Mikumi is the most accessible of Tanzania’s southern parks, straddling the TANZAM Highway. Its open Mkata Floodplain mirrors the Serengeti in appearance and is home to large herds of elephant, buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, and giraffe. Lions are regularly spotted in the late afternoon. It’s the ideal first park for a southern circuit — the roads are mostly well-graded and wildlife concentrations are high year-round.

The park shares an unfenced boundary with the vast Selous ecosystem, meaning large mammals move freely between the two areas.

Campsites in Mikumi

Mikumi Public Campsite No. 1 — Located near the park headquarters at Kikoboga, close to the TANZAM Highway. Basic pit latrines and fire rings. Accessible to all 4×4 vehicles year-round. Note: some road noise audible from the highway. Cost: ~$30–40 per person/night (TANAPA rate).

Mikumi Special Campsite — More secluded, bookable through TANAPA in advance. Set in the Mkata plains away from the highway, with better wildlife ambience.

Outside the park, Tan-Swiss Lodge and Mikumi Wildlife Camp offer semi-wild camping with basic facilities, popular with overland trucks.

Accessibility: The park entrance gate at Kikoboga is directly off the A7 tarmac highway. No 4×4 required to reach the gate, though it is essential inside the park, especially in the wet season.

Udzungwa is unlike any other park in the southern circuit. Rather than vast savannah, it offers one of East Africa’s most important montane rainforests, home to endemic primates including the Sanje Mangabey and Iringa Red Colobus. The park has no vehicle game drives — it is accessed entirely on foot via trails. The famous Sanje Falls (170m high) is the headline attraction.

It serves as a meaningful change of pace within the safari, swapping dust and heat for cool forest and the sound of rushing water.

Camping near Udzungwa

Udzungwa Mountains Campsite — Located at the Mang’ula park headquarters, with basic ablutions and tent pitches. Simple and functional, run by TANAPA. Accessible via the A7 highway turning at Kilosa towards Mang’ula — paved road all the way.

Hondo Hondo Udzungwa Forest Camp — A private camp just outside the park boundary near Mang’ula, offering bandas and tent camping in a beautiful garden setting. Good base for day hikes.

Accessibility: The road from Mikumi to Mang’ula is surfaced and manageable in the dry season even for a standard vehicle, though a 4×4 provides comfort on the rougher sections.

Africa’s largest national park by standalone area, Nyerere was carved from the northern portion of the Selous Game Reserve in 2019 and named after Tanzania’s founding president. The park hosts four of the Big Five — lion, leopard, elephant, and buffalo — as well as the endangered African wild dog. Its scenic centrepiece is the Rufiji River, Tanzania’s largest waterway and famed for concentrations of hippos, crocodiles, and waterbirds.

⚠ Self-Drive Note: Nyerere currently has restrictions on self-drive game drives inside the park. Visitors may need to hire an armed ranger at the gate. Confirm current TANAPA regulations when booking your trip. Many self-drivers base themselves at a campsite just outside Mtemere Gate and arrange ranger-accompanied drives.

Campsites for Nyerere

Selous Campsite (Mtemere) — Located just outside the park, good for self-drive camping trips. Basic facilities with an unfenced perimeter — wildlife wanders through at night. Pit latrines available. Approximate cost: $30–40 per person/night.

Tagalala Public Campsite — Situated inside the park near Lake Tagalala, in a beautiful setting. It has no water and no electricity, but the location is striking. Requires advance booking through TANAPA.

Lake Manze Camp (semi-budget tented) — On the shores of Lake Manze, offering a middle ground between public camping and full lodge luxury.

Accessibility: Mtemere Gate is reached via a turn-off from the main A7 road south of Dar es Salaam — partially paved, with the final 40–50 km graded dirt. 4×4 essential in the wet season. In the dry season, a capable 4×4 high-clearance vehicle navigates it well.

Ruaha is the largest national park in Tanzania, covering about 20,226 square kilometers. Located in the Iringa and Morogoro regions, it is characterized by a mix of savannah plains, rolling hills, deep valleys, miombo woodlands, and the Great Ruaha River, which flows through the park and provides a vital water source for animals.

Ruaha is nearly 50% bigger than the Serengeti, yet attracts a tenth of the number of visitors. It is widely considered Tanzania’s finest self-drive destination in the south, with open tracks, well-placed river crossings for wildlife viewing, and an extraordinarily dense lion population.

Campsites in Ruaha

Public Campsite No. 1 (Tembo Campsite) — Arrangements are made at the entrance for three nights at Public Campsite #1. The camping spot is positioned directly above the river, offering constant wildlife action from camp chairs. Basic ablutions. ~$30 per person/night. Accessible via graded dirt road from Iringa (~130 km, 2–3 hours).

Public Campsite No. 2 — Further east towards the Mwagusi area, slightly more remote and less frequently occupied than Campsite No. 1. Both sites accessible in dry season with any 4×4.

Ifuguru Special Campsite — Located in the excellent game-viewing area between the Ifuguru and Mwagusi rivers, known for high densities of wildlife including elephant herds, buffalo, and predators. Pre-booked through TANAPA. ~$50 per person/night.

Mwagusi Sand River Campsite — In the riverbed of the Mwagusi, surrounded by magnificent palms and baobab trees. One of the most photogenic bush camping spots in East Africa.

Accessibility: From Iringa, take the road west to Msembe headquarters (~130 km, mix of graded gravel and dirt). The final section requires a 4×4. Road conditions improve significantly in the dry season (June–October). The gate itself, at Msembe, has a small shop and toilets.

Kitulo sits at altitude in the southern highlands between Ruaha and Katavi, making it a remarkable interlude between the two great wilderness areas. Sometimes called the “Serengeti of Flowers,” its plateau meadows erupt in extraordinary wildflower displays between November and April. In the dry season it offers dramatic highland scenery, resident leopard, mountain reedbuck, and over 400 bird species including the rare Denham’s Bustard.

Few international visitors make it here, and that remoteness is exactly its appeal for a self-drive adventurer. The drive from Iringa via Mbeya through the escarpment is one of Tanzania’s most scenic road sections.

Camping near Kitulo

Kitulo Public Campsite — At the Matamba gate near Makete, basic TANAPA-run site with pit latrines. Cool nights at altitude mean a good sleeping bag is essential. ~$30 per person/night.

Utengule Coffee Lodge (Mbeya) — The campsite at Utengule is an open grassy field beside the tennis court and helipad, suitable for an overnight stop. Located on a working coffee farm, it is a popular stop for overlanders heading between Ruaha and the far south.

Accessibility: From Iringa to Mbeya on the TANZAM Highway is excellent tarmac (~200 km, 2.5 hours). From Mbeya to Kitulo via Makete involves a mountain road — beautiful but demanding and absolutely requiring 4×4. Engage low-range for some descents.

Katavi is where the southern circuit reaches its crescendo. Tanzania’s third-largest park and one of its most isolated, Katavi receives fewer than 1,500 visitors per year — a number the Serengeti absorbs in a single busy morning. During the dry season, the Katuma River and the Chada and Katavi floodplains shrink to mud and water-holes that attract astonishing concentrations of hippopotamus, crocodile, elephant, cape buffalo, and predators.

Driving to Katavi from Mbeya takes 7–9 hours on a mix of tarmac (the Zambia–Tanzania highway north from Tunduma to Sumbawanga) and graded dirt road from Sumbawanga to Mpanda. This final leg is a genuine adventure drive through remote western Tanzania.

Campsites in Katavi

Katavi Public Campsite (Sitalike) — Near the main park headquarters at Sitalike, approximately 10 km from Mpanda town. Basic facilities with long-drop toilets and fire pits. Unfenced — hippos regularly wander through camp at night. ~$30 per person/night.

Chada Special Campsite — On the Chada plain, arguably the finest wildlife spectacle in the park during August–October. Bookable through TANAPA. Remote access requires confidence in river crossings after rain. ~$50 per person/night.

Katuma River Camp — A semi-permanent tented camp run by Nomad Tanzania on the banks of the Katuma River, a middle option between public camping and a full lodge.

Accessibility: From Mbeya north via Sumbawanga and Mpanda. The highway section to Sumbawanga is increasingly tarred; the Sumbawanga–Mpanda stretch is graded dirt and passable in the dry season. A 4×4 with high clearance is mandatory. Carry extra fuel from Sumbawanga — distances between stations are large.