6-Day Tanzania Safari through Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater

• After breakfast, depart for Tarangire National Park for a full-day game drive. Tarangire has a diverse landscape with nine vegetation zones. Ancient baobab trees, the largest trees in Africa, dot the landscape and dwarf the animals that feed beneath them. The Tarangire River meanders through the park and attracts an abundance of wildlife, from elephants, lions, leopards, buffalos, zebras, giraffes, and antelopes to a variety of colourful birds. The park is especially famous for having the greatest elephant population in Tanzania, and during your safari, you will have the chance to quietly observe many families of elephants interacting.
• Stop for a picnic lunch at an observatory inside the park, where you will be able to view animals drinking water in the river and, many times, lions attacking a thirsty zebra or wildebeest. Continue game viewing and finally return to the campsite for dinner.

*Possibility for a night game drive in Tarangire.

• Depart after breakfast and drive across the Great Rift Valley to Lake Manyara National Park for a full-day game drive. Although only 205 sq. miles in size, this enchanting park is noted for its beauty and its incredibly lush acacia forest of giant figs and mahogany trees, which are home to troops of baboons and blue monkeys. This park has become famous for its climbing lions and the flamingos along the lakeshore. The landscapes here are absolutely stunning and very different from those of the Serengeti, for example.
• Enjoy game drives along the shore of the lake, with incredible views of giraffes and buffalos in the foreground, while the lake, flamingos, and flat plains stretch across the horizon. Great photo opportunities await throughout the day.
• In the afternoon, return to camp for dinner.

*Extra tour recommended: Bicycle ride in Lake Manyara.

• Today, you are off to the famous Serengeti National Park, home of the Great Migration. Your drive today is spectacular as you travel up the crater highlands, stopping at the rim for a bird's-eye view of the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater.
• Continuing on, as you crest the hillside, the vast Serengeti spreads out before you as far as the eye can see. Large predators, including lions, cheetahs, and hyenas, are drawn to the area by the abundance of prey that migrates throughout the park. Many smaller animals, such as rock hyraxes, bat-eared foxes, mongooses, honey badgers, jackals, monkeys, baboons, and African hares, also inhabit the area, along with nearly 500 species of birds.
• On the way into the Serengeti, there is an option to stop at the famous Oldupai Gorge.

• After breakfast, spend a full day in Serengeti National Park with morning and afternoon game drives. Serengeti means "endless plains" in Kiswahili. This 6,900 sq. mile (18,000 sq. km) park is inhabited by more than 2 million large animals, including more than a million wildebeest, hundreds of thousands of plains zebras, and Thomson's gazelles.

*Extra tour recommended: The incredible balloon safari over the Serengeti plains.

• Today, you will wake up very early for an early morning safari before breakfast, when the animals are more active and the sunrise is at its most beautiful. The sunrise in the African savannah is one of the most beautiful experiences one can have.
• After the game drive, return to the camp for brunch.
• In the afternoon, transfer to Ngorongoro, the 8th natural wonder of the world. With walls 2,000 ft high and a crater floor that spreads across 102 sq. miles, the crater is a virtual Noah's Ark, inhabited by almost every species of wildlife indigenous to East Africa, including the rare black rhino.
• Arrival in Ngorongoro in the afternoon.

*Possibility for an afternoon walking safari in Ngorongoro highlands.

• Very early in the morning, descend to the crater floor for a day of wildlife viewing in one of the most incredible places on Earth. In fact, the crater has the greatest concentration of wildlife on the planet. It contains a river, several swamps, a soda lake that, from above, looks like steam and is full of flamingoes, as well as a forest and open plains. The large bull elephants that reside here have extremely large tusks due to the rich mineral content of the volcanic soil and its grasses. They are among the most incredible elephants you will ever see in your life.
• After a stop for a picnic lunch near the hippo lake and more wildlife viewing in the afternoon, drive up the steep road out of the crater and return to Arusha.