Eighteen places to stay in and around Nyerere National Park, the park most people still call the Selous, from $35 TANAPA campsites and the budget camps at Mloka to exclusive-use houses on the Rufiji, with 2026 rates where operators publish them and a plain 'on request' where they do not.
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Ownership here is unusually brand-heavy: nine of the eighteen properties belong to safari companies or hotel groups, which is what happens when a park is reached almost entirely by charter flight. The clearest local story is Selous Impala Camp, whose majority shareholder Deograsias is the first Tanzanian to own a camp inside this park. Selous Wilderness Camp draws more than seventy per cent of its staff from the neighbouring villages, and TANAPA's own campsites put your money straight into the park authority. Look for the green and brown badges.
Stone and thatch bandas · Beho Beho hills above the Rufiji floodplain
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.
Stretch-canvas tents · Peninsula on Lake Nzerakera
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.
Open-fronted stone cottages · Rufiji River in the west, near Stiegler's Gorge
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.
Luxury tented camp · Lake Nzerakera, central lake circuit
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.
Classic tented camp · Rufiji River near Mtemere gate
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.
Restaurant
From $395 pppnJune to December, closed from late March to early June
Stone cottages and tented rooms · Hilltop 1 to 5 km west of Matambwe gate
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.
Chalet lodge · Rufiji bank overlooking Stiegler's Gorge
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.
Swimming pool
Wi-Fi
Restaurant
Bar
and 1 more
From $405 per room per nightYear-round (one source lists an April to May closure)
Banda and bungalow lodge with two pools · Near the Rufiji and Mtemere airstrip
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.
Mud-hut cottages, bandas and riverfront tents · Rufiji bank at Mloka, near Mtemere gate
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.
Camping, bring everything · Designated public sites inside the park
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.
$35.40 pppnYear-round, though the roads are effectively impassable from March to May
Exclusive-use bush camping · Undeveloped exclusive-use sites across the park, including Rufiji sandbanks
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.
$59.00 pppnYear-round, by advance booking through TANAPA
Exclusive-use private house · Private site on the Rufiji, next to Sand Rivers
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.
Small solar-powered tented camp · Rufiji River, eastern sector
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.
Family rooms
Campsite
En-suite bathrooms
Solar or 24h power
On requestListed as year-round; confirm for April and May
Rustic classic tents · Lake Manze, central lake circuit
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.
Tented rooms and lodge, with a pool · Rufiji concession a few kilometres from Mtemere gate
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.
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.
Swimming pool
Restaurant
Solar or 24h power
Spa or massage
and 1 more
On requestYear-round, but confirm for the March to May rains
Tented bungalows · Rufiji at Mloka, near Mtemere gate, with its own forest reserve
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.
Small tented camp with a fly camp · South bank of the Rufiji on the park boundary, near Mtemere gate
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.
Swimming pool
Bar
Family rooms
On requestAsk the camp
Nothing matches all of those at once. Take one filter off and try again.
Every price on this page is in US dollars.
Indicative 2026 rates gathered in July 2026 from operators' own rate cards, and from the best third-party sources where an operator publishes nothing at all. No published rate means 'on request'. Always confirm with the property. Two things shift the real comparison in this park. First, park fees are extra almost everywhere: a camp inside the boundary carries the $82.60 conservation fee plus a $59.00 to $70.80 concession fee per adult per night, both including VAT, and most in-park camps bundle these into an all-inclusive rate while the camps outside the gate charge entry, boat and walking fees separately on the days you go in. Second, ignore any camp still advertising night game drives: they are not permitted inside the national park since the 2019 regazettement. Names you may still find in older guides but that we do not list: Azura Selous, which appears permanently closed, plus Selous Kulinda, Ol Moran, Jimbiza Lodge, Selous Great Water, Selous Mbuyu, Selous Mapumziko, The Retreat Selous and Amara Selous, none of which we could verify as currently trading.
Facilities and activities come from each property's own website, read in July 2026. We only record what that property's own page states. A blank means we could not check it, not that it is missing. Filtering on a facility shows only what we confirmed, and tells you how many places we could not check.
