7-Day Southern Circuit: Selous, Mikumi & Bagamoyo

Your safari begins in Dar es Salaam. A member of the Gip-Adventure Tours & Safaris team meets you at 07:00 at Julius Nyerere International Airport, or collects you from your hotel in the city, and you set off by road for Nyerere National Park – the vast southern wilderness carved out of the great Selous Game Reserve, some 235 km from Dar es Salaam at Mtemere Gate. A packed lunch travels with you.

After the long drive, settle in and cool off in the swimming pool before heading out in the late afternoon for a boat ride on the river, where hippos, crocodiles and waterbirds gather along the banks as the light softens. Your lodge lies within the park itself, so the sounds of the wild are never far away.

Dinner and overnight at your lodge inside Nyerere National Park.

After a warm breakfast at around 08:00, set out on a full day of game viewing in Africa's largest stand-alone national park. Because the southern parks see far fewer visitors than the north, the animals here remain wild and unhabituated – lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena and African wild dog prowl and hunt, while elephant, giraffe, buffalo, wildebeest, zebra and hippo graze, browse and wallow across the plains and along the rivers.

Lunch is served at a picnic site in the bush, followed by a shorter afternoon game drive before you return to your lodge for dinner. Early-morning walks can be arranged on request.

Breakfast is at around 07:30, after which you drive to Mikumi National Park with a packed lunch, game viewing along the way as you approach your camp.

Mikumi, established in 1964 and covering 3,230 km², is Tanzania's fourth-largest national park and borders Nyerere to the south, the two together forming one great ecosystem. Its open grasslands are often compared with the Serengeti, and the park is home to more than 350 recorded bird species, healthy herds of large herbivores, primates and big cats.

Dinner and overnight at your camp in Mikumi National Park.

After a hearty breakfast at around 07:30, spend the whole day exploring Mikumi – from the Mkata River floodplain and its open, tree-dotted savanna to the miombo woodland on the slopes of the Uluguru Mountains. Elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra and wildebeest roam the plains, with lion often found nearby.

Lunch is taken at a picnic site, followed by a short afternoon game drive before returning to camp for dinner and the night.

After a warm breakfast at around 07:30, leave the park behind and drive east to the Indian Ocean coast at Bagamoyo, with a packed lunch on the way.

Bagamoyo lies 75 km north of Dar es Salaam, facing Zanzibar across the water. Your hotel is set in tropical gardens by the sea, with air-conditioned rooms looking out over the ocean or the pool – the perfect place to unwind after your days in the bush.

Dinner and overnight at your hotel in Bagamoyo.

After breakfast at around 08:00, set out to explore Bagamoyo, a town founded at the end of the 18th century as an extension of a far older settlement, Kaole, dating back to the 8th century. Once the capital of German East Africa and one of the most important trading ports on the East African coast, it holds history stretching from around 800 CE to the present day.

Your visit takes in the old port and the slave routes, the Kaole Ruins with their ancient mosques and some 30 tombs, the Mission buildings and Old Church, the German Garrison and the German Boma. A packed lunch is enjoyed during the tour, and after a short final visit in the afternoon you return to the hotel to relax, perhaps with a cooling swim in the Indian Ocean.

Dinner and overnight at your hotel in Bagamoyo.

Enjoy a leisurely breakfast before setting off at around 09:00 for the drive back to Dar es Salaam, with soft drinks on board.

On arrival you are dropped off at your hotel in the city or transferred to the airport for your onward flight, bringing your southern Tanzania safari to an end.