5-Day Tanzania Migration Safari — Serengeti & Ngorongoro

Day-by-day itinerary

Route: Arusha → Season-Appropriate Serengeti Sector → Serengeti National Park → Ngorongoro Conservation Area → Arusha

1. Day 1

   Arusha to the Serengeti Migration Area

   After breakfast you leave Arusha and travel on toward the Serengeti Migration Area, crossing the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and descending onto the open plains. Arrival is followed by check-in and a first drive into vast short-grass plains broken by granite kopjes and seasonal watercourses. Look for lion, cheetah, elephant, giraffe and immense herds of wildebeest and zebra as the light softens through the afternoon. 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. Transport and game drives are shared with other travellers on this joining departure. Dinner is served at your Serengeti Migration Area camp or lodge, where you spend the night.

2. Day 2

   Full-Day Serengeti Safari

   Spend the day following current wildlife information within the appropriate Serengeti sector. The drives cover vast short-grass plains broken by granite kopjes and seasonal watercourses, moving between habitats as conditions change. 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. Transport and game drives are shared with other travellers on this joining departure. The evening returns you to your Serengeti accommodation for dinner and overnight.

3. Day 3

   Full-Day Serengeti Safari

   Continue flexible migration-focused game viewing, allowing the guide to adapt to current herd and predator movement. Much of the day is spent among vast short-grass plains broken by granite kopjes and seasonal watercourses. 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. You return to your camp or lodge for dinner and a third night at Serengeti.

4. Day 4

   Serengeti to Ngorongoro

   You leave Serengeti after breakfast and head 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. Look for lion, elephant, buffalo, flamingo and one of the few remaining populations where black rhino may be seen as the light softens through the afternoon. The crater floor holds a resident concentration of wildlife year-round because the caldera walls create a largely self-contained ecosystem. Dinner and overnight are at your camp or lodge in Ngorongoro.

5. Day 5

   Ngorongoro Crater to Arusha

   Bags are loaded after breakfast and you depart Ngorongoro Crater bound for Arusha, continuing through the farmland and Maasai country below Mount Meru. You reach Arusha in the afternoon, with the final stretch of road giving time to look back over the journey. Arusha is the staging point for the northern Tanzania circuit and where most safari briefings take place. You are dropped at your Arusha hotel or the airport in the late afternoon.