Northern Tanzania has three parks that people fly a long way to see, and this is the route that takes all three without turning the week into a series of transfers.
Tarangire for the elephants and the baobabs. A full day on the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater, where the Big Five live within a few kilometres of each other. Then two nights in the central Serengeti, which holds game all year, so the drive is never a formality. The vehicle is yours, the guide stays with your trip from the airport to the airport, and the price below is the price.
Day by day
Day 01
Afternoon game drive
You meet your guide in Arusha and leave in your own 4x4. Tarangire makes its introduction with baobabs, and then with elephants, which gather here in numbers that surprise people who thought they had already seen elephants. The afternoon runs along the river, where lion, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and buffalo come down in turn, and where the birding is as good as anywhere in the north.
Day 02
Full day on the crater floor
After breakfast you leave Tarangire for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and descend onto the crater floor for the whole day. Almost everything lives down here at once: elephant, lion, buffalo, leopard, and black rhino, which is the reason a lot of people come and the reason nobody promises it. Lunch is a picnic on the floor, so the day is not broken by driving out and back. You climb the rim again in the evening.
Day 03
Long transfer, then an afternoon drive
The long drive of the trip, and the one that earns its distance. You cross the highlands and the plains open out in front of you, which is the moment most people stop taking photographs and just look. You are into the central Serengeti by the afternoon, and the first game drive starts on the way to camp. This part of the park holds game all year, so the drive is not a formality.
Day 04
Game drives only
Out early, when the cats are still moving, and out again in the late afternoon. Where you go depends on where the animals are, which is the whole argument for a private vehicle: nobody else in the car is on a different schedule. Lunch is taken in the bush rather than back at camp, so the middle of the day is yours to spend where the game is. This is the day the guide earns his reputation.
Day 05
Morning drive, then the road east
A last morning on the plains, taken early, because the Serengeti rarely says goodbye without offering something. Then the road east to Karatu, on the far side of the Ngorongoro highlands. The afternoon is deliberately empty. After four days of early starts, a farmhouse, a chair and nothing scheduled is not a wasted afternoon.
Day 06
Private transfer
Breakfast, then a private transfer to the airport for your flight. If the schedule leaves room, there is time for a coffee tour or the Maasai market on the way, and your guide will tell you honestly whether your departure allows it rather than rushing you through something you paid attention to.
The route
Arusha · Tarangire · Ngorongoro Crater · Central Serengeti · Karatu · Arusha
A loop rather than an out and back, so no day is spent driving ground you have already covered.
Four properties, named, and booked for the nights shown. What you see below is the country each one sits in. Photographs of the properties themselves follow rather than borrowed pictures of somewhere else.
Included
Not included
The price
$6,753
Total for two travellers · $3,377 each
Roughly where it goes
Approximate. Accommodation and park fees move with the season and the property, so your written quote carries the exact figures.
Travelling alone? From $4,853 per person. Solo pricing moves with the property and the date, so ask and we will quote your dates exactly rather than leave you to guess.
Ask for these datesOn this route
Tell us when you want to travel and how many of you are coming. You get the written itinerary and the full cost before anything is confirmed, and nothing is charged while you are still deciding.