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 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.
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At a glance
- Destinations
- Ruaha National Park
- Best for
- Wildlife safari
- Travel style
- Luxury · Fly-in
- 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 best for Ruaha game viewing, with wildlife easier to find around remaining water. Flying removes the long road journey, but does not remove wet-season limits on tracks, walks or camp availability.
- Start and end
- Flies from Dar es Salaam or Zanzibar, returns the same way
Why this journey
- Return flights included, so the whole three days are spent in the park
- A night game drive, which only the private concessions allow
- A walking safari on the last morning, before the aircraft
- Lion prides that run larger here than almost anywhere in East Africa
- Wild dog — Ruaha holds one of the continent’s significant populations
Day by day
Ruaha is a long way from anywhere by road — which is why so few people go, and why flying changes the arithmetic. The flight from Dar or Zanzibar takes a couple of hours; the drive takes a day each way.
Day 1 — Dar es Salaam to Ruaha National Park
Morning pickup from an agreed location, then an 8:30 a.m. airport departure, arriving 9:50 a.m. where a driver-guide provides the safari briefing. After sign-in, the game drive begins immediately in East Africa's largest park. Wildlife benefits from northern game reserve dispersals, giving concentrated populations of buffalo, elephants, kudu, zebra, giraffe, lion, impala and eland. An evening drive concludes with dinner and overnight.
Stay Ikuka Safari Camp Meals Lunch & Dinner
Day 2 — Day and night game drive at Ruaha
After breakfast, a full-day game drive seeking rare roan and sable antelope in the Usangu area, plus hippos, crocodiles, waterbuck, reedbuck, dik-dik and buffalo. River-edge gatherings attract lions, leopards, hyenas, wild dogs and jackals. Numerous birds include Eurasian migrants that visit twice yearly. After an early dinner, a night game drive runs 7:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m., revealing Thomson's and Grant's gazelles, zebras, wildebeest, jackals and eagles.
Stay Ikuka Safari Camp Meals Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Day 3 — Wilderness walking safari and flight to Dar es Salaam
An armed ranger guide leads a post-breakfast wilderness walk along the river for photography. The Great Ruaha River hosts numerous hippos and crocodiles, attracting lions, leopards, hunting dogs, waterbuck, impala, giraffe, warthog, eland, zebra and elephant; the plains may reveal Grant's gazelle, ostriches and cheetahs. After returning for breakfast, transfer to Msembe airstrip for the 10:45 a.m. departure to Dar es Salaam, arriving 1:15 p.m. for the hotel transfer.
Meals Breakfast & Lunch
Stay and travel
Premium camps and lodges, chosen for where they sit rather than how many rooms they have.
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
- Internal flights on the routed sectors
- 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
- 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 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.
Wildlife
2 days Saadani in Two Days
One night on a coast that is also a game park. A drive on arrival, a boat up the Wami the next morning, and back to Dar by evening.
Wildlife & Coast
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.