On this 6-day safari, you will visit the Tarangire National Park, Serengeti National Park, and Ngorongoro Crater. All three destinations have reliably good game viewing any time of the year. And all three are distinctly different in their landscape and offerings. The itinerary ends with a visit to one of the most remarkable tribes in Africa – the Hadzabe.
The prices quoted are based on the following accommodations:
Camping: Night 1 (not inside a wildlife area) – Fanaka Campsite or Kizumba Campsite
Nights 2 & 3 (inside wildlife area) – Nyani Campsite in Serengeti
Night 4 (inside wildlife area) – Ngorongoro Simba Campsite
Night 5 (no wildlife present) – Lake Eyasi Campsite
Standard: Night 1 (not inside a wildlife area) – Kudu Lodge or Marrera Valley Lodge
Nights 2 & 3 (inside a wildlife area)- Heritage Tented Camp or Tukaone Tented Camp or Thorntree Tented Camp
Night 4 (inside wildlife area) – Rhino Lodge or Angata Tented Camp
Night 5 (no wildlife present) – Lake Eyasi Safari Camp
Luxury: Night 1 (not in a wildlife area)- Manyara Secret Lodge
Nights 2 & 3 (in a wildlife area) – Serena Lodge – Serengeti
Night 4 (in a wildlife area) – Serena Lodge – Ngorongoro
Night 5 (no wildlife present) – Zawani Lodge
Other accommodation options are available but may affect the quoted price.
After breakfast at your hotel, your guide will pick you up and we start your safari with a drive to Tarangire National Park. This park has a wide variety of safari animals present but it is most known for its large number of elephants and giraffes. It is a very scenic park with the Tarangire River winding its way through the park, giant baobab trees, and enormous termite mounds. You will have a picnic-style lunch at a designated area. In the mid/late afternoon, we will exit the park and travel further west to your accommodations for this night near the town of Karatu. Note: In order to reduce the driving time to the Serengeti, accommodations will not be in a wildlife area for this night. You will get that experience the following three nights though.
After breakfast we travel west, crossing the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (but not through the crater this day). In the afternoon you will reach the plains of the Serengeti National Park. The Serengeti has a diversity of landscapes including short grass plains, savannah, thick bush, swamps, and lakes and it is famous for the yearly migration when hundred of thousands of wildebeest and zebras trek to find fresh grass and water. We will travel to Seronera (central Serengeti) to enjoy game viewing. In the late afternoon, we will head to your night’s accommodations for dinner and overnight rest.
On this day your guide will take you to where the best game viewing is for that time of the year. No matter what, the Serengeti seldom disappoints and lives up to its reputation as the best safari destination in Africa. We Return to the same accommodations as the previous night for dinner and overnight rest.
We will get some game viewing in as we work our way back east re-entering the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). We need to time the exit so no more than 48 hours are spent inside the Serengeti. Once in the NCA, we drive east. There are options of two side trips. One is visiting a Maasai Village. The other is visiting Olduvai Gorge Museum. Afterward, we go to your evening’s accommodations for relaxation.
Rise and shine! After an early breakfast, we will drive down the steep winding road into Ngorongoro Crater. The Ngorongoro Crater is the largest, unbroken unflooded caldera in the world and it has an unbelievable diversity of wildlife. In addition to zebras and wildebeests, you might also spot the rare black rhino and other members of the “Big Five” – lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino, and leopard. The crater is also home to other animals such as hyenas, waterbucks, bushbucks, eland, and more than 500 bird species. After an extensive game drive and a picnic lunch, we will drive to the remote Lake Eyasi. You will want an early bedtime as tomorrow’s tribal tour will begin quite early.
Sorry, but we will awaken you pre-dawn and after a quick bite and cup of tea/coffee, we set out to meet the Hadzabe tribe. This is one of the last true hunter-gatherer tribes left in the world. They truly love their lifestyle and have rejected the Tanzanian government’s free schooling and free housing offers to continue their age-old ways. Be prepared to run through the bush following them on a hunt. Using bow and arrow, they hunt anything they find, from mice to giraffes, with baboons being the favored meal. For large game, the arrows are poison-tipped. The Hadzabe are experts in gathering wild honey and foraging for edible roots. After the hunt, you can join them in song and dance. You will have a chance to compare your archery skills with them as well as your ability to create fire without matches. After this tour, we will have brunch and then drive back to Arusha/Kilimanjaro Airport/Moshi, where you will arrive in the late evening.
