This tour will take you to the northern part of Tanzania’s parks. You will enjoy the birdlife of Lake Manyara and the scenic land of Tarangire National Park. The tour will also take you to the famous Ngorongoro Crater and the iconic Serengeti National Park. You will have an opportunity to see all five members of the Big Five (lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, and rhino).
Life on Safari
After breakfast, our tour guide will meet you at the hotel. You will receive a short briefing of the day and then depart for Tarangire National Park for a game drive. Tarangire is the 6th-largest national park and covers an area of approximately 2,600 square kilometers. It is famous for its huge number of elephants, baobab trees and tree-climbing African pythons.
We will drive to Lake Manyara National Park for a game drive. Lake Manyara is a shallow freshwater lake in Tanzania. It is said to be the “loveliest lake in Africa”. It covers 127 square miles (329 square kilometers) of Lake Manyara National Park, and its alkaline waters cover approximately 89 square miles (231 square kilometers). It is famous for a good number of baboons and birdlife and herbivores such as hippos, impalas, elephants, wildebeests, buffalos, warthogs, and giraffes. Giant fig and mahogany trees can be seen in the groundwater forest around the park gates.
After an early breakfast, you will check out and drive to Lake Natron. You will arrive in time for an early lunch. You can have a night ascent and dawn summit of Ol Doinyo Lengai (seismic conditions permitting). You can also go on an optional waterfall hike and swim.
Lake Natron is a mineral-rich soda lake in northern Tanzania on the border with Kenya. It’s a breeding ground for hundreds of thousands of lesser flamingos despite the highly alkaline state of the striking red waters. It sits below Ol Doinyo Lengai, a soaring active volcano in the Rift Valley. Trails lead from the lake to the Engero Sero Waterfalls, which flow over craggy rocks into a natural pool.
- Main Destination:
- Lake Natron
- Accommodation:
- Africa Safari Lake Natron (Safari Comfort Bungalow)
- Meals & Drinks:
After breakfast at the lodge, depart to Serengeti National Park, where you will arrive in time for lunch. Later, enjoy an evening game drive in the park. Return to the lodge for leisure and dinner.
Tanzania’s Serengeti offers superb game-viewing even out of migration time, when vast herds of buffalo, eland, topi, waterbuck, impala, kongoni, and Grant’s gazelle can be seen grazing in the thousands. The Serengeti is famous for its migrating wildebeest and herbivores and its high concentration of big cats and other predators that these grazers attract. The Serengeti is also home to smaller cats, such as the caracal and serval, as well as jackal, fox, mongoose and genet. Visit a Maasai village in the afternoon.
After breakfast, you will have a full day of game driving in the Serengeti plains. The endless, almost treeless grassland of the south is the park’s most emblematic scenery. Hoofed animals like zebra, gazelle, impala, hartebeest, topi, buffalo, and waterbuck also occur in huge numbers during the wet season. Kopjes are granite formations that are very common in the region. They are great observation posts for predators and refuges for hyrax and pythons.
- Main Destination:
- Serengeti National Park
- Accommodation:
- Matawi Serengeti Camp
- Meals & Drinks:
After breakfast, we depart for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area with game viewing en route. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is in northern Tanzania. It’s home to the vast, volcanic Ngorongoro Crater and the “Big 5” game (elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo, and rhino). Huge herds of wildebeests and zebras traverse its plains during their annual migration. Livestock belonging to the semi-nomadic Maasai tribe graze alongside wild animals. Hominin fossils found in the Olduvai Gorge date back millions of years.
- Main Destination:
- Central Serengeti National Park
- Accommodation:
- Ngorongoro Marera Mountain View Lodge
- Meals & Drinks:
After breakfast at the lodge, descend into the Ngorongoro Crater for a crater tour with a packed lunch. This is a World Heritage Site. The incomparable Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest “caldera”. It is dominated by cliffs standing some 600 meters high and presenting a sheer drop to a wide-open space of 246 square kilometers. You may see everything from elephant to lion, and if you’re lucky, the near-extinct black rhino, all amongst large herds of zebra and wildebeest. Later, after a good game drive, you will depart for Arusha, where you will be transferred to the airport for your flight.
