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 the Serengeti Migration Area camp or lodge, where you spend the night.

2. Day 2

   Season-Appropriate Serengeti Sector to Serengeti National Park

   The morning starts in Season-Appropriate Serengeti Sector, from where you continue overland to Serengeti National Park, 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. Your guide works the area for lion, cheetah, elephant, giraffe and immense herds of wildebeest and zebra, with sightings varying by season and conditions. 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 at your camp or lodge in Serengeti National Park.

3. Day 3

   Serengeti National Park to Ngorongoro Conservation Area

   You leave Serengeti National Park after breakfast and head for Ngorongoro Conservation Area, climbing the forested crater highlands to the rim viewpoint. Lunch and check-in come first, then an afternoon drive through a collapsed volcanic caldera roughly six hundred metres deep, with grassland, soda lake and fever-tree forest on its floor. There is the possibility of seeing lion, elephant, buffalo, flamingo and one of the few remaining populations where black rhino may be seen, depending on movement and conditions on the day. The crater floor holds a resident concentration of wildlife year-round because the caldera walls create a largely self-contained ecosystem. The evening is spent at your Ngorongoro Conservation Area accommodation, with dinner and overnight there.

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. 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.