Easily accessible from many hotels in Dar es Salaam, Mikumi National Park is an ideal spot for a safari tour that offers maximum wildlife sightings for anyone who is short on time. Bordering the Selous Game Reserve, the park offers a wide variety of wildlife and its open horizons make sightings easy to come by.

What Safari Animals Can I see at Mikumi National Park?

If you’re hoping for a glimpse of the infamous “Big Five” (lion, cheetah, elephant, buffalo and rhino), Mikumi won’t let you down, but you can also get up close to hippos as they wallow in the muddy pools, and keen bird-watchers will be richly rewarded with over 400 colorful species.

The centerpiece of Mikumi is the Mkata Floodplain, where you can watch herds of zebras grazing in the rising sun, while giraffes tend to favor the shade of the acacia around the Mkata River. The floodplain has also been hailed as perhaps the most reliable place in Tanzania for spotting the world’s largest antelope, the impressive eland. All of this is surveyed by the languid lions, who you might see lazing on the flattened tops of termite mounds or up in the branches of the trees.

How to Get to Mikumi National Park from Dar es Salaam?

Mikumi National Park is accessible from Dar es Salaam by both road and air. With a quick flight from Dar, less than a 30 minute, you will be in Mikumi National Park in no time! Since Mikumi shares a border with Selous Game Reserve and Ruaha National Park, one can also drive from either of the nearby wildlife sanctuaries by road. If driving from Ruaha, the estimated distance is about 320km/200mi, and the drive takes approximately five hours.

To get a sense of our amazing tailor-made African safari experiences from all over Tanzania, please watch our short video.