Tanzania Camping Safari: The Campsites, the Nights and 2026/2027 Prices

A Tanzania camping safari is a guided road safari on which you sleep in a two-person dome tent, with the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater nights at public campsites such as those around Seronera and Simba A on the crater rim. A driver-guide and a cook travel with you, put up the tents and cook every meal. You see the same animals as the lodge guests and pay $460 to $635 less per person.

A public campsite in Tanzania is an unfenced clearing with shared toilets and showers. In the Serengeti, Tarangire, Lake Manyara and Arusha national parks it costs $35.40 per adult per night in government fees, which is $30 plus 18% VAT on the latest tariff Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) has published, for 2023/24. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority charges the same $35.40. On the camping safaris we sell, the park nights are at these sites, because they're the cheapest of the three things Tanzania calls "camping".

Key takeaways

• Our partners' group camping seats for 2026/2027 cost $460 for two days and $1,035 for five, per person sharing. The lodge seat on the same departures costs $920 to $1,670.
• The crater rim is the cold night. Simba A sits at about 2,300 m, and modelled July nights there average roughly 6 to 9°C.
• You bring no camping gear. The operator supplies a tent for two, a basic mattress, a sleeping bag, a pillow and a chair. A solo traveller pays the own-tent rate and most likely gets a two-person tent.
• Departures run almost every day of the year, the rainy season included.
• Guests report no electricity at the Serengeti campsites, so check with the operator first if you need a CPAP machine at night.

Three things sold as "camping" in Tanzania

"Camping" on a Tanzania itinerary can mean a dome tent on the ground, a private patch of bush with your own crew, or a canvas room with a queen-size bed and a flush toilet. The price gap between the first and the last is the gap between a camping seat and a lodge seat, so ask which one a quote means.

A special campsite is a bare site booked for one group. The Ngorongoro authority describes its 49 special campsites as "designed for self-contained safari operations that bring everything along", so the operator carries in the whole camp. In the Serengeti, Tarangire and Lake Manyara the standard special campsite fee is $70.80 from July to September and $59 from October to June, which is $60 or $50 plus VAT. TANAPA also lists premium special campsites in the Serengeti at $300 a night plus VAT.

Our partners' guests use the word "camping" for both ends of the range. One of our partners' camping routes spends its first night at Haven Nature, a budget tented camp, and a guest who booked it had "expected something very simple". They found "a huge tent to myself, with a queen-sized bed, shower, and toilet inside", and called it "camping like I had never seen before". Our guide to what to expect on a Tanzania safari compares tented camps and lodges in more detail.

A night at a public campsite, hour by hour

A night at a public campsite in the Serengeti runs from the last game drive, back before the 6 pm cut-off, to a start before dawn, and the crew does the work in between.

Late afternoon. Game driving in the parks stops at 6 pm, so the last drive ends at the campsite before dark. Your crew is the driver-guide and a cook, and the tents are their job. Six of the partner reviews we checked describe the crew putting the tents up or having them ready on arrival, and two describe pitching them together with the crew. Tea comes out with something to eat before dinner.

Before dinner. Shower while there's daylight. Don't count on hot water in the Serengeti: one partner guest wrote "No hot water in Serengeti" and another "don't expect hot water in the showers", while a third found "western toilets, even shower with hot water in some of the campsites". Guests report no electricity at the Serengeti sites, so take a headlamp to the block.

Dinner. The cook serves it in the campsite's dining shelter, which you share with the other groups on the site. One guest's crew managed tea with popcorn and a two-course dinner every day, and another group nicknamed their cook "Mister delicious" for his soups.

Bedtime. Bed comes early, because the day starts before dawn. Then the noise starts. Guests describe lions roaring in the Serengeti and hyenas around their tents. On the crater rim one reviewer was startled by how loudly tree hyraxes screech, and another lay listening to zebras chewing grass outside the tent at Simba.

The night toilet trip. Sweep your headlamp across the grass before you step out. At the Ngorongoro campsite one guest picked up "the gleam of the eyes of Zebras" just beyond the tents. Your crew will go over the night rules on the first evening, and they're the ones to follow.

Before dawn. Coffee or tea first, then breakfast while the crew packs up the tents. One guest remembered "the 6 am start the next day" as cold; another left at 5.30 to eat breakfast by the hippo pool on the crater floor.

The campsites you'll actually sleep at

Camping safaris in northern Tanzania sleep at the public campsites around Seronera in the Serengeti and at Simba A on the Ngorongoro rim, with a first night outside the parks on some routes. Karlis Auzins, who founded GetSafariTours, says operators generally use the public campsites because they're cheaper, they have the infrastructure, and travellers who want a camping safari are usually price-sensitive.

Serengeti camping: the Seronera campsites

We found no official list, but operator pages name the public campsites around Seronera after animals in Swahili, among them Pimbi, Nyani, Ngiri and Tumbili. Our partners' itineraries name Nyani and "Seronera Campsite". The sites differ on a busy night: one partner group found two long-drop toilets and no water at Pimbi, and moved to Tumbili, "a vast improvement".

Seronera is where our guests see leopards most often, and it's six to eight hours by road from Arusha. On a migration-season route to the north, such as our six-day migration camping safari, the nights move to campsites in the northern Serengeti.

Ngorongoro Crater camping: Simba A on the rim

Ngorongoro Crater camping means a night on the rim. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area has one public campsite, Simba A, on the crater rim at about 2,300 m, and it can hold more than 200 people a night. Camping is only allowed at designated sites, so camping safaris sleep up here and drive down to the crater floor at first light. Our Ngorongoro Crater safari guide covers the descent and the $295 vehicle fee.

On paper Simba A has more than the Serengeti sites: the authority lists hot showers, dining halls, kitchens and power for charging devices. Guests' reports vary. One found "warm showers", another "hot water at Ngorongoro for sure", and a third wrote "don't go there if you hate dirty toilets".

Before the Serengeti: the first night

The first night depends on the route. Our partners' four-day Nyati route sleeps at Haven Nature, the budget tented camp, and the six-day budget route at Figi Big Tree Lodge & Campsite. Neither is a park campsite. Other routes name only a "Campsite in Tarangire". One guest arrived at a camping lodge in Mto wa Mbu to find the tent "ready waiting for us, with sleeping bags and mattresses".

When to go: cold nights on the rim and the rains

The crater rim is the cold night of any Tanzania camping safari, and June to August is when it bites. We found no published temperature record for the rim. Two reanalysis datasets, Copernicus ERA5 and ERA5-Land for 2015 to 2024 adjusted to 2,300 m, put the average July night at 8 to 9°C. Estimates from measured stations lower down give 6 to 8°C, so plan for roughly 6 to 9°C, with the coldest nights of the decade near 5°C.

Our guests describe it as cold. One wrote that "even in June it is FREEZING during the night", and another spent the last night "in the cloud" and "very chilly". The models show nothing below about 5°C, so expect cold rather than frost. Seronera, down on the plains, is much milder: the same models put its July nights at about 15°C.

The rains are the other question. Three gridded rainfall datasets for Seronera agree that March to April and November to December are the wettest months, and that June to September are the driest, with July close to zero. Camping departures run almost every day through the rains, Karlis says. The tents are another matter: one camper wrote that "even though it was raining from time to time the tents were dry", while another family's tents "leaked significantly" on a wet night. A guest who camped in May found the parks weren't "too busy and crowded".

For dry nights and the easiest game viewing, go from June to September and pack for the rim. February is the other good window. It sits in a short, drier spell between the rains, though showers still come, and it's calving season on the southern plains. Our month-by-month guide to Tanzania covers the rest of the year.

What a budget camping safari in Tanzania costs in 2026/2027

A seat on a group camping safari costs $460 to $1,035 per person sharing a tent, for two to five days. These are our partner operators' group-joining prices for 2026/2027, with departures from Arusha almost every day.

Camping saves $460 to $635 per person against the lodge seat on the same trip, but the saving shrinks as a share of the price the longer you go. The two-day camping seat costs half the lodge seat, and the five-day seat costs 62% of it. Conservation fees are the same for a camper and a lodge guest, so they weigh more on the cheaper seat. On our four-day route the park and campsite fees take at least $403 of the $865 camping seat. Our budget safari guide adds that bill up line by line.

A private camping safari costs more per person. The Land Cruiser, the guide and the cook serve your group alone. Our sample camping itineraries include a five-day Tanzania camping safari through Tarangire, Lake Manyara, the Serengeti and the crater, and a six-day budget camping safari with two nights at Seronera. Our guide to private and group safaris shows what the price difference buys.

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What's supplied, and what to bring

On the Tanzania camping safaris we sell, each tent sleeps two and comes with a basic mattress, a sleeping bag, a pillow and a chair. Kit quality varies by operator. One camper found the supplied sleeping bags "warm enough for temperatures as low as 8 degree celsius", while other guests describe thin mats. Ask what you'll be sleeping on.

Bring the things that make the difference at night:

• A warm hat and a fleece. The rim night needs both, even in the dry season.
• A headlamp
• A sleeping-bag liner, which adds warmth and keeps the operator's bag clean
• A power bank and cable, charged from the vehicle during the day
• A quick-dry towel
• Toilet paper and hand sanitiser, which past campers advise bringing for the shower and toilet blocks
• Earplugs

Our Tanzania safari packing list covers clothes and cameras.

Is a camping safari in Tanzania safe?

Camping in Tanzania's parks is safe when you follow your guide, and the animals that wander through camp at night are part of why people choose it. The public campsites have no fence. Whether anyone keeps watch varies: one partner guest wrote that their campsites "are not fenced or guarded. We never felt unsafe", while a guest on the crater rim found the camp "monitored by armed guards". Karlis says our main partner operator has had no major incidents with its guests, and that safety comes down to the guide's experience.

Your crew will repeat the night rules. The two that matter most are to zip the tent every time you leave it and to keep food out of it, because animals come into camp after dark and one guest warned of "rats at the dinner places" at the Serengeti and Ngorongoro campsites. Our guide to how dangerous safari animals really are explains why these rules work.

Who shouldn't camp, and the halfway option

A few people shouldn't book a camping safari:

• Anyone who needs power at night. Guests report no electricity at the Serengeti campsites, so a CPAP machine or another medical device needs a battery plan agreed with the operator in advance.
• Bad backs, hips or knees. The mattress is on the ground, and you'll get up from it in the dark.
• Light sleepers. One guest whose second night was "a mat on the floor of the tent", with animals in camp, admitted "I did not sleep that much".
• Anyone who can't face a shared toilet.

The halfway option is to camp where the camping is best and sleep indoors where it's coldest. On a private trip, camp at Seronera, where the night sounds are the point, and take a lodge in Karatu instead of the rim. Our Tanzania lodge picks list the affordable ones. On a group departure, the lodge seat costs $460 to $635 more for the same route.

How to choose a Tanzania camping safari

Our budget safari guide has the general checks for any cheap safari. These are the camping ones to ask before you pay a deposit:

1. Is the first night at a campsite or a tented camp, and which campsite is each park night, by name?
2. How thick is the mattress, and what temperature is the sleeping bag rated for? Ask for a number, because "warm" means nothing at 5°C.
3. Does a cook travel with you?
4. Is the crater descent included, with its $295 vehicle fee?
5. What happens if a tent leaks?

If you'd rather we ask them for you, tell us your dates and we'll match you to a departure.

Tanzania camping safari: frequently asked questions

The sound you'll remember

Read what our partners' guests remember about camping and the same scenes keep coming back: lions roaring in the Serengeti, hyenas around the tents, zebras chewing grass outside the tent at Simba. A lodge room keeps all of that on the other side of a wall. If it sounds like your kind of night, send us your dates and we'll find you a seat.