9-Day Great Serengeti Migration Safari with Mara River Crossing

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Day 01

Arusha to Tarangire National Park and Manyara/Karatu

• After breakfast, you will drive to Tarangire National Park. Upon arrival, your guide will take care of the paperwork at the park gate before you continue into the park for a game drive. Tarangire National Park is a large park famous for wild animals such as elephants, lions, leopards, cheetahs, lesser kudu, buffalo, oryx, eland, giraffes, and zebra. Visitors will enjoy a full game drive in Tarangire National Park before sunset. Afterward, you will return to your camp or lodge in Manyara/Mto wa Mbu.

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Day 02

Lake Eyasi Cultural Visit and Return to Manyara/Karatu

• After spending the night in Manyara, you will leave early in the morning after breakfast and proceed to Lake Eyasi for a game drive. Lake Eyasi is a seasonal, shallow endorheic salt lake on the floor of the Great Rift Valley at the base of the Serengeti Plateau, just south of Serengeti National Park and immediately southwest of the Ngorongoro Crater in the Crater Highlands of Tanzania. The lake is elongated, oriented from southwest to northeast, and lies in the Eyasi-Wembere branch of the Great Rift Valley wall. In the afternoon, you will be introduced to extraordinary people from the indigenous Hadzabe and Datonga tribes. You will visit the tribes and learn about their way of tracking animals and using medicinal plants. In this area, it is also easy to find and see wild animals, and a wide range of bird species can be viewed. In the late afternoon, you will drive back to Manyara/Karatu.

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Day 03

Across Ngorongoro to the Serengeti

• After breakfast, we proceed across the floor of the Great Rift Valley, up the escarpment, and through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, enjoying the pleasant and beautiful scenery on the way to Serengeti National Park. Serengeti National Park is known for its endless plains, stretching into the distance as far as the eye can see. We will continue to the Lobo area, located just north of the Seronera area in central Serengeti National Park. The wildebeest migration normally passes through the Lobo area every year around July/August on its way to Kenya's Masai Mara Game Reserve, and again in late October/November on its route back to the southern Serengeti National Park. After enjoying a game drive, visitors will stay in Serengeti National Park.

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Day 04

Game Drive in the Seronera Area

• Early in the morning after breakfast, visitors will enjoy a game drive in Serengeti National Park. You will continue the descent to reach the Seronera area, where there are good opportunities to view wild animals. Non-migration animals such as elephants, buffalo, gazelle, zebra, lions, leopards, and cheetahs can normally be seen here, as this is an area through which many wild animals pass within Serengeti National Park.

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Day 05

Central Serengeti to Northern Serengeti and Kogatende

• After breakfast, we head toward the northern Serengeti National Park, to the Wagakuria area. We follow the game drive route from the Lobo area to Wagakuria. As we head north, visitors can sight many wild animals in the Serengeti, including giraffes, plains game, herds of buffalo, and elephants. From mid-July to October, herds of wildebeest, gazelle, and zebra begin their spectacular annual migration northwards through the Mara River area. In their wake follow predators such as lions, cheetahs, and wild dogs, with vultures circling overhead. We arrive in time for lunch at the lodge, and after lunch, we enjoy an afternoon game drive in the area. The wildebeest migration can normally be found in the Wagakuria area from mid-July to October, depending on rainfall patterns. A long stretch of the Mara River runs through the northern Serengeti National Park.

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Day 06

Kogatende Wildlife Viewing and Mara River Area

• After breakfast, visitors enjoy a game drive to the Kogatende area, where large numbers of resident wildlife are found. This camp is used for the Serengeti Mobile Green Camp from July until the end of November, when the migration is in the northern Serengeti and, hopefully, crossing the Mara River. The camp is approximately 20 minutes from the Mara River and is set on a ridge under large evergreen trees, overlooking a large part of the northern Serengeti wilderness zone, where large groups of wildebeest cross the river and visitors can enjoy wild animals in peace. Visitors can also use a hot air balloon to enjoy viewing wild animals in this area.

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Day 07

Central Serengeti Game Drive to Ngorongoro

• We proceed in the morning and afternoon with a game drive in central Serengeti, with lunch included. After enjoying the game drive in Serengeti, visitors can take a break of a few hours at the lodge in the mid-afternoon. Central Serengeti means "endless plain" in the Masai language and is home to leopards, lions, hyenas, and cheetahs.
• This park is normally the scene of the annual wildebeest and zebra migration between the Kenya Mara and Serengeti. It also includes a variety of bird species such as eagles, ducks, geese, egrets, vultures, secretary birds, ibis, storks, herons, pelicans, cranes, and guinea fowl. Serengeti National Park is arguably the best-known wildlife sanctuary in the world, with over 3 million large mammals. About 35 species of plains animals can be seen here, including the "Big 5": elephant, rhino, lion, leopard, and buffalo. Other common species found here include hippo, giraffe, eland, impala and other antelope types, baboons, monkeys, and a profusion of over 500 species of birds.
• After lunch, you will continue with the game drive to view wild animals in the Serengeti. After that, you will transfer to the Serengeti gate to check out of Serengeti National Park, then proceed with game viewing on the route to Ngorongoro Crater. Dinner and overnight will be at a camp or lodge on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater.

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Day 08

Ngorongoro Crater to Manyara

• After breakfast, we depart for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, home to the world's largest inactive, intact, and unfilled volcanic caldera. It has a massive floor of about 260 sq km and a depth of over 2,000 feet. Visitors will descend more than 600 meters into the crater to view wild animals such as wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, eland, warthog, hippo, and elephants. Ngorongoro Crater is one of the most beautiful parks, where visitors enjoy a game drive and take photographs. After some time in the crater, you will drive back to your camp or lodge in Manyara for an overnight stay.

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Day 09

Lake Manyara Full-Day Game Drive and Return to Arusha/Moshi

• We continue with a full game drive in Lake Manyara National Park. Visitors will enjoy the national park, which is smaller but offers many wild animals that attract travelers, including elephants, hippos, giraffes, buffaloes, and antelopes. Lake Manyara National Park is a small park at the base of the Rift Valley escarpment. Its groundwater forest offers a nice change of scenery from the more savannah-dominated parks. Although the park is known for tree-climbing lions, big cats are not easily seen. Elephants are prolific and are the main attraction. After the full game drive, we head back to Arusha or Moshi.