Southern Tanzania Safari: Selous and Ruaha, 8 Days

Once breakfast is over, we collect you from your hotel and drive to Selous Game Reserve (Nyerere National Park), which takes around 5-7 hours (a flight from Dar es Salaam or Zanzibar is also possible). At your tented camp on the banks of the Rufiji River, a sunset boat safari awaits, with hippos, crocodiles and birdlife to spot. Overnight at Selous Mapumziko Lodge. All meals included.

Full days of game drives cover Selous, the largest protected wildlife reserve in Tanzania. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is bigger than Switzerland. Keep an eye out for elephant, buffalo, wild dog and, less often, black rhino, as well as about 350 recorded bird species. Overnight at Selous Mapumziko Lodge.

A walking safari, with a village walk led by a local guide, comes after breakfast, and then a game drive en route to Mikumi. Late in the afternoon you reach your camp just outside Mikumi National Park. Overnight at Camp Bastian. All meals included.

Depart Mikumi for Ruaha National Park, the largest national park in Tanzania, noted for big elephant herds and one of the healthiest lion populations in the country. You make an afternoon game drive once you arrive, with far fewer vehicles around than in the Northern Circuit parks. Overnight near the park.

Game drives fill the whole day as you cross Ruaha's varied landscape, from plains studded with baobabs to the Great Ruaha River, where animals congregate particularly in the dry season. Overnight at your Ruaha camp.

Another day of exploring different parts of Ruaha, with morning and afternoon game drives that cover ground you did not reach the previous day. Overnight at your Ruaha camp.

Leave Ruaha and head back toward Mikumi, viewing game on the way. Overnight near Mikumi.

The morning begins with one final game drive or nature walk, then you drive back to Dar es Salaam and arrive in the afternoon. From there you are transferred to the airport for your onward flight, or to the port for a ferry to Zanzibar.