5-Day Lake Manyara, Serengeti & Ngorongoro Safari

Day-by-day itinerary

Route: Arusha → Lake Manyara National Park → Serengeti National Park → Ngorongoro Conservation Area → Ngorongoro Crater → Arusha

1. Day 1

   Arusha to Lake Manyara

   After breakfast you leave Arusha and travel on toward Lake Manyara, driving west from Arusha past Maasai settlements and the escarpment wall. Arrival is followed by check-in and a first drive into groundwater forest, open floodplain and an alkaline lake beneath the Rift Valley escarpment. There is the possibility of seeing elephant, baboon troops, hippo, giraffe and large numbers of waterbirds including flamingo, depending on movement and conditions on the day. Manyara is known for its groundwater forest fed by springs at the base of the escarpment, and for lions that are sometimes seen resting in trees. Transport and game drives are shared with other travellers on this joining departure. You return for dinner and an overnight stay at Lake Manyara.

2. Day 2

   Lake Manyara Area to Serengeti

   Bags are loaded after breakfast and you depart Lake Manyara Area bound for Serengeti, crossing the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and descending onto the open plains. You arrive in time to settle in, and the day continues with a game drive across vast short-grass plains broken by granite kopjes and seasonal watercourses. Wildlife commonly associated with this area includes lion, cheetah, elephant, giraffe and immense herds of wildebeest and zebra. The Serengeti's wildlife moves with the seasons, so the sector visited is chosen to match where the herds and predators are likely to be at that time of year. Dinner is served at your Serengeti camp or lodge, where you spend the night.

3. Day 3

   Full-Day Serengeti Safari

   The day is set aside for Serengeti, with drives timed around the first and last hours of light. Much of the day is spent among vast short-grass plains broken by granite kopjes and seasonal watercourses. Species commonly associated with the area include lion, cheetah, elephant, giraffe and immense herds of wildebeest and zebra. The scale of the plains rewards a full day, with time to work several areas rather than rushing between them. The Serengeti's wildlife moves with the seasons, so the sector visited is chosen to match where the herds and predators are likely to be at that time of year. The evening returns you to your Serengeti accommodation for dinner and overnight.

4. Day 4

   Serengeti to Ngorongoro

   Bags are loaded after breakfast and you depart Serengeti bound for Ngorongoro, climbing the forested crater highlands to the rim viewpoint. Once you reach Ngorongoro there is time to check in before heading out among a collapsed volcanic caldera roughly six hundred metres deep, with grassland, soda lake and fever-tree forest on its floor. This is good country in which to look for lion, elephant, buffalo, flamingo and one of the few remaining populations where black rhino may be seen. The crater floor holds a resident concentration of wildlife year-round because the caldera walls create a largely self-contained ecosystem. You return for dinner and an overnight stay at Ngorongoro.

5. Day 5

   Ngorongoro Crater to Arusha

   The day opens in Ngorongoro Crater with a morning departure for Arusha, continuing through the farmland and Maasai country below Mount Meru. After check-in and a chance to freshen up, you head out into northern Tanzania's safari gateway town below the slopes of Mount Meru. Arusha is the staging point for the northern Tanzania circuit and where most safari briefings take place. You are dropped at your Nairobi hotel or the airport in the late afternoon.