5-Day Northern Tanzania Safari

Your safari begins with an early pickup from your Arusha hotel and a short briefing with your Genet Expeditions driver-guide. Drive south-west past villages, farmland and open plains to Tarangire National Park — about two to three hours, depending on traffic. After park registration, enter a landscape of giant baobabs, acacia woodland, seasonal swamps and the Tarangire River, a vital water source for wildlife in the dry season.

Spend the day on game drives in search of elephants — Tarangire’s great speciality — along with giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, buffaloes, impalas and lions. Your guide follows the day’s wildlife activity, explains the park’s ecology and birdlife, and stops for a picnic lunch at a designated site. In the late afternoon, drive on to Karatu, a green highland town of farms and rolling hills, for dinner and the night at your lodge.

After an early breakfast, drive up through the Ngorongoro highlands — forest, rolling hills and, weather permitting, a stop at a viewpoint over the crater — then west across the conservation area as the land opens into the great Serengeti grasslands. It is a long day: allow five to seven hours or more with stops and sightings, with a packed lunch on the way. Wildlife often appears well before you reach the central plains.

Continue to the Seronera area of Central Serengeti, known for year-round wildlife among open grasslands, acacia woodland, rivers and rocky kopjes — home to lions, leopards, cheetahs, giraffes, elephants and vast herds of grazers. Time permitting, enjoy an afternoon game drive. The Great Migration moves through the wider ecosystem, but where the herds are depends on the rains and the season. Arrive at your camp in time to settle in and enjoy dinner in the wilderness.

Wake to the sounds of the Serengeti and set out after breakfast on a final morning game drive, when animals move through the grasslands, woodland and kopjes in the cool early light. Look for lions, leopards, cheetahs, giraffes, elephants and zebras, and take time for last photographs of the endless plains before heading east towards the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Drive back across the plains and up into the highlands, with a packed lunch on the way and short stops at viewpoints when time allows. This is a significant transfer day, so your guide balances game viewing with arriving before dark. Reach Karatu in the late afternoon, check in, relax and enjoy dinner at your lodge — ready for the Ngorongoro Crater tomorrow.

After an early breakfast, drive up through the highlands to the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater for, weather permitting, a breathtaking view over the caldera, then descend about 600 metres to the crater floor. Formed when a vast volcano collapsed, the crater holds grasslands, acacia woodland, freshwater springs, marshes and a soda lake — a compact world with one of the greatest concentrations of wildlife in Africa.

Spend the morning on the crater floor among herds of wildebeest and zebras, buffaloes, elephants, spotted hyenas and lions, while your guide explains the crater’s geology and ecology. It is also one of the few places in Tanzania to see the endangered black rhino, although sightings are never guaranteed. After a picnic lunch at a designated site, climb out of the crater and return through the highlands to Karatu for a relaxing evening and dinner at your lodge.

After breakfast, check out and drive to Lake Manyara National Park, set beneath the dramatic wall of the Great Rift Valley escarpment. This compact park is remarkably varied: you begin in lush groundwater forest, home to baboons, blue monkeys and many forest birds, before emerging into acacia woodland, open grassland and floodplains along the lake.

Look for elephants, giraffes, zebras, buffaloes, hippos and antelope. Manyara is also known for its tree-climbing lions, though they are rarely seen, and flamingos sometimes gather on the lakeshore when conditions are right. After a picnic lunch, drive back to Arusha through the countryside and local villages, arriving at your hotel at the end of your five-day northern Tanzania safari with Genet Expeditions.