10 days Southern Tanzania Safari Circuit Best Experience
This 10-day Southern Tanzania safari package includes visits to all of Tanzania’s major parks, including Nyerere National Park, Mikumi, Udzungwa, and Ruaha.
will take you to the most isolated and wild national parks on the Southern Tanzania Safari Circuit. With our nice open four-wheel (4X4) safari, you will experience various off-the-beaten-path routes. Vehicles on land where enormous crowds of tourists trade places with an abundance of various wild animals and birds. Dar es Salaam serves as the starting and ending point for the safari.
Day1: Transfer from Dar es Salaam to Selous Game Reserve
Take up from your hotel or directly from Dar es Salaam Airport if arriving early in the morning and drive south to Nyerere National Park (formerly Selous Game Reserve). When you arrive at When you arrive in Selous, you will be driven straight to your lodge or camp for a cooked meal.
After lunch and some rest at the lodge/camp, you will be transported to the jetty for your boat safari in the River Rufuji as an opportunity to relax and learn about this amazing wildlife habitat. You can expect to see hippos, crocodiles, and various birds on your boat safari. Animals such as elephants are frequently seen drinking from the river or crossing to the opposite side.
You will later return to your lodging, relax by the campfire, and have dinner before retiring to your rooms. Spend the night at Selous Mapumziko Lodge. Lunch and dinner are also included.
Day 2: Visit Nyerere National Park (Selous Game Reserve)
This day will be spent touring the enormous Nyerere National Park (Selous Game Reserve) on our 4×4 safari land cruiser in search of wildlife and birds that abound in this vast park that is about twice the size of the Serengeti National Park in Northern Tanzania.
Because of its immense expanse and nearly pure nature, the Selous (now Nyerere National Park) was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. The Selous is thought to be the greatest intact wilderness on the African continent, with extensive grasslands, woods, rivers, and lakes all serving as wildlife habitats.
During game drives, you will explore all of these habitats in search of Africa’s Big Five and other different wild animals that live here, including lions, zebras, elands, impalas, buffalos, bushbucks, elephants, oryx, crocodiles, waterbucks, hippos, sable antelopes, klipspringers, duikers, giraffes, greater kudus, Lichtenstein’s harte Rhinos, on the other hand, can only be found in the game reserve’s southern region. Your driver/guide will be allowed to stop whenever you wish to take photos, so don’t forget to bring your camera.
Those of you who enjoy bird watching will not be disappointed by the Selous. There are numerous bird species found here, some of which live in the forest, along river banks, and in swampy places. After a day of exploring the Selous, you’ll return to the resort for a refreshing plunge in the pool and sundowners near the Rufiji River in the evenings.
Day 3: Walking Safari in Selous – Travel to Morogoro
After an early breakfast at your accommodation, you will depart for a morning walking safari in the Nyerere National Park. You will explore the Nyerere National Park’s wilderness on foot, accompanied by an armed ranger who is also a qualified naturalist, to get an opportunity to see the creatures up close, which will certainly be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
After the morning walking safari, you will board your 4×4 safari jeep and travel through the Nyerere National Park to the Matambwe Gate, where you will exit the park. Continue your journey through magnificent valleys and hills to the lovely location where you will check into a lodge or hotel for dinner and stay. Mbuyuni Farm Lodge is where you’ll spend the night. All meals are provided.
Day 4: Travel from Morogoro to Ruaha National Park
In the morning you will have a full breakfast at your lodge /hotel in Morogoro, you will then proceed westwards over the Tanzam Highway via Iringa town towards Ruaha National Park a very isolated area in the Southern Tanzania safari circuit. You will have a picnic meal or a heated lunch in Iringa town. Please discuss this with your guide before departing.
You will arrive in Ruaha in the afternoon and immediately begin your safari game drives. Ruaha National Park is Tanzania’s largest National Park and has some of the most pristine wilderness in Africa, so as you travel to your hotel within the park (if staying within), you will see a variety of creatures like as elephants, lions, and other antelopes.
Enjoy the afternoon on your first game drive in Ruaha till later in the evening, when you will check in to your lodge for dinner and stay. Ruaha Hilltop Lodge offers mid-range lodging. All meals are provided.
Day 5-6: Visit Ruaha National Park in Tanzania.
For the next few days, you will spend time exploring this well-kept natural wildlife habitat in search of various wild creatures, and birds, and learning more about the flora and fauna of Southern Tanzania’s completely unspoiled wilderness.
You can go on full-day game drives with a picnic lunch in between, or you can do half-day game drives with a couple of hours break at your hotel to freshen up and enjoy a wonderful hot lunch before heading out for the afternoon game drive.
Optional activities include night wildlife drives and the exhilarating and rewarding hot air balloon safaris, which will cost you some extra money (not included in this safari cost, but can be arranged).
Ruaha National Park is unique in that it contains one of the greatest buffalo and elephant herds in East Africa, as well as an unusually large number of predators. Ruaha is said to be home to the world’s second-greatest lion population. This park also contains a huge number of cheetahs, leopards, and endangered African wild dogs. So, believe it or not, there is a lot to see in Ruaha, which is why we have devoted all of these days to game viewing and photography.
Birders, prepare to be impressed because Ruaha has a record of over 570 distinct bird species, ensuring that you will recognize quite a few of them throughout your adventure drives. Because the park is located in the transitional zone between the southern and eastern ecosystems, it provides a wonderfully diversified mix of habitats that support a large variety of bird, animal, and plant species.
Because the park is one of the least visited, chances are you will meet very few other people, giving you a completely private safari experience that is ideal for anyone looking for a less crowded safari venue. Overnight at Ruaha Hilltop Lodge. All meals are provided.
Day 7: Ruaha to Udzungwa Mountains transfer
After three days and nights in Ruaha, you head out again, this time via the same path you came in on, towards Udzungwa Mountains National Park via Iringa town. You can stop for scenery along the way, and if you are interested in history, you can make a brief stop at the Chief Mkwawa Museum, which is located near Iringa along the same Iringa – Ruaha road. During Africa’s liberation battles, the Chief was one of the most prominent African chiefs who led resistance groups against German colonialists.
You will stop for lunch on the way and arrive in Udzungwa in the afternoon to check into your lodge and spend the rest of the afternoon at leisure.
This park, a less popular tourist site, offers a diverse bio-diversity that includes (steppe, grasslands, and woodland) and is home to numerous birds, primates, and plant species (approximately 2500 species have been recorded here). Udzungwa Falls Lodge is where you’ll spend the night. All meals are provided.
Day 8: Udzungwa Mountains National Park.
Today you will have an early breakfast and then prepare for your hike in this gorgeous area known as the Galapagos of Africa.
The surface area of Udzungwa Mountains National Park is 1990 square kilometers. This park, a less popular tourist site, offers a diverse bio-diversity that includes (steppe, grasslands, and woodland) and is home to numerous birds, primates, and plant species (approximately 2500 species have been recorded here).
The hike for today will be to the Sanje Waterfalls. This beautiful waterfall features three tiers of water, each descending over a different height (30 meters, 70 meters, and 170 meters). You will also stroll through the lush forest, which is home to over 400 different bird species, butterflies, amphibians, and primate species like as baboons, vervet monkeys, and the unique Sanje Crested Mangabey as well as the Iringa red colobus.
You will then return to your lodging for lunch or a picnic lunch on your hiking paths, then later in the afternoon transfer to Mikumi where you will check in at a lodge or camp for leisure, followed by supper and sleep. It is a short trip from Mikumi National Park; a distance of roughly 55 Kilometers.
Day 9: Visit Mikumi National Park
Breakfast early in the morning and depart for a full-day wildlife drive in the unspoiled wilderness of Mikumi National Park, which encompasses an area of 3230 square kilometers and is one of Tanzania’s largest national parks. Elephants, hartebeests, buffalos, kudus, zebras, elands, wildebeests, and impalas are among the creatures you will witness as you explore its vastness. Other species to keep an eye out for include hyenas, baboons, lions, wild dogs, giraffes, warthogs, and hippos.
Furthermore, over three hundred (300) different varieties of birds have been recorded within this national park, providing you with excellent opportunity to watch them. This park is home to a variety of bird species, including Boehm’s bee-eaters, Bateleur eagles, Dickinson’s kestrels and straw-tailed whydahs, African fish eagles, lilac-breasted rollers, starlings, and yellow-throated longclaws.
You will visit a variety of wildlife habitats, including seasonal floodplains, grassland dotted with enormous baobab trees and thorny trees (similar to those found in the Serengeti), Miombo woodlands, swamps, riverine forests, and low hills.
If you desire a full-day safari in Mikumi, you will stop for a picnic lunch before returning for an afternoon game drive. Alternatively, you might go on a half-day safari in Mikumi and then return to your camp or lodge for a cooked lunch and leisure, or take a dip in the swimming pool to cool off from the African sun.
Day 10 Mikumi, return to Dar es Salaam
It is the last day of our safari. After a relaxing breakfast at your lodge, you will check out and return by road to Dar es Salaam, where your experience will come to a close. You will have a picnic lunch along the road or, for an additional fee, a hot lunch at a nearby restaurant.
You may also do one last safari game drive in Mikumi this morning if you like and if time allows, for an additional charge of the park admission fees alone.
Today concludes your 10-day Southern Tanzania road safari, which included visits to all of the important national parks on the southern Tanzania safari circuit.
