Southern Tanzania Safari

Southern Tanzania Safari offers the most authentic wildlife safaris in Tanzania, while presenting the best chance for the rare safari extras that one may miss in the Northern Tanzania Circuit.

Our Southern Tanzania safari involves visits to the Southern Tanzania parks and reserves; including Selous (now known as Nyerere National Park), Mikumi, and Ruaha National Parks. These parks and reserves in Southern Tanzania offers the quintessential traveller amazing wildlife expeditions in un spoilt vast stretches of savannah grasslands land and woodlands. Together this makes up thousands of acres of natural habitat ideal home for large and small wild game.

Southern Tanzania boasts of rivers and lakes that not only keep the wildlife alive but, but the water bodies are home to thousands of aquatic birds, fish (common and rare) as well as animals like hippos and crocodiles. These rivers and lakes are center stages for the best boat safari experiences in Tanzania and East Africa at large.

Another less travelled is the beautiful, lush green Udzungwa Mountains National Park, often referred as the galapagos of Africa. The park offers the best hiking that is rewarded by the sights of rare animals and birds some endemic to these forests , as well as beautiful water falls.

We at Safari Desire plan and execute the best authentic Tanzania safari tours from our Arusha and Dar es Salaam offices. Our best strength is attention to detail and flexibility. Give us the opportunity to serve you and we promise an unforgettable African safari adventure!

Southern Tanzania Safari Circuit – Getting there

The Southern Tanzania Safari circuit is best accessed through Dar es Salaam the commercial capital of Tanzania, which is also the hub for Tanzania safari tours in the South. Many airlines operate flights into Dar es Salaam. These include KLM, Qatar Airways, Kenya Airways, Ethiopian airlines, South Africa Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Fly Emirates and many others. It is easy to compare flight to Dar es Salaam using flight comparison engines like Kayak & trivago. From Dar es Salaam one can tour the Southern Tanzania by road, or by air using local domestic airlines that operate bush flights to airstrips located within the different parks. You can get timely free advice from our able Tanzania safari travel experts, any time.

The few aviation flights that operate in the southern Tanzania safari circuit includes Coastal Aviation, Auric Air and Safari Air Link. Most recently Air Tanzania the national carrier of Tanzania, has started flights from Dar es Salaam to Ruaha National Park to Iringa which is much closer to Ruaha National Park, and therefore where road transfers can be arranged into the Ruaha National Parks.

View some of our best Southern Tanzania tours that we have created as sample packages that you can pick and book, but you can also get in touch with us if you need a completely tailor-made safari tour that take you to some or all the best southern Tanzania wildlife areas.

The Southern Tanzania Safari circuit comprises some famous wildlife safari parks and reserves as well as the less famous and less travelled parks that offer the most authentic safari experiences in the whole of Tanzania.

Selous (Nyerere National Park

The most famous of the southern Tanzania safari destinations has to be the Selous Game Reserve that whose largest area has been recently gazetted to form Nyerere National Park. Before the gazettement Selous has always been the largest game reserve in Africa with an area larger than the size of Switzerland.

Nyerere National Park as it is known now, offers pristine wilderness; a combination of wide plains, forests and woodlands that is home to thousands of large and small animals as well as over 4400 birds species.

Lakes like Tagalala, Mzizima, Siwandu, Manze, and Nzelekela and other small lakes are perfect spots to do sport fishing, as well as boat safaris.

Mikumi National Park

Not the largest of parks, but Mikumi National Park is the most visited park in the Southern Tanzania Safari Circuit, by tourists that start their safari from Dar es Salaam but also from Zanzibar Island. Mikumi National Park is located 280 Km southwest of Dar es Salaam city; a 6 hours drive from the commercial city.

The park is located in the middle of the Uluguru Mountains and the Lumango range that gives the park some beautiful sights of the scenery around, as you comb the wilderness in search of the thousands of wild animals that call this park home.

In Mikumi you expect to see most of the big and small game including, elephants, lions, buffaloes, zebras, impalas, gazelles, warthogs and many more.

Ruaha National Park

The largest national park in surface area, the Ruaha National Park is located some 320 Km (approx. 200 Miles) away from Dar es Salaam; the commercial capital of Tanzania. Most safari tours from Dar es Salaam to Ruaha National Parks have stops at Mikumi National Park or Udzungwa National Park; a park that is also located in the Southern Tanzania Safari Circuit.

Ruaha National Park can still be toured individually but that is best done as a fly in / fly out Tanzania safari. The park is probably the most remote park and with the long distances from Dar es Salaam and few flights that operate from Arusha; Ruaha is the one of the least visited among Tanzania’s wildlife parks.