1 day Mikumi in a Day, by Train
The six o’clock train to Morogoro, a full day of game drives on the Mkata floodplain, and the evening train home. No overnight, no long drive.
Wildlife
Mikumi from Zanzibar
Three days off the island and into a national park, with the crossing to the mainland handled at both ends. A full day of game driving in the middle.
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At a glance
- Destinations
- Mikumi National Park
- Best for
- Wildlife safari
- Travel style
- Mid-range · Fly-in, Drive
- Activity level
- Easy — most of the day is spent in a vehicle or on a boat
- Best time to travel
- June to October usually offers drier tracks for the Mikumi safari after flying from Zanzibar. Mikumi can also be visited in wetter months; choose dates for the game drive rather than assuming island weather describes the mainland park.
- Start and end
- Starts and ends in Zanzibar
Why this journey
- Transfers between Zanzibar and the mainland arranged at both ends
- A full day of game drives on the Mkata floodplain
- A community-hosted Maasai visit on the way in
- Three days, so it fits inside a beach holiday
- The closest national park to the island
Day by day
Plenty of people spend a week on Zanzibar and never see the mainland. This is the short answer to that: across to Dar, on to Mikumi for a night and a full day in the park, and back to the island on the third evening.
Day 1 — Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam to Mikumi, with a Maasai visit
Early morning pick up from your hotel in Zanzibar and transfer to the Stone Town ferry station for your boat to Dar es Salaam which leave at 6:30 am. On arrival at Dar es slaam you will be picked up and transfer to the Train station form your fast train (SGR) to Morogoro Town. After meeting your driver-guide, depart to Mikumi National Park, arriving in time for lunch. After a rest, visit a Maasai village, where you can learn about the customs and traditions of the Maasai, a pastoralist community whose herding still shapes this landscape.
Stay Camp Bastian Meals Lunch & Dinner
Day 2 — Full day game drive in Mikumi National Park
Morning after breakfast, with packed lunch full day games drive in the park. The vegetation encompasses woodland, swamp and grassland with two water holes, Mkata and Chamgore. You may encounter saddle-bill stork, hammer kop and malachite kingfisher plus monitor lizard and perhaps a python near the pools. After lunch proceed with afternoon game drives in the park a home to Elephant, Lion, Wild dog, Zebras, Hyena, Buffalo, Wildebeest, Eland, Hartebeest, Crocodile, Lizard and other residents.
Stay Camp Bastian Meals Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Day 3 — Mikumi to Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar
Breakfast at your lodge, then leave the park and drive to Morogoro Train Station where you will take a afternoon train to Dar es salaam with a lunch stop at the restaurant in Dar es salaam. Then to the port for the boat back to Stone Town, where your driver transfers you to your Zanzibar hotel.
Meals Breakfast & Lunch
Stay and travel
Comfortable mid-range lodges and tented camps, inside the parks wherever the route allows.
Light aircraft on the routed sectors, with a road vehicle and guide waiting at each strip.
Camps fill and light aircraft schedules move. Where something changes we substitute at the same level and tell you before you travel, not after.
Included and excluded
What is included
- Every activity named in the day-by-day
- Accommodation as listed, or a similar alternative if a camp is full
- Meals as noted against each day
- Transfers between the agreed pick-up and drop-off points
- Park, reserve and conservation area fees
- An English-speaking Tanzanian driver-guide
- A 4×4 with a roof hatch, or the vehicle the route calls for
- Drinking water through the day
- Government taxes
Not included
- International flights, airport taxes and visa fees
- Travel, medical and baggage insurance
- Personal spending — drinks, laundry, telephone
- Tips for your guide and crew
- Anything not listed as included
Practical information
- Luggage on light aircraft
- Bush flights cap baggage at around 15 kg in a soft bag. Anything else can wait at your first hotel.
- Visas, insurance and tipping
- A visa is arranged before travel or on arrival. Travel and medical insurance is a condition of booking. Tipping is customary and we will suggest a range rather than set one.
Related journeys
1 day 2 days Mikumi & the Chizua Waterfall
A game drive on the floodplain and a walk into the Uvidunda hills behind it, where the Chizua falls come down through the forest.
Wildlife & Hiking
2 days Mikumi by Train — a Weekend
Out on Saturday’s train, back on Sunday’s. Two days in the Mkata floodplain without taking leave, and no eight-hour drive at either end.
Wildlife
Every route here can be changed
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