Tarangire National Park

Tarangire is Tanzania's sixth-largest park, and looks like nowhere else in the northern circuit — dry wooded savannah studded with some of the finest baobab forest in the country, cut through by the Tarangire River.

The park holds tree-climbing lion, large herds of African bush elephant, plains zebra, Masai giraffe, impala, blue wildebeest, buffalo, and eland. The river corridor pulls in dense birdlife, including several species of colourful lovebird.

September and October bring the largest elephant congregations of the year, as herds concentrate along the last remaining water. Long grass makes December–May quieter for game viewing but strong for birding.