Month by month
Nyerere in March
March is the hinge month, when Nyerere's long rains properly arrive and the camps that survived January and February close in a rolling sequence rather than all at once. The averages jump hard from February, and by the middle of the month the accommodation map looks very different from how it started.
If you only want the answer
March is the month the rains take over: expect closures cascading through the middle two weeks and a discounted conservation fee from the 15th.
The rain arrives in full
On the thirty-year record, March averages 135 mm across 18 rain days, with days at 31.0°C and nights at 23.3°C, a sharp jump from February's already wet numbers. This is the month the long rains stop being an occasional shower and become the defining fact of the park, and it shows immediately in how many properties choose to shut their doors.
TANAPA responds to the same shift: the conservation fee drops to its low-season rate from 15 March, one of the few parks in the country to discount it at all. If your trip depends on that lower fee, nothing before the 15th qualifies.
Closures in order
Kiba Point and Sand Rivers Selous are already closed, having ended their season in February. Beho Beho runs until 14 March, Roho ya Selous and Siwandu both close around the middle of the month, and Rufiji River Camp shuts from late March through to early June. Lake Manze has been closed since the start of the month.
What survives is a short list: the handful of camps that describe themselves as year-round but flag March through May for confirmation, plus TANAPA's own campsites, which stay technically bookable even as the roads to reach them worsen by the week.
A narrow window, then none
If you want to see Nyerere in the rains without gambling on road access, the first ten days of March are the version of this month that still resembles February: green, quiet and mostly open. After the 14th, availability drops fast.
The concrete move: decide before you book whether you are chasing the closing camps or the low-season fee, since the two windows barely overlap, and confirm road or air transfer directly with whichever property survives your date.