- From $195 /person
- Full day
- Price Includes
About This Activity
Duration: 6–8 hours
Departure: Moshi or Arusha
Destination: Serval Wildlife Sanctuary (Sanya Juu, Siha District, Kilimanjaro Region)
Activity Level: Easy
Suitable For: Families, honeymooners, solo travelers, groups, and student trips
Overview
If you want a day that gets you close to African wildlife without the long hours of a full safari, Serval Wildlife Sanctuary is the trip you’ll come back talking about.
This is not a fenced zoo and it’s not a traditional game drive either. It sits in the green highlands of Sanya Juu, just an hour from Moshi and about 90 minutes from Arusha — and on a clear morning you’ll have Mount Kilimanjaro on one side and Mount Meru on the other while you’re feeding a giraffe out of your hand.
Your day begins with a relaxed pickup from your hotel.
As you leave town, the road climbs into open farm country, with banana shambas, small villages, and the two big mountains rising in the distance.
It’s an easy, scenic drive — the kind where you roll down the window, watch rural life go by, and feel the city slip away behind you.
When you reach the sanctuary, a keeper welcomes you with a short briefing about the animals and the conservation work that keeps the place running.
Then the real reason you came begins.
In 14 years guiding in Tanzania, I’ve taken hundreds of clients on game drives where the animals are a hundred metres off and half-hidden in the grass. Serval is different. Here you stand a few feet from Masai giraffes, feed elands and ostriches, watch colobus and vervet monkeys move through the trees, and — under the keepers’ guidance — photograph lions up close in a way no game drive can offer.
The animals are calm and used to people, and the keepers run every interaction safely. Children settle in fast. Photographers struggle to put the camera down. And almost everyone tells me afterwards that the hour with the animals went too quickly.
Around midday you’ll sit down to a proper lunch with mountain views, then spend more time walking the grounds — over 3,000 hand-planted trees, birdlife everywhere — before the drive back.
By the time you head home, you’ll have photos most travellers never get the chance to take, and a real sense of how a small Tanzanian sanctuary protects animals that need it.
This isn’t just a wildlife stop — it’s the kind of close, honest encounter with Tanzania’s animals that stays with you long after you’ve flown home.
Gallery
What to Expect
1. Friendly pickup from your hotel Your guide picks you up from Moshi or Arusha (or directly from Kilimanjaro International Airport if you’ve just landed). Along the way, enjoy views of rural villages, farmland, and — weather permitting — Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru.
2. Scenic drive into the Siha highlands The route runs through the green farming country of Sanya Juu. It’s an easy paved-then-dirt road drive, and your guide shares stories about the region as you go — a relaxed start before the wildlife begins.
3. Arrival and welcome briefing On arrival, a sanctuary keeper greets you and explains the conservation mission and the simple rules for interacting with the animals safely. This is what keeps every encounter calm for both you and the wildlife.
4. Up-close wildlife encounter (about 1 hour) This is the heart of the day. With the keepers guiding you, you’ll get to:
- hand-feed Masai giraffes
- feed elands, zebras, and ostriches
- see African lions up close in a safe, guided setting
- watch free-roaming colobus, blue, and vervet monkeys
- spot bat-eared foxes and other residents
- take photos most travellers never get the chance to
The animals have usually just had their morning, so they’re active and curious — the best window for interaction and photography.
5. Lunch (optional) Depending on your package, you may enjoy:
- local Tanzanian dishes
- a hot picnic or sit-down lunch
- vegetarian/vegan meals
- soft drinks and drinking water
eaten with mountain and sanctuary views around you.
6. Nature walk and grounds After lunch, there’s time to walk the sanctuary’s grounds — over 3,000 hand-planted endemic trees, good birdlife, and quiet corners for more photos.
7. Return transfer Your guide drives you back to Moshi or Arusha (or to the airport), arriving in the early evening with a camera full of photos.
Price
Price Includes
- Transfer go and return
- Professional guide
- Sanctuary entry ticket
- Wildlife interaction and feeding session
- Picnic or sit-down lunch
- Bottled drinking water
- Soft drinks
FAQ - Serval Wildlife Day Trip
Where exactly is Serval Wildlife Sanctuary located?
The sanctuary is in Sanya Juu, Siha District, in the Kilimanjaro Region of northern Tanzania, sitting in the highlands between Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru. It’s about a one-hour drive from Moshi town and roughly 90 minutes from Arusha, which makes it one of the easiest genuine wildlife experiences to fit into a single day. Many of our clients add it before or after a Kilimanjaro climb or a longer safari, since the drive is short and the scenery on the way is part of the appeal. We can also collect you straight from Kilimanjaro International Airport.
What animals will I see at Serval Wildlife?
You’ll get close to a real range of African wildlife. Residents include Masai giraffes, African lions, elands, ostriches, zebras, bat-eared foxes, and several monkey species — colobus, blue, and vervet. The standout for most visitors is hand-feeding the giraffes and seeing lions up close under keeper supervision. Unlike a game drive where animals are far off, here the encounters are intimate and guided, which is why families and photographers love it so much.
Is this the same as a safari game drive?
No, and that’s the point. A safari game drive takes you into a national park to find wild animals at a distance. Serval is a sanctuary, so the animals are protected, used to people, and close enough to feed and photograph. In 14 years guiding, I tell clients to think of the two as complements, not substitutes — a sanctuary day gives you the close encounters a park rarely can, while a Serengeti or Ngorongoro safari gives you wild animals in their open landscape.
How long do I get with the animals?
The hands-on wildlife interaction is about one hour, which is the window the keepers manage to keep it safe and good for the animals. Around that, you have the scenic drive, the welcome briefing, lunch with mountain views, and time to walk the grounds — so the full day runs about 6–8 hours door to door. Most people find the animal hour goes faster than they expected and are glad of the extra time on the grounds afterwards.
Is it safe to feed and get close to lions?
Yes — every interaction is supervised by experienced sanctuary keepers who set the pace and the boundaries. The lions are viewed and photographed in a controlled, guided setting, while the giraffes, elands, ostriches, and zebras are the ones you feed by hand. As a Tanzania Association of Tour Operators member operator, we only run experiences where animal welfare and guest safety are properly managed, and Serval’s keeper-led model is exactly that.
Is it suitable for children and older travellers?
Very much so. The walking is gentle, the drive is short, and the keeper-led feeding sessions are a genuine highlight for kids and grandparents alike. Families and student groups are some of our most common bookings for this trip, and the small-group nature of the day means everyone gets a turn to feed an animal and get their photo.
Can this be combined with other activities?
Yes. Because the sanctuary is so close to Moshi, it pairs well with a Chemka Hot Spring visit, a Materuni Waterfall walk, or a Lake Duluti or Lake Chala stop, depending on timing and your group. It’s also a relaxed, low-altitude option for the day before or the day after a Kilimanjaro climb. Tell us what else you’d like to see and we’ll build the day around it.
