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Karatu

Gateway to Ngorongoro

Tanzania Ngorongoro crater view
Tanzania Ngorongoro forest
Tanzania Karatu market
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Welcome to Karatu

The insider's travel guide to Karatu

Karatu is a small but lively town on the edge of Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Most visitors pass through en-route to safari camps, but if you have some spare time it's worth slowing down to make some cultural connections. But the town's main appeal is its proximity to the rolling Ngorongoro highlands and the world-famous Ngorongoro crater.

You can easily spend several days here enjoying guided nature hikes through thick forests and coffee plantations and, of course, a visit down to the vast crater floor.

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Dispatches

Guides & field notes
The best places to see the wildebeest migration
Guide

The best places to see the wildebeest migration

Hans Cosmas Ngoteya
Hans Cosmas Ngoteya

Sometimes called ‘the greatest show on earth’, the wildebeest migration sees mega herds of almost two million wildebeest, zebras and gazelles continuously travel thousands of kilometres in a broadly clockwise direction from the southern Serengeti, north into Kenya’s Maasai Mara, and back again. The migration is one of Africa's classic safari experiences, drawing visitors year round to witness this magnificent spectacle.
Decolonising African travel—and travel writing
Article

Decolonising African travel—and travel writing

Mazuba Kapambwe
Mazuba Kapambwe

Travel writing in Africa has always been an overwhelmingly white affair. Early accounts from 19th century explorers like Henry Morton Stanley and fiction writers like Joseph Conrad depicted Africa as uncivilised, mysterious and barbaric, reflecting the racist attitudes that underpinned European empire building.
The best safaris in Tanzania
Guide

The best safaris in Tanzania

Philip Briggs
Philip Briggs

Tanzania's big-ticket park is the 12,000-square-mile Serengeti, home to the great wildebeest migration and a healthy population of big cats: lions, leopards and cheetahs. During peak season— July and August—when the famous wildebeest river crossings coincide with northern hemisphere summer holidays, the park can be very busy.
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