Struggling to reach a decision on where to visit during your gap year? How about Tanzania? Located in south east Africa, Tanzania is the home of the famous Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain plus it has dozens of beaches and national parks.
If wildlife adventure is high on your gap year wish list then the Serengeti, Ruaha and Ngoronogoro national parks should satisfy your desire to see all sorts of exciting wild animals, from big cats, crocodiles, elephants, buffalo and rhino as well as numerous apes and birdlife. However, Tanzania offers the student traveller far more than this.
Adventure travel
Whilst you can see some amazing wildlife spectacles such as the annual wildebeest migration in the Serengeti, you can also witness such wonders as the Ngoronogoro Crater, a vast volcanic fall out area where lions, flamingos, and black rhino live side by side with the nomadic Maasai tribesmen, as they have done for centuries. There’s also some climbing to do, Kilimanjaro for example, and some spectacular diving off the Mafia coast.
History
No one can visit Tanzania without stopping off at the exotic spice island, Zanzibar, which has to be the ultimate Indian Ocean post safari hangout pad. It also has some fascinating history in its Stone Town plus some magnificent beaches. Tanzania is one of the oldest inhabited areas on the earth and has hominid remains which are millions of years old. It also had some ancient coastal trading links from towns like Bagmoyo which spread across to India in one direction and into the heart off the African continent in the other.
Volunteer Work
If you’re looking to volunteer Tanzania has a lot of options. You’ll find the community both warm and welcoming but in desperate need of your help. There are a great many projects that students can enrol for including teaching, care work in local orphanages, volunteering for hospital work, getting stuck in as a junior journalist on the local newspaper, and sports coaching to kids. You’ll be able to socialise with other volunteers, go on safaris, trek mountains, snorkel and dolphin watch. In fact, you can make a really positive impact to someone else’s life. Now how good would that feel? On key thing to remember is to get good gap year travel insurance so you are covered in the event that anything doesn’t go to plan at work.
Hopefully this article will have helped you reach the decision to visit Tanzania for your gap year to really widen your experiences and open your eyes to how others live. You’ll also have heaps of fun and enough memories to last a life time.
