DAY 2: ARUSHA – TARANGIRE NATIONAL PARK

Our two-hour morning journey first takes us westwards from Arusha. Along the route, your eyes will be opened to all the colours and character of Tanzania: perhaps some Maasai herdsmen driving their flocks of goats to new pastures. You’ll get to know your driver-guide, amazed at his depth of knowledge as he effortlessly answers all your questions.

Safari in Tarangire National Park

Tarangire is huge. As you stand at the park gate and look south, it stretches as far as the eye can see. Known as the ‘Elephant Playground,’ this phenomenal park contains huge herds of these mighty mammals. But Tarangire is also home to buffalo, lion, wildebeest, zebra and gazelle and the park can rival Serengeti for sheer animal densities. What might you see today? Perhaps a solitary male lion stretched out beneath a tree, perhaps a trio of male cheetah enjoying some lazy bonding-time in the sun. Maybe some graceful Grant’s gazelle or zebra bound away from the road or a couple of giraffe munching happily from the choicest acacia branches. This tour will take be interesting until sunset times they head to Karatu for dinner and overnight stay

DAY 3: SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK

With Serengeti as our destination, and with the wonders of Tarangire still fresh in your mind, we set out to the north and west for our 4 hour journey. On the way, you can quiz your driver-guide about all aspects of Tanzanian culture, traditions, and tribes and of course wildlife. Treat him as an ‘encyclopedia on legs’ - he will rarely disappoint with his answers! In no time, you too will feel like an expert, even before you reach the awesome Serengeti plains. On arrival, we take lunch before embarking on our afternoon game-drive.

Day’s Highlight

Serengeti is a National Park which will offer you a whole variety of wildlife surprises over the next few days, but perhaps today’s highlight – certainly for first-time visitors - will simply be the Serengeti terrain itself. The sheer vastness, as the plains roll away in front of you into eternity, will leave you with a sense of awe.

Safari in Serengeti National Park

At last! Serengeti, the incomparable wonder of Tanzania, will be the stage for the natural animal theatrics which will undoubtedly be performed during your visit. Your afternoon game drive here combines the known with the unknown, the certainty that you will be amazed with the uncertainty of exactly what you will see and when. Changing light, a changing cast of animal actors, ensuring that at every turn there is a new experience. Snap off some memorable photos, but don’t forget to simply take a deep breath and enjoy nature in its real-time, raw beauty.

DAY 4: SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK

Day’s Highlight

Wildlife is abundant: sometimes you may think it has come to find you, rather than the other way around. Today’s highlight is unknown, as the animals don’t publish their schedule! What we see also depends on the season, but we may find some ‘big cats,’ on the prowl and looking for prey. Cheetah, leopard and lions are all possibilities!

Safari in Serengeti National Park

Today is a full day of discovery, a chance to enjoy the varied landscapes of the Central Serengeti. The Seronera River weaves its way through the Serengeti, providing waters for all species of wildlife. You will also see the distinctive rocky outcrops, the famous kopjes which characterize the Serengeti landscape. Kopjes are very hard and often granite. They have been aged at maybe 600 million years old and created even before the earth’s surface was pushed up from the ocean. Lions and other cats frequent these stony places and they are also home to snakes and hyraxes. Slowly weathering in wind and rain, they are peeling off in layers, which you may see on close inspection. Everything here varies with the seasons, but in May, November and December migrating herds join the already rich population of resident animals which live here year-round. (In the rainy season, the landscape turns black with hundreds of thousands of wildebeest – a simply incredible sight.)

Meal plan: Breakfast is served at your lodge in Serengeti. Lunch will be a cooked, hot lunch prepared by the camp team, for you to enjoy while out on safari. Your dinner will be a full, cooked meal prepared at your accommodation

Note: for those who have booked the Balloon Safari for today, you will be picked up from the camp at 05.00 hours for a 06.00 hours departure. After your 60 – 90-minute aerial adventure, bush breakfast and champagne, your driver will pick you up for your full-day game drive

DAY 5: SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK – NGORONGORO CRATER

Morning game drive in Serengeti then we will head south-east towards Ngorongoro, a distance of 145km which will take us around 3hours drive

Day’s Highlight

Today, we will get our first sight of the spectacular, incomparable Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera and the heart of the Conservation Area of the same name. But before that, we have another morning game drive in amazing Serengeti, marveling at its animal inhabitants: Another day of adventure, another day to enjoy the wildlife.

Safari highlights

This morning you will visit to the incomparable crater – see below - and then lunch, we will have a 4-hour journey, covering the 250km back to Arusha town for dinner and overnight stay.

Day’s Highlight

Like nothing else on Earth, the stunning crater of Ngorongoro is a unique home for many, many species of Tanzania’s wildlife. With some luck, you may even see a black rhino here.

Safari in Ngorongoro Crater

From our accommodation, campsite, we set off after breakfast, a 6am departure to reach the rim and then descend into the vast crater itself. At one side there’s the Lerai Forest, classic mountain forest landscape with almost tropical characteristics. This is good elephant country, so keep your eyes peeled. By the side of the nearby swampland is what is sometimes called the ‘elephant graveyard’ as the mighty male tuskers at the end of their lives come to chew on the soft, swampland grasses once their teeth have failed them. The crater has a population of around 120 lions, with well-defined territories; 15,000 wildebeest, 9,000 zebra, 400 hyenas, and around 50 black rhino. Many wildebeest and other herd animals are resident, benefiting from the many sources of year-round waters and are boosted by some migratory season. Buffalo, Thomson’s gazelle and eland are also present in numbers. Hippos can be found in pools and swampland and highland birdlife is colorful and plentiful around the waters. Flamingos can often be seen in Lake Magadi, which occupies part of the crater floor.

Accommodation: Africana Grand Hotel, Arusha

Meal Plan: Breakfast, lunch and dinner

DAY 6: ARUSHA NATIONAL PARK AND TANZANITE EXPERIENCE

Today you will enjoy a morning walking safari in Arusha National Park’s dense vegetation hosts great numbers of big games with an armed ranger guide and later you will visit various curio shops in Arusha then tanzanite experience! Tanzanite is one of the most sought-after gemstones of all time. With only one known source in the world, tanzanite is predicted to be depleted within 10-12 years. Invest in a rare and beautiful gemstone you can pass on from one generation to the next.

Tanzanite experience, Arusha

Day 7: Departure or leave for another destination