A Tanzania safari with children: what works at each age

Yes, you can take children on safari, and a private vehicle is what makes it work: you stop when they need to stop, you go back to the lodge when they have had enough, and nobody else in the car minds. What changes with age is how long the days should be.

Under six

Keep it short and close. Two or three nights in Tarangire and Lake Manyara, where the animals are near the road and the drives from Arusha are easy, then the beach. Many lodges set a minimum age for game drives in shared vehicles, which does not apply when the vehicle is yours, but some camps do not take very young children at all. We only propose the ones that do.

Six to twelve

The best age. Add the Ngorongoro Crater, which is a single day with almost every animal in it, and choose lodges with a pool for the afternoons. Break the driving into pieces of two or three hours. A walk with a Maasai guide or a visit to a village school often stays with children longer than the lions do.

Teenagers

Treat them as adults with more energy. The Serengeti is worth the distance now, and so are the active things: a walking safari, a canoe on Lake Duluti, a balloon at dawn, snorkelling from a dhow once you reach the island.

Health, and the beach at the end

Tanzania is a malaria area, so speak to a travel clinic about tablets for each child well before you fly, and bring repellent and long sleeves for the evenings. The mandatory inbound travel insurance is half price from ages 3 to 17 and free under 3.

Finish on Zanzibar. After early mornings in a vehicle, a few days with a shallow lagoon and nothing scheduled is what turns a good family trip into the one they talk about.