Tanzania

Zanzibar Island is a jewel in the ocean, surrounded by beaches that rate among the finest in the world. Here you can swim, snorkel or just lounge the hours away, while shoals of luminous fish graze over nearby coral gardens and pods of dolphins frolic offshore.

Western Tanzania is rough, remote frontier land, with vast trackless expanses, minimal infrastructure and few visitors. The west offers a sense of adventure now missing elsewhere in the country. This is precisely what attracts a trickle of travellers, many of whom plan their itineraries around the schedules of the MV Liemba, which sails down Lake Tanganyika, and the Central Line train, which crosses the country.

Selous Game Reserve is a vast, 48,000-sq-km wilderness area lying at the heart of southern Tanzania. It is Africa’s largest wildlife reserve, and home to large herds of elephants, plus buffaloes, crocodiles, hippos, wild dogs, many bird species and some of Tanzania’s last remaining black rhinos. Bisecting it is the Rufiji River, which cuts a path past woodlands, grasslands and stands of borassus palm, and provides unparalleled water-based wildlife watching.

Tanzania’s half of Africa’s largest lake sees few visitors, but the region holds many attractions for those with a bent for the offbeat and a desire to immerse themselves in the rhythms of local life beyond the tourist trail. The cities of Musoma and Bukoba have a quiet waterside charm, while most villagers on Ukerewe Island follow a subsistence lifestyle with little connection to the world beyond the shore.

Northeastern Tanzania’s highlights are its coastline, its mountains and its cultures. These, combined with the area’s long history, easy access and lack of crowds, make it an appealing focal point for a Tanzanian sojourn.

To paraphrase that well-known quote about Africa, those of you who've never been to northern Tanzania are to be envied, because you still have so much to look forward to. Northern Tanzania is a land of superlatives, from Africa's highest mountain to one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on the planet. But Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti are mere starting points to so many journeys of a lifetime. Mt Meru is Kilimanjaro's rival in both beauty and the challenge of climbing it, while the Crater Highlands could be Africa's most haunting landscape. When it comes to wildlife, there's Tarangire's baobab-and-elephant kingdom, Lake Manyara's tree-climbing lions and the flamingos of Lake Natron. And venturing down into Ngorongoro's crater can feel like returning to earth's first morning.

The capital of the densely populated Kilimanjaro region sits at the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro and makes a good introduction to the splendours of the north. It’s a low-key place with an appealing blend of African and Asian influences and a prosperous feel, due in large part to its being the centre of one of Tanzania’s major coffee-growing regions. Virtually all visitors are here to climb Mt Kilimanjaro or to recover after having done so. Yet there's much more to do, including cultural tours and hikes on the mountain's lower slopes.

Pemba's terrain is hilly and lushly vegetated, while much of the coast is lined with mangroves and lagoons, interspersed with idyllic beaches and islets. Offshore, coral reefs offer some of East Africa's best diving.

Lake Manyara National Park is one of Tanzania’s smaller and most underrated parks. While it may lack the size and variety of other northern-circuit destinations (there's pretty much one main north–south route through the park), its vegetation is diverse, ranging from savannah to marsh to evergreen forest (11 ecosystems in all) and it supports one of the highest biomass densities of large mammals in the world. The chance to see elephant families moving through the forest or Lake Manyara's famous population of tree-climbing lions (although sighting them is becoming increasingly rare) are alone reason enough to come.

Arusha is Tanzania's gateway to the northern circuit of stellar national parks and the starting point of many a memorable safari. It's also a large, sprawling city with all the contradictions that brings.