How to access the Mahale Mountains National Park

Mahale Mountains National Park is situated on the eastern shores of Lake Tanganyika in the far remote western Tanzania, It’s spectacularly beautiful, with the backdrop of the Mahale Mountains and lush, tropical flora however the question is How to Access Mahale Mountains National Park. Mahale Mountains National Park is in the far western remote areas of Tanzania, it is a wild, calm and uncrowded national park and can be accessed from Dar es Salaam or Arusha to Kigoma which is the closest the major town in about 130km north of the Mahale Mountains National Park along the lakeshore in different ways.

Air is the only easiest and quickest way on How to access Mahale Mountains National Park and during the dry peak season, there are scheduled charter flights operating from Dar es Salaam and Arusha to Mahale Airstrip by different domestic aircraft companies such as safari air link, flying to Mahale Mountains National Park can take three to five hours, In the wet season charter flights operating are less regular.

Zantasair works with its sister company Mbali Mbali lodges situated in Mahale Mountains National Park, to offer twice-weekly shared charter flights between northern circuit for safaris and western Tanzania, incorporating Katavi and Mahale National Parks.

Another different route on How to access Mahale Mountains National Park is by road, driving from Arusha to Kigoma and then you will have to take a speed boat to reach the Mahale Mountains National Park however these roads are rough and can take too long and also can be inaccessible during the rainy season because they are so muddy.

By boat – From Kigoma, there are speedboats running to the park for four to six hours and timber boats run up to 15 hours to Mahale National Park. Also twice a week, the MV Liemba, a large steamship, travels from Kigoma taking almost 10 hours to reach this park.