Day 1: Arusha – Tarangire National Park
In the morning you will be picked up from your hotel and you will travel to the Tarangire National Park. This park with its huge baobab trees, the perennial Tarangire River and seasonal swamps is home to the largest elephant herds in northern Tanzania. Animals gather at the river and you ought to be ready to see elephants, giraffes, bushbucks, hartebeests, dik-diks, waterbucks, warthogs and reedbucks all year round. Furthermore the park is additionally home to buffaloes, zebras, and wildebeests which are always closely followed by a variety of predators like lions. Leopards are seen every once in a while but cheetahs are rarely spotted. From the open roof of the vehicle you’ll be ready to absorb the landscape and watch the animals.
After an in depth game drive, you’ll leave the park within the late afternoon and drive to your accommodation at the campsite / lodge, where you’ll spend the night.
Meals: Lunch, Dinner, Bed & Breakfast,
Accommodation: Lake Manyara Serena Lodge
Day 2: Safari – Serengeti National Park
After breakfast you’ll leave MtowaMbu and drive through the cooler highland region towards the Serengeti park . The world renowned Serengeti National Park, with its diverse landscape ranging from grass plains and dry Savannah to marshy woodlands, is the stamping ground of many carnivorous predators and their prey. The park is home to the most important animal migration within the world and counting on the season you’ll be ready to witness this spectacular event unfold. The herds of wildebeest and zebras journey within the short season of November and December from the hills within the north to the southern plains before returning to the north during the longer season of April to June.
The location of the migrating herds is dependent on the yearly rainfall, but your guide will know where the best vantage points for wildlife viewing are. The night will be spent at a campsite in the central Serengeti.
Meals: Lunch, dinner, bed and breakfast
Accommodation: Serengeti Serena Lodge
Day 3: Serengeti Plains – The best for big five
Be one of only a few fortunate people to glide in a Hot Air Balloon over the Serengeti Plains (available at supplementary cost by per-arrangement). Floating noiselessly above the arising bush, while spotting wildlife and adoring the wonderful scenery of Africa, across rivers and over abundant small villages.
We do an after breakfast game viewing drive sideways the Sogore River Circuit, which loops into the plains south of the Seronera River, and which is sweet for likely Lion, Thomson gazelle, topi, ostrich and cheetah sightings. The Visitor Center on the brink of the Serengeti Seronera Lodge and public campsites is well worth a visit after the morning’s game drive. This nicely designed centre offers some interesting wildlife displays also as a present shop selling information leaflets and maps of the world.
The center also features a shop where cold drinks and snacks are often purchased, also as a picnic ground and knowledge trail up and around a close-by kopje. We will enjoy a relaxed picnic lunch at the middle within the shade of the enormous acacia trees.
In the afternoon we’ll follow the Kopjes Circuit, which matches anti-clockwise round the Maasai Kopjes, which typically attract diversity of lion and a few fearfully large cobras. Kopjes are weathered granite outcrops, dispersed round the plains, most of which are miniature ecosystems, providing shade and beverage in pools left within the rock after the rains. This makes the kopjes particularly good for spotting wildlife within the dry seasons – including lions, which wish to dwell await animals coming to drink!
Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Serena Lodge full board included
Day 4: Ngorongoro Crater – Arusha
After an early breakfast you will start your descent on a narrow and steep road to the crater floor. The crater is inhabited by a spectacular array of wildlife, which includes zebras, hippos, hyenas, wildebeests, warthogs and the famous “Big Five” – buffalo, rhino, lion, elephant and leopard. After extensive game viewing and a lunch at a picnic spot, you will leave the crater and travel back to Arusha, where you will arrive in the late afternoon.