9-Day Signature Safari Experience

Overview

1. Day 1 Arrival in Arusha – welcome to Tanzania Stay Gran Meliá ArushaMeals Dinner (Half Board)

   Your Tanzania Tourism Safaris driver-guide meets you at Kilimanjaro International Airport. After a short briefing, you drive to your hotel in Arusha. The rest of the day is yours to settle in, rest in the garden and get ready for the safari.

2. Day 2 Tarangire National Park – baobabs and elephants Stay Tarangire Sopa LodgeMeals Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner (Full Board)

   An early start takes you to Tarangire National Park. It gets less attention than the Serengeti, but it has huge baobab trees and the largest elephant herds in northern Tanzania. Your game drives pass open savannah, the river and seasonal marshes. Expect elephants, giraffes, wildebeest, lions and buffaloes, and maybe rarer animals such as oryx and gerenuk. Over 500 bird species have been recorded here, so bring binoculars if you like birds.

3. Day 3 On to Serengeti National Park Stay Serengeti Serena Safari LodgeMeals Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner (Full Board)

   After breakfast you drive to Serengeti National Park. The road climbs through the Ngorongoro Highlands, with a short stop at the crater rim for photos. The name Serengeti comes from the Maasai word Siringet, meaning endless plains, and once you are inside the park you see why. Your first game drives are in Central Serengeti, where predators are common and there is usually plenty going on.

4. Day 4 Tracking the Great Migration Stay Serengeti Serena Safari LodgeMeals Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner (Full Board)

   Today is a full-day game drive with the Great Wildebeest Migration, one of the biggest wildlife events on Earth. We start early. Your guide heads to wherever the herds are most active, and predators are often close behind. Look for wildebeest, zebra, gazelles and eland as they move across the plains in search of water and fresh grazing.

5. Day 5 A second day with the Great Migration Stay Serengeti Serena Safari LodgeMeals Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner (Full Board)

   You spend another day with the Great Migration. With a picnic lunch on board, you go further out into the plains, where the game viewing is some of the best anywhere. Keep your camera ready for cheetahs on the hunt, hyenas nearby, or lions waiting quietly in the grass. If you are lucky, you may see a chase, and how close the animals live to danger every day.

6. Day 6 Final Serengeti Game Drive – drive to the Ngorongoro Highlands Stay Ngorongoro Serena Safari LodgeMeals Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner (Full Board)

   The day starts with a sunrise game drive in Central Serengeti. You visit good spots like the Hippo Pool and the kopjes, the rock outcrops where lions and leopards often lie in the sun. After brunch, you drive to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and reach the rim of the old volcanic caldera by sunset. From the rim you look out over one of Africa’s best-known natural sights.

7. Day 7 Ngorongoro Crater game drive Stay Ngorongoro Serena Safari LodgeMeals Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner (Full Board)

   Early in the morning you drive down into the Ngorongoro Crater for a full-day game drive. All of the Big Five live here. On the crater floor you may see elephants, black rhinos, lions and buffaloes, and, with luck, a leopard. Lunch is near the Hippo Pool at Ngoitoktok Springs. Nowhere else on Earth packs so much wildlife, of so many kinds, into one collapsed volcano.

8. Day 8 Return to Arusha – a quiet afternoon Stay Arusha Serena HotelMeals Breakfast, Dinner (Half Board)

   After a slow breakfast, you drive back to Arusha. There you check in at a quiet lodge on the edge of the city. The afternoon is free. Walk in the gardens, or swim in the pool with Mount Meru in the background.

9. Day 9 Departure day Meals Breakfast

   Depending on your flight time, you may have a little time to relax at the lodge. Then we take you to Kilimanjaro International Airport or Arusha Airport for your flight home or onward trip. We hope you leave with good memories and plans to come back.