Highlights of Tanzania Safari

Arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport, after clearing customs and Immigration formalities you will be met and transferred to your hotel for dinner and overnight. Driving away from the airport and out onto an open road with no city in sight…it feels like your safari has already begun. Overnight Mount Meru Game Lodge.

On the morning of day 2, wake to the views of Mt Meru before heading down to breakfast. You will then meet your small group and private guide then head out and traverse the floor of the Great Rift Valley as you head to Tarangire National Park for a game drive. Tarangire National Park, named after the river that crosses through the park, is Tanzania’s sixth largest park and home to large herds of elephants. Spend the afternoon exploring the park before making your way towards Kirurumu Manyara Lodge for dinner and overnight. The lodge is located on the edge of the escarpment wall overlooking Lake Manyara.

Today you head to the famous Serengeti National Park, Tanzania’s oldest and most popular national park, and Kati Kati Tented Camp. The Serengeti is perhaps the most famous wildlife sanctuary in the world, and with good reason. During the migration, literally hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and zebra can be seen making their way across this magical plain. Your Serengeti lodge is located deep in the central Serengeti, where the savanna plains are broken up with small rock outcrops called “kopjes” and small rivers. It should be remembered that not all the animals in the Serengeti opt to join the wildebeest in their time-honored circuit to find the best grazing. Zebras certainly tag along and a good number of predators who are looking for the weak and unwary. But many species are quite happy with their own territory, which makes a day’s game driving in the Serengeti an absolute delight and an experience to be treasured and remembered.

On day 4, as the sun rises on your second day in the Serengeti, make the most of the game viewing. Order a picnic breakfast or lunch and head out into the bush and spend the day looking for game while enjoying the magic that this park has to offer. Later back at camp dinner is served and evening drinks by the camp fire is the perfect way to discuss the day’s events. Overnight Kati Kati Tented Camp. All meals included.

Today you will game drive through the Serengeti to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and then continue to Acacia Farm Lodge, located on the outskirts of Karatu town about midway between Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater.

On day 6 descend into the sunken cone of the Ngorongoro Crater and enjoy a full-day game drive along the crater floor. The crater’s high walls serve as a natural enclosure for an abundance of wildlife. All the so-called “big five’ may be seen. Among the notable birds are Lammergeyer, Vereaux’s Eagle and Egyptian Vulture, which make their home in the highest of the crater wall, the beautiful Rosy-breasted Longclaw, which appears on the plains after rains and flocks of lesser and Greater Flamingos which are spasmodic visitors to the crater lakes.

The morning of day 7 is sadly the last African sunrise of the trip. Enjoy one last game drive in Lake Manyara on your way back to Arusha with packed lunch. Named after the Maasai word emanyara, a euphorbia plant species grown into a hedge around a family homestead, Lake Manyara’s shores are a shimmer of pink, due to the large flamingo population and was once dubbed the ‘lovliest lake in Africa’ by Ernest Hemingway. You will spend a full morning in the park taking in the many different species of birds and mammals, including elephants, leopards and if you are lucky, the tree climbing lions that the park is famous for. In the late morning you will continue from Manyara and drive the short distance to Arusha to meet your departing flights home.