Sample Itinerary - Tanzania's Wilder South - 7 nts

A leading Dar es Salaam hotel renowned for comfort-boosting services and productivity-enhancing amenities. With modern meeting rooms, exceptional dining, a pool, gym and great-sleep rooms in a tree-lined, location near the ocean, we invite you to discover our Dar es Salaam hotel.

Baraza celebrates Tanzanian produce with ocean-fresh seafood, Spice Island flavours, mountain-grown coffee and tea, exotic fruits of the season, and premium grill cuts. Join us for dining in the comfort of the lounge café, at the bar, overlooking the show kitchen or on the sun terrace.

A choice of adaptable Dar es Salaam venues is equipped as standard with inclusive business basics for events of 10 to 100. Business-ready amenities and nice-to-have extras in our classic comfortable Rooms and Suites are as perfect for a business break as a safari stopover.

Guests enjoy free uncapped Wi-Fi from the pool to the gym and everywhere between, business essentials in the business centre, 24-hour room service, quiet gardens, an on-site travel and tour operator and a guest relations team that’s locally connected and internationally experienced.

Experience our TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence and Silver Status Heritage Environmental-rated hotel in Dar es Salaam.

Opened in 2017 Roho ya Selous is one of the newest safari camps in the Selous Game Reserve. Its name translates as “the heart of the Selous” and it is located on a small promontory on the west side of Lake Nzerakera, just to the north of the 'inland delta' formed by the Rufiji River.

Being close to both Lake Manze and also Lake Nzerakera, this is considered to offer the best game viewing in the park. You can expect to see plenty of crocodile, pods of hippo wallowing in the water whilst fish eagles fly overhead, giraffe are numerous and predators present but not prolific. General game was active on the receding shorelines and elephants passed through occasionally. Birdlife is excellent and we saw great big fishing parties gathered at the points where lakes were draining out and trapping fish - a real feast.

Roho ya Selous has eight spacious safari tents, including one family tent, which are nestled between the trees and spaced out for privacy. Inside, the tents are tastefully decorated in a neutral colour scheme with green accents, with contemporary wall hangings and a few pieces of furniture. The combination of stretched canvas roof, rustic stone floor and bamboo walls makes for a stylish overall aesthetic but the highlight of the room is definitely the huge open side offering a completely private view of the bush. It is screened with a fine net to keep the insects out, but ensures the views are not compromised.

An evening breeze cooling system is installed over the bed, which is an almost-silent, low-power air-conditioning system which helps to keep the interior of the mosquito net over the bed cool. We've slept under these in other camps, and found them to make a big difference. In case of technical problems with the evening breeze system, there are a number of excellent standing fans as well.

Each tent has a large en-suite bathroom separated by a curtain, which features both an indoor and an outdoor shower, with complementary toiletries provided.

The main area at camp features two open, shady spaces where you can enjoy a drink from the bar, read a good book or share safari stories with other guests. The lounge tent and dining tent are a short walk from the rooms and have the same stone floors and contemporary stretched canvas and net roofs, that are a stylish change from the typical tents found in many camps. These main areas are furnished in a minimalist, natural style, and are decorated with printed cushions and interesting artefacts such as beautiful shells and butterflies displayed under glass domes. An outdoor clearing serves as a fireplace where you will likely find yourself having pre-dinner drinks and perhaps dinner too. At first sight, the communal areas felt somewhat empty but they did grow on me over time, they were clearing some bush to open up views over the water which was limited.

The small kidney shaped swimming pool offers welcome relief during the heat of the day and is a great addition to the camp. There are a number of chairs dotted around the pool, with four sun loungers positioned under a wooden awning.

One of the advantages of visiting the Selous is the range of safari activities on offer. Most of the camps in the park, including Roho ya Selous, offer a wide range of activities including game drives, walking safaris, boating safaris and also fishing. We enjoyed an afternoon on the neighbouring lake and sundowners on the banks, although the boating areas are a little restricted towards the end of the dry season. Like most of the camps in the Selous, Roho isn't able to run extensive night drives – as the park's authorities don't allow these in most areas of the park. The best that's possible will be a drive back to camp after sundowners, in the fading light.

Activities are split into a morning and evening session, and if staying for at least two or three nights then guests will have the opportunity to experience many of these during their stay. One of the highlights we enjoyed was a full day drive across the park with a picnic lunch, and to visit the hot springs near Beho Beho, and also a short stop at Selous' grave site. I loved the different vegetation types and variety of habitats along the various lakes and then the drier savanna habitats seen as we moved away from the lakes. The palms along the lake edges are iconic! As this camp is the first for its owners in the Selous, they have brought in a number of their best staff from across the Tanzanian operation – guides, managers and camp staff – so there is an excellent team behind the running of the camp.

Conservation Safari Company recommends Roho for its amazing location overlooking the Nzerakera channel,  excellent game viewing, and exceptional guiding, providing excellent variety to the northern parks. Great as a stand-alone destination or easily combined with other parks in Southern Tanzania, ideally Ruaha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVGAJz6GMp4

Rates include all meals, drinks and safari activities, limited laundry.

Jabali Ridge is set between rocky kopjes located in the northern area of Ruaha National Park. This is one of the best areas of the park for wildlife, and during the dry season large numbers of animals congregate in search for water. Ruaha is famous for its high lion population and sightings of elephant and giraffe are also common.

The lodge has eight bandas dotted between the boulders. They are extremely contemporary in design, with plenty of wood, stone and other natural materials. Each banda is completely open-sided to maximise the views, with louvered floor to ceiling shutters that can be closed during the evenings, or opened completely during the day. The rooms are quite minimalist in style and neutral, earthy colours are used throughout. The heavy wooden-framed king-sized beds are surrounded by stylish mosquito nets. Though if you prefer not to have a net around your bed (the ones at Jabali are quite heavy and so do restrict vision out into the room), you can instead request for netted shutters to be put in place around the edges of the room.

The furniture in the room is stylish although not as comfy as we would like, whilst outside each banda is a private veranda with a soft seating area, shaded by a chunky wooden fringe canopy. There is a large en-suite bathroom with a vast rain shower, separate loo, double sinks and complimentary toiletries.

Jabali Ridge has a spacious central lounge and bar, with a separate space for dining. As with the bandas, they are completely open-sided structures, and are set higher up the kopje so are afforded some of the best views from the lodge. The spaces are decorated in a neutral colour scheme with plenty of wood panelling, modern furnishings and striking lighting. There is an information area with a library containing a number of wildlife guides and natural history books, as well as novels to help you fill your siesta time.

One of the lodge's highlights is the beautiful stone infinity pool which offers panoramic views over Ruaha. Surrounded by wooden decking, there are also a number of sun loungers, a shaded seating area and a pop-up bar. In this area, there is also a small spa with a range of treatments on offer.

Activities at Jabali Ridge focus on 4x4 game drives, either split into a morning and an afternoon session or doing an all day drive including a bush lunch. Guests can also go out on night drives here. There is also the possibility of doing walking safaris, lead by some particularly good walking guides, where you will head out on foot to discover some of Ruaha's smaller, less well-known wildlife.

Jabali Ridge is reaching the high standards they set out to achieve, some of the start up niggles are being resolved [privacy between bandas] but everything is really top notch!

Rates are fully inclusive of all meals, drinks and safari activities.