5-Day Tanzania Wildlife Safari with Serengeti and Ngorongoro

• On arrival, meet your tour guide at JRO Airport 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 stands the wall of the Great Rift Valley, before which lie the 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 species of birds. The park is also famed for its unique but elusive tree-climbing lions.

• Have dinner and stay the night at Farm Of Dreams Lodge.

Meals Plan: Half Board

Non-game-viewing travel time: 3 hours and 43 minutes
Distance: 176.6 km

• After breakfast, head towards Serengeti National Park via the beautiful high-lying farmland of Karatu and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area with your Tanzanian tour guide.

• Leaving the highlands behind, descend into the heart of wild Africa - Serengeti National Park - with its endless plains rolling into the distance as far as the eye can see. Continue to the central park area, known as the Seronera area, one of the richest wildlife habitats in the park. The Seronera River provides a valuable water source here and attracts wildlife representative of most of the Serengeti's species.

• Arrive in time for lunch and enjoy an afternoon game drive in Serengeti National Park.

• Have dinner and stay the night at Mbugani Tented Camp or Sound of Silence.

Meals Plan: Full Board

Non-game-viewing travel time: 6 hours

Distance: 205 km

• Be one of only a few fortunate people to glide in a hot air balloon over the Serengeti Plains, available at supplementary cost by pre-arrangement. Float silently above the awakening bush while spotting wildlife and enjoying the amazing scenery of Africa, across rivers and over numerous small villages.

• After breakfast, enjoy a game drive along the Sogore River Circuit, which loops into the plains south of the Seronera River and is good for possible sightings of lion, Thomson gazelle, topi, ostrich, and cheetah. Close to the Serengeti Seronera Lodge and public campsites, the Visitor Centre is well worth a visit after the morning game drive. This nicely designed centre offers interesting wildlife displays and a gift shop selling information leaflets and maps of the area. The centre also has a shop where cold drinks and snacks can be purchased, as well as a picnic area and an information trail up and around a nearby kopje.

• Enjoy a relaxed picnic lunch at the centre in the shade of the giant acacia trees.

• In the afternoon, follow the Kopjes Circuit, which goes anti-clockwise around the Maasai Kopjes, an area that usually attracts a number of lions and some formidably giant cobras. Kopjes are weathered granite outcrops scattered around the plains that form miniature ecosystems, providing shade and drinking water in pools left in the rock after the rains. This makes the kopjes particularly good for spotting wildlife in the dry seasons, including lions, which like to lie in wait for animals coming to drink.

• Have dinner and stay the night at Mbugani Tented Camp or Sound of Silence.

Meals Plan: Full Board

• Today, the safari adventure turns south and continues to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that was once listed among the 7 wonders of the world, with your Tanzanian tour guide.

• Descend into the Ngorongoro Crater floor for a game drive. This volcanic caldera, the world's largest, is filled with grassland, forest, and swamp in a setting of jaw-dropping beauty. The permanent water on the crater floor supports a resident population of more than 25,000 large mammals. Here, you may find many of the reasons you chose to come on safari: elephant, lion, leopard, hyena, jackal, wallowing hippo, waterbuck, baboons, and even the rare black rhino, which finds shelter here.

• Sharing this great space with the animals are the Masai, grazing their cattle in an area that has been a separate conservation area since 1956 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1978. This harmonious cohabitation of man and beast makes Ngorongoro unique in Tanzania, and your driver-guide will be pleased to explain this incredible co-existence to you.

• Have dinner and stay the night at Farm Of Dreams Lodge.

Meals Plan: Half Board

Non-game-viewing travel time: 4 hours

Distance: 145 km

• After breakfast, drive back to Arusha. Upon arrival, continue to Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) for your flight back home.

Non-game-viewing travel time: 4 hours

Distance: 190 km