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Alie Sijbersma
GB
Visited:
July 2008
Reviewed: Apr 2, 2012
Email Alie Sijbersma | 20-35 years of age
An unforgettable extraordinary experience with amazing animals
The scenery is beautiful, there are plenty of baboons and other monkeys, and the forest is right next to Lake Tanganyika. This is also how you reach the park: by boat from Kigoma. You can either enquire at the Jane Goodall Institute when a boat is going from there, or go to Kibirizi
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and take a local boat from there. This will take you up to the park in about 3 hours, regularly stopping at villages along the shore. This is definitely a great (local) experience and I would recommend to take one of those!There are 2 places for accommodation in the park itself. Camping is not allowed, so there is no other option than that. There is a forest lodge and a (sort of) motel (it was still being build when I was there). Since there are usually not that many visitors in the park you can take your chances and just go, but if you want to be sure you can book beforehand. If you're for example staying in Kigoma in Nzimano Hotel (highly recommended: lovely staff, great local food, quiet and peaceful, overlooking Kigoma bay), the staff there will be able to help you with bookings.
Kigoma can be reached by plane, but there is also a train going from Dar Es Salaam to Kigoma twice a week, which is well worth the trip. The train crosses the whole country, so you will have an amazing view of the country (it passes through the capital Dodoma, through the Uluguru mountains, over vast plains, and much more). I can very much recommend to take the train in Tanzania. Great experience!
Highlights of Kigoma: Gombe Stream National Park, local markets, Ujiji (where explorers Livingstone and Stanley met), Lake Tanganyika (with apparently an enormous range of unique fish), Amani Beach, Jacobson's Beach, MV Liemba (old German ferry going every week around Lake Tanganyika to Bujumbura(Burundi), Kalundu-Uvira(DR Congo) and Mpulungu(Zambia) and back to Kigoma), Katonga(small fishing village).
Justin
CA
Visited:
November 2014
Reviewed: Apr 28, 2015
Email Justin | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Gombe National Park is truly spectacular.
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fit seamlessly into our journey (which also included Ruaha and Katavi, both of which are wonderful).From Kigoma, we traveled by local public boat to Gombe on the way there and organized a local boat owner to pick us up when we were finished. Since Gombe NP regulations require you to pay per 24 hours, coupled with the fact we arrived in the park in early evening (too late to go trekking that day), we decided to pay for two days and leave after finishing the day 2 trek. This was slightly complicated because we wanted to travel by public boats and these only pass by Gombe at certain times of day. Thus, it would not have been possible to take a public boat back to Kigoma that evening. The official park boat transportation is very pricey, so we negotiated for some time over the price for a local boat owner to come pick us up (four of us paid something like 20-30$ each for the trip back). The boat trip back was pretty epic, as a major storm hit and lightning was striking everywhere. Despite what we paid for transportation, our boat actually ran out of gas and had to be paddled to shore; it was raining so hard it seemed like the whole shoreline was washing into the lake. It made for a pretty stimulating adventure!
The park itself is wonderful, as were the guides and the trekking experience. On the first day, we trekked for maybe an hour before coming across the main group of chimps and we spent considerable amount of time with them within close distances. The second day, our trek was longer, and arguably more satisfying, as we trekked for somewhere between 2-4 hours before finding the main group. This second encounter was the highlight of the trip as several times, some of the male chimpanzees walked within a couple feet of us as we stood still and let them pass. These close brushes alone were enough to send shivers down my spine and make me feel utterly fulfilled with the park.
Aside from the chimpanzees, there are also a range of other colobus monkeys, baboons, interesting insects, snakes and so on. We were lucky to spot a very colourful bush viper coiled on a branch on one of our walks. The beach is very scenic and calming and the lake is a pleasure to swim in with beautiful cichlids (we had already been scuba diving/free diving/ snorkelling in the Kipili area, so we were less interested in cichlid spotting at this point). If you want to find cichlids, look for the big rocky substrate. As for birds, I can't really comment as I have had much more success spotting birds in other, more open parks, like Katavi, Ruaha, Ngorongoro, Tarangire etc. My favourite place for spotting birds in Tanzania though is the Mnazi Bay-Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park in the Southeast. In my opinion, the tree cover in Gombe makes it a challenge for birding, but more specialized bird watchers could probably speak better to this than I can.
We went in mid-November and it did not rain during our treks, though it began pouring shortly after. As for food, since we were backpacking, we came with our own pots and beans, but food can be purchased there (it's pricey though). Accommodation is very reasonably priced, comfortable and secure.
Some advice I would give for photographers would be to have a camera with good high ISO capabilities. It's usually overcast and under tree cover, so you're often shooting in much lower light situations than other safari experiences. I was shooting with my old canon rebel which is unfortunately not great above ISO 800. I'm picking up a canon 6D soon, which would be a perfect camera for chimpanzee trekking in my opinion. You don't need an obscenely long focal length - 70-200 should be plenty and I'd make sure your shorter focal lengths are somewhat covered as well. F/2.8 if possible, though I personally wouldn't want to carry the 70-200 f/2.8 monster on a 4 hour hike. I'd probably personally recommend a full frame body with a 24-70 f/2.8 and a 70-200 f/4 IS (I shoot canon), but that's just me. You could probably get away with primes as well, as long as your livelihood doesn't depend on capturing the 'decisive moment'. There is electricity available in the rooms to charge batteries.
I used a GoPro hero 3 black with a head strap for video.
Overall, it was a wonderful experience.
seltzca
US
Visited:
October 2011
Reviewed: Jun 21, 2012
Email seltzca | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing chimpanzee encounters- where Jane Goodall started it all!
I can see why she stayed- Gombe is beautiful! The mountains meet Lake Tanganyika's shores in Gombe and there are several streams and waterfalls. Views from the peaks above the lake are spectacular. When it's clear you can see the mountains in the Democratic Republic of Congo across the lake.
If you stay at Gombe for 2 days you are practically guaranteed to see a chimpanzee. Sometimes they hang out near the camp, but seeing them in the bush is even more exciting. We saw a group in camp the first morning and a larger group on the forest where there was a lot of social activity going on. Your guide will be sure to tell you how to behave for the best chimp-viewing experience.
One of the other highlights for me was swimming
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in Lake Tanganyika. It's one of the largest and oldest lakes in the world. The temperature was perfect and the water was beautifully clear.Gombe is small (in fact, the smallest of Tanzania's national parks) but remote. You'll have to take a boat from Kigoma to Gombe (the only other option is to walk!). Kigoma has an airport with several regional flights each day but the town is smaller than I expected.
I stayed at the self-catering hostel which was basic but not primitive. All buildings in Gombe need to be chimpanzee- and baboon-proof so it can't be too rustic! I would have stayed longer than 2 days if I could and I would absolutely love to return.
Alessandro
ES
Visited:
January 2024
Reviewed: Feb 29, 2024
Email Alessandro | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Amazing park and chimps, although The two hour journey by boat could be an adventure in case or bad weather.
Regarding the organisation: Don't book the luxury tents. I booked and paid for one and they didn't give me, as it was "already booked". I didn't get any type of refund. That's embarrassing.
Catherine Sales
US
Visited:
July 2015
Reviewed: Nov 28, 2015
Email Catherine Sales | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
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camp while exploring. Check the lake out in the early morning when the fisherman are preparing to go out and when the women arrive to do the wash. The colors you will see in this place are breathtaking.
davisww
Visited:
March 2005
Reviewed: Apr 4, 2012
You actually get to use the fancy hiking boots you bought for the Tanzania trip. Chimps are awesome.
Sara Silvestri
GB
Visited:
February 2026
Reviewed: Apr 9, 2026
Email Sara Silvestri | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Very poorly maintained accommodation, zero security provided for personal belongings, extortionate pricing for sleeping in the dirt. Over $2000 for 4 days in a 1-star hotel room with cold water.
Gunnar B. Ólason
IS
Visited:
December 2022
Reviewed: Feb 5, 2023
Email Gunnar B. Ólason | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Meeting chimpanzees in their natural environment and be allowed to be there is beyond words. Not only that having access and being guided by the rangers, researchers, scouts and private guide is something which makes this experience out of this world! Having all this people with all this knowledge makes this an experience I and my family will newer forget!
Susana Dente
AR
Visited:
January 2020
Reviewed: Feb 11, 2020
Email Susana Dente | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Increíble treking, emocionante caminar en esos paisajes, llegar en bote y encontrar a los chimpancé.
Valió cada dólar invertido
Edeus
TZ
Visited:
July 2019
Reviewed: Oct 21, 2019
Email Edeus | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris