For those who want to get away from the crowds and experience a remote safari adventure, the southern safari circuit would sound perfect for that. The parks in this region are enormous, untouched, remote and teeming with a spectacular diversity of wildlife.

The parks included in the southern safari circuit are Nyerere National Park, Ruaha National Park, Mikumi National Park, and Udzungwa Mountains National Park. Although the Big Five isn’t complete here and cannot be found all in one area, a lot of other animals like Roan antelopes, Sable antelopes, black rhinos and cheetahs can be easily spotted. Also, this is where you can find the world’s thickest population of the last remaining African wild dogs.

Main Gateway

To get to the southern safari circuit, the main entry hub is Dar es Salaam, a major city and commercial port in Tanzania. Tourists often fly to Julius Nyerere International Airport (DAR) and then take a light aircraft to one of the parks. The good news is, a myriad of airlines fly directly to DAR from many parts of the world, including the US, UK, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. 

Let’s explore with us this amazing parks by roadtrip!

What’s great about it?

For game viewing, open-sided vehicles are available. This enhances the game viewing experience as it offers 360-degree views of the virgin landscape and exciting game. Also, the proximity of the southern circuit to the coastal circuit makes it a perfect bush and beach vacation – sort of like an adventure in the true wild side of Africa and then a relaxing tropical getaway.

What makes the southern safari circuit even more appealing is that they offer activities that are not available in the more popular northern circuit. For example, guided walking tours, fly-camping, and boat safaris cannot be experienced in the north. On top of that, you get to enjoy a wealth of wildlife and untouched landscape virtually all to yourself.

Top Southern Safari Parks:

• Nyerere National Park

Nyerere is one of the largest nationalparks in the world. It is widely popular for being the home to the world’s largest population of wild dogs as well as some of the country’s last remaining black rhinos. Considered a hidden gem of Africa, Nyerere boasts of a variety of vegetation zones, ranging from dense thickets to riverine forests and swamps to open wooded grasslands.

• Ruaha National Park

Covering 20.226 square kilometers of savannah, Ruaha National Park is Tanzania’s and East Africa’s largest park. It hosts 10%  of the planet’s lion population as well as one of the largest elephant populations anywhere. The park can be reached by car on a dirt road from Iringa or by light aircraft in Dar es Salaam. If you drive from the town of Iringa, you will reach the park in 2 hours whereas if you drive from Dar, it will be an approximately 10-hour journey all in all. Via plane, it will be about 2.5 hours through either Msembe airstrip or Jongomeru airstrip.

• Mikumi National Park

Mikumi National Park is the fourth largest park in the entire country. Since its road improvements connecting Dar es Salaam, Mikumi has become a hotspot for Tanzania tourism. Elephants, wildebeest, zebras, and buffaloes along with other mammals are abundant in this park. Although occasional, you can also spot lions potentially preying on other animals, giraffes browsing on the leaves of the acacia trees, and hippos resting on the Mkata River.

Best time to visit Southern Circuit Parks: June to October