Day 1: Arusha  – Tarangire

Pick up from your Hotel. Depart Arusha and proceed to Tarangire National Park for a morning game viewing en-route to your lodge for lunch and thereafter, an afternoon game drive returning to your lodge for dinner and overnight

The park covers an area of 2850 sq km and is located 120 km from Arusha, bordered with Tarangire Wildlife conservation area to the northeast, an area set apart by the government, to cater for the needs of the local people as a grazing ground for their herds. The park owes its name to Tarangire River, which flows across the area. It is characterized by dense vegetation of acacia and mixed woodland, the area around Tarangire River however, is dominated by huge baobab trees and old palm trees to a lesser prominence, as well as black cotton grass.

Though it is not as famous as other parks in the north, Tarangire offers the same attractions as other parks in the north. Its unique aspect is the annual animal immigration that takes place during the dry season. While Serengeti’s animal migration has attained mundane fame, for many tourists, little is known of Tarangire annual migration. The difference with Serengeti however is that, in Serengeti animals migrate away from the park during the dry season (June to October), the opposite happens in Tarangire; animals migrate from Maasai Steppe to the park during the dry season. They migrate to the park in search for water, which is provided by Tarangire River, and predators migrate along in search for preys. During this period the park has the largest concentration of animals than in any park in the northern Tanzania.

June to October is the best time to see large number of wildebeest, elephants, zebras, and hartebeest. Not all animals are migratory though; other animals such as giraffes, Impala, Eland, lesser kudu, waterbuck, gazelle and sometimes rhinos or leopards can be seen throughout the year. More people are attracted by the giant pythons and large herds of elephants.

Day 2 – Tarangire

After breakfast we spend the morning in the Park game viewing, returning to the lodge for lunch. Proceed to Gibb’s farm (A beautiful Lodge in the Ngorongoro highlands near to the Crater) for dinner and overnight.

Day 3 – Ngorongoro

We depart for Ngorongoro crater after breakfast with packed lunches for a full day’s crater tour. Dinner and overnight at a lodge on the crater rim

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 4 – Ngorongoro – Serengeti.

Leaving the Ngorongoro Conservation area we drive off into the Serengeti National Park game viewing en-route as we drive North to the Northern border of the Serengeti and the Maasai Mara (of Kenya!). Lunch at the Lobo Lodge on the Wildebeest migration route. A full afternoon’s game viewing with dinner and overnight at the lodge.

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 5 – Serengeti

Departing Lobo after breakfast, we drive South through the Serengeti plains to Seronera game viewing en-route. Lunch at the Seronera Lodge and thereafter, an afternoon game drive returning to your lodge for dinner and overnight

Day 6 – Serengeti / Lake Manyara

After a full morning’s game viewing, we return to the Lodge for lunch and thereafter, proceed to Lake Manyara for dinner and overnight

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 7 – Lake Manyara / Arusha

Leave after an early breakfast and enter the Lake Manyara National Park for a full morning game drive with picnic lunch. Return to Arusha thereafter arriving in the late afternoon.