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Welcome to Tanzania! You will be picked up from the airport by our representative and driven to your accommodation in Arusha. Depending on your arrival time, you will hopefully have time to relax and prepare for the adventure of a lifetime!
Busy Arusha is an essential part of safari life here in northern Tanzania and most travellers pass through at some stage.
Your guide will pick you up from your accommodation after breakfast. This morning, you will drive to Tarangire National Park. The transit drive is approximately two and a half hours on good tarmac roads. The park is named after the Tarangire River which runs through it. This ‘river of warthogs’ is the only source of water for wildlife in the region during the dry season. The park is well known for its elephant families, which can often be seen congregating by the river. You may also see giraffes, bushbucks, and hartebeests. These animals are closely followed by a range of predators, including lions and leopards. There are more breeding species of birds found in Tarangire than anywhere else on the planet! The huge and ancient baobab trees can be seen here. Some of them are said to have lived for more than a thousand years.
Lunch will be at a picnic site inside the park. After your game drive, you will transit to your accommodation in Karatu.
After breakfast, you will drive up into the cooler regions of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. There will be a chance to stop and see the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater. You will then transit through Ngorongoro Conservation Area to the Serengeti, entering the south of the park.
The Serengeti is truly spectacular. It is famous for its vast open grasslands which allow for excellent sightings of wildlife. Whilst it boasts abundant wildlife, it is perhaps best known for the annual Great Migration. Vast numbers of wildebeests, zebras and antelopes move in an annual pattern, constantly seeking fresh grazing. The migration can be found during any given month, you just need to know where to look!
Your accommodation is flexible for the next 3 nights, depending on what time of year you come. We have indicated Central Serengeti, but this may change, depending on the location of the Migration.
This entire day is set aside for game drives in the Serengeti. The Serengeti boasts an abundance of wildlife such as impalas, buffalos, crocodiles, and hippos. In addition to the iconic landscapes, you have a good chance of encountering predators and you may see lions, cheetahs and leopards. Depending on the location of the Great Migration, you may venture away from the Central region to experience this natural wonder. It is a truly life-changing experience.
This is another day set aside for game drives in the Serengeti. It is possible to have a more relaxed pace, and do early morning and late afternoon game drives. You will be returning to your accommodation for lunch and some relaxation.
Every day is different in the Serengeti and there is always plenty to explore.
Your final sunrise in the Serengeti! After breakfast, you will wind your way toward Ngorongoro Crater, hopefully enjoying more wonder on the way!
Ngorongoro Crater is concealed by the steep volcanic walls and is a pristine wilderness including sweeping savannah, pockets of acacia woodland, glistening lakes and swamps. The crater was created when a large volcano exploded and collapsed in on itself two to three million years ago.
The drive down into the crater is an adventure in itself. When you reach the crater floor, you'll quickly find yourself amongst large numbers of wildebeests, zebras, gazelles, and more than 500 bird species. The crater provides you with the best chance of seeing the endangered black rhinos, which can sometimes be spotted in the open grasslands.
After a full afternoon inside the crater, you will drive to your accommodation in Karatu.
This morning, you will drive to Lake Manyara National Park. Your final destination on this epic safari! Manyara is a small but diverse park 120km west of Arusha. Everything you’ll see here is on a different scale. It is both compact (this is one of the narrowest parks in Africa) and epic (the Great Rift Escarpment towers over Lake Manyara’s western boundary). The park’s namesake is a shallow, salt lake. It covers a large area of the park, flooding and drying with the seasons and is home to thousands of wading birds (including flamingos and over 500 other bird species). You may see baboons and elephants in the park’s thick evergreen forest, and watch for the tree-climbing lions that have become famous throughout Africa.
You will enjoy a picnic lunch inside the park.
After your game drive, you will be dropped off at a place of your choosing such as Arusha, Kilimanjaro Airport or Arusha Airport. We hope you have enjoyed your adventure with Gorilla Pathfinders!
This tour is 100% sustainable. We encourage our travelers to minimize their carbon footprint by choosing eco-friendly practices.
Cancellations made more than 60 days before departure qualify for an 80% refund of the deposit paid. Cancellations made between 30 and 59 days before departure qualify for a 50% refund of the deposit. Cancellations made less than 30 days before departure are non-refundable. Gorilla and Chimpanzee permits are non-refundable once purchased. Guests are advised to purchase comprehensive travel insurance for unforeseen circumstances.
Among Uganda's gorilla trekking safari experiences, booking a trek to visit the Nyakagezi family in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park follows its own distinct logistics shaped by the family's unique cross-border movement, the park's smaller size, and a booking process that, while broadly similar to Bwindi's, carries a few important differences worth understanding before you commit your dates and your deposit. Here is exactly how to book the Nyakagezi gorilla trek, step by step.
Planning an African safari or a tropical beach holiday is exciting. Whether you are tracking gorillas in Uganda, witnessing the Great Migration in Tanzania, exploring Kenya’s wildlife reserves, or relaxing on the white-sand beaches of Zanzibar, travel insurance should be part of your trip planning process. Travel insurance provides financial protection against unexpected events that can disrupt your holiday. From medical emergencies and trip cancellations to lost luggage and flight delays, the right policy can save you from significant expenses while traveling far from home.
Every now and then a destination becomes so famous that people start questioning whether it can possibly live up to its own reputation. Serengeti National Park is one of those places. You have seen the photographs, watched the documentaries, read the articles, and somewhere in the back of your mind a small but persistent voice is asking whether the reality can genuinely match the legend. Whether all those wildebeest, all those lion prides, all that extraordinary golden savannah stretching to the horizon is truly as breathtaking in person as it looks on a screen. The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that the Serengeti does not just live up to its reputation it quietly exceeds it in ways that no photograph or documentary has ever managed to fully capture, and here is exactly why.