10 Day Great Migration Safari Tour in Tanzania

Day 1: Arrival

Pickup from the airport; it can be Kilimanjaro airport or Arusha Airport. Accommodation at Arusha tourist inn hotel or Venice Hotel.

Day 2: Arusha National Park

The day begins with pre-breakfast with a picnic lunch around the lodge grounds, sighting fire finches, variable sunbirds, bulbuls, and olive thrush. Have breakfast and head for Arusha National Park with your packed lunches; visit the various crater lakes, catching up with the Macoa ducks, Egyptian geese, Hottentot teal, Comb duck, and many unusual waders and varieties of animals, including the blue monkey and black and white colobus.

If you are lucky, you might also spot a shy red duiker. More common is the even smaller Kirk's dik-dik. Giraffes are very common in the area around the Momella lakes. Then, late in the evening, you will drive to Mto wa Mbu and have dinner in your accommodation.

Day 3: Tarangire National Park (130-kilometer drive—2 hours)

After breakfast at the camp, you leave early for the Tarangire National Park. This is the third largest park in Tanzania, and it is characterized by the amazingly large herds of elephants that can be encountered in this park. The Baobab trees are one of the other highlights of Tarangire. The Tarangire River that flows all year round is the lifeblood of the park. Many animals, predators and prey alike, gather around the river, where you can do excellent game viewing. After the evening game drive in the late afternoon, you will go back to your lodge to prepare to have a walking tour with a ranger for two hours.

Day 4: Tarangire - Serengeti National Park

Breakfast will be at 06:00. You will be picked up from the camp at 07:00 and driven to the Great Serengeti National Park with your picnic lunch packed and game drives en route via the Ngorongoro Crater rim. The Serengeti National Park is home to lions, leopards, elephants, cheetahs, buffalo, zebras, wildebeest, eland, wild dogs, gazelles, crocodiles, and more. Serengeti is one of the most comprehensive and appealing natural places. Every day, hundreds of nature lovers and tourists from all over the world visit the Serengeti.

Day 5: Central Serengeti to North

After breakfast, continue with both morning and afternoon game drives in Serengeti National Park. The Serengeti National Park is famous for its wonder, the "great migration," where over one million wildebeest and two hundred thousand-plus zebras each year travel to follow the rains.

In October and November, they travel from the mountains of the north southwards to the plains seeking lush pastures. After the great rainy season in April, May, and June, the herds then make their return journey. Even without this mass migration, the Serengeti is still an exciting and spectacular place that still cannot fail to enthrall. Then you will have dinner in your accommodation.

Day 6: Northern Serengeti game drive

After breakfast, experience a full-day game drive following the animal migration at the Northern Serengeti, where the migration will be. There you can see wildebeest, zebra, topi hartebeest, eland, antelope, hyena, and varieties of birds singing on the trees. You will also enjoy viewing the beauty of the landscape and nature. Usually, in the months of August and November, the migration reaches its northern range: the herds cross the crocodile-infested Mara River twice as they complete their migration. Also, you will be able to enjoy the sunset at Serengeti between 18:20 and 18:40 after the game drive.

Day 7: Serengeti to Ngorongoro Crater

After breakfast you will continue with game viewing in Serengeti for three hours; after that you will proceed with a game en route, arrive at Nabi Gate for lunch, and after that proceed to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area for dinner and overnight.

Day 8: Ngorongoro Crater to Lake Manyara

This day you will start the early morning at 07:00 for the game drive (with a picnic lunch) inside the Ngorongoro Crater. As very few animals migrate in and out of the crater with its 2000-foot-high walls, you can expect to see lions, elephants, zebras, hippos, flamingos, jackals, rhinos, antelopes, many birds, and other species. Your driver / guide will be in contact with other safari drivers and will amaze you with his skill at locating the hidden animals. After the great exploration in Ngorongoro Crater, you will drive to your accommodation for dinner and overnight.

Day 9: Lake Manyara to Arusha

After breakfast, the journey continues to the village of Mto wa Mbu near Lake Manyara. Over the years the village has attracted people from various ethnic groups, and the wide variety of backgrounds and ethnicities has created a multicultural atmosphere in Mto wa Mbu.

After a short briefing, your guide will take you on a walk through the village and its surroundings. From banana plantations to rice fields, from the local medicine man to the local brewery, from the paint and woodcraft workshop to the local school. The village walk gives you an insight into the daily village life.

Lunch is prepared by a communal women's group and served at a local compound. It consists of a wide variety of African dishes, giving you the opportunity to taste the traditional food. After this wonderful experience, you will visit the Lake Manyara National Park.

The protected area encloses a large part of the alkaline lake of the same name. This amazing lake is the seasonal home of a giant flamingo colony and many more waterfowl. On the lakeshore, you can also observe elephants, hippopotami, buffalos, guenons, banded mongooses, and numerous types of gazelles and antelopes.

Furthermore, the park is well known for its "tree-climbing lions." Visitors can regularly observe lions taking a nap in the tree canopies or escaping from the heat on the ground. After watching the animals and exploring the national park, you leave the park in the afternoon, and later you travel back to Arusha.

Day 10: Departure

Drop off to the airport; it can be Kilimanjaro airport or Arusha Airport.