Flights and roads
How to get to Nyerere National Park
Most people fly: an hour or so from Dar es Salaam or Zanzibar to one of the airstrips. The road is long but doable, and there is a railway that almost nobody uses.
If you only want the answer
Fly: an hour from Dar or Zanzibar to the park airstrips is how almost everyone arrives. The road via Kibiti to Mtemere gate is the budget route and doable, but it is a full, hot day and the last stretch is unpaved.
By air
Coastal Aviation, Auric Air and Safari Air Link all fly daily from Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar to the park's airstrips, taking roughly an hour. Mtemere serves the eastern lakes circuit, Siwandu and Beho Beho the central and western camps.
Nyerere sits on the same circuit as Ruaha, so the classic southern safari flies Dar to Nyerere, then Nyerere to Ruaha in about an hour and forty-five minutes, and home from there. Every camp includes the airstrip transfer.
By road
From Dar es Salaam it is roughly 250 kilometres to the Mtemere gate, five to seven hours depending on the state of the last stretch, or a similar run to Matambwe in the west. It is a real drive rather than a transfer, and a 4x4 is sensible.
The TAZARA railway also runs along the park's western edge with stops near Matambwe, which is a wonderfully old-fashioned way in if your camp can meet you. Confirm the timetable directly; it changes.
Which gate, and why it matters
- Mtemere in the east is the gate for the lakes circuit and the boat safaris. Most fly-in guests use it.
- Matambwe in the west serves Beho Beho and the higher ground, and produces a different species list: more giraffe, hartebeest and miombo birds.
- Because only the northern strip of the park is open to photographic safaris, your gate effectively decides what you see. Ask your camp which sector it works.
Something this page does not answer?
Routes and road conditions change faster than any page can. If yours does not fit what is written here, ask.
Ask us. We answer questions about the park itself, and we can usually tell you which camps work on one route and who to write to. If what you want is a trip someone else arranges, we will say so and hand you to an operator we know, and we earn a commission if that becomes a booking.
Nothing on this site sits behind the form. Every figure we have is already on the page.