Saadani National Park

Palm trees sway in a cooling oceanic breeze while white sand and blue water sparkle alluringly beneath the tropical sun. Traditional dhows sail slowly past, propelled by billowing white sails, while Swahili fishermen cast their nets below a brilliant red sunrise. A true picture postcard!

The park is 430 sq mi in area, and located on the north coast of Tanzania, about 60 miles northwest of Dar es Salaam. There are charter flights from Zanzibar or Dar es Salaam. There are also 3x weekly buses from Dar es Salaam, taking about four hours.

Saadani National Park is generally accessible all year long; however, some access roads are on occasion impassible during April and May. The best game viewing is January and February and from June to August.

There are game drives and guided walks. Boat trips and magnificent swimming are all for your pleasure. You can also visit the Saadani fishing village, where a collection of ruins pays testament to its 19th c. heyday as a major port.

Saadan is where the bush meets the beach. The Saadani is the only wildlife sanctuary in East Africa to possess an Indian Ocean beachfront, it enjoys all the attributes that make Tanzania’s tropical coastline and islands so popular with world sun-worshipers. Yet it is also the one place where, while sunbathing you could very well be interrupted by an elephant strolling past, or a lion coming to drink at the nearby waterhole!

Protected as a game reserve since the 1960s, in 2002 it was expanded to cover twice its former area. The reserve suffered greatly from poaching prior to the late 1990s. But due to a concerted clampdown on poachers, and integrating adjacent villages into the conservation drive, the numbers of wildlife have increased significantly.

Today, a unexpectedly wide range of grazers and primates is seen on game drives and walks, among them giraffe, buffalo, warthog, common waterbuck, Reedbuck, Hartebeest, wildebeest, red duiker, Greater kudu, eland, sable antelope, yellow baboon and Vervet monkey. Herds of up to 30 elephants are seen with increasing frequency, and several lion prides are resident, together with leopard, spotted hyena and black-backed jackal.

Boat trips on the mangrove-lined Wami River come with a high chance of sighting hippos, crocodiles and a selection of marine and river birds; including the mangrove kingfisher and lesser flamingo. The Saadani beaches also form one of the last major green turtle breeding sites on mainland Tanzania.