5 days Nyerere & the Kilwa Ruins
Two days on the Rufiji, then south down the coast to the island city that ran the gold trade — the only route we run that pairs the two.
Wildlife & Culture
Mikumi & Ruaha — Six Days, Budget
Two southern parks by road, staying in TANAPA bandas with a cook travelling along. Six days for close to the price of three anywhere else.
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At a glance
- Destinations
- Mikumi National Park · Ruaha National Park
- Best for
- Wildlife safari, Culture & history
- Travel style
- Budget · Drive
- Activity level
- Easy — most of the day is spent in a vehicle or on a boat
- Best time to travel
- June to October is usually the most practical window for the overland journey through Mikumi and Ruaha. Game viewing in Ruaha benefits from the dry conditions; rain can slow the longer road legs and affect simple camps.
- Start and end
- Starts and ends in Dar es Salaam
Why this journey
- Park bandas rather than lodges, with meals cooked for the group
- A night game drive at Mikumi
- Three days at Ruaha, including a walking safari
- A visit to a Maasai boma arranged with the community
- The least expensive way to reach Ruaha overland
Day by day
Bandas are park-run bungalows — simple, inside the park boundary, and a fraction of lodge prices. This route uses them to reach both Mikumi and Ruaha overland, with a night drive at Mikumi and a walking safari at Ruaha.
Day 1 — Dar es Salaam to Maasai culture boma
Early morning pickup from a Dar es Salaam hotel to Mikumi National Park, arriving by lunch. After rest at the bandas, a visit to a Maasai village to experience traditional customs and the pastoralist life of the Maasai community here.
Stay Camp Bastian Meals Lunch & Dinner
Day 2 — Full day game drive and night game drive
After breakfast with a packed lunch, a full-day game drive through Mikumi's woodland, swamp and grassland habitats around the Mkata and Chamgore water holes. Sightings may include saddle-bill stork, hammer kop and malachite kingfisher plus elephants, lions, wild dogs, zebras, hyenas, buffalo, wildebeest, eland, hartebeest, crocodiles and lizards. After dinner, a night game drive runs 19:00–23:30.
Stay Camp Bastian Meals Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Day 3 — Mikumi to Ruaha National Park
After breakfast, a road transfer through scenic regional landscapes, arriving at Ruaha by early evening. An introductory game drive en route to camp tracks resident wildlife as daylight fades.
Stay Ruaha TANAPA Bandas Meals Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Day 4 — Full day game drive at Ruaha
After breakfast with a packed lunch, a full-day game drive that may extend to the southern Usangu marsh depending on season, where roan and sable antelope live.
Stay Ruaha TANAPA Bandas Meals Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Day 5 — Wilderness walking safari and game drive
A morning wilderness walking safari with armed rangers, followed by full breakfast at camp. After collecting a packed lunch, an afternoon game drive explores the largest park in Tanzania, with a size of 20,226 Square Kilometers, where the Great Ruaha River hosts hippos and crocodiles, attracting lions, leopards, hunting dogs, waterbuck, impala, giraffe, warthog, eland, zebra, elephant, Grant's gazelle and ostriches.
Stay Ruaha TANAPA Bandas Meals Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Day 6 — Ruaha to Dar es Salaam
After breakfast and checkout, the return journey with a scheduled lunch stop at a Mikumi restaurant, arriving in Dar es Salaam by late evening.
Meals Breakfast & Lunch
Stay and travel
Camping and simple lodges or park bandas, with a cook travelling with the group.
A 4×4 with a roof hatch and a window seat for everyone, driven by your guide throughout.
Camps fill, and roads change with the rains. Where something has to change 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
- TANAPA armed ranger where the park requires one
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
- 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.
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Every route here can be changed
Tell us what you would keep, what you would drop and how long you have. We will send back a version that is yours.