Tanzania West

is a surprisingly remote region and very little visited.

Although there are large plane flights out to Kigoma from Dar es Salaam, the vast majority of international visitors fly directly into the parks on scheduled light aircraft services.

The main draw in this part of the world is the fabulous chimpanzee reserve in the Mahale Mountains on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, somewhere which combines a stunning white-sand beach location with one of the best animal interaction experiences in Africa.

Another significant target is Katavi national park, a kind of holy grail amongst safari officianados, a park so remote that it struggles to get its annual international visitor numbers into three figures.

Gombe Stream is another lesser chimpanzee sanctuary on Lake Tanganyika

The town of Kigoma attracts few travellers but is notable as the location of the famous meeting between the explorers Stanley and Livingstone.