5-Day Tanzania Budget Camping Safari with Serengeti and Ngorongoro

• Depart from Arusha 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, 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.

• Drive to the campsite in the late afternoon.

Dinner and overnight at Nsiya Campsite: Full board.

• Head towards Serengeti National Park.

• Take the opportunity to visit Olduvai Gorge en route. 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. There is also a small museum where you can see evidence of our ancestors dating back 2.5 million years.

• Drive into the Serengeti after lunch.

• Spend the rest of the afternoon game viewing on 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 always plenty of resident animals as well, such as giraffe, buffalo, and elephant, along with large predators including lion, cheetah, and leopard.

• Return to the special tented camp for the night.

Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Campsite: Full board.

• Enjoy another full day in this wonderful park, rising early to make the most of your time. The guides will choose the best spotting locations for the time of year. You 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 yourself in the middle of the migration, sometimes surrounded by wildebeest and sometimes by zebras, which travel with them.

• 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, you can look out across the vast grasslands of the Serengeti. This diverse and interesting landscape offers the ultimate game-viewing experience. You will hopefully see many of the plains animals, including elephants, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, and lions, and if you are lucky, the elusive leopard and cheetah, as well as abundant birdlife, from elegant secretary birds to the flightless ostrich.

• Return to the special tented camp for the night.

Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Ngiri Campsite: Full board.

• Start the day with an early morning game drive before heading to the 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.

• Get a chance to glimpse something of the Masai way of life during the drive in Ngorongoro.

• Descend into the crater. The crater walls provide a natural sanctuary for the animals, which means there is plenty to see, including lions, elephants, buffalo, rhino, and leopard 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.

• Travel back to Arusha in the late afternoon.

Dinner and overnight at Masailand Safari Lodge or similar: Half board.

• Drive directly after breakfast or lunch to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your international flight back home.