Overview

This 8-day privately guided safari takes you to three of the best wildlife areas Tanzania has to offer, from glittering Lake Manyara to the magical Ngorongoro Crater and on to the incredible golden savannah of the Serengeti.

Spend two nights enjoying the spectacle of thousands of flamingos and tree-climbing lions at Lake Manyara Serena Lodge, before heading to the African Eden of Ngorongoro Serena Lodge, perched above the crater with breathtaking views of the caldera below. Your journey continues into the fabled plains of the Serengeti, where the Great Migration is the greatest show on Earth.

Perfect as an introduction to Tanzania’s incredible wildlife and scenic heritage, this journey is tailor made to experience the best the country has to offer while ensuring you and your families’ comfort and privacy, while also allowing time to focus on your special game-viewing interests.

Itinerary Highlights

• Private guide & vehicle throughout
• Excellent Big 5 game viewing
• Incredible birdlife at Lake Manyara
• Witness the Great Migration in season

Day to day itinerary

Day 1

Jambo Tanzania

Your road-trip begins at the Mount Meru Hotel in Arusha, a welcoming haven for you to rest before setting off for Lake Manyara. Mount Meru is one of the Top 10 highest mountains in Tanzania and is still considered an active volcano, although its last activity was a minor eruption in 1910.

The centrepiece of Arusha National Park, it can be viewed from Mount Meru Hotel, a contemporary, clean-lined establishment that features a sparkling swimming pool and beautifully-manicured gardens.

Days 2-3

Glorious Lake Manyara

Your guide will collect you in the morning for the journey to Lake Manyara. The drive takes you away from craggy Mount Kilimanjaro – Africa’s highest mountain – through working farms and fragrant coffee plantations until the landscape opens out into grand Great Rift Valley scenery.

Arriving at Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge in time for a delightful lunch on the terrace, you drink in the view of the lake shimmering in the distance below you.
Lake Manyara National Park is dominated by the lake and the incredible variety of bird life that it supports – huge flocks of flamingos congregate here to feed and turn the shores pink with their plumage. However, there is a multitude of other fascinating species to encounter and the bird list here is impressive: black herons, glossy ibises and Baglafecht weavers.

Open plains fringe the lake, leading to forested woodlands along the edge of the escarpment: these are habitats that support a healthy population of grazers and predators, most notably the famed tree-climbing lions of this region.

After settling in to your suite and taking a dip in the infinity-edge pool overlooking the lake, it is time for your afternoon game drive. Traversing the open plains filled with buffalo and zebra, you venture into the woodlands to seek out the elephants that move like silent ghosts through the trees. While monkeys chatter and shriek overhead, the grey behemoths slip in and out of view before melting away into the forest, leaving you breathless with excitement.

Stopping for a sundowner as the sky begins to glow in otherworldly hues, you stretch your limbs and breathe in the ancient air of Africa. With an ice-cold drink from your guide’s hamper in your hand, you toast this magical moment, your first sunset in this untamed wilderness. Driving back to the lodge, your guide uses a spotlight to look for nocturnal animals as they emerge into the night.

You breathlessly keep your eyes peeled for genets, civets, hyena and porcupines as their eyes glitter in the darkness.

Days 4-5

Majestic Ngorongoro Crater

Depart Lake Manyara after breakfast and set off westwards, towards the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. After a few hours, you ascend an escarpment and, at its crest, one of the most spectacular views on Earth – the Ngorongoro Crater, in all its splendour – stretches out before you.

Arriving at Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge, you find it perched on the crater’s rim overlooking this grand vista. A delicious alfresco lunch is prepared for you as you take in this incredible sight and before long you discover your suite with its private balcony facing the valley floor, hundreds of metres below.

The crater is the largest intact volcanic caldera in the world, and its valleys protect a ‘lost world’ within its walls: home to a population of some 25 000 large mammals that never need to leave its sheltering embrace.

Streams and lakes supply their water needs while forests and plains support herds of grazers, large-tusked elephants, black rhinos and black-maned lions. Here it is possible to encounter the Big 5 in one game drive and the sheer density of animals in such a space is astonishing.

On day five, you descend the crater walls for a spectular game drive through this unrivalled wilderness. Ascend in the late afternoon and step out onto the viewing terrace to take in the colours of sunset that paint this extraordinary scene in an ethereal palette.

Days 6-7

Into the Serengeti

After breakfast, you depart Ngorongoro Conservation Area and continue eastwards towards the magical plains of the Serengeti.

These vast, rolling plains seem to go on forever, and are the scene of one of the most incredible wildlife spectacles in the world. Every year, in excess of a million wildebeest, zebra and gazelles migrate through the region in search of water and fresh pastures. Undeterred by river crossings where enormous crocodiles lurk or the host of predators that follow them, these animals are driven forward by blind instinct to survive.

After a thrilling morning crossing the plains, you arrive at Serengeti Serena Lodge in time for lunch. Settle into your suite, have a refreshing dip in the sparkling pool, and prepare to venture out to see what the Serengeti has in store for you on your afternoon game drive.

With a backdrop of endlessly rolling, tree-studded plains, you seek out the extraordinary encounters that make the Serengeti such a special place. Even outside the migration period, there are a host of resident species to be found here, and lions are especially abundant, along with hyenas.

The sky overhead arches in an enormous dome as it only can in Africa, while the breeze ruffles your hair and you inhale the aromas of this untrammelled wilderness, revelling in the freedom of unlimited space. There is no feeling like watching a herd of antelope on the move, a towering journey of giraffe moving across the horizon, the thrilling moment that you spy a lion in the grass, invisible until a moment before.

Day 8

Fly back to Arusha

Depart Serengeti Serena Lodge and drive to the nearby airstrip for your flight back to Arusha. As the plane takes off, you gaze down at the rolling plains stretching off into the distance, and promise yourself that you will one day return to drink in the best of Tanzania.