Distance: 130 km, Travel time: 2½ hours

After an early breakfast, you will be picked up in  Arusha and transferred to Lake Manyara National Park. First, we will have lunch at the lodge and then proceed with a game drive in the park. This national park is one of Tanzania’s most dramatic locations for spotting wildlife. Consisting of a massive but shallow soda lake (covering two-thirds of the park), Lake Manyara is situated at the foot of the Great Rift Valley’s western escarpment. The park’s varied habitat attracts a wide variety of animals, including one of Africa’s largest concentrations of elephants, Lake Manyara’s unique tree-climbing lions, as well as large flocks of flamingos that are attracted by the algae in the lake.

Dinner and overnight at Jambo camp

Distance: 205 km, Travel time: 6 hours

After breakfast, we depart for Serengeti National Park, During the drive, you will pass through the beautiful high-lying farmland of Karatu and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Leaving the highlands behind, we descend into the heart of wild Africa – the Serengeti National Park – with its endless plains. This journey will take you to the central park area known as Seronera. This is one of the richest wildlife habitats in the park, featuring the Seronera River, which provides a valuable water source and attracts a variety of wildlife. After arriving we enjoy lunch and then take an afternoon game drive.

Dinner and overnight in the Seronera area.

After an early breakfast, we take a different game drive along the Sogore River Circuit, which loops into the plains south of the Seronera River, and offers opportunities to see lion, Thomson gazelle, topi, ostrich, and cheetah. The Visitor Centre is close to the Serengeti Seronera Lodge and public campsites are well worth a visit after the morning’s game drive. This nicely designed center provides some interesting wildlife displays, as well as a gift shop selling information leaflets and maps of the area.

The center also has a shop where cold drinks and snacks can be purchased, as well as a picnic area and information trail around kopjes. After lunch, we proceed with an afternoon game drive following the Kopjes Circuit, which goes counter-clockwise around the Maasai Kopjes, and usually attracts lions and formidably large cobras. Kopjes are weathered granite outcrops, scattered around the plains, most of which are miniature ecosystems, providing shade and drinking water in pools left in the rock after the rains. This makes the kopjes particularly good for spotting wildlife in the dry seasons,  including lions, which like to lie in wait for animals coming to drink water.

Dinner and overnight in the Seronera area.

Distance: 145 km, Travel time: 4 hours

After an early breakfast, we proceed to the Ngorongoro Conservation area, for a crater tour. We will stop at Olduvai Gorge, to learn about its history dating back to the dawn of time. It was here, that the anthropologists, Drs. Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey discovered the skulls of ‘Nutcracker Man’ and ‘Handy Man’, both very significant links in the chain of human evolution.

After lunch, we descend over 600 meters into the crater to view wildlife for a half day’s safari tour. Supported by a year-round water supply and fodder, the Ngorongoro National Park supports a vast variety of animals, which include herds of wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, eland, warthog, hippo, and giant African elephants. This picturesque destination is known for its dense population of predators which include lions, hyenas, jackals, cheetahs, and the ever-elusive leopard. We will also visit  Lake Magadi, a large but shallow alkaline lake in the southwestern corner of Ngorongoro, which is one of the main features of the crater. A large number of hippos, flamingos,  and other water birds can usually be seen here.

Dinner and overnight at Rhino Lodge or Simba camp.

Distance: 190 km, Travel time: 4 hours

Enjoy a breakfast in the morning followed by a drive to Arusha City. Upon arrival in Arusha, you will have lunch and then we will end our African safari adventure.