8-Day Southern Circuit: Selous, Mikumi, Saadani & 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.

On arrival, rest after the drive and dive into the swimming pool to cool off, then head out in the late afternoon for a boat ride on the river, gliding past basking crocodiles and pods of hippos. Your lodge sits inside the park, with excellent wildlife viewing right on the doorstep.

Dinner and overnight at your lodge inside Nyerere National Park.

After a hearty breakfast at around 08:00, spend a full day discovering Nyerere's serene beauty – its varied terrain, meandering rivers and lakes, and a remarkable diversity of plants and animals that leaves a lasting impression. The park offers a range of experiences to deepen your safari, from bird-watching and boating to classic game viewing and, for many, a hot-air balloon flight over the wilderness.

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

Breakfast is at around 07:30, then you drive to Mikumi National Park with a packed lunch. Your camp offers comfortably furnished tents, each with a shaded wooden veranda at the front and an en-suite bathroom behind – a relaxed base for the next two nights.

Arrive in time to settle in and watch the evening light over the Mikumi plains. Dinner and overnight at your camp.

After breakfast at around 07:30, set out for a full day of game viewing in Mikumi, where the open grasslands of the Mkata floodplain draw elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra and wildebeest, with lion and other predators never far behind. Look out too for the tall Borassus palms that give the area its name.

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

After a hearty breakfast at around 07:30, drive to Saadani National Park on the Indian Ocean coast, with a packed lunch along the way.

Saadani is East Africa's only wildlife park with an ocean beachfront – a place where the bush meets the beach. Your lodge is hidden among the trees bordering the Wami River, with views that let you watch wildlife while you dine, and an in-house spa for a massage after the journey.

Dinner and overnight at your lodge in Saadani.

After a warm breakfast at around 08:00, spend the day enjoying the best of Saadani on land and on the water. Game drives through the coastal savanna can be combined with water-based activities – the mangrove-lined Wami River is home to hippos and crocodiles, and the coastline is unlike anything in Tanzania's other parks.

Lunch is served at a picnic site, then a short afternoon game drive brings you back to the lodge for dinner and your final night in the park.

After breakfast at around 08:30, follow the coast south to Bagamoyo with a packed lunch. Your hotel is set in a beautiful tropical garden, with spacious air-conditioned rooms facing either the sea or the pool, and private terraces or balconies where you can take your meals.

The rest of the day is yours to enjoy the hotel, its gardens and the Indian Ocean beach. Dinner and overnight at your hotel in Bagamoyo.

After breakfast at around 08:00, set out on a half-day tour of historic Bagamoyo – once the capital of German East Africa and a major port on the old trade and slave routes – visiting sites such as the Kaole Ruins, the Mission buildings and the German Boma.

At around midday you transfer to Dar es Salaam, where you are dropped off at your hotel or taken to the airport for your departure flight.