Visit Selous Game Reserve, one of the largest fauna reserves of the world and Mafia Island, the site of Tanzania's first Marine Park, and nice white sand beaches. Private safari departing any day for 2+ persons
Arrive Dar es Salaam, Tanzania On your arrival at Dar es Salaam Airport; on request our driver will meet and greet you at the airport and transfer you to the booked hotel in Dar es Salaam City.
Day 2: Dar es Salaam - Selous Game Reserve After break fast, drive from Dar es Salaam to Selous, arrive at Ndovu Lodge and have lunch, after lunch, have afternoon Boat Safari. Dinner and overnight at Ndovu Lodge or Mbega Tented Lodge (depends on availability). FB
Day 3: Selous Game Reserve (wildlife viewing) After breakfast, drive inside the park Continued with Game drive. At 1:00pm drive to the Lodge for hot lunch. After lunch, you will have late afternoon game drive, and then return to the Lodge (Ndovu Lodge or Mbega Tented Lodge) for dinner and overnight. FB
Day 4: Selous Game Reserve (walking safari) After breakfast, drive to Mtemere game post inside Selous, start hiking with assistance of Selous game rangers. At 12:00noon, return to campsite for lunch. After lunch have 2 hours walking safari to hot spring, swim and then drive back to Ndovu lodge. You can do cultural tour at Mloka Village (Optional with extra cost). Dinner and overnight at Ndovu Lodge or Mbega Tented Lodge. FB
Day 5: Selous – Mafia Island Pick-Up from your lodge after lunch and transfer to the airstrip and connect with afternoon flight to Mafia Island. On arrival at the airport, you will be met by our representative, who will transfer you to Mafia Island Lodge. Check in at the lodge and have afternoon beach leisure. Resting, dinner and overnight at Mafia Island Lodge. HB
Day 6 & 7: Two Days of Leisure at Mafia Island Both days are at leisure. However for extra cost, you may want to plan a day excursion to Chole Island, which is packed with ancient ruins, including some from the German colonial administration. While on Chole, you may take a walking tour to see boat-building, sail making, the hand-manufacturing of copra (coconut fiber) ropes, and see a ancient coral rock swimming pool. A picnic lunch will be offered. Other optional activities include snorkeling, windsurfing, sailing and scuba diving. Relaxing, dinner and overnight at Mafia Island Lodge. HB
Day 8: Mafia Island - Dar es Salaam After breakfast pick up from Mafial Island Lodge and transfe to Airstrip to connect with 09:20hrs flight to Dar es Salaam. Arrive Dar es Salaam Airport at 09:55hrs. Here you will connect with your homebound flight or continue to other destinations
Price: USD $2,188 per person (minimum 2pax)
Price Includes; - Park entrance fees - Domestic Flights; Selous - Mafia Island - Dar es Salaam - Transport from Dar es Salaam to Selous on a 4wd vehicle - Game viewing, Boat Safari and Walking safari in Selous - Three meals a day in Selous and Two meals a day in Mafia Island - Ranger fees and Service of English Speaking driver guide - All airport transfers in Mafia Island and in Selous - Activities as stipulated in the itinerary above
Above Price Excludes: - International Flights fare (we can assist on request) - Your accommodation in Dar es Salaam on your arrival day (Book with us) - Airport transfers in Dar es Salaam - Any excursion in Mafia Island (we can arrange on request) - Hot & cold drinks and extras at the lodges - Laundry service - And all not mentioned on the plan
Selous Information: The Selous Game Reserve is one of the largest fauna reserves of the world, located in the south of Tanzania. It was named after Englishman Frederick Selous, who died in 1917 while fighting against the Germans in World War I. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 due to the diversity of its wildlife and undisturbed nature.
The area became a hunting reserve in 1905. Nowadays it has a touristic importance and most of it is rarely visited by humans.
It has a total area of 54,600 km². Selous is famous for its elephant, hippopotamus and rhino (although now few remain). The park has a broad range of game: buffalo - the largest population in Africa; Nyasaland gnu; brindled gnu; hartebeest; Greater Kudu; sable antelope; eland; reedbuck; bushbuck; waterbuck; warthog; zebras; giraffe; and wildebeest. Also: lion, leopard, the spotted hyenas and cheetah are rare. This reserve contains about one third of all the wild dogs (often called painted dogs), in the world.
There are over 350 species of bird and reptiles such as crocodiles and various snakes and lizards. A pair of fish eagles guards the gentle bay, their distinctive black, white and chestnut feather pattern gleaming boldly in the morning sun. Suddenly, the birds toss back their heads in a piercing, evocative duet.
Other activities include bird watching, photography; walking safaris; and fishing Tiger Fish and Vandu (in the rivers of the Kilombero Game Controlled Area to the west of the reserve).
Mafia Island Information: Mafia is a large island lying off the southern coast of Tanzania, near to the Rufiji Delta. It is 30 miles from north to south, and up to ten miles in width. It 30 minutes by plane from Dar es Salaam.
Mafia Island is the site of Tanzania's first Marine Park which was gazetted in 1995. The Park covers the southern half of the island and part of the north-east. Mafia Island is one of the most important marine habitats in the world. It has mangroves, sea-grass beds, coral reefs, inter-tidal reef flats, lagoons and coastal forest.
Within the bay, the shallow reefs are perfect for snorkelling or learning to dive. Whilst outside the bay, its entrance is guarded by a long coral wall, attracting more experienced divers. Here are more than 50 genera of coral, including giant table corals, huge stands of blue-tipped staghorn corals, and over 400 species of fish.
This is one of Tanzania's best areas for diving and you'll always see something exciting, from rainbow-coloured clownfish to octopus, rays and the odd gigantic grouper or large potato cod. Sharks and dolphins are found in the deeper waters, and at night turtles crawl onto remote beaches to nest.
Our unique relationship with our tour operators ensures only people who have participated in a trip after making an enquiry for it at The Africa Guide can leave a review.
The email we send you when you make an enquiry has full instructions for registering a booking and leaving a review - both are free services.
Feel free to read through the reviews for any trip you like the look of.
Trips with no reviews are usually new to the The Africa Guide but are normally operated by a tour operator who is established here. Most tour operators listing here will usually have gained reviews about other trips they have listed here.
Thanks for visiting, happy travels and don't forget to send us your reviews...
This is a fantastic tour and a "must do" for any first time visitor to Dar, as I was.
It helps you understand more about the people who live in Dar and makes what can seem like a complex and intimidating place, accessible, friendly and understandable.
My customized 13-day trip in Tanzania was absolutely amazing!
From breathtaking Ngorongoro hiking to a taste of Kilimanjaro and local village visits, it was truly a life-changing experience.
My driver and tour manager went out of their way to accommodate my whims and made sure that my stay in Tanzania was a pleasant one. Unfortunately I fractured my ankle during one of the hikes I took, but I was taken to the hospital immediately, and taken a great care of.
I would definitely recommend this operator to anyone who's looking for a tour that's much more than just game drives.'
We went on a two day walking – canoeing trip in Arusha National Park. The tour operator also made hotel arrangements for the first three days we were in Arusha.
They stayed in contact for 11 months via email. The person I was in contact with Elifasi and our guide, Apolo Kihwil, meet us at the airport took us to our hotel. On our rest day we visited a school at our request and not part of the paid itinerary this was on their time.
Our guide Apolo was the best we had on our entire trip. He was informative, friendly and had a great sense of humor, we were rewarded with a dream trip my favorite giraffe and several at a time the last bunch we counted eleven, baboons, wart hogs, black and white monkeys, hundreds of thousand of lesser and greater flamingos on big Momella Lake he provide delicious lunches and was infinitely patient while we took photographs.
I would not hesitate to use them on my next trip to Tanzania and would request Apolo as our guide.
We had a most wonderful holiday in Kenya and Tanzania.
They looked after us very well and we were very satisfied with their service. The service provided value for money. The only comment we would make is that the email from them gave us the impression that we would be staying in a lodge but when we arrived we were in a tent. We were satisfied with the tented accomodation, however it could have been made clearer in the original email that it was tented accomodation.
The staff were very kind and helpful.
Tour Operators Reply:
Thank you for the client's feedback and contructive comment/suggestion. We are glad that they were very satisfied with the service we provided to them, despite their impression that they would be staying in a lodge instead of tent.
As per the first enquiry which the clients sent into our company, she stated that she will prefer to stay in Camping “Accommodation Preference: Camping” and the price given to them was based on Camping accommodation, and these was stated in the itinerary that “Dinner and overnight at the camp”
However, there was typing error at the end of the itinerary which indicates Lodge accommodation instead of Camping accommodation.
We will try our level best to make sure that this mistake will not happen again.
After having a wonderful safari in southern Africa organised through your webiste, we decided to return again to Tanzania after 45 years.
We booked a 19 day safari to visit six game parks...Selous, Mikumi, Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro, and Tarangari.
Our guide/driver, Hurumu, met us at the Dar airport and drove us to a hotel for our day of jet lag recovery. We drove to Selous first. We're not strangers to East Africa, having first arrived in 1963. By far, Hurumu is the best guide that we've ever had. He was extremely knowledgeable of wildlife, has great game eyes, a good conversationalist, and was very caring for all our needs. He understood our physical age limitations (74) but was not at all solicitous. Cool water was always available. Hurumu had the ability to always get the Toyota into position for the best photograph.
We made our initial contact the operator in 2009. Elifasi, in the office, worked with me to create the itinerary. He also was most helpful. While at Selous we requested an itinerary change. Elifasi made the changes without a problem.
The entire safari was most enjoyable and problem free.
The best of Kenya & Tanzania and they made that experience a reality. They were always on time, concerned about our well being and would without any reservations recommend them! The scenery and game viewing were all memorable and expectations met. Organizing the tour was also without any hassle
I went solo, a 50 something white woman, and me and _______ (I forget his name), rode around for 5 hours. It was a unbelievable experience.
He was a wonderful guide, I called him the "Mayor" because everybody knew him! He was so popular everywhere we went that I felt completely comfortable, safe, and like an invited family friend.
He showed me 3 or 4 neighborhoods, I met coffee makers, chapati breakfast cooks (had breakfast there with a Masaai family who stopped by!), a traditional herbalist (where I learned the treatment for meconium aspiration, I'm a perinatal pathologist!), herbal pharmacist (where I saw that fenugreek seed is used to facilitate delivery with prolonged labor), local market, fabric seller, and had a delicious lunch at an outside Swahili restaurant. I played with kids, talked with everyone, and really got a great sense of the community.
My guide also is very active in local projects and inspired me to help with a bridge rebuilding project he is spear heading. The bicycle riding was easy and really the only way to get around in these neighborhoods. It was by far the best experience I had in Dar, and one of the best I have had in my many travels in East Africa!
We could not have asked for abetter way to end our incredible adventures in Tanzania. We saw everything and did everything we could have ever imagined. From the big game watching in the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, and Lake Manyara, to ascending the highly active volcano next to Lake Natron, it was all so unbelievably incredible. A total dream come true!
Our guide Huruma had he most expansive breadth of knowledge of the natural environment, he was a pleasure to talk to. He was also extremely flexible with us as lans often changed for various reasons, but ALWAYS for the better. Huruma made us feel safe and comfortable the whole time. Alex our cook as wonderful as well making sure we had the best quality meals possiblemade from the freshest ingredients.
Choosing a safari operator is tough, but I will just say that I will always recommend these guys. They are very professional and will do everything to make sure you have the best trip possible. Thanks again for our lifetime memories. We will be back, so you will hear from us again.
Thanks Elfasi for all your time, flexibility and support in orchestrating this dream trip.
