8-Day Tanzania Big Five Safari through Serengeti and Ngorongoro

On arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport (or Arusha Airport), you are met by your guide and driven to your lodge in Arusha. The rest of the day is free to relax, settle in, and adjust after your flight. Enjoy the gardens, mountain views, or an optional short coffee or village tour if you are up for it.

• Activities: Airport pick-up and transfer to Arusha; free time to rest and settle in.
• Accommodation: Gran Malia Arusha (or similar).
• Meals: Dinner.

After breakfast, your guide collects you for the drive to Tarangire, our opening ground for two of the five: African elephant and Cape buffalo. The park's river system and baobab forests support sprawling herds of both, and the photographic access is close and immediate from your first afternoon in the bush.

• Activities: Morning transfer to Tarangire; afternoon tracking game drive.
• Accommodation: Tarangire Safari Lodge (or similar).
• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner.

Leaving Tarangire, we break the journey at Mto wa Mbu, a lively market town at the base of the Rift Valley escarpment where a huge mix of Tanzanian tribes live side by side. A guided village walk or bike tour here is a great way to stretch your legs and get a grounded, human counterpoint to the parks: local farms, a market, and a chance to try banana beer or local produce. From there, it is a short, scenic climb up to Karatu for the night.

• Activities: Mto wa Mbu village and market walk (optional bike tour); afternoon transfer to Karatu.
• Accommodation: Boutique retreat (or similar).
• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner.

We wind through high forest country before dropping into the Seronera Valley, ground zero for the Serengeti's exceptional big-cat density. From the moment we arrive, we are scanning tree lines and rock outcrops for the two most elusive members of the list.

• Activities: Scenic high-altitude transit and an afternoon Serengeti game drive.
• Accommodation: Ang'ata Serengeti Camp (or similar).
• Meals: Breakfast, Picnic Lunch, Dinner.

An entire day dedicated to lion and leopard. We are out at first light when lions are returning from a night hunt, and our guide reads the sausage trees and acacias where leopards cache their kills away from scavengers. We spend extra time around the granite kopjes, natural fortresses for resident prides.

• Activities: Morning and afternoon game drives, or a full-day safari with a field picnic.
• Accommodation: Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge (or similar).
• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.

One last dawn drive through the Seronera trails to catch any predators we missed, then a relaxed bush lunch before the slow climb east into the cooler air of the Ngorongoro Highlands.

• Activities: Morning tracking safari; afternoon transit to the crater ridge.
• Accommodation: Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge (or similar).
• Meals: Breakfast, Picnic Lunch, Dinner.

The final piece of the checklist. We descend 600 metres into the caldera, home to Tanzania's most secure rhino population, with short flat grass giving unusually clear sightlines. This is your best single opportunity in the country to close out the Big Five in one morning.

• Activities: 5-6-hour intensive crater basin safari.
• Accommodation: Tloma Lodge (or similar).
• Meals: Breakfast, Picnic Lunch, Dinner.

A slow breakfast over the coffee estates, then a comfortable drive down the Rift Valley wall to Arusha, with a stop at local curio shops for handicrafts before your transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) or Arusha Airport (ARK).

• Activities: Morning transit; airport drop-off.
• Meals: Breakfast & Lunch.