Tanzania Walking Safari

Walking Safari in Tanzania Overview

Whether you’re considering traveling to Northern Tanzania or the lesser visited south and west of the country, there are many excellent options for walking safaris deep in big game country.

If you’re looking for proper immersive walking safaris, Tanzania is a brilliant place to begin. Top of our list is Ruaha National Park in Southern Tanzania—this beautiful park comes into its own between June and October when game viewing rivals pretty much anywhere in Africa.

Head off on a multi-day walking safari and you’re in the best possible place to experience the magic of this park. Expect few other tourists and an astonishing variety of wildlife, big and small.

Walking Safaris
Walking & Trekking safaris in Tanzania: the Authentic Safari Experience

Walking safaris are the purest form of safari. Walking in Tanzania is completely different from game driving. On foot, you are a participant in the world of wildlife rather than a spectator, a thrilling and unbeatable safari experience.

Walking is only available in certain areas. It can be short day walks back to the same camp or mobile, where the crew packs up your camp and moves it for you—greeting you at the end of your day’s walking journey with sundowners.

Trekking is the next level of wild where you backpack through the wilderness and camp in a new location each night. Tents are lightweight, the team is very few so the focus is on immersion, getting stuck, and wilderness rather than luxury.

tanzania walking safari

Adventures are the best way to learn

Feel, hear, and smell Tanzania
Imagine, you walk on the same path as the elephants and other wildlife, you feel the wind through your hair, hear a lion roar in the distance, and smell the bush and wildlife. Your senses awaken, as you become part of your environment and the wilderness becomes more real.

Wildlife up close and personal
While animals will generally ignore you in a vehicle, they see you as another type of animal when you are on foot. Getting up close and personal with wildlife is a rush of excitement. Walking is also a great way to appreciate the smaller wildlife, which can’t be so easily seen from a vehicle.

Access remote areas on foot
On foot, you can walk into remote areas and reach places that a safari car can’t. Once on foot, you are not constrained by roads and can go almost anywhere you like. Away from the crowds, off the beaten track. It offers you a freedom incomparable to any game drive Safari.

Walking safaris are possible in Tanzania throughout the year. Where to walk in any given month is more nuanced.

Tanzania is huge and its sheer size means that its climate varies considerably within it, as well as year on year. As a rule, the long dry season lasts from June to October across the country – rainfall is rare and it’s generally considered the best time to walk in most areas. If walking on the Serengeti it’s more about where the migration is and where you can catch up with the wildlife without the crowds.

Walking safaris are, for many that regularly return to Africa, the ultimate way to experience the bush. While countries such as Zambia and Zimbabwe tend to steal the limelight for their walking itineraries, Tanzania does also, in fact, have some very good walking safaris and, when the troubles in Zimbabwe happened many of the top guides from there headed up to Tanzania to ply their trade and thus raised the bar as far as what you can expect.

The Selous Game Reserve walking safaris

The main area to consider for a walking trip in the southern part of the Selous Game Reserve. As a Reserve rather than National Park, the regulations are slightly different than in more famous parks such as the Serengeti but, with a vast range of different environments and topographies that the park comprises, there is plenty to keep you interested for anything up to a week.

Ruaha National Park walking safaris

Located to the west of the Selous Game Reserve, Ruaha National Park is the perfect foil to the Selous, with its open grasslands and baobab forests. while it may not offer as wide a spread of differing climes, it is still a very rewarding place to walk and, with camps such as Mwagusi, there is an exceptionally high level of guidance to be had.

The Northern Safari parks walking safaris

Over the last year or so the Tanzanian Parks Authorities have realized the potential of allowing walking safaris, as such, it is now possible to walk in such parks as Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara National Park, and in some of the fringe concessions that border the Serengeti. With great game viewing and a high level of guiding, it may not allow for days on end of walking, but it can still add to the overall experience.