4 Days Tarangire, Serengeti & Ngorongoro

Pick up from your lodge / hotel in Tanzania, you will drive across the floor of the Great Rift Valley to Lake Manyara National Park. This small beautiful gem of a park with its lush vegetation and tropical forests of giant fig trees and mahogany trees, takes its name from the Maasai word for “euphorbia tirucallane”, a wild bush which is used to make a thorny hedge to protect their cattle locally known as a boma.

This small gem of a National Park hosts herds of Elephants, Buffalo, Masai giraffes, zebras and a variety of antelopes that inhabit the park not forgetting a variety of monkey species and a large population of hippos that roam around the lake and occupy the lake itself.  You will take a picnic lunch at one of the many Picnic sites inside the park then continue with game drives.

On a luck day you may see also spot the legendary tree climbing lions of Lake Manyara National Park which are well known for their tree climbing habits, lazily resting on the branches of an “Acacia Tortilis” trees. The bird life is also abundant with flamingos, pelicans, horn bills and plenty of forest species.  

After breakfast you proceed via the Ngorongoro Conservation Area traversing the Malanja depression towards Serengeti National Park one of the most famous wildlife conservation areas in the world. First you will make a brief stop at the Naabi Hill Gate where you can go for a short walk at the Naabi Hill Kopjes (huge granite boulders) where you can stretch your legs as your guide sorts out the paperwork.

After lunch at the picnic site at the gate you continue on game drives all afternoon at the vast Serengeti National Park, named after the ancient Masai word ‘Siringet’, which basically translates to ‘endless plains’. Truly the plains are endless indeed.

Early morning game drive at Serengeti and visit to the hippo pools and Seronera Visitor’s Center if you wish. After a hearty breakfast in the bush camp you will then proceed with your game drives in the Serengeti back tracking towards Naabi Hill Gate again until early afternoon time to cross over back to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area where you reach your lodge for dinner and overnight stay.

descend into the crater for a wonderful game drive inside the Ngorongoro Crater at a designated picnic site. As very few animals migrate in and out of the Ngorongoro Crater with its approx. 2000 ft. high walls, you can expect to see many animals at very close range including lions, zebras, hippos, elephants, jackals, rhinos, many other antelopes, as well as flamingos, and many birds and other species. Your safari guide just like in the Serengeti will be in constant contact with other safari drivers and will surely amaze you with his unique skills in locating the hidden animals. After enough game drives and depending in your schedule your driver will take you back to Arusha where you will be dropped back at your hotel.

End of safari.