Nyerere National Park, known for decades as the Selous Game Reserve, is one of the largest protected wilderness areas in Africa, threaded by the wide, slow-moving Rufiji River. It's too far from Dar es Salaam to reach by road in a day, so this trip departs by light aircraft, landing on a bush airstrip in time for a morning game drive through miombo woodland, followed by a boat safari on the Rufiji itself. It's one of the few places in Tanzania where you can cover wildlife viewing by both land and water in a single day.
Day HighlightsYour guide picks you up from your Dar es Salaam hotel and transfers you to the domestic terminal, where a light aircraft charter flies you the roughly 45 minutes to an airstrip inside Nyerere National Park.
Set off on a game drive through miombo woodland and open grassland, tracking lion, buffalo and, if you're lucky, the park's African wild dog packs.
Board a boat for an easy cruise along the Rufiji River, drifting past pods of hippo, basking crocodile and plenty of birdlife, then stop for lunch at a riverside spot.
In the late afternoon, transfer back to the airstrip for the return flight to Dar es Salaam, where your guide drops you at your hotel by early evening.
Nyerere is at its best during the dry season, June to October, when the Rufiji runs clearer and wildlife gathers along its banks, and again from late December through February. The boat safaris depend on water levels and weather, and usually pause during the heaviest rains in April and May.
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