Northern Tanzania: Serengeti, Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar Paperback – June 5, 2013

Having been to Tanzania 4 times now, I highly recommend the Bradt/Briggs guides to Tanzania, over the Lonely Planet books any day. If you are focusing on just the northern regions and Zanzibar, don't clutter your mind with other areas of the country you won't be visiting, and that is what this book is good for.This book covers the 4 northern parks (Serengeti, Tarangire, Lake Manyara, and Ngorongoro Crater), as well as Arusha, Moshi and Mount Kilimanjaro areas. Also includes Zanzibar. It is a good planning tool to assist travelers planning a safari, beach and/or mountain trip to the beautiful county of Tanzania. Worth every penny I paid for it: it is well-worn having been with me on all my trips to TZ. Highly recommended.

This is a very good travel guide, quite helpful at a planning stage of your trip. It contains loads of information which you should definitely digest BEFORE you get to Tanzania, so you could ask pertinent questions or pay attention to details you might otherwise miss. If you read it early, you may end up changing your itinerary in order to see what intrigued you thanks to this book. I bought it as a souvenir after the 10-day trip and regret it deeply I did not even browse it before. Well, I will have to go back to Tanzania in few years for more in depth exploration!I like the fact that the book is restricted to the northern, most often visited area. It is quite heavy already. I like cultural, historical, and linguistic insight and all the practical info from immunizations to what should be in your baggage and medical kit, to photographic tips.However, if you are looking for color photographs of all the animals you can encounter and identify on your safari, you need a field guide and you will be disappointed with this book. There are several, good quality, pictures (14 pages total + a 2 page color map) showing some 15 mammals, 7 birds, 2 reptiles, and a crab, plus few landscapes and pictures of members of three tribes, but most common animals (mammals only) are illustrated by 42 drawings, others are just described in small paragraphs. The authors specifically say you will need a good field guide.What I don't like is the obvious ads of safari operators without a comprehensive list. The list on page 106 contains only 16 agencies, while the advertisers' list at the end of the book has a few more. Does it mean they are not recommended, though allowed to advertise? We had a wonderful experience with Safari Rangers, but this operator is not even mentioned in this guide. The same pertains to Kitela Lodge near Gibbs Farm and one of tented camps we used. What are the criteria for inclusion/exclusion?The maps have some flaws. There are separate airports at Arusha and Moshi on the main color map, while there is only one there, half way in between the cities. The small airport inside Serengeti National Park is not marked. Karatu and surroundings map (p.272) has no Karatu marked on it. Karatu is not on the main color map either.The index could definitely be much better. I did not find some key words like "big five" and "small five" animals, though "big five" expression appears on one of the pictures inscriptions.I find a recommendation for women to wear skirts rather than pants very peculiar, especially in conjunction with insect repellant advisory (ticks included). No woman wore a skirt in our group.

I generally read guide books prior to a trip only. But this book was so informative, I actually packed it along for the safari. It has excellent practical advice on money, food, health,etc, etc. But it also contains enough historical and cultural information to put my trip into context.

A well written book on the area with lots of useful information. I almost didn't buy a guide before I left since I was going on a tour, but I"m glad I did. After reading about the history, economy, and politics of the country I was educated and could have interesting conversations with the locals.

My daughter used it and liked it.

Used this book while on safari in Northern Tanzania. So the book fit the bill and I was very happy with it.

This is a fine travel guide to Northern Tanzania, but its contents appear essentially verbatim in the 7th edition of the Briggs/McIntyre "Tanzania Safari Guide" published at about the same time. Given that the latter title has about 160 more pages, covers the entire country, and currently lists at a lower cost on Amazon.com, it is clearly the better value. Do not be concerned that you would miss anything from "Northern Tanzania" were you to choose "Tanzania Safari Guide" instead - it is all there. Neither will you find extraneous information in "Tanzania Safari Guide" because of its broader coverage - the great majority of its text is identical with that of the "Northern Tanzania" guide. Bradt and the authors appear to have produced basically the same book with different titles in different covers. Regardless of your objective, I recommend that you make the safari guide your guide to Tanzania.

A big help for my impending trip to Africa.