Lodges & camps in Nyerere National Park

Beho Beho

Top-end · Inside the park · Owner-run

The park's grandest old address, and the oldest. Ker and Downey put a hunting camp on Kipalala Hill in 1972, making it the first permanent camp in what was then the Selous. The Bailey family bought it in 1977 after the East African Community broke up, rebuilt it and reopened it to safari guests in 2004. The Swahili name locals use for it, Waanzilishi, means the pioneer. Open stone and palm-thatch bandas sit on the hillside above the Msine, and the elevated site keeps it noticeably cooler than the lakeside camps. Frederick Courteney Selous, who gave the old reserve its name, is buried three miles away.

Roho ya Selous

High-end · Inside the park · Safari company

Asilia's camp sits out on a peninsula in Lake Nzerakera with water on three sides, so hippo and elephant traffic passes the tents rather than the other way round. A private vehicle per tent is included, which is rare at this price and changes how the day is structured. Walking runs from June to mid-January; outside that window the grass is too high to be useful.

Rufiji River Camp

Mid-range · Inside the park · Owner-run

The Fox family have been in Tanzanian tourism for three generations and this is their Rufiji camp, a classic tented affair on a bend of the river near Mtemere. It costs around half what the lake-circuit camps charge while still putting you inside the park, which is the main reason to book it. The river frontage means boat safaris start at camp instead of after a drive.

Africa Safari Selous

Budget · Outside the gate · Safari company

The biggest lodge on the Nyerere circuit and the only sizeable one that never closes, a few minutes from Mtemere airstrip. It is a package lodge rather than a small camp, which is exactly what you want if your dates fall between March and May when almost everything else shuts. Watch the pricing: the large numbers in the brochures are multi-night packages with flights, not per-night rates.

Dates and availability on Booking.com ↗

Serena Mivumo River Lodge

Mid-range · Inside the park · Safari company

The only lodge on the Stiegler's Gorge stretch of the Rufiji, with chalets looking down onto the water. It prices per room instead of per person, so two people sharing pay substantially less per head than almost anything else on this list. The hydropower dam is in this western part of the park, which is worth understanding before you pick the gorge over the lakes.

Dates and availability on Booking.com ↗

Selous River Camp

Budget · Outside the gate · Owner-run

A small owner-run camp on the Rufiji at Mloka just outside the gate, where the rooms are hand-built mud cottages and bandas instead of safari tents. It costs a fraction of the in-park camps, and its position outside the boundary lets it trade through the long rains. Remember that park entry and activity fees are added here, which is the usual source of confusion when comparing against all-inclusive rates.

Dates and availability on Booking.com ↗

Sable Mountain Lodge

Mid-range · Outside the gate · Safari company

Almost every camp in this park sits on the eastern lake and river circuit; Sable Mountain is the exception, on a hill just outside Matambwe gate in the north. That puts you in miombo woodland, where Lichtenstein's hartebeest and sable are likelier than they are on the lakes. It is also the one lodge here you can reach by train.

Dates and availability on Booking.com ↗

Kiba Point

Top-end · Inside the park · Safari company

Sand Rivers' private annexe, four suites on their own bend of the Rufiji taken by one group at a time. It suits a family or two couples who want top-end guiding without sharing a mess tent, and everything from the vehicle to the chef comes with the house. Because it sells as a unit the headline figure looks alarming until you divide it by four.

Selous Wilderness Camp

Budget · Outside the gate · Locally owned

A small independent camp on the south bank of the Rufiji where over seventy per cent of the staff come from the surrounding villages, which is about as direct as the local employment link gets in this park. Six tents and a fly camp keep it genuinely quiet. Rates are not published, so ask for a written quote before you commit.

Selous Impala Camp

Mid-range · Inside the park · Locally owned

The strongest local ownership story in Nyerere: Deograsias holds the majority stake and is, by the camp's own account, the first Tanzanian to own a camp inside this park, alongside European co-owners. It is a small solar-powered tented camp on the Rufiji in the eastern sector, built in 2005 and priced well below the lake-circuit names. If you want your bed money to stay in Tanzanian hands without leaving the park, this is the option.

Selous Kinga Lodge

Mid-range · Outside the gate · Locally owned

An independent lodge on its own stretch of the Rufiji a few kilometres outside Mtemere gate, mixing tented rooms with a main lodge building and a pool. Sitting outside the boundary means you pay conservation fees only on the days you actually drive in. Published prices for it are unreliable, so insist on a written quote.

Dates and availability on Booking.com ↗

Sand Rivers Selous

High-end · Inside the park · Safari company

Nomad's southern flagship: eight stone cottages built open to the Rufiji in the quiet western end of the park, well away from the lake circuit traffic. It is the classic base for fly camping, a night out on a sandbank with bedrolls and a mosquito net, which is the part people remember. It is also the nearest camp to Stiegler's Gorge and the hydropower dam, worth knowing before you choose west over the lakes.

Siwandu

High-end · Inside the park · Safari company

One of the park's originals, split into two small camps on the shore of Lake Nzerakera so neither ever feels busy. Boats go out from the camp itself, which is the entire point of staying on this lake rather than on the main river. If you are checking older reviews, they may be filed under Selous Safari Company: same camp, new name.

TANAPA Public Campsites

Budget · Inside the park · Park-run

TANAPA's public campsites are the only genuinely cheap way to sleep inside Nyerere: $35.40 per adult per night including VAT, against several hundred dollars at the nearest camp. You bring everything, including water, fuel and recovery gear, and you still cannot go out on a boat or on foot without booking a park ranger. Realistically this suits overlanders and Dar-based residents rather than fly-in visitors.

TANAPA Special & Fly Campsites

Budget · Inside the park · Park-run

Special, seasonal and fly campsites are undeveloped sites reserved for a single group, and they are how the top-end camps run their nights out on a Rufiji sandbank. Everything is carried in and carried out, and the site has to be booked before you arrive rather than claimed at the gate. The tariff also carries a rest house and a group hostel line for Nyerere that TANAPA does not promote, and a twenty-room rest house was reported under construction at Mtemere in 2025.

Lake Manze Camp

Mid-range · Inside the park · Safari company

The camp that made Lake Manze's name, an unfenced and deliberately simple tented camp right on the water, where animals walk through the site rather than around it. It has long been one of the better value in-park beds on the lake circuit. One caution: the operator's domain no longer resolves, so check who is currently running it before you book.

Dates and availability on Booking.com ↗

Selous Serena Camp

Mid-range · Inside the park · Safari company

Serena's tented camp in the lake sector is the most conventional bed in the park, which makes it simple to book alongside their Serengeti and Ngorongoro properties on one reservation. It is comfortable and predictable rather than characterful. Tent numbers are not published and neither are rates, so everything comes through the group's own booking channel.

Selous Mbega Camp

Budget · Outside the gate · Owner-run

A long-standing privately owned camp on the Rufiji at Mloka, built in 2000, with a small forest reserve of its own next to the site. It sits outside the boundary a short drive from Mtemere gate, so it stays reachable when the in-park camps close for the rains. Nothing is published on rates or capacity, so both have to be quoted directly.