7-Day Family Safari in Tanzania's Northern Circuit with Luxury Lodges

Arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport, where you will meet us at the arrival point with a signboard written with your names on it. We will arrange a pickup transfer from the airport to Arusha safari lodge to prepare for your safari adventure.

We will gather at the hotel for a pre-safari briefing and an equipment check. Overland Safaris will also confirm that you have the appropriate mandatory medical coverage and travel insurance.

Dinner and overnight at Arusha Coffee Lodge: Half board.

Today we drive to Tarangire National Park for excellent game viewing. Tarangire is a small park that offers some excellent sights. Generally, in the dry seasons, Tarangire comes alive as wildlife and birdlife congregate on the Tarangire River, which is a permanent source of water.

We spend the night in our lodge, beautifully set outside the park with stunning views and a unique atmosphere. In the late afternoon, we make a short journey from the park to our special tented camp.

Dinner and overnight at Lake Manyara Escapement Luxury Lodge: Full board.

We head towards the Serengeti National Park. En route, there is an opportunity to visit Olduvai Gorge. It is within this steep-sided ravine that Louis and Mary Leakey made some of the world's most important archaeological discoveries in the 1950s. Here, in a small museum, we are able to see evidence of our ancestors that has been dated back 2.5 million years.

After lunch, we drive into the Serengeti itself, and the rest of the afternoon is spent game viewing in the vast plains that are broken only by stands of acacia trees and the occasional kopje. In December, January, and February, we will normally meet the migration with large herds of wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle.

There are always plenty of resident animals, such as giraffes, buffalo, and elephants, and many large predators such as lions, cheetahs, and leopards. We return to our special tented camp for the night.

Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Sanctuary Luxury Tented Lodge: Full board.

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, or watch a big pride of lions.

We may find ourselves in the middle of the migration, sometimes surrounded by wildebeest and 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 plains game: elephants, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, and lions, and if you are lucky, the elusive leopard and cheetah, as well as huge amounts of interesting birdlife, from the elegant secretary birds to the flightless ostrich. We return to our special tented camp for the night.

Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Sanctuary Luxury Tented Lodge: Full board.

We start the day with an early morning game drive before heading to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Ngorongoro is a special place in that it is a Conservation Area, not a National Park. This means that the whole area is managed for both the animals and the local Masai people, who graze their cattle alongside the indigenous wildlife.

During the drive into Ngorongoro, we have a chance to glimpse something of the Masai way of life. After stopping at the entrance gate, where there is a chance to learn more about this fascinating volcanic landscape, we will drive around the rim of the crater itself, and from here we can look down and see herds of wildebeest or buffalo.

Finally, we descend into the crater. The crater walls provide a natural sanctuary for the animals, which means there is plenty to see: lions, elephants, buffalo, rhino, and leopards, if you are lucky. The only animal you won't see here is a giraffe, whose long legs are unable to cope with the steep sides of the crater. In the late afternoon, we travel back to our special tented camp.

Dinner and overnight at Ndutu Luxury Tented Lodge: Full board.

Today we will descend 2000 feet (over 600 meters) to the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater for your crater tour. Here you will explore the forest areas inhabited by monkeys and elephants, as well as the lake area, where we may see flamingos. We will also visit the open savannah where the lions hunt.

Picnic lunch will be served in the crater. In the late afternoon, we make a short journey to Lake Manyara at Kirurumu tented camp.

Dinner and overnight at Lake Manyara Escapement Luxury Lodge: Full board.

We depart from your lodge in Lake Manyara and proceed to Lake Manyara National Park. Although small in size, this park is one of the most diverse reserves in the country. Lake Manyara covers two-thirds of the park. In the backdrop is the wall of the Great Rift Valley, before which lies the groundwater forest, areas of open grassland near the lake foreshore, and the Soda Lake.

We enjoy a picnic lunch in this area, which consists of open grassy areas, hot springs, dense woodlands, and steep mountainsides. Lake Manyara National Park is a birding paradise that has more than 350 species of bird. The park is also famed for its unique and elusive tree-climbing lions.

After lunchtime, we will drive direct to Kilimanjaro International Airport for the evening flight.