The Best Tanzania Lodge Safari Tour – Tarangire to Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara

Day 1: Kilimanjaro International Airport to Arusha City (D)

Pick up from the airport, drive to Arusha for the night- Dinner & Overnight.

🏚️ Hotel Option: Masai Land Lodge/Nejjobug Lodge or similar.

Day 2: Tarangire Park-The Home of Elephants & Bao Bao Trees (B, L, D)

Depart with packed lunch after breakfast, drive to Tarangire for a full-day game drive. Tarangire National Park is the sixth-largest national park in Tanzania; it is located in Manyara Region. The name of the park originates from the Tarangire River that crosses the park. The Tarangire River is the primary source of fresh water for wild animals in the Tarangire Ecosystem, during the annual dry season. The Tarangire Ecosystem is defined by the long-distance migration of wildebeest and zebras. During the dry season, thousands of animals concentrate in Tarangire National Park from the surrounding wet-season dispersal and calving areas.
The park is famous for its high density of elephants and baobab trees. Visitors to the park in June to November dry season can expect to see large herds of thousands of zebra, wildebeest, and cape buffalo. Other common resident animals include waterbuck, giraffe, dik-dik, impala, eland, Grant’s gazelle, vervet monkey, banded mongoose, and olive baboon. Predators in the Tarangire include African lions, leopards, cheetah, caracals, honey badgers, and African wild dogs.
Home to more than 550 bird species, the park is a haven for bird enthusiasts.
The park is also famous for the termite mounds that dot the landscape. Those that have been abandoned are often home to dwarf mongooses.

🏚️ Hotel Option: Olea Safari Lodge or similar.

Day 3: Serengeti National Park (B, L, D)

Breakfast then drive to Serengeti for game drives in Serengeti National Park. Serengeti National Park, in northern Tanzania, is known for its massive annual migration of wildebeest and zebra. Seeking new pasture, the herds move north from their breeding grounds in the grassy southern plains. Many cross the marshy western corridor’s crocodile-infested Grumeti River. Others veer northeast to the Lobo Hills, home to black eagles. Black rhinos inhabit the granite outcrops of the Moru Kopjes.
The park covers 14,750 square kilometers (5,700 sq mi) of grassland plains, savanna, riverine forest, and woodlands. The park is worldwide known for its incredible scenery and magnificent wildlife. Some of the most popular animals among tourists include:
Masai lion, African Leopard, Cheetah, Elephant, Impala, African Buffalo, Wildebeest, Serengeti wildebeest: the park is home to spectacular migration events. Large ungulates from Grant’s gazelles to blue wildebeests travel across vast tracts of land as the seasons change. The population of migratory wildebeests is approximately 1.2 million.
Apart from the vast herds of migratory and some resident wildebeest and zebra the park is also densely packed with other plains game including half a million Thomson’s and Grant’s gazelle over 8,000 Masai giraffe, warthog, topi, common eland, waterbuck, grey duiker, impala, klipspringer, roan antelope, bushbuck, lesser kudu, fringe-eared oryx, and coke’s hartebeest
Carnivores include about 4,000 spotted hyena, two species of jackals, African golden wolf, honey badger, striped hyena serval seven species of mongooses, two species of otters, and the recently introduced East African wild dog (extinct since 1991). Apart from the safari staples, primates such as yellow and olive baboons and vervet monkey, patas monkey, black-and-white colors are also seen in the gallery forests of the Grumeti River.
Other mammals are including aardvark, aardwolf, bat-eared fox, ground pangolin, crested porcupine, three species of hyraxes, cape hare.
Serengeti National Park has also great ornithological interest, boasting about 500 bird species, including Masai ostrich, secretarybird, kori bustards, helmeted guineafowls, southern ground hornbill, crowned cranes, marabou storks, yellow-billed stork, lesser flamingo, martial eagles, lovebirds, oxpeckers, and many species of vultures.
Reptiles in Serengeti National Park include Nile crocodile, leopard tortoise, serrated hinged terrapin, rainbow agama, Nile monitor, chameleons, African python, black mamba, black-necked spitting cobra, puff adder.

🏚️ Hotel Option: Serengeti Heritage Tented Camp or similar.

Day 4: Full Day Serengeti National Park (B, L, D)

Breakfast from the lodge, game drive then return lodge for dinner & overnight.

🏚️ Hotel Option: Serengeti Heritage Tented Camp or similar.

Day 5: Serengeti National to Ngorongoro Crater (B, L, D)

Depart with packed lunch, drive to Ngorongoro crater for crater tour. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is a protected area and a World Heritage Site located 180 km (110 mi) west of Arusha in the Crater Highlands area of Tanzania. The area is named after Ngorongoro Crater, a large volcanic caldera within the area.
The name of the crater has an onomatopoeic origin; it was named by the Maasai pastoralists after the sound produced by the cowbell (ngoro ngoro). Based on fossil evidence found at the Olduvai Gorge various hominid species have occupied the area for 3 million years.
Approximately 25,000 large animals, mostly ungulates, live in the crater. Large animals in the crater include the black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis), the local population of which declined from about 108 in 1964-66 to between 11-14 in 1995, the African buffalo or Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer), and the hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius). There also are many other ungulates: the blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) (7,000 estimated in 1994), Grant’s zebra (Equus quagga boehmi) (4,000), the common eland (Taurotragus oryx), and Grant’s (Nanger granti) and Thomson’s gazelles (Eudorcas thomsonii) (3,000). Waterbucks (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) occur mainly near Lerai Forest. There are no topis (Damaliscus lunatus), oribis (Ourebia oribi), or crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus). Impala (Aepyceros melampus) is absent because the open woodland they prefer does not exist. Giraffe also is absent, possibly because of a lack of browse species. Tanzanian cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus raineyi), East African wild dog (Lycaon pictus lupinus), and African leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) are rarely seen.

🏚️ Hotel Option: Olea Safari Lodge or similar.

Day 6: Lake Manyara (B, L, D)

Breakfast, drive to Lake Manyara for Half game drive. Lake Manyara National Park, famous for its tree-climbing lions and large flocks of flamingoes. The park contains five distinct vegetation zones and is of scenic beauty.
The park is governed by the Tanzania National Parks Authority. The majority of the land area of the park is a narrow strip running between the Gregory Rift wall to the west and Lake Manyara, an alkaline or soda-lake, to the east.
The park consists of 330 km2 (130 sq mi) of arid land, forest, and a soda-lake which covers as much as 200 km2 (77 sq mi) of land during the wet season but is nearly nonexistent during the possible highlights for visiting birders, whilst the range of starling species provides somewhat less gaudy interest.
Lake Manyara National Park, famous for its tree-climbing lions and large flocks of flamingoes. The park contains five distinct vegetation zones and is of scenic beauty.
The park is governed by the Tanzania National Parks Authority. The majority of the land area of the park is a narrow strip running between the Gregory Rift wall to the west and Lake Manyara, an alkaline or soda-lake, to the east.
The park consists of 330 km2 (130 sq mi) of arid land, forest, and a soda-lake which covers as much as 200 km2 (77 sq mi) of land during the wet season but is nearly nonexistent during the possible highlights for visiting birders, whilst the range of starling species provides somewhat less gaudy interest.

🏚️ Hotel Option: Olea Safari Lodge or similar.

Day 7: Departure Day (B)

Depart with a packed lunch box, drive to Maasai Boma to experience the Maasai culture, or Lake Eyasi to experience Hadzabe & Datoga life, Later drive to the airport for the flight.