Reviews of Saadani (From 5 Acclaimed Safari Experts)

Expert

Mike Unwin –

UK

Visited: December

Mike is an award-winning wildlife writer, former editor of Travel Zambia magazine and author of the Bradt Guide to Southern African Wildlife.

3 people found this review helpful.

Bush and beach in one

Overall rating

3/5

Wildlife:

Bush Vibe:

Scenery:

Birding:

Combining an Indian Ocean beach retreat with a big game safari – the boast of many an East African visitor package – generally involves an expensive and time-consuming transfer between the two. Saadani is the one park where you can enjoy both experiences in a single location: your chalet overlooks the waves while big game roams your backyard. What’s more, the park is a mere 20-minute hop across the water from Zanzibar. That it is not more famous comes down to the relative paucity of large wildlife. There are decent populations of giraffe, waterbuck and bohor reedbuck, plus a few more unusual species such as red duiker and Lichtenstein’s hartebeest. However, both elephant and buffalo are low in number and large predators are highly elusive. Lions were seen on just one night during my week-long visit (not by me), and old tracks near the lodge were the only evidence of leopards. Those hell-bent on ticking off the Big Five thus tend to look elsewhere.

Nonetheless, this is a charming destination. The landscape of palm forest and coastal thicket is attractive, and the challenge of finding larger game serves to increase the excitement when you succeed – my encounter with a skittish breeding herd of elephant after three days of searching was thrilling. Meanwhile, the birding is excellent and, as well as the usual savannah species, includes a large number of migratory shorebirds (sandpipers, sand plovers, terns) along the beach. Boat trips along the Wami river offer close encounters with hippos, crocodiles and, in the overhanging gallery forest, black-and-white colobus monkeys. Back at camp, the Indian Ocean ambience makes it a pleasure to return from any game drive or bush walk. Bushbabies and genets hang around at night, hoping for restaurant scraps, and a morning stroll will reveal the tracks of such nocturnal beach commuters as civet, bush pig and sometimes even lion. Marine wildlife is good in season, with green turtles and humpback whales seen nearby and snorkeling trips arranged to nearby islands.

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Expert

Philip Briggs –

ZA

Visited: Multiple times

Philip is an acclaimed travel writer and author of many guidebooks, including the Bradt guides to Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.

5 people found this review helpful.

Where the Beach Meets the Bush

Overall rating

3/5

Wildlife:

Bush Vibe:

Scenery:

Birding:

The only viable East African wildlife sanctuary to boast an Indian Ocean beachfront, this likeable second-tier national park bills itself as the place where the beach meets the bush. In truth, while wildlife numbers have increased significantly since the former wildlife reserve was expanded and upgraded to become a national park in 2006, it is the beach – and, at some camps, the swimming pool – that dominates proceedings.

True, Saadani is not suited to those seeking a full-on safari experience. Then again, any wildlife-lover seeking a post-safari chill-out venue might want to consider it as an alternative to the more crowded and developed beaches around Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam. Odds of seeing an elephant herd stroll along the beach are pretty small, but with a population now estimated at 200-odd, you may well see them away from the beach. Lions now number around 50, but sightings are far from guaranteed. More conspicuous savannah wildlife includes giraffe, buffalo, warthog, yellow baboon, vervet monkey, common waterbuck, bohor reedbuck and Lichtenstein's hartebeest. The magnificent greater kudu and handsome Roosevelt’s sable are rather less common. The diminutive and normally very shy red duiker is quite often seen in coastal scrub and forest.

The beaches of Saadani form the only Tanzanian turtle nesting site north of Dar es Salaam, with green turtle being the most regular visitor. The undoubted highlight of Saadani is the boat trip up the Wami River, which offers excellent bird watching, including the possibility of African skimmer, mangrove kingfisher and Pel’s fishing owl, as well as reliable hippo and croc sightings, and a good chance of spotting the lovely Angola colobus monkey foraging in the riverine trees. Guided walks are also great fun, and very rewarding for birders, but are best undertaken in the early morning cool.

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Expert

Lizzie Williams –

ZA

Visited: October

Lizzie is a reputed guidebook writer and author of the Footprint guides to South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

East Africa’s Unique Safari Destination on the Beach

Overall rating

3/5

Wildlife:

Bush Vibe:

Scenery:

Birding:

Saadani is Tanzania’s only park with ocean frontage, but it wasn’t as scenic as I had expected; fairly flat and featureless, and the beach scruffy and not the paradisiacal swathe of sand usually seen in East Africa.

But I enjoyed the boat trip up the Wami River and saw plenty of crocodile and hippo, and watched two kingfishers hovering above the water before diving vertically. While the park is not renowned for its big game (lion and elephant sightings are rare), on game drives we did see baboon, vervet monkey, bushbuck, warthog, hartebeest and giraffe. Reedbuck were everywhere, replacing impala, which are so ubiquitous in other parks, and birds plentiful; glossy ibis, hamerkop, palm-nut vulture, and lots of lilac-breasted rollers.

Undoubtedly, the best feature of this park was that I loved being able to go for a dip in the ridiculously warm ocean after an afternoon’s safari.

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Expert

Mary Fitzpatrick –

US

Visited: Multiple times

Mary is an acclaimed travel writer and author of many Lonely Planet guidebooks, including South Africa, Tanzania, East Africa and Africa.

3 people found this review helpful.

Wonderful Beach & Some Wildlife, Too

Overall rating

2/5

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Tiny Saadani's real highlight is not its wildlife, but the coastline - long, wide, driftwood-strewn in parts and mostly deserted. I don’t recommend the park as a destination in itself. Rather, plan a stop here if you're travelling by road between Dar es Salaam and the Pangani-area beaches. The beach lodges within and near park boundaries generally have a more secluded feel than the coastal resort areas closer to Pangani, and with luck, an elephant or two may even wander into your ocean vistas.

Wildlife sightings are notoriously erratic, and plenty of visitors manage to leave Saadani without seeing much more than the occasional antelope. However, most times I've visited, I've seen elephants (including several almost on the veranda of the park guesthouse where I was sleeping), plus hippos and giraffes. Saadani is also of interest as a cultural and bush tourism destination, with the upmarket Kisampa camp (just outside park boundaries to the south) an ideal base for this.

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Expert

Ariadne van Zandbergen –

ZA

Visited: Multiple times

Ariadne is a renowned African wildlife photographer whose work is featured in many well-known guidebooks and magazines.

1 person found this review helpful.

Bush & Beach

Overall rating

2/5

Wildlife:

Bush Vibe:

Scenery:

Birding:

As the only park in Tanzania with a beachfront, Saadani National Park has a unique selling point. Don’t get your expectations up too high though. This isn’t the Serengeti. A good variety of wildlife is present, but densities are low and predators are not easy to spot. Elephant numbers have increased over the last few years and we were lucky to see a small herd on our game drive. Other wildlife commonly seen includes giraffe, warthog, waterbuck and Lichtenstein’s hartebeest. Also look out for the red duiker – we saw several of these little antelope darting across the sandy tracks.

The highlight of our stay was a boat trip on the Wami River. You’ll see plenty of crocodiles and hippos, and you might be lucky to spot a troop of Angola colobus feeding in the riverine forest too. The birding didn’t disappoint, and we were able to tick off mangrove kingfisher, among some other specials. As we skipped the night drive, we were delighted to have bush babies and a genet visiting the lodge at dinnertime.

The beach side of things is very rustic and undeveloped. Don’t expect infinity pools and cocktail bars. Get up early and you might see the local fishers casting their nets at sunrise. If you’d like to spend a few days on the beach in a bush setting, Saadani might just fit the bill.

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