OVERVIEW

This 6-day camping safari offers the chance to see large numbers of elephants in Tarangire National Park, a crater teeming with wildlife in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and a wide variety of animals in the Serengeti National Park, all set against stunning landscapes.

Day 1: Arusha to Tarangire

You leave Arusha after breakfast with a picnic lunch packed safely away. The Rift Valley landscape drifts past as your guide heads for Tarangire National Park, the least visited reserve on the itinerary but one capable of delivering fantastic game viewing. Home to Tanzania’s biggest elephant population, Tarangire supports large numbers of buffalo, giraffe, zebra, and many antelope species, most evident during the dry season when concentrations of animals at the life-giving Tarangire River are at their peak.

You stop at a picnic site and enjoy your lunch with breath-taking views of the park’s landscape and the river below you, and maybe in the company of elephants drinking and digging water from the sand River banks, lunch proceeds with game viewing and in the late afternoon be driven to your accommodation for dinner and overnight.

Accommodation: Ngare Lodge

Meal: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Day 2: Lake Manyara NP

After breakfast, you’ll leave the camp and head to Lake Manyara National Park for a day of game viewing in an area once described by Hemingway as “the loveliest I had seen in Africa.” The Park is a naturalist’s paradise, featuring diverse environments such as underground-water forests, acacia woodlands, grasslands, swamps, marshes, and hot springs. It boasts over 400 bird species, including flamingos and migratory water birds. Manyara is also known for its tree-climbing lions, elephants, large troops of baboons, zebras, wildebeests, giraffes, hippos, leopards, and impalas. After a day of exploration, you’ll drive back to your lodge for dinner and an overnight stay.

Accommodation: Ngare Lodge

Meal: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Day 3-4: Lake Manyara to Serengeti NP

After a relaxed breakfast at the lodge, you’ll depart to Serengeti National Park with packed picnic lunch. Known as Tanzania’s oldest and most popular national park, the Serengeti is also a world heritage site and one of the seven wonders of Africa. It’s known for the annual migration of over 1.5 million wildebeests, zebras, and Thomson’s gazelles. Even when the migration is not occurring, the park offers incredible game viewing with herds of buffalo, elephants, giraffes, topis, impalas, and Grant’s gazelles. Over two days, you’ll explore the plains, water holes, kopjes, and rivers, focusing on spotting the big five and other various animals. Your campsite, being located at a high elevation, provides excellent views of the plains.

Accommodation: Tumbili campsite

Meal: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Day 5: Serengeti to Ngorongoro crater

After breakfast, you’ll go on a game drive in Serengeti National Park with a picnic lunch. You’ll continue exploring the park until noon, enjoying its beauty. After lunch, you’ll have a game drive en route to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area for dinner and an overnight stay at the camp.

Accommodation: Simba Campsite.

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner.

Day 6: Ngorongoro crater to Arusha

Leave your camp early in the morning and descend 610 meters to the grasslands of the Ngorongoro Crater, covering about 265 square kilometers. Despite its small size, the Crater is ideal for viewing the Big Five, offering easy and rewarding game viewing. Spend the day exploring the crater floor and enjoy a picnic amidst grazing herds. The crater, formed by a massive volcanic eruption, is home to 25,000 large mammals, including black rhinos, wildebeests, and zebras, as well as Africa’s densest concentrations of hyenas. The forests shelter elephants and buffalo, the wetlands host hippos and flamingos, and predators like lions, jackals, leopards, and caracals are also present. In the late afternoon, leave the crater and drive back to Arusha, where you’ll be dropped off at your accommodation or Kilimanjaro International Airport.