5-Day Serengeti Safari with Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara

• Head towards 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, a small museum allows us to see evidence of our ancestors that has been dated back 2.5 million years.

• After lunch, we drive into the Serengeti plains and spend the rest of the afternoon game viewing across the vast plains, broken only by stands of acacia trees and the occasional kopje. In December, January, and February, we will normally encounter the migration, with large herds of wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle. There are also plenty of resident animals to be seen here, such as giraffes, buffalo, and elephants, as well as many large predators including lions, cheetah, and leopards.

• Return to our special tented camp for the night.

Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Campsite: Full board.

• Enjoy a full day in this wonderful park, rising early to make the most of our time. Your Tanzanian guides will choose the best spotting locations for the time of year. We may spend time at the Hippo Pool, watching these majestic animals laze in the cool water alongside crocodiles, observe a big pride of lions, or find ourselves in the middle of the migration - sometimes surrounded by wildebeest, sometimes by zebras, which travel with them.

• 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 provides the ultimate game viewing, and we will hopefully see many of the plains animals, including elephants, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, and lions. If you are lucky, you may also spot the elusive leopard and cheetah, as well as varied bird species ranging from elegant secretary birds to the flightless ostrich.

• Return to our special tented camp for the night.

Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Campsite: Full board.

• Start the day with an early morning game drive before heading to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Ngorongoro is a special place because it is a Conservation Area rather than a National Park. This means 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 in Ngorongoro, we will have a chance to glimpse the Masai way of life.

• After stopping at the entrance gate, there is a chance to learn more about this fascinating volcanic landscape.

• Drive around the rim of the crater itself, and from here we 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, buffalo, rhino, and leopards, if you are lucky. The only animal you will not see here is a giraffe, whose long legs are unable to cope with the steep sides of the crater.

• In the late afternoon, we will travel back to our special tented camp.

Dinner and overnight at Ngorongoro Campsite: Full board.

• Depart from your lodge 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 landscape includes groundwater forest, areas of open grassland near the lake foreshore, and the Soda Lake.

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

• In the late afternoon, drive back to Arusha.

Dinner and overnight at Arusha Safari Lodge: Half board.

• After breakfast or lunch, we will drive straight to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your international flight back home.