6 Day Mid-range Tanzanian Safari in Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire
Exciting Safari in Tanzania
This will be a marvelous tour that will give you enough time to explore the games and the uniqueness of Tarangire National Park, the place to hundreds of elephants; Serengeti National Park, the plains where you will see wildebeest migrations; and six hours of game drive inside the Ngorongoro Crater floor. All are on this safari.
Key information
- Private safari
- Maximum of six participants
- Children policy: Children from the age of 5 to 15 years old are allowed to participate under the supervision of a parent or guardian
- Starting point and ending point: Arusha
- English-speaking guide
- All park fees included
Meet the guides
Read more
Highlights
- Explore Serengeti, Lake Manyara, and Tarangire National Parks
- Opportunity to see the Big Five animals and the spectacular wildebeest migration
- Chance to watch birds like the fisher lovebirds, white-bellied go-away birds, and more
- Visit Ngorongoro Crater and view flamingos
- Trekking with an armed ranger and having a close encounter with the animals
- Transportation in a 4WD safari vehicle with open roof and radio call
- 5 nights full board accommodation
- All park fees included
Styles
Accommodation
You will stay at a self-contained double room in various accommodations arranged by AAA Express Adventure.
- Octagon Lodge
- Serengeti Heritage Luxury Camp
- Endoro Lodge
Octagon Lodge (2 nights)
Octagon Lodge is a small and private lodge located twenty minutes from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Gate in Karatu, Tanzania. Ideal for visitors on a trip, it is situated amidst colorful and exotic gardens and provides the perfect base for visiting the Northern Parks of Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, and Serengeti.
Situated on six acres of land, the beautiful gardens are teeming with various plants and bird life. Enjoy your breakfast or lunch in the garden and take a stroll to see and hear the birds sing. The traditionally designed ensuite chalets, rooms, family rooms, and two-bedroom cottages offer comfort for everyone. They also have various facilities for disabled guests.
Octagon Lodge is a family-owned establishment offering exceptional dining with an air of charm. Their talented chefs bring to the table flavors of Europe and the tastes of Africa using their organically grown fresh farm produce.
Irish bar
The bar created by the founders of Octagon Lodge will never fade, unique to Tanzania and one of the only Irish bars in Africa. A full selection of single malts, Irish Whiskey, and wines and spirits are available in the Irish bar.
- Accommodation level: Mid-range
Facilities
- Campsite
- Conference facilities
- Onsite restaurant
- Irish bar
- Ensuite rooms
- Family-friendly accommodation
- Free parking on the premises
- Laundry services
- Safety deposit boxes
- Swimming pool
Serengeti Heritage Luxury Camp (2 nights)
Serengeti Heritage Luxury Tented Camp provides its guests with the most authentic African experience due to its colonial, old days hunter’s camp ambiance.
Sitting snugly in a clearing surrounded by acacia trees, its 13 spacious walk-in tents create an intimate atmosphere for only 40 guests while indulging them with the amenities of a big lodge, as all tents are equipped with running water, flush toilets, hot and cold water shower.
In order to protect its amazing environment, the camp runs entirely on solar energy in terms of electricity and hot water supply. A backup generator is only used to ensure electricity supply throughout rainy days.
- Accommodation level: Mid-range
Facilities
- Fireplace
- Restaurant
- Bar
- Lounge
- Wi-Fi
- Shower
- Balcony
- Security guard for 24 hours
- Radio call
- Walkie-talkie
- TV
- Sofa
- Laundry
- Dry cleaning
- Housekeeping
- Room service
- Ironing
- Storage room
Rhino Lodge (1 night)
Ideally located on the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater rim, Rhino Lodge offers the perfect base from which to explore the Ngorongoro Crater and its surroundings. With 24 comfortable ensuite rooms, a cozy living space, friendly local staff, and generous African-inspired meals, Rhino Lodge welcomes guests to Africa's most remarkable game park.
There are 24 guest rooms, all with a veranda overlooking a stretch of high mountain forest. Each room has its own shower, toilet, and hand basin.
To keep the cold away, each room has a wood-burning stove, and hot water bottles can be filled if you want one. At the bar / dining room, there are two large fires which are a natural focus, where the guests like to meet and exchange stories of the day.
- Accommodation level: Budget
Program
Day 1: Lake Manyara National Park
Pick up from your hotel in Arusha will be at 09:00. Meet the professional driver tour guide, who will drive you with a picnic lunch to Lake Manyara National Park (about 135 kilometers), home to giant fig trees, acacia woodlands, mahogany trees, and grassy flood plains.
The contrasts of this area are simply breathtaking, with the open plains, huge escarpment, Soda Lake, dense woodlands, and distant volcanic peaks.
Animals such as elephants, hippos, impalas, giraffes, warthogs, wildebeests, blue monkeys, and buffaloes can be seen. This park is also home to the famous tree-climbing lions and leopards.
Lake Manyara National Park provides the perfect introduction to Tanzania’s birdlife with over 400 species having been recorded within the park's boundaries. Highlights include pink-hued flamingoes, herons, storks, and pelicans. Dinner and overnight will be at Octagon Lodge or Eileen's Tree Inn.
Day 2: Serengeti National Park
At 06:00, have a cup of coffee and drive to Maasai Boma, where you will experience the rhythm of this nomadic tribe’s daily life. Subject to the season, witness the livestock movement in the early morning before meeting the elders, Moran warriors, and women and children with full explanations of the status and ranking within the families as well as their traditions and beliefs.
Then, drive back to the camp for a full breakfast. After the meal, you will have a game drive with a picnic lunch en route to Serengeti National Park through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Dinner and overnight will at Serengeti Heritage Luxury Camp.
Day 3: Serengeti National Park
Early in the morning, you will have a cup of coffee, and then proceed for a sunrise game drive in Serengeti. Return to the camp for breakfast. After the meal, proceed for a full-day game viewing with a picnic lunch in Serengeti Plains, home to a huge variety of animals and birds.
Search among the trees and kopjes for the elusive leopards and cheetahs as well as wildebeest migration. After a sunset game drive, return to Serengeti Heritage Luxury Camp for dinner and overnight stay.
Day 4: Serengeti National Park
After breakfast, have a game viewing en route with picnic lunches via Ngorongoro Conservation Area and visit the small but very interesting Dr. Leakey Museum at Olduvai Gorge. Dinner and overnight will be at Rhino Lodge or Endoro Lodge or similar.
Day 5: Ngorongoro Crater
After an early breakfast, drive to Ngorongoro and descend 610 meters into the Ngorongoro Crater floor for six hours of game viewing with a picnic lunch. Spot the endangered black rhinos, lions, elephants, zebras, buffaloes, wildebeests, as well as other wild animals.
Also in Ngorongoro Crater Soda Lake, you will see many species of birds including flamingos. All these animals in turn support large predators such as lions and leopards and scavengers such as hyenas and jackals. Dinner and overnight will be at Octagon Lodge or Eileen's Tree Inn.
Day 6: Tarangire National Park - Arusha
After breakfast, drive with a picnic lunch to Tarangire National Park for a full-day game drive. This park covers 2,600 square kilometers and at dry times, the concentration of animals rivals that of the much better-known Serengeti.
The game numbers are staggering! It has 30,000 zebras, 25,000 wildebeests, 5,000 buffaloes, 3,000 elephants, 2,500 Maasai giraffes, and over 1,000 fringe-eared oryx’s (gemsbok), plus predators including lions, cheetahs, and leopards. Also, flocks of birds such as green wood hoopoes, fisher lovebirds, white-bellied go-away birds, and giant kingfishers can be found there.
In the late evening, drive back to Arusha.
Guides
Guides
AAA Express Adventure employs approximately 5 professional driver-guides with an average experience of 15 years. They have very high standards when it comes to hiring and retaining personnel, and can say without reservation that these individuals are quite simply the most knowledgeable, hard-working and passionate guides in the industry. All of their guides are local Tanzanians, fluent in English, and most have advanced wildlife certificates. Course work includes wildlife ecology, conservation, field skills, identification, biology, and advanced tour guiding.
Location
This safari will take place in Tanzania. Starting from Arusha, you will explore Lake Manyara National Park, Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire National Park before returning to Arusha. See animals closer such as elephants, giraffes, buffaloes, gazelles, zebras, etc., and have a nice view of the crater.
Lake Manyara National Park
This park is home to giant fig trees, acacia woodlands, mahogany trees, and grassy flood plains. The contrasts of this area are simply breathtaking, with the open plains, huge escarpment, soda lake, dense woodlands, and distant volcanic peaks.
Animals such as elephants, hippos, impalas, giraffe, warthog, wildebeest, blue monkeys, and buffaloes can be seen. This park is also home to the famous tree-climbing lions and leopards.
Lake Manyara National Park provides the perfect introduction to Tanzania’s birdlife, with over 400 species having been recorded within the park's boundaries. Highlights include the pink-hued flamingoes, herons, storks, and pelicans.
Serengeti National Park
Serengeti National Park is both a World Heritage Site and a world’s biosphere reserve teeming with wildlife: over two million ungulates, 4,000 lions, 1,000 leopards, 550 cheetahs, and some 500 bird species inhabit an area close to 15,000 square kilometers in size.
And on top of this, the park is scenically beautiful and has a wonderful sunny climate of cool nights and warm days. So, if you feel uncomfortable with humankind’s restless desire to subjugate nature and dominate everything, you will enjoy the Serengeti. It is a natural world at its very best. Human beings take second place there.
You will get very close to the core things in Serengeti: the beauty, innocence, cruelty, violence, and tranquility. When you leave and your thoughts float back to the savannas and the woodlands, they will bring with them an ache - a longing to be part of that natural world again.
Ngorongoro Crater
Ngorongoro is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and International Biosphere Reserve frequently referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World. The centerpiece and major landmark of Ngorongoro is the breathtaking Ngorongoro Crater.
The crater is well known as the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera (crater). It is the biggest, with a size of 304 square kilometers. Before it collapsed, the Ngorongoro Crater was said to have been 4587m above sea level, a natural amphitheatre surrounded by steep walls rising over 600m from the crater floor and providing a rich adventure to every visitor.
The crater is a natural sanctuary for some 30,000 animals, including the Big Five of buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion, and rhino. It is also a home of cheetah, hartebeest, hippo, hyena, jackal, serval, warthog, wildebeest, zebra, the reedbuck, waterbuck, as well as huge herds of both Thomson’s and Grant’s gazelles that are all easily seen on the crater floor.
Also, a great many birds and insect species live there.
Tarangire National Park
Tarangire National Park contains the greatest concentration of wildlife outside the Serengeti ecosystem - a smorgasbord for predators - and the one place in Tanzania where dry-country antelope such as the stately fringe-eared oryx and peculiar long-necked gerenuk are regularly observed.
The landscape varies dramatically from the wet season to the dry. During the dry, the Tarangire River shrivels to a shadow of its wet season self, but it is choked with wildlife as thirsty nomads wander hundreds of kilometres, knowing that they will always find water there.
Herds of up to 300 elephants scratch the dry riverbed for underground streams, while migratory wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, hartebeest, and eland crowd the shrinking lagoons.
During the rainy season, the seasonal visitors scatter over a 20,000 sq km range until they exhaust the green plains and the river calls once more. But Tarangire’s mobs of elephants are easily encountered - wet or dry season - and the swamps, tinged green year-round, are the focus for 550 bird varieties, the most breeding species in one habitat anywhere in the world.
And while you’re there, don’t forget to look up! Tarangire’s pythons climb trees, as do its lions and leopards, lounging in the branches where the fruit of the sausage tree helps disguise the switch of a tail.
Food
AAA Express Adventure provides delicious food to their clients and they have different meals depending on their customer preference. Feel free to suggest your menu.
The following meals are included:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Drinks
The following drinks are included:
- Water
- Coffee
- Tea
The following dietary requirement(s) are served and/or catered for:
- Vegetarian
- Regular (typically includes meat and fish)
- Hallal
- Other dietary requirements on request
Things to do (optional)
During the safari, you will have the option to visit a Maasai village and visit Olduvai Gorge at an extra cost. Let AAA Express Adventure know if you are interested.
What's included
- All park entry fees
- Concession fees
- Crater service fees
- 4WD safari vehicle with popup roof, radio call, cooler box / fridge, and electric power to charge your battery
- Unlimited kilometers during game drives
- English-speaking driver guide
- 5 nights full board accommodation
- Mineral water - 1.5 liters per person per day
What's not included
- Tips for guide
- Maasai village fees (50 USD per group, optional visit)
- Olduvai Gorge historical site fees (36 USD per person, optional visit)
- Airfare
- Airport transfers
How to get there
Recommended Airports
Kilimanjaro International Airport
156 km
Transfer not provided
Arrival by airplane
Please book your flight to arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO). Airport transfer is not included in the price. Transfer from Kilimanjaro Airport to Arusha costs the following:
- 1 - 2 people: 40 USD per car, one way
- 3 - 5 people: 50 USD per car, one way
- 6 - 7 people: 70 USD per car, one way
- 8 - 10 people: 100 USD per car, one way
Cancellation Policy
- A reservation requires a deposit of 20% of the total price.
- The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
- The rest of the payment should be paid on arrival.
For this organizer you can guarantee your booking through BookAllSafaris.com. All major credit cards supported.