13-Day Tanzania Migration & Gorilla Trekking Uganda

Your trip starts at Kilimanjaro International Airport, where you are met and driven out to a lodge on the edge of Arusha set in the middle of a working coffee farm. The transfer takes about an hour, dropping from the airport road into the green foothills where the coffee grows in the shade of tall trees.

Your room is a garden cottage, quiet and set among the plants, with a private veranda where you can sit and take in the calm after a long flight. There is nothing you have to do today. Most people arrive tired, so the plan is to check in, unpack and slow down. If you have the energy, a short walk through the coffee will show you how the beans are grown and picked.

In the evening your head guide sits down with you to run through the route ahead, the parks you will see and how each day works, so you know what to expect. Dinner is served at the lodge under the night sky, and you spend the night here on the coffee farm.

After breakfast you check out and drive to Tarangire National Park, a couple of hours to the southwest through farmland and Maasai grazing country. Your base is Tarangire Treetops, on the edge of the park, where the rooms sit up in the canopy among old marula and baobab trees and look out over the bush.

You arrive in time for lunch and settle in before the afternoon game drive. Tarangire is elephant country above all. In the dry season the herds gather along the Tarangire River, sometimes hundreds at a time, digging for water in the sand and stripping the trees. The park is dotted with huge baobabs, some of them many centuries old, which give it a look all its own.

On the drive you also look for kudu and waterbuck, giraffe moving between the trees and the big martial eagles that hunt here. Tarangire is quieter than the famous parks, so the drives feel unhurried. As the light fades you return. Dinner and your overnight are at Tarangire Treetops.

Today is given over to Tarangire, with time for both a morning and an afternoon game drive. You head out early, when the air is cool and the animals are on the move, following the river where the game concentrates. Along the water you find elephant herds, zebra and impala, with predators watching from the fringes and plenty of birds in the reeds and trees.

You come back to the lodge through the heat of the middle of the day, then set out again as the afternoon cools. As the sun drops you stop in the bush for a sundowner, a drink out in the open while the light turns gold and then red across the plain. It is one of the small pleasures of a safari and a good moment to just watch the country.

After dark you go out on a night drive, which is your best chance at the animals that hide by day. With a spotlight the guide looks for leopard, African wildcat, genet and the hyenas that hunt in the dark. You return to camp for a late dinner. Your overnight is at Tarangire Treetops.

After breakfast you leave Tarangire and drive northwest, crossing part of the Great Rift Valley and climbing steadily toward the Ngorongoro highlands. The country changes as you go, from dry acacia bush up into cooler, greener hills where the air carries a chill and cloud often hangs on the ridges. It is a scenic road with a real sense of gaining height.

Your home for the next two nights is Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, set right on the caldera rim. From here you look straight down the crater walls, which drop around six hundred meters to the flat floor below, a view that is hard to take your eyes off. On a clear afternoon you can pick out herds moving on the grass far beneath you.

You arrive with time to check in and settle, then the rest of the day is your own. This is a good afternoon to rest up before the long crater day to come, and to enjoy the lodge and the rim from your room. Dinner is served at the lodge and you spend the night on the crater rim.

This is the crater day. After an early breakfast you drive down the steep access track to the floor, dropping through the mist that often sits on the wall in the morning until the land opens out flat and wide below. The crater floor holds a dense spread of wildlife in a small space, which is what makes it one of the finest game drives in Africa.

Out on the grass you find buffalo and zebra, hippos wallowing in the pools, and the crater's famous black rhino, one of the best places anywhere to look for them. Lions rest in the open here, easy to see, and along the shore of the soda lake flamingos feed in a long pink line. You break for a picnic lunch by the water before carrying on.

In the afternoon you leave the floor and stop at a nearby Maasai homestead, where the family show you how they live, their houses, their cattle and their customs, with a chance to ask questions through your guide. Then you climb back to the rim. Dinner and your overnight are at Ngorongoro Crater Lodge.

After breakfast you set off north for the Serengeti, dropping out of the highlands onto the plains that give the park its name. It is a long, scenic drive across open grass, and you game view as you go, so the transfer is part of the safari rather than dead time. Your destination is Sayari Camp on the Lamai Wedge, in the far north near the Kenyan line.

You reach camp in time for lunch and a rest. Later in the day you can visit a Maasai family living near the plains to learn how they keep their cattle and hold to their way of life in this open country. It is a chance to slow down and take in the human side of the Serengeti alongside the wildlife.

As the afternoon cools you head out on a game drive along the river corridors, where the trees and water draw in the animals. This northern country is good for lion and cheetah on the plains and for the hyena clans that work the same ground. Dinner and your overnight are at Sayari Camp.

Today is built around the migration. You spend a game drive at sunrise and another toward sunset, the two times of day when the herds are most active and the light is best, tracking the wildebeest and zebra as they push north toward the Mara River. In the right months this northern Serengeti is the front row for the crossings.

At the river the drama is real. The herds mass on the bank, hesitate, then plunge in and swim for the far side while crocodiles wait in the water and lions watch from the grass. Not every day brings a crossing, since the animals move on their own clock, but the tension along the bank and the sheer number of animals make it worth the wait. You watch zebra and gazelle string out across the plains between the runs.

Between drives you rest through the heat of the day back at camp. As the sun goes down you stop for a sundowner out on the savanna, a drink in the open before the drive back. Dinner and your overnight are at Sayari Camp.

After breakfast you transfer across to the Grumeti Reserve in the west of the Serengeti and check in at Singita Faru Faru Lodge, a private lodge set on a rise looking over the plains and a waterhole. You arrive for lunch, which the lodge pairs with a tasting in its wine cellar, a quiet change of pace from the dust of the road.

Grumeti is a private concession bordering the national park, so it feels exclusive and the game drives are unhurried, with few other vehicles around. The migration herds pass through this western corridor on their way around the ecosystem, so depending on the season there can be a great deal of movement close to the lodge.

The afternoon is yours to shape. You can book a treatment at the lodge spa and rest, or head out on a game drive across the reserve to look for the plains game and the predators that follow the herds. Either way the pace is easy and the country is wide open. Dinner and your overnight are at Singita Faru Faru Lodge.

Today you have the run of the Grumeti reserve, with a morning and an evening game drive across its private plains. Because this is a concession rather than the open park, you can go where the wildlife is without the crowds, and the guides can take their time on a good sighting. The country is a mix of open grass, riverine bush and scattered trees.

Out on the plains you look for the solitary leopard that favors the thicker cover along the water, and for the herds of giraffe that browse the tree line against the open horizon. Lions hold territory here, and the river draws in hippo, buffalo and a long list of birds. The low pressure of the reserve means the animals are relaxed and you can sit with them.

As the day ends you pull up beside the river for sundowners, watching the light go while the plains settle for the night. Then it is back to the lodge for a good meal. Dinner and your overnight are at Singita Faru Faru Lodge.

After a slow breakfast you drive the short way to the nearby airstrip for a light flight back to Arusha, where you connect onward across the border to Entebbe in Uganda. Flying saves what would be days on the road and gives you a look down over the country as you cross. This is the day the trip shifts from Tanzania's plains to Uganda's forests.

On arrival at Entebbe you transfer to the Lake Victoria Serena Hotel, set in terraced gardens above the shore of the huge lake. After the early start and the flights, the afternoon is free to relax by the water, walk the rose gardens or rest in your room. Entebbe is calm and green, a gentle place to land.

In the evening you join a group dinner, and your guide gives a briefing on the Uganda gorilla part of the trip, covering the trek, the permit and what to expect in the forest. Dinner is served at the hotel and you spend the night beside Lake Victoria.

After breakfast you fly from Entebbe down to the Kisoro airstrip in the far southwest of Uganda, close to the borders with Rwanda and the Congo. The flight crosses the green, hilly heart of the country and lands you within reach of Bwindi, saving a very long road trip. From the strip it is a transfer up into the hills to your lodge.

Your base is Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge, set on a ridge above the forest with views across to the line of volcanoes. It is a small lodge of just a handful of cottages, so it feels private and quiet. You settle in on your veranda and take in the sweep of forest and peaks, the country you will walk into the next morning.

Bwindi is old, dense rainforest, one of the last homes of the mountain gorilla, and even from the lodge you get a sense of how thick and steep it is. Spend the afternoon resting and getting your gear ready for the trek, since an early start and a good pair of boots make all the difference. Dinner and your overnight are at Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge.

This is the day the trip has been building toward. You start early at the park headquarters, where the rangers hold a briefing on how to behave around the gorillas, hand out the permits and split visitors into small groups, each assigned to one habituated family. Then, with an armed ranger and trackers ahead of you, you set off into the forest on foot.

The trek is the real thing. You climb through bamboo and thick undergrowth, over roots and under moss draped trees, on paths the trackers cut as they follow the signs the gorillas left. It can take anywhere from one hour to several, and the ground is steep and often wet, but the effort is part of what makes reaching the group feel earned. Porters can carry your bag and give a hand on the climbs.

When you find the family you have one hour with them, a strict limit that protects the animals. You watch from a short distance as the silverback keeps order, the females rest and the young ones tumble and play, close enough to read every expression. Back at the lodge a massage is waiting for tired legs. Dinner and your overnight are at Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge.

Your last morning is unhurried. After breakfast you transfer down to the Kisoro airstrip for your flight back to Entebbe, one more look over the green hills of southwestern Uganda before the trip winds down. The flight puts you back in Entebbe with time to spare rather than facing a long drive on your final day.

At Entebbe you have a day room booked at the Boma Hotel, so you can shower, rest and repack in comfort instead of waiting at the airport. Your guide joins you for a farewell lunch, a chance to look back over the plains, the crater and the forest before you go your separate ways.

When it is time you make the short transfer to Entebbe International Airport for your flight home. This is where the thirteen day trip across Tanzania and Uganda comes to an end, with the migration and the gorillas both behind you. Breakfast and lunch are your meals on this final day.