7 Day Timeless Tanzania Safari - Tanzania Accommodated Safari
Watch flamingos feeding at Lake Manyara and the 'Big 5' on the plains of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater before a final visit to beautiful Tarangire National Park. Wildlife encounters, Masai tribes, big skies and the Great Rift Valley - all on a 7-day lodge safari.
Brief Itinerary
Day 1: Transfer from Nairobi to Arusha Day 2: Lake Manyara National Park, Karatu Days 3: Olduvai Gorge, Serengeti National Park Day 4: Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater Day 5: Ngorongoro Crater Day 6: Tarangire National Park Day 7: Transfer to NairobiTour Highlights
- Arusha
- Lake Manyara National Park
- Olduvai Gorge
- Serengeti National Park
- Ngorongoro Crater
- Tarangire National Park
Detailed Itinerary
Day 1: Nairobi, Transfer to Arusha
This morning you will be picked up from the joining hotel in Nairobi and transferred to your scheduled bus, for a journey south across the border and into Tanzania. Formalities here usually take an hour. Once through, we continue to Arusha and aim to arrive approximately 15h00. Once checked in, you will meet your guide and crew for the tour and have a brief welcome meeting. The remainder of the afternoon is yours at leisure. You may like to take a walk, enjoy the hotel pool or just relax and prepare for the following days on safari.
Day 2: Lake Manyara National Park (B / L / D)
This morning we depart Arusha and cross the Great Rift Valley to the first of three magnificent national parks we'll be visiting this week - Lake Manyara National Park. Before we enter the park we may stop at the welcoming village of Mto Wa Mbu (sometimes known as 'Mosquito Creek'), located just outside the park gates. 'Mto' has a host of souvenir and craft stalls prefect for an early souvenir and a chance to hone your bartering skills. Afterwards we head into the park itself. Our afternoon is spent game driving, where we hope to spot lion, hippo, antelope and its fantastic birdlife. The park's main feature is its giant soda lake and a huge number of waterfowl can be found there, including flocks of elegant flamingos that feed on algae around the lakes shallows and give the lake a bright pink fringe. The afternoon is a great introduction to Tanzania's game viewing and this evening, our lodge, situated in the park on the escarpment rim, offers fantastic views over the Rift Valley and lake and a perfect setting for dinner and a toast to the tour ahead.
Day 3: Olduvai Gorge, Serengeti National Park (B / L / D)
Leaving the park we pass through the fertile Tanzanian highlands and enter the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Once inside the National Park we make our way around the rim of the 'Crater' and descend to the Serengeti. As road conditions deteriorate, so the chance of us spotting wildlife increases. We make a brief visit to the famous Olduvai Gorge, site of archaeological digs of pre historic man, before moving into the Serengeti itself. The park's wide horizons and open plains - green after the rains, brown and burnt in the dry - provide perhaps the most evocative images of Africa. The name 'Serengeti' derives from the Maasai 'Siringitu' - 'the place where land moves on forever'. After game viewing to our lodge, we check in, with time to relax before dinner.
Day 4: Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater (B / L / D)
We spend the morning in the Serengeti. The park is huge and depending on the season we either focus our drives on a region or broaden our route to take in as much area as practicable. Whatever time we visit, we will likely see zebra, wildebeest, buffalo and antelope grazing the plains, elephant herds, baboons, a huge array of birdlife and hopefully predators such as lion, cheetah and hyena. After lunch we turn toward the Ngorongoro and reach the Crater 'rim' by nightfall to check into our lodge for dinner and overnight.
Day 5: Ngorongoro Crater (B / L / D)
Believed to date from about 2.5 million years ago, the Ngorongoro Crater was once a huge active volcano, probably as large as Kilimanjaro. After its large major eruption, the lava subsided and its cone collapsed inwards leaving the caldera. From the Crater rim (at 2400m) we pause to enjoy the sweeping view of the crater floor some 600m below. Ngorongoro is a World Heritage Site with a biosphere of fauna and flora that is second to none. We drive down the steep access road into the crater for a morning of excellent game viewing. With luck will see lion, elephant, rhino, buffalo, gazelle, wildebeest, zebra, hippo, and variety of birdlife attracted by Lake Magadi, its large soda lake. We return to the crater's rim after lunch and make our way out of the park, to a nearby lodge where we'll have dinner after checking in.
Day 6: Tarangire National Park (B / L / D)
We drive across the Rift Valley and turn to our last game reserve of the trip, the Tarangire National Park. Although small by Tanzanian standards, Tarangire has an unrivalled landscape of open plains dotted with Baobab trees, and is renowned for herds of elephant and buffalo, and its tree climbing lions. This park is one of Africa's littleknown 'gems' and should be on the itinerary of all lovers of wilderness and solitude. Later in the afternoon we travel to Arusha. After the peace of the rural game reserves this bustling and colourful city, located almost midway between Cairo and Cape Town, comes as an exciting change! We stay overnight in our hotel in Arusha.
Day 7: Arusha to Nairobi (B)
We transfer back to Nairobi by scheduled shuttle bus. Normal departure time is 14h00, arrival Nairobi between 18h30 and 19h30.
