7-Day Tanzania Wildlife Safari through Serengeti and Ngorongoro

• Arrive anytime at JRO and head to Arusha Safari Lodge, where the rest of the day is at leisure. The lodge is beautifully located at a Kilimanjaro viewpoint and is a perfect place to prepare for your adventure.

• Gather at the hotel for a pre-safari briefing and an equipment check.

Dinner and overnight at Arusha Safari Lodge: Half board.

• Drive to Tarangire National Park for excellent game viewing. Tarangire is a small park that offers some excellent sights. Generally, in the dry season, Tarangire comes alive as wildlife and birdlife congregate along the Tarangire River, which is a permanent source of water.

• Spend the night in a lodge set beautifully outside the park, with stunning views.

Dinner and overnight at Acacia Farm Lodge: Full board.

• Have a final game drive in Tarangire before heading into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area with your Tanzanian tour guide.

• Ngorongoro is special because it is a Conservation Area, not a National Park. The whole area is managed for both the animals and the local Maasai people, who graze their cattle alongside the indigenous wildlife. During the drive in Ngorongoro, you'll get a glimpse of the Maasai way of life.

• After stopping at the entrance gate to learn more about this fascinating volcanic landscape, drive around the rim of the crater itself. From here, you can look down and see herds of wildebeest or buffalo.

• Descend into the crater. The crater walls provide a natural sanctuary for the animals, which means there is plenty to see: lions, elephants, buffaloes, rhinos, 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.

Dinner and overnight at Ngorongoro Wild Tented Camp: Full board.

• Head towards Serengeti National Park with your Tanzanian tour guide. 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. You can see evidence of our ancestors that has been dated back 2.5 million years.

• After lunch, drive into the Serengeti itself, and spend the rest of the afternoon game viewing in the vast plains, broken only by stands of acacia trees and the occasional kopje. In December, January, and February, you will normally encounter the migration, with large herds of wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle. There are plenty of resident animals, such as giraffe, buffalo, and elephant, as well as large predators such as lion, cheetah, and leopard lurking in every corner of the park.

• Return to your special tented camp for the night.

Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Wild Tented Camp: Full board.

• Take another full day of game viewing in this wonderful park. You are advised to wake up early to make the most of your time.

• Spend time at the Hippo Pool watching these majestic animals laze about in the cool water, coexisting alongside the crocodiles.

• During the migration season, you can spot predators in the middle of their hunt, surrounded by wildebeest and zebras.

• Journey from the wide-open plains to the kopjes. These volcanic rocky outcrops provide protection and shelter for a wide variety of wildlife.

• From the top, you can look out across the vast grasslands of the Serengeti. This diverse and interesting landscape will provide you with the ultimate game viewing, as well as glimpses of the interesting birdlife, from elegant secretary birds to the flightless ostrich.

• Return to your special tented camp for the night.

Dinner and overnight at Ikoma Wild Tented Camp: Full board.

• After a full day game drive in Serengeti National Park, drive back to Karatu.

Dinner and overnight at Acacia Farm Lodge: Full board.

• Depart from Karatu 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. Backed by the wall of the Great Rift Valley, the park features groundwater forest, areas of open grassland near the lake foreshore, and the Soda Lake.

• Enjoy a picnic lunch in the open grassland, with hot springs, dense woodlands, and steep mountainsides for company. Lake Manyara National Park is a birding paradise with more than 350 species of birds. The park is also famed for its unique and elusive tree-climbing lions.

• After lunch, make the short journey from the park to Arusha.