5-Day Tanzania Budget Safari — Lake Manyara, Serengeti & Ngorongoro

Day-by-day itinerary

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

1. Day 1

   Arusha to Lake Manyara

   The morning starts in Arusha, from where you continue overland to Lake Manyara, driving west from Arusha past Maasai settlements and the escarpment wall. Lunch and check-in come first, then an afternoon drive through groundwater forest, open floodplain and an alkaline lake beneath the Rift Valley escarpment. Your guide works the area for elephant, baboon troops, hippo, giraffe and large numbers of waterbirds including flamingo, with sightings varying by season and conditions. 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. Dinner and overnight are at your camp or lodge in Lake Manyara.

2. Day 2

   Lake Manyara to Serengeti

   Breakfast is taken before you set out from Lake Manyara for the drive to Serengeti, crossing the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and descending onto the open plains. After check-in and a chance to freshen up, you head out into 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. The evening is spent at your Serengeti accommodation, with dinner and overnight there.

3. Day 3

   Full-Day Serengeti Safari

   An unhurried full day in Serengeti gives your guide room to follow whatever the morning turns up. Your route takes in vast short-grass plains broken by granite kopjes and seasonal watercourses, with your guide reading recent movement to decide where to spend time. Keep watch for lion, cheetah, elephant, giraffe and immense herds of wildebeest and zebra as you move between the different habitats. 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. Dinner and overnight are again at your Serengeti camp or lodge.

4. Day 4

   Serengeti to Ngorongoro

   The morning starts in Serengeti, from where you continue overland to Ngorongoro, climbing the forested crater highlands to the rim viewpoint. After check-in and a chance to freshen up, you head out into 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

   You leave Ngorongoro Crater after breakfast and head for Arusha, continuing through the farmland and Maasai country below Mount Meru. You arrive in time to settle in, and the day continues with a game drive across 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. The day ends with a drop-off in Nairobi at your hotel or the airport.