5 Days Tanzania Safari, Crowd-free Tarangire, Serengeti & Ngorongoro

After breakfast, your safari guide will pick you up from your hotel in Arusha town (with last-minute shopping), the base town for safaris in northern Tanzania, and along the Arusha-Dodoma highway, a scenic drive leads you towards Tarangire National Park.

You will drive through a scenic Masai Steppe and reach Tarangire after 2 hours. You will have a picnic lunch on arrival before embarking on your first game drive until sunset. Tarangire forms the center of an annual migratory cycle that includes up to 3,000 elephants, 25,000 wildebeest, and 30,000 zebras.

[140km: 3 hrs. Approx.]

• Accommodation & meals: Marera Valley Lodge/Country Lodge/Ngorongoro farmhouse.
• Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

Have an early breakfast and drive across the Great Rift Valley floor, up the escarpment, and traverse the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It will ultimately result in a pleasant scenic drive as you enjoy the beautiful scenery and breathtaking vistas on your way to Serengeti National Park, with its endless plains rolling into the distance as far as your eyes can see.

You will enjoy a delicious lunch at one of the picnic sites, most likely at the Naabi Hill Gate. It will allow you to stretch your legs as your driver sorts out the registration and relevant paperwork.

Then drive to the central park area, known as the Seronera area, one of the richest wildlife habitats in the park. It features the valuable Seronera River, which provides water to this area and attracts a great deal of wildlife that depends on it. You will arrive at the Serengeti in the afternoon and embark on a scenic game drive until the evening. Retire to the lodge for (maybe campfire), dinner, and overnight.

[145km: 4 hrs. Approx.]

• Accommodation & meals: Thorntree Camp/Serengeti Green Hills Camp/Serengeti Kati Kati Tented Camp.
• Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

Wake up early for a sunrise game drive to catch up with some of those rare nocturnal animals and early risers. It is a great opportunity to sight animals within a short distance, as most of them like to linger by the roadsides to escape the morning dew.

After a late breakfast, you will spend the entire day on game drives in the plains. It is in the plains of the Serengeti, which stretch up to Masai Mara, that perhaps the most spectacular event of the natural world takes place – the great migration.

This is the annual movement of millions of wildebeests and zebras from the Serengeti in Tanzania to the Masai Mara in Kenya in search of fresh pasture. Following on their heels are the predators of the savanna: lions, cheetahs, jackals, and hyenas in a race for life.

The name Serengeti is derived from the Masai word ‘Siringit, meaning endless plains, and true to the name, you will explore vast stretches of African Savannah in search of the abundant wildlife Serengeti has to offer. Expect to spot other animals like elephants, the elusive leopards, elands, and a lot of resident and migratory birds.

After breakfast, check out of your lodge and embark on your last dose of game drives in the Serengeti on your way to Ngorongoro. You will explore the Seronera River Valley, rich in wildlife and bird life, as you continue via Olduvai Gorge, which boasts a history dating back to the dawn of time. You will check in at your reserved lodge on arrival and then enjoy a delicious lunch.

On your afternoon game drive, you will descend over 600 metres onto the crater floor to explore a great diversity of wildlife for the rest of the day. Being supported by a year-round water supply and fodder, Ngorongoro crater harbours lots of wildlife, including zebras, elands, buffaloes, warthogs, giant African elephants, and herds of wildebeest.

The park also has a dense population of predators like lions, leopards, hyenas, jackals, etc. You will also visit Lake Magadi, a large but shallow alkaline lake found in the south-western corner of the crater. This shallow lake also harbours lots of birds including flamingos, and hippos.

[145km: 3 hrs. Approx.]

• Accommodation & meals: Marera Valley Lodge/country Lodge at Karatu.
• Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

After an early breakfast, you may choose to pack it up and descend onto the crater floor for your final game drive. The earlier you get to the crater floor, the higher your chances of sighting elusive mammals like black rhinos.

Spend the better part of the morning exploring the crater. Ngorongoro Crater, with its 600- to 650-meter-high natural zoo-like walls, contains the highest concentrations of wildlife, and it is here that you have the opportunity to sight the big five in just one day.

After a picnic lunch, which you will most likely have at the hippo poolside designated picnic site, you will drive up the crater rim and out of the conservation area. Return to Arusha and you will be dropped off at your hotel or airport to catch up with your departure flight.

[210km: 4 hrs. Approx.]

• No accommodation.
• Meals: Breakfast.

End of the 5 Days Tanzania Safari.