Sable Mountain Lodge
Stone cottages and tented rooms · Hilltop 1 to 5 km west of Matambwe gate · A Tent with a View Safaris
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.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Only real base on the quieter Matambwe side of the park
- Reachable by road, air or the TAZARA train
- Hill setting looks out towards the Uluguru Mountains
- Miombo woodland favours hartebeest and sable over lake-circuit game
- Solar power runs lights and hot water throughout
Cons
- No wifi mentioned on the lodge's own site
- Game drives cost extra unless you book the game package
- Closed April and May every year
- TAZARA train service is unreliable, by the lodge's own admission
What's here
Arranged from the lodge:
- Birding
- Fishing
Read from Sable Mountain Lodge's own website in July 2026. Anything not listed we could not confirm, which is not the same as it being absent.
Arriving by train, the way nobody writes down
The TAZARA line from Dar es Salaam stops at Kisaki, and Sable Mountain collects you there. The lodge gave us these details on 2 September 2026; the departure times match TAZARA's own published timetable.
| Leg | Detail | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday departure | Leaves Dar es Salaam TAZARA station at 13:50. Roughly four to five hours to Kisaki | Twice a week |
| Friday departure | Leaves Dar es Salaam TAZARA station at 15:50, scheduled into Kisaki about 20:16 | Twice a week |
| Kisaki station to the lodge | About a 20 minute drive. The lodge collects its guests | Free |
- The lodge is blunt about the service: it is not very reliable and the schedule is prone to delays and unexpected changes. Confirm the departure time at the station before you set off.
- The Friday train is scheduled to reach Kisaki after dark, so arrange the pick-up in advance rather than on arrival.
- Trains back towards Dar es Salaam run on other days, so check both legs before you build a trip around the train.
Times and pick-up confirmed by A Tent with a View Safaris on 2 September 2026, cross-checked against TAZARA's published passenger timetable.
What the park charges on top
The rate above buys you a bed. Nyerere National Park charges its own entry fee for every day you are inside. Here is what that adds up to.
- Park entry$70 plus 18% VAT, charged per 24 hours.
- $82.6per person, per day
- Vehicle$40 plus VAT for a foreign-registered vehicle up to 2,000 kg; above that, where most safari 4x4s sit, it is $150 plus VAT.
- $47.2per vehicle, per day
Three nights means three days inside, so two adults sharing one vehicle pay $637.2 in park fees before anyone pays for a bed.
The full fee schedule for Nyerere National ParkRates at Sable Mountain Lodge
From about $200 pppn. Roughly $200 to $350 full board. Rates are not published openly, so confirm directly with the operator.
What the rate covers is not confirmed. We do not know yet whether meals, drinks and activities are included, so read this as the bed only.
Every figure 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.
Questions about Sable Mountain Lodge
Is Sable Mountain Lodge good for families?
We found no minimum age published, either on the lodge's own site or in the park record, so ask when you enquire. The operator does run a Family Learning Holiday itinerary built around this part of Tanzania, which suggests the lodge is used to hosting children, though it is not a camp-specific policy.
Can you self-drive to Sable Mountain Lodge?
Yes. The lodge's own site puts it roughly 4.5 hours from Dar es Salaam by road, which makes it one of the easier camps in this park to reach by car. The alternatives are a 20-minute transfer from Matambwe airstrip or the twice-weekly TAZARA train to Kisaki, which the lodge calls unreliable.
What does the rate at Sable Mountain Lodge include?
Rates run $200 to $350 full board, according to the park record, though the lodge itself does not publish an open rate card. Its own site offers full board or a game package, and says guides can arrange a safari either way, so confirm whether game drives are included before you book.
When is Sable Mountain Lodge open?
The lodge runs June to March and closes for April and May, confirmed on both its own site and the park record. That gap covers the worst of the long rains, when the roads and the TAZARA line both become less reliable.