When to go to the Mahale Mountains

Best Time To Go To Mahale Tanzania | When To Go To Mahale

When going on holiday to Tanzania the chances are the aim of the trip is to either go for a safari, or to the beach or both. As a general rule of thumb, the best time to be in Tanzania on safari is in the dry season from July – October when the weather is dry and sunny. As the parks dry out, the bushes become less dense and the animals are easier to spot because of this, but also because they are forced to congregate to the remaining water holes. There are short rains in November (which sometimes trickle through into December, January and March) before the long rains which come in April and May. However, this is not to say December, January and February are not still excellent times to be in Tanzania…

Where Mahale is concerned, there are of course other priorities with a trip here. The main reason to go to Mahale is to catch the amazing Mahale Mountain Chimpanzees. Now we have had many, many clients trek to see these incredible primates and over 20 years none have returned without seeing them. However, there are certain things to consider – in Tanzania’s dry season of June/July, the chimps actually reside further up the mountain, so this time of year is great if you like trekking and are fit and well, but for less able clients, it would be better to tie in Mahale with a Christmas visit or from October to February. However, there will be short rains in this period – by looking at our stats, for the less physically able traveller February is probably the optimum time to be there. Temperature-wise, it is generally 30 across the whole year and at night it’s lows are 17 degrees, so no need to wrap up warm even though you are in the mountains.