Tarangire National Park

Elephants everywhere and a true magical kingdom

My first visit to Africa was filled with anticipation and excitement and all I knew to expect was what I had read online and in books. But nothing can prepare you for what you really experience and how each day is filled with wonder and awe at seeing animals roam as nature intended. I know most people have a long checklist of animals they want to see and seeing the Big Five are how some people measure a successful trip to Africa. Looking back on my trip now to Tarangire, I have to measure my trip by the number of magical moments. As the dust kicks up as the guide speeds down the road, you start to see the ancient Baobab trees come into view. The trees are so big and they watch over the landscape like giants in the hot sun. With the ability to store a large amount of water, many of these trees will have hollowed out trunks, the results of direct contact with elephants and their search for water. My excitement for going to Africa was to see Elephants in the wild and I was not disappointed, especially in Tarangire. After awhile you see so many that they become almost common place, even showing up at hotels to roam the grounds. Our Guide, Gabriel from Maasai Magic Safaris was so knowledgable about animal behavior and obviously loves what he does. He was very patient for this photographer to get the shots I needed and made sure that my trip met all my expectations.

We saw lions, leopards, water buffalo, elephants and zebra within 10 meters of our windows at Tarangire. We saw more birds and other wildlife up close and bigger variety at Tarangire in October and November in two consecutive years than the Masai Mara or Ngorongoro Crater. Make sure you check the wildlife migration patterns before you go to any national park to make sure you are booking the right season. We saw lions stalking kudu and other tourists we spoke with saw lions kill zebras. We saw loots of abay elephants up close.

We would have loved to spend more time in Tarangire. We encountered fewer vehicles and had great opportunities to watch elephants and meerkats for an extended time without much disturbance.

Wonderful wildlife viewing.

This was my favorite park. It seemed a little out of the way (maybe it was the direction we came from). We were one of only a handful of vehicles in the park while there. We must have seen a thousand elephants, they were just everywhere. We also saw a cheetah, impala, zebra, giraffe, a cobra going across the road and tons of birds. I don't even like birds and I found myself really interested in seeking them out here. They were very unusual and again, we didn't see the same ones anywhere else. We stayed at Tarangire River Camp which was perfect. We were actually the only people there due to the season. The staff treated us like family, food was great and we got to hear elephants and lions at night.

great wildlife!

Beautiful and had lots of animals

Northern Serengeti was home for the great migration of the Wildebeest.

A great experience. We saw many elephants and different types of gazelles and impalas, monkeys, birds.

First day of our trip and we saw cheetah with his prey, amazing