Mahale and Gombe: Complete Guide to Chimpanzee Trekking in Tanzania

By Regan Jacob, Tanzania Team Head Guide at Paramount Gorilla Expeditions · Last updated 31 October 2026

Chimpanzee trekking in Tanzania happens in two national parks, Gombe and Mahale Mountains, both on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika in the far west of the country. Neither park has a road. You arrive by boat or small aircraft, walk into forest with a ranger, and spend one hour with chimpanzees that researchers have followed for more than half a century. This guide is for anyone choosing between the two parks, comparing Tanzania with Uganda, or deciding whether the effort and cost of western Tanzania fit their trip. People also search for it as chimp trekking Tanzania, Mahale Mountains National Park, Gombe Stream National Park (now called Gombe National Park), Jane Goodall's Gombe and the Lake Tanganyika chimpanzees.

Quick answer

Where can you trek chimpanzees in Tanzania? At Gombe National Park and Mahale Mountains National Park, both reached from the lakeside town of Kigoma. Gombe is small (about 35 km²), is reached by a boat ride of one to two hours and is where Jane Goodall began her research on 14 July 1960. Mahale is far larger (1,650 km²), has no road at all and is reached by charter flight or a boat ride of about three to four hours, and its treks are steeper. At both parks you spend one hour with the chimpanzees, stay 10 metres back and wear a surgical mask. Plan two nights at Gombe and three or four at Mahale, and fit either into a longer Tanzania trip as a western extension.

Chimpanzee trekking in Tanzania at a glance

Chapter 01 — What chimpanzee trekking in Tanzania is, and who it suits

What is chimpanzee trekking in Tanzania? It is a guided walk with a TANAPA ranger and a tracker to find a habituated community of eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii), followed by one hour of watching them from 10 metres away. The animals move through steep forest, so the walk can be short or long, and where the chimpanzees fed and slept that morning decides which.

These are the same wild subspecies you meet at Kibale in Uganda, so the animals are not the difference. The difference is the setting. In Tanzania you trek on a lake shore, the parks are among the most remote in East Africa, and the logistics are of a different order: light aircraft, boats and small camps. That makes it one of the more expensive primate trips on the continent, and it needs more days than a Kibale trek that can fit into a long weekend.

It suits travellers who already know they want chimpanzees, are comfortable on steep forest paths, and have six or seven nights to spare. It is a poor fit for a short first safari, for anyone who needs a fixed schedule, and for children under the minimum age. If you want a first primate trek with easier logistics, read our Kibale chimpanzee trekking guide and our complete guide to gorilla and chimpanzee trekking in Uganda before you decide.

Chapter 02 — Where are Mahale and Gombe?

Both parks are in Kigoma Region, in western Tanzania, on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. The far shore of the lake belongs to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. Kigoma, a town of 232,388 people at the 2022 census and 775 metres above sea level, is the gateway to both. It has an airport (code TKQ) with a paved runway of 1,805 metres, and a scheduled Air Tanzania service links it with Dar es Salaam. The national airline's own destination page calls Kigoma the gateway to Gombe and Mahale. The Central Line railway, completed in 1915, also runs from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma. A gravel road links the town north-east to the national road network.

Gombe lies north of Kigoma and is the smaller and nearer of the two parks. Mahale lies far to the south, about 120 km from Kigoma by water, and has no town anywhere near it. Gombe became a national park in 1968, and Mahale became Tanzania's eleventh national park in 1985. Both can be reached only by water or air.

Western Tanzania also holds Katavi National Park, the natural partner for Mahale on a longer trip, and the whole region sits apart from the northern and southern safari circuits. Our Tanzania national parks guide and our Tanzania destination page show where these parks sit among the others, and our Tanzania travel information page covers entry, health and money.

Chapter 03 — Lake Tanganyika: the lake behind the chimpanzees

You see Lake Tanganyika from every trek, and it shapes the whole trip. It is about 673 km long and up to 72 km wide, covers about 32,900 km², and its surface sits 773 metres above sea level. It is the second deepest lake in the world after Lake Baikal, with a maximum depth of about 1,470 metres, and the second largest by volume, at about 18,750 cubic kilometres. Four countries share its shores: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and Zambia, and Tanzania holds about 46% of the lake.

It is also an ancient lake. Only about twenty lakes on Earth are more than a million years old, and the central basin of Tanganyika began forming about 9 to 12 million years ago. That age explains its life. The lake holds at least 250 endemic species of cichlid fish, roughly 98% of its cichlid species live nowhere else, and it has more than 80 non-cichlid fish species, about 60% of them endemic.

One fact is worth knowing as a visitor. Below roughly 100 metres in the north of the lake and 240 to 250 metres in the south, the water has almost no oxygen, and the deepest sections are lifeless apart from bacteria. All the life you will see, from the fish to the fishing boats, sits in the surface layer. Your boat transfer to Gombe or Mahale is a crossing of this lake, and your camp will tell you which stretch of beach it uses for swimming and when. Follow that advice.

Chapter 04 — Gombe: Jane Goodall's park

Why is Gombe famous? Gombe is where the modern study of wild chimpanzees began. The Jane Goodall Institute records that Jane Goodall started her research there on 14 July 1960. That autumn she saw chimpanzees eating meat, on 30 October, and on 4 November she watched the chimpanzee David Greybeard strip a grass stalk and use it to fish termites out of a mound. Until then, making and using tools had been treated as something only humans did.

The Gombe Stream Research Centre followed in 1967 and the national park in 1968. The centre is run mostly by Tanzanian researchers and field assistants, and the study is described as the longest-running field study of an animal species in its natural surroundings. The Jane Goodall Institute says its team has observed more than 320 individual chimpanzees across its decades of data, and in 2025 it marked 65 years of research at Gombe.

Two further parts of the story help you read the place. In the early 1970s the chimpanzees of the Kasakela community fought a long conflict with the neighbouring Kahama group, which ended with the Kahama community's destruction between about 1973 and 1975. And in 1994 the Jane Goodall Institute launched Tacare, a community-led conservation programme that began in the villages around Gombe and has since spread to other countries. The park is small and the villages around it are close, which is why the link between the chimpanzees and the people around them matters here more than at a big park.

Chapter 05 — What a Gombe trek is like

Gombe is a narrow strip of steep forested valleys that fall to the lake. A trek there is a walk on slopes, not a stroll along a track. The community you visit is usually the Kasakela community, with Mitumba the neighbouring group. How long it takes to find the chimpanzees varies a great deal, and operators describe walks from under an hour to several hours, depending on where the animals fed and slept. Treks usually start in the morning. Once your group finds the chimpanzees, the rules apply: ten metres, masks, and one hour.

The park is compact enough that a single night is rushed. Two nights give you one full morning on the trail and a margin if the chimpanzees are far away. The ridge paths and the beach also put you among the park's other primates (Chapter 13), and the lake is in view on most of the walk.

Chapter 06 — Mahale: mountains, forest and a lake shore

What is Mahale Mountains National Park? It is a 1,650 km² park of forested ridges that climb from Lake Tanganyika to Mount Nkungwe at 2,462 metres. It opened in 1985 as Tanzania's eleventh national park, and it has no roads or other infrastructure inside its boundaries. The only ways in and out are by boat on the lake or by air, and the park is explored on foot.

Mahale's chimpanzees have been studied since 1965. The Japanese primatologist Toshisada Nishida travelled to the Mahale Mountains that year, working within a Kyoto University team, and the study that grew from it became one of the best-known long-term chimpanzee studies in the world. A research centre was established in the mountains in 1979.

The mountains were home to people before they were a park. The Tongwe and Holoholo peoples lived there, and they were moved out as the research station and then the national park were established. It is part of the history of conservation in western Tanzania.

Chapter 07 — What a Mahale trek is like

Mahale's treks are often strenuous. The forest is steep, the ground can be wet, and the group may climb a long way from the lake. One camp that runs the treks states that it offers one chimp trek per full day, usually in the morning, and that it can restrict viewing for guests who are not fit enough. Plan nights around that: with one trek per day, three nights at Mahale (arrive on day one, trek on days two and three, leave on day four) gives you two treks, and a fourth night gives you a third and a margin for rain or a long walk.

Mahale is also a place to spend time on the water. Beach camps use boats, and TANAPA's tariff lists canoeing at Mahale for up to three hours. The days between treks are for forest walks with a ranger, the beach and the lake, and they are part of why people choose Mahale over a shorter trip.

Chapter 08 — Gombe vs Mahale: which one should you choose?

Our advice is simple. Choose Gombe if the history matters to you, if time or budget is limited, or if you are travelling with mixed fitness. Choose Mahale if you want the remote, lake-shore experience and are ready to pay for it. If you have the time and the budget, the two parks complement each other, and we can plan both on one western circuit with Katavi.

Chapter 09 — A trek from start to finish

Both parks run treks in a similar order. You are briefed on the rules, you put on a mask when your guide tells you to, and a ranger and trackers lead the group into the forest. The trackers know where the community slept and which way it moved, and the walk follows the chimpanzees, not a fixed route. Gombe treks usually start in the morning, and at Mahale one camp states that the single daily trek is usually in the morning.

When the group reaches the chimpanzees, the hour begins. Your ranger sets the distance and tells you where to stand, and you watch from 10 metres. The chimpanzees may be feeding in a tree, resting, grooming or moving on, and the group moves with them when the ranger says so. When the hour ends, the walk back begins. How long the whole outing takes is the least predictable part, from a short morning to most of a day.

Forest light is dim under the canopy. If you photograph, bring a fast lens or a camera that copes with high ISO settings, because flash is not allowed. Keep the camera ready and your hands free, because the forest paths are steep and you will want a hand for balance.

Chapter 10 — The rules: distance, masks, time, age and illness

Both parks follow the same core rules, which exist to protect the chimpanzees from human diseases. Chimpanzees catch our colds and other infections, and a polio epidemic that ravaged the Gombe community in 1966 is the best-known example of disease reaching a wild community. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) publishes Best Practice Guidelines for Great Ape Tourism (2010) that cover the same ground, with sections on surgical masks, a one-hour time limit, a minimum viewing distance, health checks and a ban on visits by children under 15.

• Distance. Stay 10 metres from the chimpanzees at all times. If a chimpanzee walks towards you, step back and let your guide manage it.
• Masks. Wear a surgical mask whenever you are close to the chimpanzees. Your guide will tell you when to put it on.
• Time. You get one hour with the chimpanzees once you find them, however long the walk took.
• Group size. Groups are small: up to six people per group at Mahale, and five or six at Gombe.
• Illness. Do not trek with a cold, cough, diarrhoea or any infection. Tell your camp manager the evening before and expect to be told to stay behind.
• Food and flash. Do not eat or drink near the chimpanzees, and do not use flash.
• Age. One Mahale camp sets a minimum of 12. Gombe operators commonly apply 15, and IUCN's guidance is 15, so plan on 15 for both parks and let us confirm the age that applies on your dates.

The mask rule is not a recent habit. It appears in IUCN's guidance from 2010, long before 2020, and it stays whatever the wider rules on masks are. Do not expect to choose your chimpanzees either: rangers and trackers decide where to go, and the animals are wild.

Chapter 11 — Fitness, health and children

Fitness. One Mahale camp describes its treks as often strenuous, and Gombe's valleys are steep. You do not need to be an athlete, but you do need to walk uphill for hours on uneven ground in warm, humid air. In the weeks before you travel, walk hills with a small pack in the boots you will wear. Tell us about any knee, back or heart condition when you book so that we can match your group to the park and the camp.

Health. Western Tanzania is a malaria area. Speak to a travel clinic well before you go, and read our malaria and vaccinations guide. The illness rule in Chapter 10 applies to you too: if you wake up with a cold, you stay at camp.

Children. IUCN's guidance is that children under 15 do not visit great apes, Gombe operators commonly apply 15, and one Mahale camp sets 12. For a family, that means chimpanzee trekking in Tanzania suits older teenagers, and younger children are better served by a different part of a trip. Our guide to the best age for a family safari sets out what each age can do.

Chapter 12 — Fees and permits

TANAPA's tariff page publishes the schedule that covers 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. It is the latest schedule on the authority's site, and the figures below come from it. The schedule states that charges are exclusive of 18% VAT, so the last column shows the same fee with VAT added. Your written quote shows the fee in force on your dates.

Children under 5 enter free. TANAPA says its conservation fees are valid for 24 hours from the time of entry. At Gombe the schedule lists no separate chimpanzee permit, so the park entry fee is what you pay to enter and trek. At Mahale the schedule lists a Chimpanzee Habituation Experience as its own item. Your written itinerary states whether your trek is the standard hour or that experience.

You can read the schedule yourself on TANAPA's tariff page. For where these fees sit within a full Tanzania safari bill, see our Tanzania safari cost guide.

Chapter 13 — Other primates and wildlife

Both parks are forest parks, so the other primates matter as much as the chimpanzees. They are easier to see than big game, and they fill the hours around the trek.

Mahale also holds leopard, bushbuck and bush pig, though the dense forest makes them hard to see. Neither park is a game-drive destination. If you want big game on the same trip, pair Mahale with Katavi or the southern circuit.

Chapter 14 — Getting to Gombe and Mahale

The MV Liemba. The ferry has a history of its own. It was built in Germany as the Graf von Goetzen, launched in 1915, scuttled in Katabe Bay in 1916, raised by the British in 1924 and returned to service as the Liemba in 1927. It is described as the last vessel of the German Imperial Navy still sailing anywhere. Its published timetable ran once a week in each direction between Kigoma and Mpulungu in Zambia, with a call at Lagosa for Mahale and one at Karema for Mpanda, the town nearest Katavi. It is the slow, cheap and characterful way to travel along the lake, and not a connection to build a tight itinerary on.

Whichever way you go, build slack into the days either side of the trek. Boat crossings depend on wind and weather, and a light aircraft can be delayed. Our guide to flight logistics between safari countries and our comparison of fly-in and road safaris explain how we sequence these hops. If you are arriving from Kenya or Uganda, check our visa requirements guide before you book.

Chapter 15 — Where to stay

Mahale. Accommodation is a small number of tented camps on the lake shore inside the park. They put you at the lake at dawn, they are small, and they carry the highest prices on the western circuit because everything arrives by boat or aircraft. Camps and lodges inside the park carry TANAPA's concession fee (Chapter 12), which your quote lists.

Gombe. Accommodation is simple. The park offers basic rooms near the headquarters, and a small number of lodges and camps operate near the park. If you stay inside the park you are a short walk from the trailheads and the beach.

Kigoma. You will almost certainly sleep in Kigoma before or after the park, particularly for Gombe. We name the camps, lodges and Kigoma hotels we use on your written itinerary, and we choose them by season, group size and fitness.

Chapter 16 — What drives the cost

TANAPA's fees (Chapter 12) are the smaller part of the bill. The larger items are the ones you pay to get there and stay.

Total trip prices are set on your written quote, because they change with season, group size and the flights available on your dates. For a broader view of what a Tanzania safari costs, see our Tanzania safari cost guide.

Insurance needs a plain word here. Since 1 October 2026, foreign visitors entering mainland Tanzania must hold the government inbound travel policy, set out on our Tanzania mandatory travel insurance page. It does not replace private cover for evacuation from a remote lake shore, and our guide to safari travel insurance and evacuation explains what to look for.

Chapter 17 — Best time to visit Mahale and Gombe

Chimpanzees live in the forest all year, and no month gives a guarantee. Our best time to visit Tanzania guide puts these months next to the rest of the country's seasons, which helps if you are pairing western Tanzania with the northern or southern circuits.

Chapter 18 — Gombe, Mahale or Kibale: Tanzania or Uganda?

For most first-time visitors Kibale is the easier trek and the cheaper trip, and it combines naturally with gorilla trekking in Bwindi. Mahale and Gombe repay the extra effort with the lake shore, the research history and the sense of distance. If your plan is gorillas in Uganda or Rwanda plus Tanzania, see our guide to combining Tanzania and gorilla trekking. It covers Kibale as the Uganda chimpanzee option, and this guide covers the Tanzanian ones. Our Uganda primates, gorillas and chimpanzees tour shows the Uganda version of the trip.

Chapter 19 — Combining Mahale with Katavi

Mahale pairs with Katavi National Park because the two give opposite experiences: closed forest and chimpanzees on the lake shore, then open floodplain and big game inland. Katavi lies about 40 km south of Mpanda, the town the Liemba serves through Karema. The two parks can be joined on one itinerary by light aircraft where the schedule allows, and the order and the flights depend on your dates, so we set them out on your written itinerary.

If your dates only allow one park, choose the one that matches the animals you most want to see, and read our Ruaha and Nyerere guides if you are also weighing the southern circuit.

Chapter 20 — Numbers and myths

How many chimpanzees live at Gombe and Mahale? Pages about the parks often say about 90 to 100 chimpanzees at Gombe and about 1,000 at Mahale. Those figures come from operators, not from a TANAPA or research census we can point to, and community sizes change with births, deaths and migration, so use them as a sense of scale. The firmer Gombe number is the research one: more than 320 individual chimpanzees observed over the decades of the study.

How big is Gombe? Published figures for the park's area differ, from about 35 km² to about 60 km². We use 35 km², the figure given for its protected land. Either way it is one of the smallest national parks in Tanzania, and the small size is what lets you cover it in two nights.

Is Mahale the world's largest chimpanzee population? You will see that claim. The safer statement is that Mahale protects a large population of eastern chimpanzees that has been studied since 1965.

Is the mask rule a COVID rule? No. IUCN's great ape tourism guidance covers surgical masks in a publication from 2010.

Is Gombe the only place to trek chimpanzees in Tanzania? No. Gombe and Mahale are the two parks with long-established chimpanzee trekking, and they are the two this guide covers.

Is the minimum age 12 or 15? It depends on who you ask. One Mahale camp states 12, Gombe operators commonly apply 15, and IUCN's guidance is 15. Plan on 15.

Chapter 21 — Ethics, photography and tipping

Chimpanzee trekking is a rare case where the rules protect the animals more than they serve the visitor, and the best trips respect that. The one-hour limit, the distance and the mask exist for the chimpanzees. Keep your voice low, do not move closer for a better view, and follow your ranger even when the group moves and you would like to follow it.

Fees go to TANAPA, which manages both parks. Spending at local camps, with local guides and in Kigoma is how the rest of your trip's money reaches the region. Our guide to responsible and sustainable safari travel sets out the principles we apply across all our trips.

For photographs, remember that forest light is dim and flash is not allowed. For tipping rangers, trackers and camp staff, see our safari tipping guide.

Chapter 22 — How Mahale and Gombe fit into a Tanzania itinerary

Plan A: Mahale for three nights by air. Day 1, fly to the Mahale airstrip and transfer to camp. Days 2 and 3, one chimpanzee trek each morning, with boat or forest time in between. Day 4, fly out. This is the cleanest way to see Mahale and is usually attached to a southern circuit or Katavi trip.

Plan B: Gombe from Kigoma. Fly from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma, sleep there, take the boat to Gombe the next morning, trek, stay a second night and trek again if the first sighting was short, and return to Kigoma by boat. Allow a night in Kigoma either side if you are connecting with international flights.

Plan C: Western Tanzania in nine or ten days. Katavi for three nights, Mahale for three or four, then a flight back to Dar es Salaam and a beach finish on Zanzibar, Pemba or Mafia. Our guide to adding Zanzibar to your safari covers the connection.

Our Tanzania southern circuit with Ruaha and Selous and our Tanzania and Zanzibar beach week show the trips a western leg can be added to. See also the Tanzania southern circuit guide, the northern versus southern circuit comparison, our general Tanzania safari guide and our packing list.

Chapter 23 — Mistakes to avoid and local tips

1. Booking one night at Mahale. With one trek per day, one night gives you at most one attempt and no margin. Take three.
2. Treating the boat as a certainty. Lake weather can change the transfer, so keep a spare night before an international flight.
3. Underestimating the walk. Mahale treks are often strenuous. Bring proper boots, and tell your guide about any knee or back problem at the start.
4. Hard suitcases on light aircraft. Use soft bags and keep to the limit set on your itinerary.
5. Trekking sick. A cold keeps you off the trek. Rest, drink water and tell your camp manager.
6. Using flash. It is not allowed, and the forest is dim, so bring a camera that copes with low light.
7. Skipping mandatory insurance. The government policy is a condition of entry to mainland Tanzania, and it does not cover evacuation from the lake shore.
8. Assuming a fixed schedule. The chimpanzees are wild, so keep a day of margin in your plans.
9. Visiting in the long rains without a plan. Boats and flights slip. Go in the dry season unless you have a reason not to.
10. Budgeting only for park fees. The charter flights, boat transfers and camps cost more than the park entry, so ask for a full written quote early.

Our verdict

Gombe and Mahale are the best chimpanzee experiences in East Africa for people who care about the lake shore, the research history and the distance. They are not the cheapest or the easiest, and Kibale beats them on logistics. If you have to choose one, choose Gombe for history and a short trip, and Mahale for the full remote experience. If you can have both, add Katavi, and give the whole trip nine or ten days.

If you would like Mahale or Gombe planned into a Tanzania trip, with the right flights, camp and nights, request a free quotation and we will reply within 24 hours.