Hey y’all, I have a question.
My siblings and I are planning a 3–4 week road trip through northern Tanzania, mainly around Arusha, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti, and nearby areas.
We would prefer to do it mostly as a self-drive trip, possibly with hired guides for specific game drives or certain park sections where that makes more sense. I’ve read a lot of mixed opinions online, so I wanted to ask: how realistic is self-driving in northern Tanzania?
For context, we are not an inexperienced travel family. I have quite a lot of driving experience, including alpine passes near where I live, race car driving in my own country, and I’m comfortable dealing with vehicle issues like changing tires and handling emergency situations. I’ve also done self-drive road trips of about a month in Namibia without guidance, as well as road trips in South Africa, the western USA, Spain, and Italy.
I fully understand that Tanzania may be very different from Namibia or South Africa in terms of road quality and That’s exactly why I’m asking.
For people who have actually done this or know the area well: what should we realistically expect? Is a mostly self-drive trip through northern Tanzania doable for experienced travelers, or is Tanzania a different beast where we should rethink the plan?