Ruaha National Park

Great Park and less people

Lot's of animals. We saw everything we wanted to see including a cheetah, and two lions. We only saw two other Land Cruisers while we were here.

Amazing experience - recommended!

We went in the low season and almost had the park to ourselves. I believe we only saw 4 other cars over the entire journey! The park itself is great; next time we'd also like to do a night safari!

This is one of my favorite game reserves in Tanzania, as it is a little more remote, and harder to get to. This means there are less people, and the wildlife is a little more plenty. I had an amazing time there, as I was fortunate to get to stay for a good 3 months, and really get to know the area. It is a HUGE park, and ranges from tropical/riverine conditions, to highland and even mountain like terrain where Roan can be found. Lots of buffalo, and elephant as well. I highly recommend this area.

hard to do better than this

Plenty of animals, lovely birds, beautiful scenery. The rainy season brings out wonderful flora and more birdlife. Exciting to see a different Africa!

Amazing experience

I've lived in Iringa town, just a 2 hour drive from Ruaha National Park and I've been to Ruaha multiple times. You can stay in a luxerious campsite or go for the Government Bandas, just 20 US dollars a night. It's basic and you need to bring your own food, but there is a decent toilet, shower, nets and some bandas where you can chill and drink a nice Tanzanian beer with a view over Ruaha River, and if you are lucky, some elephants. There is no fence, so during the night you can expect animal visitors, but there is an armed guard. Close to the bandas there is a campsite too, where you can camp with your tent at your own risk, since there is no fence too.
The scenery is beautiful, with hills and so much variety. The park has over 10,000 elephants, so it's easy to spot them, esp. in the dry season. Hippos, impalas and girafes are easy to spot too. If you are lucky you can spot lions and cheetas. In the wet some of the roads are not accesable, but the scenery is beautiful; so much green and it's a great season for watching exotic birds. If you are going with your own transport you can 'hire' a guide in the park or you can arrange a driver/guide in Iringa town. There is a couple organisations who arrange safaris.
I would recommend this park to everyone, although I hope it will maintain quiet with tourists now, so you really have the feeling you are alone in the park like you have now.

Ruaha - wild, remote, and undiscovered

Ruaha in August was fantastic. We opted to go to Ruaha as we wanted to get away from the hordes of tourists in the northern (serengeti) parks. Yes it took longer to get to, but the drive out to Ruaha was part of the experience. The scenery was breathtaking, and it there were animals wherever you looked. I think for us was the fact that in many cases we felt we had the park to ourselves. We spent hours alone watching a pride of 24 lions. At one point we just spent an afternoon watching a herd of elephants bathe and play all around us. When we counted there were more than 80+ elephants in the horizon, and no other safari cars to be found. Our tour operator, tanzania adventure, was fantastic. Our driver new all the right spots, and was extremely experienced, and knowledgeable. All in all, Ruaha was the highlight of all the parks we visited in Tanzania.

Ruaha's Wildlife: The real deal.

I've visited Ruaha National Park as part of a field trip for Biology Students.
We got a very unique camp site at the side of the Ruaha River. The view was absolutely stunning. During our siesta's at noon, we could even see groups of elephants passing by and 2 huge fish eagles had their nest on the top of a tree on the other side of the river.
The weather was perfect. Warm, but not too hot, and cool (but not cold) at night.

The park is huge an you can drive for hours trough the beautiful nature without bumping in to another jeep. Some places of the park are really green, while others are more savanna-like and very dry.

Most of the time we had our own guide, but one day we had a guided walk by a park ranger. He knew a lot about the animals and their tracks and dangers. Very interesting! We even walked along the river revealing many kinds of bird species.

So, in short. Ruaha National Park is really worth a visit!!

Ruaha National park is one of the best destination in Tanzania for game viewing during the dry season. Rivers water concentrate wildlife and you can see a lot of animals around. Landscapes are beautiful and variuos, there are just a few camps so not so many peoples around....

One of the best things about Ruaha when I visited was that you felt as if you were the only people there - in contrast to the better-known parks, where there were always crowds of vehicles around anything interesting. There was a great variety of wildlife, although we weren't all that successful with seeing the big cats.