money; however, the government takes a huge portion of the fee you paid the safari company

Zanzibar
Often known as the exotic spice island, Zanzibar was the starting and organizing point for slave traders, missionaries, and explorers before they went into the interior of Africa. Zanzibar has also been colonized and controlled by a wide-range of colonial powers. Because of this diverse influence, Zanzibar has a strange mixture of eastern and western influences, while also maintaining its connection to Islam. While times have changed on in Zanzibar, much of the architecture remains like that of the 12th century. Stone Town, the largest port city, was recently listed on the US World Heritage site in an effort to preserve the ancient, but dilapidated buildings.

These days, legions of tourists flock to Zanzibar after a long hot safari and come to relax on the beaches, swim in the deep blue Indian Ocean, and explore the mystical wonders of Stone Town.

Selous
Twice the size of Denmark, this wildlife reserve is the epitome of East Africa adventure. Although it is one of Africa's largest wildlife reserves, it's only visited by a relatively small number of people per year. This is because the difficulty when trying to get to the park. This, however, makes the safari experience even better, compared to areas in the north Tanzania, where tourists sometimes outnumber the animals. If you're not flying into Selous, the beauty of the Selous is the adventures of the safari. Safari means "journey" in Swahili, the language of Tanzania, and the adventure is in the journey - conquering the obstacles, looking for animals, and dealing with problems, like car repairs.

In the Selous, the roads make the journey difficult and most of, if not all, of your supplies need to be packed in your vehicle, but this is what makes a safari exciting and interesting.

Pangani
This little quiet fishing village sits south of Bagomoyo, and is the perfect place to relax on the beach if you don't have time for Zanzibar. The Pangani river, which used to be the transport route into the interior of Tanzania during the colonial days, is home to a diverse amount of wildlife, including huge populations of crocodiles and amazing birdlife. While Pangani is a somewhat sleepy town, it has good snorkeling, a few nice restaurants, and some interesting colonial German architecture.

Questions?
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