INTRODUCING Tarangire National Park & Serengeti National Park & Ngorongoro Crater
OPTIONS:
There is no wildlife spectacle on earth quite like it. More than 1.5 million wildebeest, joined by hundreds of thousands of zebra and gazelle, move in a relentless, instinct-driven circuit across the Serengeti, pursued every step of the way by lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas and vultures. It is chaotic, ancient and completely mesmerising. This tour follows the migration as it moves, putting you in the right place at the right time across seven days on the plains before finishing in the Ngorongoro Crater.
Each option follows the same itinerary and differs only in accommodation type.
On any day between Day 3 and Day 7, you have the option to add a hot air balloon flight over the Serengeti at sunrise, finishing with a champagne toast and a full breakfast prepared and served in the bush. Watching the migration from above, in silence, as the light comes up over the plains is one of those experiences that simply cannot be replicated.
Our Safari Tips and Safari FAQ pages cover everything you need before you travel. The Wildlife section gives useful background on the animals you will encounter, and the Photo Gallery holds images from guests who have witnessed this same spectacle from the same vehicles with the same guides.
For questions or a quick price quotation, including fully tailor-made programmes built around migration timing and your travel dates, please get in touch. We are happy to help.
ITINERARY:
DAY 1: Arusha – Tarangire
The journey opens in Tarangire, a park that earns far more attention than it typically receives. Ancient baobabs, some of the largest elephant herds in Tanzania, and a dry season migration of wildebeest and zebra converging on the Tarangire River make this a worthy opening act before the Serengeti takes centre stage. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
DAY 2: Olduvai Gorge – Serengeti
After breakfast the drive heads toward the Serengeti with an optional stop at Olduvai Gorge, where some of the earliest physical evidence of human existence was found in the rock and dust of the Great Rift Valley. It is a place that puts everything else in perspective. After lunch the Serengeti opens up ahead of you: the size of Ireland, home to four million animals, and the stage on which the greatest show in the natural world plays out each year. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
DAY 3: Serengeti
The herds are moving. One column of wildebeest, zebra and antelope pushes west toward the permanent waters of the Grumeti River, while others press further north in the direction of Lake Victoria. The predators move with them, as they always have. Lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas and vultures shadow every step of the migration, and the western Serengeti offers some of the most intense predator-prey interactions of the entire circuit. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
DAY 4: Serengeti
The focus shifts north today, where another arm of the migration is pushing toward the northern rivers in search of water. The Mara River, which flows across the border into Tanzania, is the great obstacle, and the crossings here are among the most dramatic moments the natural world produces. Thousands of animals gathering on the bank, the current running hard, and the crocodiles waiting below. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Tented Camp or Camp, Northern Serengeti
DAY 5: Serengeti
A second day in the north, and the river crossings continue. The wildebeest will cross and re-cross, driven by instinct toward the green pastures of the Maasai Mara regardless of what waits for them in the water. It is brutal and extraordinary in equal measure, and no photograph fully prepares you for seeing it in person. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Tented Camp or Camp, Northern Serengeti
DAY 6: Serengeti
When the grazing in the Mara is exhausted the herds turn south again, back toward the central Serengeti to breed, and the predators follow the return just as faithfully as they followed the departure. The cycle is continuous and the central plains buzz with activity as the animals settle and the next generation begins. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Tented Camp or Camp, Central Serengeti
DAY 7: Serengeti – Maasai Boma – Ngorongoro
A sunrise game drive across the open southern plains before the drive toward Ngorongoro. Along the way there is an optional stop at a Maasai boma, a community whose pastoral way of life has remained largely unchanged for centuries and whose territory overlaps with the very land the migration crosses each year. A good reminder that this landscape has always been shared. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
DAY 8: Ngorongoro Crater – Arusha
A full morning in the Ngorongoro Crater makes for a powerful final chapter. Dense with wildlife, rich with predators and offering some of the best Big Five chances anywhere in East Africa, the crater brings the tour full circle before the picnic lunch and the afternoon drive back to Arusha.
End of tour!
