Day 1: Ngorongoro Crater

Leave Arusha in the morning and drive to Ngorongoro Conservation Area arriving in time for lunch. Descend thereafter to the crater floor for an afternoon crater tour returning to your Lodge for dinner and overnight.

Overnight: Ngorongoro wildlife lodge. FB

The Ngorongoro Crater is one of the most famous safari destinations on earth- no Tanzania safari would be complete without a visit. Covering 265sq km, it is the world’s largest known intact caldera, with a drop from the top of the sides.

With between 25,000-30,000 animals calling it home, it has one of the highest densities of wildlife of any area on earth. Not only this, its floor offers a good variety of terrain and landscape. With grasslands, swamp and areas of acacia forest, it provides habitats for a good variety of different animal and even a small soda lake. With springs feeding the fertile soil, the grazing is good which encourages the animals to stay put rather than migrate in search of new pastures. This in turn keeps the carnivores happy! It is also a haven for the endangered Black Rhino, attracted by the lush grazing and thick forest in which to live. Access to the crater is restricted to between 7 am and 4 pm in an attempt to control the volume of traffic that enters. As it is a comparatively small area, it is busier that the wide open spaces of the Serengeti, but still offers a unique safari experience. The crater itself is but a small area of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a protected zone that covers some 8,300sq km. Only the indigenous people, the Masai, are allowed to live within it and they grant concessions to the lodges to operate on their lands. Soda lakes, volcanic peaks, rich forest all add to the diversity of the area and you can add to the list the world-famous Olduvai Gorge. It was here that the Anthropologist family, the Leakeys discovered some of the oldest remains of early man, dating from some 1.8 mission years ago. Subsequent excavation have increased these discoveries and include footprints dating back an estimated 3.7 million years. The Crater and conservation areas offer some of the most beautiful landscapes in the whole of Tanzania.

Day 2: Olduvai & Ndutu

Breakfast. Leave the Ngorongoro Highlands and head for the Serengeti Plains. On the way, we will detour and visit the world famous Olduvai Gorge where the remains of early man were discovered. fter visiting the site and the small museum there, we proceed on to Ndutu viewing game as we drive through the conservation area.

Arrive at Ndutu Lodge for lunch then spend the afternoon game viewing in the area around the lodge.

Overnight: Ndutu safari lodge. FB

Day 3: Serengeti

Leaving Ndutu Lodge after breakfast we head off for the Seronera area in the heart of the Serengeti National Park, arriving in time for lunch. Full afternoon game viewing returning in the evening for dinner and overnight at your lodge

Overnight: Seronera wildlife lodge. FB

The Serengeti covers several different eco-systems, each with its own unique combination of animals and plant-types. For example, at the centre of the park is Seronera, to the west the Grumeti River, while the south offers more remote and untouched game-viewing.

“Serengeti” is a masai tribe word meaning “endless plains” and refers to an area of 14,763 square km that host a multiplicity of ungulates as well as the annual wildebeest migration. The vegetation in the Serengeti consists of short and long grass plains in the south, the acacia savannah in the centre and the wooded grassland in the west around the Grumeti and Mara rivers. Serengeti, characterized by the endless plains, acacia trees and punctuated by large stone kopjes presents an archetypal picture of a wild and remote Africa and supports an amazingly large number of wildlife.

It is also home to a wonderful array of flora and fauna from large prides of lion, leopard and cheetah, to herds of elephant, giraffe, gazelles, monkeys, eland, zebras, wildebeests, leopards, cheetahs. On your safari in Serengeti, expect to see a whole world of grazing animals. On one of our private Tanzania safaris, you will get to see the African landscapes and animals at their most beautiful and evocative.

It is however one thing in particular that makes the Serengeti particularly famous. Every year it plays host, along with the neighboring Masai Mara, to the wildebeest migration. This spectacle of over 1,000,000 wildebeest migrating in search of fresh grazing is the largest such animal movement on the planet. First they move northwards, returning south after the rains have started. As they go, their hooves throw up a huge cloud of red dust, something that has come to symbolize the park. Pursued by lions and attacked by hungry crocodiles as they attempt to cross the Mara River, it is nature at its most raw and most exciting; a unique safari experience.

Day 4 – Serengeti

An early morning game drive in Serengeti, followed by breakfast at your lodge and thereafter we depart the Serengeti for Lake Manyara. Dinner and overnight at a lodge on the escarpment overlooking the Lake below.

Overnight: Lake Manyara hotel. FB

Lake Manyara national park is a beautiful park located 130 km from Arusha town at the base of the Great Rift Valley escarpment and was established as a national park in 1960.

Lake Manyara National Park is a small but beautiful reserve of some 330sq km of which 220sq km is covered by the lake while the remaining area is taken by forest, woodland and grassland.

The land area of the park is located west of the lake, hemmed in on the other side by the Great Rift wall. Three quarters of its area is the lake itself, a shallow alkaline lake and the flood plains that surround it. It also has giant fig and mahogany trees and areas of acacia forest. The area is well supplied with underground springs bringing water from the lands above the Manyara basin, giving lush grazing that attracts plenty of game.

Lake Manyara have pretty of wildlife including elephant, buffalo, hippo, giraffe, impala, zebra, waterbuck, warthog, leopard and the famous tree climbing lions. Due to its dense vegetation it’s an idle natural play ground for baboons and monkeys.

It is one of the most scenic lakes in Africa surrounded by forests and with the Rift Valley walls beyond, this small park offers a different landscape to other Tanzania parks and offers the chance to see the famous tree-climbing lions.

The park’s amazing variety of birds makes it an ornithologists’ paradise and a perfect destination for bird watching safaris. There are over 350 species which include pelicans, storks, flamingo and cormorants

Day 5: Lake Manyara

We spend the morning game viewing in Lake Manyara National Park situated on the floor of the Great Rift Valley. Enjoy a Picnic lunch in the park before returning to Arusha Town by late afternoon. Drop-off at your hotel in town.