1 day Ruaha in a Day, from Iringa
From Iringa the park gate is a couple of hours, not a day — which makes Ruaha a day trip for anyone already in the southern highlands.
Wildlife
Ruaha in Two Days, from Iringa
The day trip with a night attached, which buys the two hours at either end of the day when the animals are actually moving.
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At a glance
- Destinations
- Ruaha National Park · Great Ruaha River
- Best for
- Wildlife safari
- 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 usually suits the road journey from Iringa and wildlife viewing around the Great Ruaha River. The park can be visited at other times, but rain changes the tracks and how widely animals range.
- Start and end
- Starts and ends in Iringa
Why this journey
- Evening and early-morning game drives
- The Great Ruaha river, which shrinks to sand and draws everything to it
- Greater and lesser kudu — Ruaha is one of few places with both
- Short road access from Iringa
- One night, at budget rates
Day by day
Ruaha rewards early and late far more than midday, and a day trip gets neither. One night inside the park changes what you see, without changing the cost very much.
Day 1 — Iringa town to Ruaha National Park
A morning pickup from Iringa for the 4–5 hour drive. Arriving around midday, enter the park, check in at the lodge or camp and have lunch. The afternoon features a guided game drive with potential sightings of elephants, lions, leopards and buffalo, then return to the lodge in the evening.
Stay Tanapa Bandas / Ruaha River Lodge / Ikuka Safari Camp Meals Lunch & Dinner
Day 2 — Ruaha National Park to Iringa town
Start with an early morning sunrise game drive, the best time for wildlife viewing. In the afternoon, another game drive or visits to scenic locations such as the Ruaha and Mdonya Rivers. By late afternoon, transfer back to Iringa, arriving by 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
- Boat safari and transfers
- 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.
Related journeys
1 day 3 days Ruaha by Air — Three Days
Fly in, and three days becomes three days in the park rather than two on the road. Day and night drives, and a walking safari before the flight home.
Wildlife
1 day Saadani in a Day
A fifteen-hour day: out at five, a game drive, a boat up the Wami, and back to Dar by eight. The only national park on this coast, in one push.
Wildlife
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.