TANZANIA PARK FEES EXPLAINED
How They Work and What You Need to Know
When you’re planning your Tanzania safaris, one of the most important — and sometimes confusing — parts of the necessary budget is park fees. These are charges set by TANAPA (Tanzania National Parks Authority), NCAA (Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority) and WMA (Wildlife Management Authority) that fund conservation and park management.
These national park fees and other entry fees are usually charged per person and per block of time. This means the timing of your entries and exits matters — a lot.
If you’re wondering why itineraries are structured the way they are, or why your guide might encourage leaving a park before a certain time, the answer often lies in how these fees are calculated. Understanding the rules will help you make the most of your visit, allow you to decide whether it’s worth paying extra for just a few more hours inside a park and avoid paying for time you can’t really use.
Below, we’ll use the term ‘park fees’ as a general term, even though e.g. Ngorongoro Conservation Area and some other areas aren’t considered national parks. We’ll use more specific terms when we’re only talking about fees for a particular area.
HOW TANZANIA PARK FEES WORK: DAY TRIP VS STAY IN PARK
Let’s talk about general Tanzania safari park fees first. These are the fees that you pay in order to gain access to the park, but that don’t include access to any other activities such as walking safaris or a visit to Ngorongoro crater.
When planning your safari, we will choose the type of park fee you need based on your itinerary. There are two main options:
- Day trip conservation fees (12 hours) – This option gives you up to 12 hours inside the park on the same day, between 6 AM and 6 PM. It’s typically chosen when you will sleep outside the park. For example, if you visit Tarangire during the day and stay overnight in a lodge in Karatu or Arusha, you’ll only pay for a 12-hour entry. You’ll also have to pay this fee when you drive through Ngorongoro Conservation Area to get from Karatu to the Serengeti and vice-versa, even if it’s only a 2-hour drive.
Stay Inside the Park (park fees per 24 hours) – This allows you to be in the park for up to 24 hours and is used when you sleep inside the park boundaries.
Conservation Fee – The same park entrance fees as for a day trip, covering daytime game drives.
Overnight Fee – An additional charge that depends on where you stay. This could be a public campsite, a special or seasonal campsite (where most tented camps are located), or a lodge/hotel inside the park for which you pay a concession fee. These overnight fees are park fees, and are to be paid on top of your accommodation cost.
In short: if you stay inside the park, you’ll always pay the conservation fee plus an extra overnight fee. If you sleep outside the park, you’ll just pay the day trip fee.
The fees mentioned above are paid per person. They can be paid multiple times for a longer stay.
NGORONGORO CRATER FEES & OTHER ACTIVITY FEES
Ngorongoro Conservation Area charges the same per-person fees described above, but visits to the crater are considered as extra activities. The crater descent fee is charged per vehicle, not per person. It covers up to 6 hours inside the crater. Whether your vehicle holds two or six people, the fee remains the same.
A visit to Ngorongoro Crater isn’t the only activity you can do inside the national parks. You could include a walking safari, a canoe safari, a hot air balloon flight, … You’ll also have to pay a park fee if you book any of these activities, on top of regular park fees and the cost of the actual activity.
TANZANIA SAFARI PARK FEES: AN OVERVIEW
| TYPE OF VISIT | TIME LIMIT PER BLOCK | WHERE YOU SLEEP | FEES CHARGED | EXAMPLE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day trip | Up to 12 hours | Outside the park | Conservation fee only | Visit Tarangire during the day, overnight in Karatu |
| Stay in park | Up to 24 hours | Inside the park | Conservation fee + overnight park fee (+ cost of accommodation) | Enter Serengeti at noon, afternoon game drive, overnight in Serengeti tented camp and leave Serengeti the next day before noon |
| Ngorongoro Crater | Up to 6 hours | NA | Crater fee + relevant conservation & overnight fee | Enter Ngorongoro Conservation Area and visit Ngorongoro crater, overnight inside or outside the conservation area |
| Ngorongoro transit | Drive between Loduare (Karatu) and e.g. Naabi gate (Serengeti) and vice-versa | NA | Transit fee, equal to the conservation fee | Drive from Karatu to the Serengeti and transit through Ngorongoro Conservation Area on the way |
| Activities inside the parks | Depends on activity, e.g. max. 2 hours for a canoe safari, max. 4 hours for a walking safari, ... | NA | Activity park fee + relevant conservation & overnight fee (+ cost of activity) | Walking safari, hot air balloon flight, etc. |
WHY TIMING YOUR PARK FEES MATTERS
Park fees are charged in strict 12- or 24-hour blocks, not by calendar date. This means that if you enter a park at 11:00 AM on day 1 and you’ve paid park fees for 24 hours, your time ends at 11:00 AM on day 2 — whether you’re ready to leave or not.
EXAMPLE: CLASSIC 5-DAY & 4-NIGHT SAFARI
There’s lots of safari itineraries in which this could apply, but we’ll use our classic 5-day northern circuit safari as an example.
Day 1: Drive from Arusha to Tarangire (~2 hrs), visit the park, then overnight in Karatu. (Day trip fee: 12 hours)
Day 2: Drive from Karatu to Serengeti, arriving around midday. Your first 24-hour period for the Serengeti park fees starts now.
Day 3: Full day in Serengeti (second 24-hour block starts around noon).
Day 4: Morning in Serengeti — but your second 24-hour period ends at midday, so you must exit to avoid paying another full day. Drive to Ngorongoro Conservation Area for overnight. Your 24-hour period for Ngorongoro park fees also start around noon since both destinations are right next to each other.
Day 5: Visit Ngorongoro Crater for maximum 6 hours, exit Ngorongoro Conservation Area again before noon and then drive back to Arusha.
The result? You might find yourself leaving the Serengeti earlier than you imagined and arriving at your next lodge by mid-afternoon. This can feel like ‘dead time’ — especially if you thought you’d have more game viewing hours.
The solution? You can leave Karatu a bit later to divide the ‘dead time’ better, or pay for an extra 12 hours in the Serengeti. You won’t be able to use these full 12 hours, but maximum around 3-4 if you wake up really early on day 2 and book an accommodation not too far from the main road on day 4.
We only include the extra 12 hours if you specifically ask us or if we specifically inform you.
Why? Because
- park fees are expensive
- you only get a few extra hours even if you pay for 12 more
- not everybody knows about the 12- or 24-hour blocks
- most other tour companies work like this too
So if you don’t read the full explanation – which we’d understand if you’re still in the planning phase – you might think we’re just more expensive for a similar itinerary and not even consider our offer. However, we can always include them, as long as you inform us in advance.
All our offers mention the number of included hours in each park, so you always know exactly what to expect.
KEEP IN MIND
You don’t always use the full available time. Let’s go back to the example above. On day 1, you have to drive from Arusha to Tarangire, which takes about 2 hours. If you want to use the entire 12 hours, this means having breakfast around 3 AM – which is not possible in any of the accommodations – and leaving Arusha around 4 AM. In the evening, you have a 1-1,5-hour drive to Karatu so you’d arrive at your lodge around 7 – 7:30 PM.
This would mean a 15 or 16-hour work day for your guide, which is simply too much, doesn’t match our promise about good working conditions and is no longer safe for anyone.
So we don’t only keep in mind the opening hours of the parks, but also reasonable working hours for your guide and regular meal times at your accommodations.
If you want to spend more time in e.g. Tarangire, we could recommend to spend the night before near the park instead of in Arusha or find another option that suits your itinerary best.
TANZANIA WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREAS (WMAs)
Wildlife Management Areas are community-based conservation areas with a focus on sustainable tourism and benefits for local communities. They can be visited just like national parks – some are really worth an actual visit while others not so much – in which case a similar park fee structure applies. For example, Lake Natron is a WMA and you pay a fee for conservation, overnight stay and activities.
However, you might also end up in a WMA without really being aware. Many of Tanzania’s national parks are surrounded by these areas, and accommodations might be located inside of them.
A common example are the lodges just outside Tarangire National Park. Staying there can be a great option, but keep in mind that you’ll pay the WMA fee for the night(s) in addition to any national park fees for the day(s) you go inside the park.
Overnight WMA fees are currently lower than overnight national park fees (August 2025), so this often remains interesting, but more expensive than sleeping a bit further away from Tarangire.
National park fees are single entry, so if you’re planning e.g. 2 half days inside the park but want to sleep outside of the park, keep in mind that you’ll have to pay the conservation fee twice.
AGE & NATIONALITY CATEGORIES FOR PARK FEES
Fees vary depending on age and the categories are fixed by the parks:
Babies: Under 5 years old – no fees.
Children: 5 to 15.99 years old – pay reduced fees.
Adults: 16 years and older – pay full adult rates.
Fees also depend on your nationality. Foreigners that are non-residents of Tanzania pay the highest price, foreign residents of Tanzania get a discount in some places, and East-African citizens pay the lowest price.
This is why it’s important to give us the correct age of your children during the trip and let us know if you qualify for any discounts based on residency or citizenship. Relevant passports need to be presented to the park authorities while we book the park fees in order to get any discounts.
TIPS & KEY TAKEAWAYS ON PARK FEES IN TANZANIA
Fees are charged in blocks, not by the day. Day trips = 12 hours. Overnight stays = 24 hours (conservation fee + overnight fee).
Plan entry/exit times carefully to maximize value and avoid overstaying. Breaking Tanzania park fee rules can lead to high fines.
Overnight fees vary depending on whether you’re camping, at a seasonal campsite, or in a lodge/concession inside the park.
Ngorongoro Crater descent fee is per vehicle, not per person, and is valid for one 6-hour visit only.
Children under 5 are free; children 5–15.99 pay a reduced rate; adults 16+ pay full adult rates (including teenagers).
For some lodges outside the parks, such as those in Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) near Tarangire, you’ll also have to pay overnight entrance fees, on top of the price of the accommodation.
Plan your itinerary with park time limits in mind to avoid paying for unused hours — leaving late can trigger extra full-day charges.
Of course we have a lot of experience planning these visits, and all our itineraries mention exactly what’s included.
TANZANIA PARK FEES FAQ
Tanzania park entrance fees are mostly counted per 12- or 24-hour blocks, depending on whether you enter for a day trip or stay overnight. Activity fees, such as walking safaris, Ngorongoro Crater visits, or balloon rides, are charged separately and vary by duration (2, 4, or 6 hours, for example).
Unfortunately, no. Park fees in Tanzania are single entry, which means once you leave, you cannot re-enter the park on the same permit.
Yes! All park fees are included in our itineraries, according to the principles explained above. This way, you don’t face surprise charges. Don’t forget to let us know if you’d like to add a bit more time when possible.
We’re very transparent about this, and all our offers mention the number of included hours in each park, so you always know exactly what to expect.
We’ll do our best to tailor your safari around your wishes. However, practical factors like driving times and park rules can affect what’s possible.
No, there are different rates for East African residents, Tanzanian citizens, and foreign visitors. Fees also vary by age: babies under 5 are free; children aged 5 to 15.99 pay reduced fees; adults 16 and older pay full rates.
Overstaying park fees can result in fines or penalties. This is why our guides are not allowed to stay longer than planned in the entry permits, which we plan and pay in advance. It’s important to plan your entry and exit times carefully to avoid paying for unused hours or triggering extra charges.
Yes, safari activities like walking safaris, canoeing, and hot air balloon rides require extra activity fees on top of the standard park fees and the activity cost. These vary depending on the activity.
LET'S BUILD YOUR IDEAL SAFARI
Of course, we’ll plan your park fees in the best way possible, so you have nothing to worry about. Just let us know if you really want to optimize your time and we’ll make the necessary suggestions.
Have a look at our sample safari itineraries as well!
