INTRODUCING Tarangire National Park & Serengeti National Park & Ngorongoro Crater & Lake Manyara National Park
OPTIONS:
Buffalo, elephant, black rhinoceros, leopard and lion. Five animals that have defined the African safari experience for generations, and five very good reasons to spend six days moving through Tanzania’s finest parks. This tour was built around the places where the chances of finding all five are genuinely high, not guaranteed, because this is the wild, but as good as it gets. Our guides have spent years learning these parks, and that knowledge makes a difference.
Each option follows the same itinerary and differs only in accommodation type.
On Day 3 or Day 4, 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 served in the bush. Watching the Serengeti from above, with the herds moving below you in the early light, is an experience that belongs in a category of its own.
Our Safari Tips and Safari FAQ pages cover everything you need before you travel. The Wildlife section gives useful background on the animals you are chasing, and the Photo Gallery is full of images taken by guests who have sat in the same vehicles and come home with extraordinary stories.
For questions or a quick price quotation, including fully tailor-made programmes, please get in touch. We are happy to help.
ITINERARY:
DAY 1: Arusha – Tarangire
The quest begins in Tarangire, where elephant sightings are virtually guaranteed and the dry season draws one of the most impressive concentrations of wildlife in Africa to the banks of the Tarangire River. Wildebeest, zebra, eland, buffalo and the rare oryx move in from the Maasai steppe with predators in close attendance. Two of your Big Five are well within reach before the day is done. 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 archaeological discoveries have placed some of the earliest evidence of human life on earth. A humbling pause before the plains open up. The Serengeti holds thousands of elephants, buffalo and lions, several hundred leopards and a small but present population of black rhinoceros, whose numbers have been severely reduced by decades of poaching but who are not impossible to find. The afternoon game drive begins your search in earnest. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
DAY 3: Serengeti
A full day dedicated entirely to the Big Five. The Serengeti, named Endless Plains in Maa by the Maasai, is home to more than four million animals, and the sheer scale of the place means that patience and a good guide are your greatest assets. Leopards are nocturnal and notoriously elusive, which makes a daytime sighting all the more rewarding when it happens. Rhino require persistence. Lions, on the other hand, tend to find you. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
DAY 4: Serengeti – Maasai Boma – Ngorongoro
One final morning on the Serengeti plains, and another genuine chance at the full five before the drive toward Ngorongoro. Along the way, an optional stop at a Maasai boma offers a different kind of encounter entirely. The Maasai are famously known for defending their cattle against lions and other predators using nothing but spears, a reminder that the relationship between people and wildlife here is ancient, complex and very much ongoing. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
Day 5: Ngorongoro Crater – Lake Manyara
The Ngorongoro Crater is arguably the single best location in Africa to encounter the Big Five within a confined area. The crater floor supports lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and one of the more accessible black rhino populations remaining in East Africa, all within the walls of a collapsed volcanic caldera that functions as a natural, self-contained ecosystem. A full morning here with a picnic lunch before the afternoon drive down to Lake Manyara. Overnight: Lodge, Hotel, Luxury Tented Camp or Basic Camp
Day 6: Lake Manyara – Arusha
A fitting final chapter. Lake Manyara sits at the foot of the Great Rift Valley escarpment and packs elephants, buffalo, giraffe, hippo and more than 400 bird species into a habitat that shifts between dense forest and open lakeshore. Its tree-climbing lions, draped across acacia branches six or seven metres above the ground, have become one of Tanzania’s most iconic sightings and a memorable final image to carry home. Late afternoon return to Arusha.
End of tour!
