6-Day Private Camping Wakanda Special Safari

You will be picked up from either Kilimanjaro or Arusha Airport and dropped off at Karibu Heritage House. If time allows (depending on your arrival), you will have the option to do an Arusha city tour, visiting the famous art gallery, the Cultural Heritage Centre, the local market, and the Maasai market. Overnight at Karibu Heritage House • Budget hotel located in or near 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

Karibu Heritage House

Guesthouse in Arusha

Warm, owner-run guesthouse in Arusha — the trusted first/last-night base for our camping and trekking guests.

Today, our safari adventure begins! After breakfast, we pick you up from your hotel and drive for 2 hours to Tarangire National Park. The park is well known for its large elephant herds and abundance of ancient baobab trees (the largest trees on the continent). From the open roof of the vehicle, we will experience the seasonal swamps and savannah. The Tarangire River is full of wildlife, ranging from a large variety of birds to giraffe, impala, zebra, lion, leopard, eland, warthog, and elephant. We will have our picnic lunch at the picnic site which has a spectacular view and proceed with game viewing before continuing to Fig Tree Lodge for dinner and overnight. Overnight at Fig Tree Lodge & Camp • Budget hotel located in or near 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

Fig Tree Lodge & Camp

Lodge & camp near Tarangire NP

Family-run lodge and camp just outside Tarangire's main gate, with simple chalets, pool and bush dinners under the figs.

After breakfast, we will proceed to Serengeti. A long and bumpy road will take you about 4 to 5 hours of a fascinating en-route game drive, up the crater highlands towards the vast plains of the Serengeti. We will stop for a picnic lunch before we check in at the park for an afternoon game drive. After catching the sunset, we will proceed to Lala Salama Serengeti Camp for dinner and overnight. If the weather is clear, you will stop at the crater viewpoint past the Ngorongoro gate to have a quick 10-minute look at the Ngorongoro Crater from above while en-route to Serengeti. Overnight at Lala Salama Serengeti Camp • Mid-range tented camp located inside Serengeti NP.

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 Camp

Tented camp, Serengeti

Classic tented camp pitched in the heart of the Serengeti — warm hosting, hearty bush meals and easy access to the plains right from your tent flap.

Today, we will spend the whole day in the park. We head out and start to explore at sunrise. We will have a full-day game drive exploring the beautiful scenery of the Serengeti, searching for the Big 5. We will return to the campsite for a hot lunch and then head out for an afternoon game drive. There is more to Serengeti than large mammals. More than 500 bird species were recorded here, ranging from the oversized ostriches and bizarre secretary birds of the open grassland, to the black eagles that soar effortlessly above the savannah. We will continue to search for the Serengeti’s wildlife and return to camp at sunset for dinner and overnight. Additional activities like a balloon safari and a walking safari can be included at an extra cost. Overnight at Lala Salama Serengeti Camp • Mid-range tented camp located inside Serengeti NP.

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 Camp

Tented camp, Serengeti

Classic tented camp pitched in the heart of the Serengeti — warm hosting, hearty bush meals and easy access to the plains right from your tent flap.

Today, we will have an early wake-up at around 6 am for a sunrise game drive to spot the animals when they are most active. We will stop at a picnic site to enjoy breakfast in the bush, then continue with the game drive before returning to the camp for a hot lunch. We will load the vehicle, depart from the camp and continue to Ngorongoro where we will have dinner and overnight at Simba Campsite. Overnight at Lala Salama Serengeti Camp • Mid-range tented camp located outside Serengeti NP.

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

Ngorongoro Simba Campsite

Public campsite, crater rim

Legendary crater-rim public campsite — dome tents pitched on the very edge of Ngorongoro at 2,400 m.

Today, we will get in the safari vehicle at 6 am and descend to the crater with our packed breakfast. This stunning place will offer you almost every species of wildlife indigenous to East Africa including the rare black rhino, and if we are lucky, we might spot one. Measuring an area of 260 square kilometers and extending about 20 kilometers in diameter, we will need about 5 to 6 hours to explore it. Ascend back to the campsite for hot lunch, then head back to Arusha, expecting to arrive at around 5 to 6 pm.

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.