The Great Safari Journey, 10 Days

Arrive at Kilimanjaro or Arusha Airport, meet your driver and transfer to your hotel in Arusha for check-in, briefing and overnight.

Your safari begins the moment you walk out of Kilimanjaro International Airport. A Serengeti Wakanda guide is waiting with your name on a board and the words every traveller wants to hear: karibu Tanzania, welcome to Tanzania.

We transfer you to your lodge in the Arusha foothills, where you can shower, change into safari clothes and settle in. Your driver-guide joins you for a relaxed welcome dinner, walks through tomorrow's plan in detail and answers every last question. An early night sets you up for the days ahead.

Where you sleep tonight

Forest Hill Hotel

Boutique hotel in Arusha

Boutique hotel on the leafy outskirts of Arusha, with great food and a calm pre-safari atmosphere.

An optional Arusha-area nature activity or a relaxed preparation day — coffee-farm walks, a visit to Arusha National Park, a short cultural tour, or simply rest and acclimatise before the safari circuit begins. Overnight in Arusha.

Arusha sits at 1,400 m at the foot of Mount Meru, a green coffee town and the gateway to the Northern Circuit. Today is for resting, sorting kit and meeting your guide properly.

If you arrive early there is time to walk the coffee plantations, browse the Maasai market or visit a local Tinga Tinga art studio. Otherwise simply enjoy the gardens, the pool and a quiet first dinner under the African sky.

Where you sleep tonight

Forest Hill Hotel

Boutique hotel in Arusha

Boutique hotel on the leafy outskirts of Arusha, with great food and a calm pre-safari atmosphere.

After breakfast, drive to Tarangire National Park for a full-day game drive among the park's iconic baobabs and large elephant herds. Picnic lunch inside the park. Overnight at a mid-range lodge near Karatu or Mto wa Mbu.

Tarangire is the elephant capital of northern Tanzania. In the dry season the Tarangire River is the only permanent water for miles, and herds of up to 250 elephants come down to drink, calves tumbling between their mothers' legs.

You spend the day on a private game drive through baobab-studded floodplains: lions resting in the shade, giraffe browsing acacia tops, fringe-eared oryx and the strange dwarf mongoose colonies. We pack a hot picnic lunch so you can stay in the park while the light is good.

Where you sleep tonight

Acacia Tarangire Luxury Camp

Luxury tented camp near Tarangire NP

Elegant tented camp on the Tarangire boundary — canvas suites, four-poster beds and a fire-lit dining tent.

Explore Lake Manyara National Park with its groundwater forest, lakeshore birdlife, hippo pools and famous tree-climbing lion country. Enjoy the scenic Rift Valley escarpment views before returning to your lodge for the night.

Lake Manyara is a small park with an outsized reputation: a Rift Valley wall on one side, a shallow soda lake on the other and a strip of groundwater forest crammed between them. Tree-climbing lions, large baboon troops and clouds of flamingos.

You travel along the Rift escarpment with sweeping views over the lake, then drop into the forest for a half- or full-day game drive. Birders bring binoculars: more than 400 species have been recorded here.

Depart after breakfast for the drive to Serengeti National Park via the Ngorongoro Highlands, pausing at the crater viewpoint. Enter the Serengeti in the early afternoon and enjoy a game drive en route to camp. Overnight inside the park.

The Seronera valley is the heart of the Serengeti and a year-round game-viewing area. Permanent water, rocky kopjes and short-grass plains create the highest density of big cats in Africa: roughly 1 lion per 10 km², and the best leopard sightings on the circuit.

Mornings start before sunrise to catch the cats while they are still active; midday is a slow picnic in the shade of an acacia. In the afternoon we work the riverine fig trees for leopards and the kopjes for resting prides. Distances are long but every stop is worth it.

Where you sleep tonight

Lala Salama Serengeti Luxury Camp

Luxury tented camp, Central Serengeti

Luxury tented camp deep inside the Serengeti — spacious canvas suites with private decks, hot showers, candlelit dinners and lions calling in the distance.

A full day of game drives across the central Serengeti plains, seeking lion, leopard, cheetah, elephant and the endless plains game. Picnic lunch in the bush. Overnight inside the park.

The Seronera valley is the heart of the Serengeti and a year-round game-viewing area. Permanent water, rocky kopjes and short-grass plains create the highest density of big cats in Africa: roughly 1 lion per 10 km², and the best leopard sightings on the circuit.

Mornings start before sunrise to catch the cats while they are still active; midday is a slow picnic in the shade of an acacia. In the afternoon we work the riverine fig trees for leopards and the kopjes for resting prides. Distances are long but every stop is worth it.

Where you sleep tonight

Lala Salama Serengeti Luxury Camp

Luxury tented camp, Central Serengeti

Luxury tented camp deep inside the Serengeti — spacious canvas suites with private decks, hot showers, candlelit dinners and lions calling in the distance.

A slower-paced second Serengeti day for broader area coverage — visit kopjes, river systems, or track seasonal migration movement depending on the month. Optional hot-air balloon safari at sunrise (extra cost). Overnight inside the park.

The Seronera valley is the heart of the Serengeti and a year-round game-viewing area. Permanent water, rocky kopjes and short-grass plains create the highest density of big cats in Africa: roughly 1 lion per 10 km², and the best leopard sightings on the circuit.

Mornings start before sunrise to catch the cats while they are still active; midday is a slow picnic in the shade of an acacia. In the afternoon we work the riverine fig trees for leopards and the kopjes for resting prides. Distances are long but every stop is worth it.

Where you sleep tonight

Lala Salama Serengeti Luxury Camp

Luxury tented camp, Central Serengeti

Luxury tented camp deep inside the Serengeti — spacious canvas suites with private decks, hot showers, candlelit dinners and lions calling in the distance.

Morning game drive as you exit the Serengeti, then transfer through the highlands to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Check in at a lodge near the crater rim with sweeping views.

The Ngorongoro Crater is a 260 km² collapsed caldera with 600 m walls, and the highest density of large mammals on Earth. Inside the crater floor live around 25,000 large animals, including the densest population of black-maned lions and one of the last strongholds of the eastern black rhino.

We descend at first light when the floor is still in shadow and the cats are working. A picnic breakfast on the rim, a full morning circuit past the soda lake's flamingos and Lerai Forest's elephants, then a climb back up the escarpment in time for a late lunch.

Descend into the Ngorongoro Crater for a Big Five game drive across the caldera floor, followed by a cultural or scenic add-on — a Maasai village visit, Olduvai Gorge, or the Karatu coffee-farm route depending on preference and timing. Overnight near Karatu.

The Ngorongoro Crater is a 260 km² collapsed caldera with 600 m walls, and the highest density of large mammals on Earth. Inside the crater floor live around 25,000 large animals, including the densest population of black-maned lions and one of the last strongholds of the eastern black rhino.

We descend at first light when the floor is still in shadow and the cats are working. A picnic breakfast on the rim, a full morning circuit past the soda lake's flamingos and Lerai Forest's elephants, then a climb back up the escarpment in time for a late lunch.

Where you sleep tonight

Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge

Crater-rim lodge

Iconic lodge built right on the crater rim, with stone-and-thatch rooms looking down 600 m to the floor below.

After breakfast, drive back to Arusha with lunch en route. Drop-off at your Arusha hotel, Arusha Airport (ARK) or Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) for your onward flight.

Arusha sits at 1,400 m at the foot of Mount Meru, a green coffee town and the gateway to the Northern Circuit. Today is for resting, sorting kit and meeting your guide properly.

If you arrive early there is time to walk the coffee plantations, browse the Maasai market or visit a local Tinga Tinga art studio. Otherwise simply enjoy the gardens, the pool and a quiet first dinner under the African sky.