This safari hits the top destinations in Tanzania’s famed Northern Circuit. This cluster is comprised of the best African game parks in close proximity. The Tanzania Highlights Safari packs more fun in one week than possibly anything else one could do in the same time period. We are talking: Tarangire, Ngorongoro and the endless plains of the Serengeti.
• THIS SAFARI IS 100% CUSTOMIZABLE.
• IT IS A PRIVATE SAFARI, JUST YOU AND YOUR PARTY.
• THIS SAFARI DEPARTS FROM ARUSHA DAILY WITH TWO OR MORE PEOPLE (NO SINGLES).
• INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS NOT INCLUDED.
Accommodation: Mount Meru Hotel
Activity: Airport arrival, meeting and greeting your safari guide.
Your host will be on hand when you arrive at the airport and will take you to the Mount Mreu Hotel. Nestled at the foot of the wooded slopes of Mount Meru, this unique hotel stands amid coffee plantations on the shores of tranquil Lake Duluti. Designed to echo the traditional style of the colonial coffee farm, which originally stood on this site, Mount Meru Hotel offers a range of tastefully presented rooms set lovely grounds. If you choose, take a minute to enjoy a cup of freshly brewed Tanzanian Coffee or tea whilst you relax and unwind after your flight. If you’re ready for sleep, you’ll immediately relax in your well appointed room, with its fine linens. In the morning you’ll be refreshed and ready to go.
Accommodation: Tarangire Sopa Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Activity: Afternoon game drives.
After a hearty safari breakfast, you enjoy a leisurely drive to the Tarangire National Park with game drives en route arriving in time for lunch. Later you enjoy an afternoon game drive. The park is a dry-season refuge for a variety of game. Migratory animals like elephants, wildebeests, zebras, gazelles and buffalo gather at the Tarangire River in impressive numbers and as always, the predators follow. The variety of species also makes the park a bird-watchers paradise.
Your accommodation, Tarangire Sopa Lodge is surrounded by ancient baobab trees and is home to the greatest concentration of elephants in Africa, and other game including the elusive leopard. With water constantly available in the area, the greenery is lush providing a wonderful contrast to the burnt ground. Enjoy a hearty safari dinner at the lodge followed by rest and relaxation.
Accommodation: Tarangire Sopa Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Activity: Morning and afternoon game drives.
You spend another day at Tarangire National Park. Named after the river that flows through the park, Tarangire is one of the lesser known parks in Tanzania, giving it a real air of undiscovered Africa. Famous for its tree climbing pythons, massive baobabs and large herds of elephant, Tarangire National Park is small but still home to a significant wildlife population, with a density of wildlife matched only by Ngorongoro. Birding is particularly good here; the swamps, tinged green year round, are the focus over 450 bird varieties, the most breeding species in one habitat anywhere in the world! You will meet your fellow travelers in time for an afternoon game drive and later return to your lodge for the evening.
Accommodation: Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board - Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Activity: Transfer to Ngorongoro with a stop at Gibbs Farm for lunch. Enjoy first glimpses of crater from your lodge.
After breakfast, you will transfer to the Ngorongoro Crater Conservancy Area. You will make a stop at a local market and observe local women make their crafts. You may shop for souvenirs, if you wish. We proceed to Gibbs Farm for lunch. Healthy, farm fresh cuisine and attentive, gracious hospitality defines the iconic nature of the dining experience at Gibb’s Farm. Later we proceed to the Ngorongoro Crater, formed millions of years ago by the collapse of a long extinct volcano. The resulting 100 square mile depression, surrounded by a 2000 foot volcanic rim, contains water and forage necessary to support most of the familiar African wildlife. Don’t be surprised to see Maasai herders and their livestock, especially on the crater rim; the Conservation Area protects both wildlife and Maasai. You check into your accommodation with incredible views of the crater and enjoy your first glimpses.
Accommodation: Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board - Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Activity: Descend to the crater floor and enjoy a full day of game viewing and picnic lunch.
After an early breakfast, you descend to the Ngorongoro Crater. Today you spend the day on the crater floor viewing game; as many as 30,000 animals populate the crater. Lions, cheetahs, and jackals prey upon large herds of zebra, wildebeest, and antelope. The lake on the floor of the crater supports wading hippos and a myriad of bird life. Elephants are rare within the crater, though lone, non-breeding bulls roam the region, their great tusks reaching out before them. In between you will enjoy a picnic lunch in the crater. You return to your lodge late afternoon for rest and relaxation.
Accommodation: Serengeti Sopa Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board - Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Activity: Transfer to Serengeti with game drives en route.
After a leisurely breakfast, head for the seemingly endless plains of the Serengeti that open up across the horizon with game drives en route. These grasslands draw all manner of African game to graze - zebras, migrating wildebeests, antelope – and these animals in turn attract all manner of predators – lions, cheetahs, hyenas – that follow the great herds as they roam in search of water. We are pulled here as well, to witnesses the entire spectacle; the interconnection of land and wildlife, of predator and prey, to experience the circle of life, staged on the wide horizon. You enjoy a sumptuous dinner and spend the evening at leisure at Serengeti Sopa.
Accommodation: Serengeti Sopa Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board – Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Activity: Enjoy morning and afternoon game viewing drives at Serengeti.
Except for a late summer and fall visit to the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya, the migrating wildebeest spend most of the year traversing the Serengeti. Depending on the time of year, the hundreds of thousands wildebeests accompanied by zebras and gazelles, follow the rain in search of fresh forage. A second day at Serengeti National Park puts most visitors on the track of the herd.
Begin your day with an early optional morning balloon safari to see this wild world from a whole new perspective, followed by a sumptuous champagne bush breakfast. Or take an early morning game-drive before a breakfast feast at the lodge.
Activity: Transfer to airstrip for flight to Arusha. Rest and relax at your hotel. Airport departure transfer
After breakfast, you will be transferred to the airstrip for your onward flight to Arusha. Upon arrival, you will be met by our representative and chauffeured to Serena Mountain Village, where a day room to freshen up and relax is available to you. Your driver-guide will then transfer you to Kilimanjaro International Airport and see that you get there in plenty of time for your flight. We want the last hours of your Tanzania safari to be as relaxed and trouble-free as the rest of the trip has been. As you head for home you will be leaving with a lot of fond memories of your Tanzania safari.