8-Day Tanzania Wildlife Safari with Serengeti and Ngorongoro

• On arrival at Kilimanjaro Airport, meet your safari guide, who will assist with your bags before beginning the 45-minute journey to Arusha.

• Along the way, if the weather is clear, enjoy beautiful views of Mount Kilimanjaro from a distance.

• Settle into your accommodation and get ready to start your safari properly in the morning.

Overnight stay at Arumeru River Lodge.

• After breakfast, depart by road for Tarangire National Park, the third-largest national park in Tanzania. Majestic baobab trees are one of the park's most interesting features, dwarfing all but the elephants feeding beneath them. During the dry season from June to November, animals concentrate along the Tarangire River, which provides the only permanent water supply.

• Look out for giraffe, buffalo, lesser kudu, eland, oryx, and zebra. Lion, leopard, and cheetah are also present in the area. Up to 6,000 elephants inhabit Tarangire during the dry season.

Overnight in Lake Burunge Tented Lodge.

• After breakfast, drive to Lake Manyara National Park. The route takes you through small farming villages where you may see traditionally dressed Maasai herding their cattle.

• You may stop at one of the markets for a glimpse of everyday life in this area.

• Spend the rest of the day game viewing around the lake shores. The flamingos on the lake are a classic East African sight, and you may spot hippos wallowing in the mud.

• Later, drive across the floor of the Great Rift Valley towards Lake Eyasi.

Overnight in Lake Eyasi Safari Lodge.

• Rise early in the morning for a beautiful day of learning about the fascinating world and culture of the Hadzabe and Datoga tribes. The Lake Eyasi area is where the Hadzabe hunter-gatherers live.

• Spend the day exploring on foot and discovering this dry and rugged landscape, which is still inhabited by this small group of Bushmen. They live in bands, hunting with bows and arrows and gathering roots, tubers, and wild fruits, in a way similar to how people lived 10,000 years ago.

• Another interesting tribe in this area is the Datoga, also called the Barabaig or Mang'ati. Initially, they experienced a great deal of rivalry with the Maasai over grazing land.

Dinner and overnight stay at Ngorongoro Farm House.

• After breakfast, drive to the Ngorongoro Crater and gain your first views of this incredible natural wonder.

• Descend into the crater for game viewing from your private vehicle, taking a picnic lunch to enjoy on the crater floor. There is a handful of rare resident black rhinos in the crater that you may be lucky enough to see, along with large prides of lion, zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, and hyena. Your guide will help point them out and tell you more about each species.

Overnight stay at Kubu-Kubu Tented Lodge.

• Spend all of today on safari in the Serengeti. Explore different regions of this vast park with your driver-guide according to what wildlife you have already seen on your safari so far. Taking a full day rather than just a morning or afternoon game drive gives you time to venture further afield into less-visited areas. The Serengeti is big cat country, so keep an eye out for lion, cheetah, and elusive leopards.

Overnight stay at Kubu-Kubu Tented Lodge.

• Spend your final day on safari, making the most of the sweeping open plains of the Serengeti and trying to see as much wildlife as possible.

• In addition to the Big Five, look out for wild dog, giraffe, wildebeest, and spotted hyena. The birdlife in the Serengeti is also spectacular, with over 500 species recorded here, including a variety of bustards, lilac-breasted rollers, and starlings with distinctive shimmering wings.

Dinner and overnight stay at Kubu-Kubu Tented Lodge.

• Enjoy one last game drive this morning on your way to the Seronera Airstrip in central Serengeti.

• Board a light aircraft flight to Kilimanjaro, flying for around an hour and a half while enjoying wonderful views over the Serengeti.

• Land back at Kilimanjaro Airport in time for your onward flight.