The cheapest way in
TANAPA Katavi Rest House
A basic self-catering government rest house at park headquarters, for a thirtieth of what the fly-in camps charge. Book ahead through TANAPA; do not just turn up.
Western Tanzania · est. 1974
Katavi National Park Independent Guides & Information
Tanzania's third-largest national park counted 1,338 international visitors in all of 2024. What they found: hippos packed by the hundreds into the last pools of the Katuma River, buffalo herds over a thousand strong, and floodplains with no other vehicle in sight. This guide covers the fees, the camps and the two flights a week that get you here.
Photo: Calle v H (CC BY 2.0)
Official TANAPA fees, verified against the tariff sheet
Every lodge and camp, from $30 campsites to fly-in tents
Honest logistics: which flights actually exist in 2026
We say so when a claim cannot be verified
Where is Katavi National Park, and which route gets you there?
Katavi sits in Tanzania's remote far west, a rough half-day's drive from Mpanda and a longer haul from Sumbawanga to the south. At 4,471 km² it is Tanzania's third-largest national park, and it receives fewer visitors in a year than the Serengeti sees in a day.
- 1 Sitalike gate & park HQ Main entry on the Mpanda–Sumbawanga road, TANAPA rest house and public campsite nearby
- 2 Mpanda Nearest town, ±40 km north: last reliable fuel, supplies, airport (MPA) and railhead
- 3 Ikuu airstrip The park's airstrip, served by Safari Air Link on Mondays and Thursdays
- 4 Katisunga plain The great central floodplain: buffalo, topi and most of the camps
- 5 Lake Katavi floodplain Seasonal lake in the north, near the spirit tree of Katabi
- 6 Lake Chada floodplain Seasonal lake in the south-east, buffalo and stork country
- Pan with a hide or viewing platform
- Dam
- Gate or barrier on the map
- Tarred trunk road
Why this guide exists, and where the numbers come from
This guide is written by someone who overlanded much of Africa in his own Land Cruiser with a rooftop tent, and for whom the national parks were what stayed. The information about them online was usually missing, wrong or years old: fees from three tariff sheets ago, camps that had closed, roads described by people who had never driven them.
So this guide runs on the park authority's own tariff document rather than a copied operator page, on thirty-year climate normals rather than brochure weather, and on what the camps tell us directly. Every claim carries a date. Where TANAPA is silent, so are we, apart from saying that it is silent.
Nothing here is for sale. Listing a camp is free and no position on any page can be bought. Some outbound links earn us a small commission, and that changes neither the order of a list nor a single figure on these pages.
Found something out of date? Tell us and it changes the same week.
Where to stay in Katavi National Park
Seven places to stay, from a TANAPA rest house to the park's costliest fly-in camp. These four are not the best four; they are the four that mark out the range.
Locally run, at the gate
Riverside Camp, Sitalike
Simple bandas and a campsite on the Katuma River in Sitalike village, five minutes from park HQ, where self-drivers stage before an early gate entry.
Mid-range, in the park
Katavi Wildlife Camp
Thatched tents on the edge of the Katisunga plain, where the dry-season game concentrations happen in front of camp.
The top end
Chada Katavi
Six canvas tents under tamarind trees on the Chada plain, built around walking and fly-camping rather than comfort for its own sake.
Everything you need to plan a visit
Entry fees
Exactly what Katavi costs per day: conservation fees, vehicle fees, camping and activities, with the 18% VAT explained.
See the fees →Lodges & camps
All seven places to sleep, from the $30 TANAPA rest house to classic fly-in tented camps on the Katisunga plain.
Browse lodges →Getting there
Safari Air Link flies in on Mondays and Thursdays. That is the schedule. Plus the long roads from Mbeya and Tabora.
Plan the route →Wildlife
Hundreds of hippos in shrinking pools, buffalo herds over a thousand strong, and crocodiles that spend the dry season in caves.
What you'll see →Best time to visit
June to October is the season; August to October the spectacle. All camps close March to May. Month by month.
Pick your month →Things to do
Game drives without traffic, walking safaris with an armed ranger, official night drives and fly-camping on the plains.
See activities →Our own research
We priced every park in Africa
We collect the official tariff of every park we cover, convert it, and hold each one to the same standard day. Twenty-nine parks are in the index now, the famous ones included. These three pages come out of that table.
The most expensive safari parks in Africa
Ngorongoro charges $278 for a standard day and $148 of that is the descent into the crater. The ranking straight down, with the line item behind each number.
See the ranking →The most expensive parks for self-drivers
One person, one car, no one to split the vehicle fee or the campsite with. Uganda's foreign-vehicle tariff turns the order upside down.
See the self-drive ranking →Africa's most expensive published safari beds
The highest nightly rates any camp in our network puts in writing, and why the real top of the market names no price at all.
See the rates →Latest updates to this guide
Every change to this guide, dated.
- 2026-09-14 Nineteen new pages joined the costs page: the spirit tree in the history, health and tsetse honesty, camping at Sitalike, the verified flight circuit, the Katavi-Mahale circuit guide, and a page for every month including the closed ones. See the page
- 2026-09-08 Added hire-car and flight links to the getting-there page, marked as paid links because they are. See the page
- 2026-09-06 All outbound lodge links on this site are now nofollow, so a listing here is information, not a traded favour.