9 Days Lodge Safari Itinerary

Arrivals in Tanzania, Kilimanjaro International Airport/Arusha Airport, meet and greet with Tai’s driver/guide. You will be driven to your accommodation for half board.

After breakfast do we head to the Tarangire National Park for a morning game drive. The park runs along the line of the Tarangire River and is mainly made up of low-lying hills on the Great Rift Valley floor. Its natural vegetation mainly consists of Acacia woodland and giant African Baobab trees, with huge swamp areas in the south. Both the river and the swamps act like a magnet for wild animals, during Tanzania’s dry season. The Tarangire National Park is reputed to contain some of the largest elephant herds in Africa. This African national park is also home to three rare species of animals – the Greater Kudu, the Fringed-eared Oryx, as well as a few Ashy Starlings. Dinner and overnight.

After breakfast, drive to Serengeti National Park with picnic lunch and afternoon game drive in this park with immense herds of herbivore, wildebeests, gazelles and Zebras followed by predators on their annual migration to permanent water holes, offering a timeless spectacle unequaled in the world. Dinner and overnight.

We have another full day in this wonderful park, rising early to make the most of our time. Our guides will choose the best spotting locations for the time of year; we can spend time at the Hippo pool watching these majestic animals laze about in the cool water happily living alongside the crocodiles, watch a big pride of lions, be in the middle of the migration, sometimes surrounded by wildebeest, sometimes by zebras, which travel with the wildebeest. We journey from the wide open plains to the kopjes: these volcanic rocky outcrops provide protection and shelter for a wide variety of animals and from the top we can look out across the vast grasslands of the Serengeti. This diverse and interesting landscape will provide us with the ultimate in game viewing, we will hopefully see all of the plain games; elephants, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, lions and it you are lucky the elusive leopard and cheetah, as well as huge amounts of interesting bird life, from the elegant secretary birds to the flightless ostrich. We return for the dinner and overnight.

Today the safari adventure turns south and continues to the Ngorongoro conservation area (world UNESCO site and was once in the 7 wonders of the world) (6 hrs, 180 km). En route we stop at the Olduvai Gorge, famous as the spot where paleontologist Louis and Mary Leakey discovered some of the earliest remains of mankind. Picnic lunch enroute. In the afternoon drive up to the Ngorongoro Crater. one of the largest intact volcanic Crater in the world, the crater floor offers game viewing to homely permanent population of more than 30 000 animals, and is one of the only places in Africa where you stand a very good chance of seeing the big five (lion, buffalo, rhino and elephant). Dinner and overnight.

After breakfast we descend 600m into this magnificent crater for a full-day game drive. The Ngorongoro Crater is one of the most densely crowded African wildlife areas in the world and is home to an estimated 30,000 animals including some of Tanzania’s last remaining black rhino. 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. Another big draw card to this picturesque national park is its huge population of predators, which include lions, hyenas, jackals, cheetahs and the ever-elusive leopard. We will enjoy a picnic lunch on the crater floor. Dinner and overnight.

Today we drive to Lake Manyara National Park for a full day of game drives. This is one of Tanzania’s smaller parks but still offers a rewarding and diverse safari experience. This national park is one of Tanzania’s most dramatically located wildlife areas, consisting of a massive but shallow soda lake (covering two-thirds of the park), located 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, as well as large flocks of flamingos attracted by the algae in the lake. The lakeshore at Manyara teems with birdlife, and while you are looking for the birds, you might spot one of the elusive unique tree-climbing lions. There are a surprising number of other large mammals and the striking cliffs on the Rift escarpment form a dramatic backdrop. Dinner and overnight.

After breakfast at the camp you will slowly start driving to Arusha for your departure.

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