Serengeti, Ngorongoro & Manyara

Your guide meets you at Kilimanjaro International Airport with a warm Karibu Tanzania. Transfer to Arusha at the base of Mount Meru. Relax at your lodge or explore the town. Your safari briefing takes place in the evening. Overnight in Arusha.

Board a scenic bush flight from Arusha over the Rift Valley and Ngorongoro highlands, landing on a Serengeti airstrip. Your private guide meets you and the game viewing begins immediately with a drive to camp, spotting wildlife on the way. Settle into your luxury canvas suite and enjoy sundowners overlooking the plains.

Dawn-to-dusk game drives across the Serengeti’s legendary plains. Track lion prides, search kopjes for leopard, watch cheetah stalk the grasslands and witness the immense herds of the Great Migration when in season. Stop for a picnic lunch beneath an acacia before continuing into the late afternoon, when predators become most active.

After a final sunrise drive in the Serengeti, leave the plains and drive through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area toward the crater highlands. The road crosses rolling grasslands, seasonal lakes and kopje country, with wildlife viewing all the way. Arrive at your lodge on the crater rim in time for a fireside dinner and sunset over the caldera.

Descend into the Ngorongoro Crater at dawn for a full-day Big Five search. The crater floor shelters elephants, lions, buffalo, zebras, hippos and the rare black rhino, with flamingos coloring the soda lakes. After a picnic lunch, ascend the crater walls and drive down to Lake Manyara, arriving at your lodge on the Rift Valley escarpment for a relaxing evening.

Spend the morning exploring Lake Manyara’s groundwater forest, where baboons and elephants roam beneath mahogany trees, and the acacia woodlands where famous tree-climbing lions rest. After a picnic lunch, drive back to Arusha and continue to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your onward flight. If you have time, extend your journey with a beach escape to Zanzibar, Pemba or Mafia Island.