7 Days Tanzania Safari

Your safari begins the moment you land at Kilimanjaro International Airport. Our representative is there to meet you with a warm welcome and drive you the short distance to your hotel in Arusha, the town most northern circuit trips set out from. The transfer is easy, and the rest of the day is yours to unwind after the flight.

If you arrive with daylight to spare, you can take a gentle walk through Arusha, where the markets and small craft shops give you a first taste of Tanzanian life and a chance to pick up anything you still need for the days ahead. There is no pressure to do much, and resting is a perfectly good choice after a long flight.

In the evening your guide sits down with you for a short briefing, running through the route day by day and going over the practical details so everyone knows what to expect. Dinner is at your own arrangement in town or at the hotel, and you spend the night in Arusha.

After breakfast you leave Arusha and drive to Tarangire National Park, a trip of roughly two to three hours on good road. Tarangire is known for its large elephant herds, its ancient baobab trees, and the seasonal river that pulls animals in from the surrounding country during the dry months.

You start your first game drive soon after entering the gate. The park's mix of open grassland and woodland makes for varied viewing, and along with the elephants you can look for giraffe, wildebeest and zebra, with a chance at predators such as leopard or hyena working the fringes. Around midday you pause for a picnic lunch inside the park, out in the quiet with the baobabs for company, before heading back out for more game viewing through the afternoon.

As the light softens you leave the park and settle in at your lodge nearby, where dinner and your bed are waiting.

This morning you drive on toward Lake Manyara National Park, and the road itself is part of the pleasure, running past farms, small villages and the green hills of the Rift Valley wall. Manyara is a compact park that fits a surprising range of habitats into a small space.

Once inside you pass through cool groundwater forest, out into acacia woodland and open grassy flats, and down to the edge of the shallow soda lake, where thousands of flamingos gather in the shallows. Your game drive turns up troops of baboon, grazing buffalo, and shy bushbuck slipping through the undergrowth. Manyara is also famous for its tree climbing lions, which sometimes rest along the branches, though they are never a sure thing. Bird watchers do well here, with pelican, hornbill and stork among the many species along the water.

At the end of the day you settle into your lodge for dinner and a good rest before the long stretch to the Serengeti.

After breakfast you set out on the scenic drive toward the Serengeti, climbing through the Ngorongoro highlands and then dropping onto the plains that made this park famous. It is a longer travel day, but game viewing begins as soon as you enter the Serengeti, so the vehicle slows and the safari picks up again.

The Serengeti is one of the most celebrated wildlife areas on earth, defined by its space and by the sheer numbers of animals it holds. On your drive in you can look for wildebeest grazing beside topi, gazelle darting through the grass, and lion lying up in whatever shade they can find. This is also country for cheetah, jackal, elephant and large clans of hyena, so there is a lot to watch as you make your way across.

You reach your tented camp by evening, in time for a fireside dinner and a night out in the heart of the wilderness.

Today is given over entirely to the Serengeti, and you make the most of it with drives that stretch from the early morning into the afternoon. You set off at first light, when predators are still on the move and the grazers are feeding, and with your guide you work the plains for the Big Five: buffalo, elephant, leopard, rhino and lion.

If your visit lines up with the Great Migration, you may see thousands of wildebeest and zebra strung out across the grass on their seasonal march, with predators and scavengers shadowing the herds. It is one of the great wildlife spectacles, though its timing shifts with the rains and can never be pinned down exactly.

You break for lunch at a scenic picnic spot, then head back out to follow whatever the plains offer through the rest of the day. Sightings are never guaranteed, but a full day in the Serengeti gives you the time and the room to be rewarded. Dinner and your night are at the camp.

After breakfast you leave the plains and set out for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, with a worthwhile stop along the way. At Olduvai Gorge you visit the site where some of the earliest human fossils were uncovered, a place that reshaped what we understand about our origins. A small museum and a short guided talk fill in the background on our earliest ancestors and the layers of history laid bare in the gorge walls.

From there you carry on climbing toward the Ngorongoro Crater. As you reach the rim, the whole caldera opens up below you, its floor of grassland, forest and lake holding one of the densest gatherings of wildlife in Africa. It is a view that stops most people in their tracks.

Your lodge for the night sits near the crater rim, giving you long views and a calm, cool evening to relax before the final day. Dinner is served at the lodge and you overnight on the highlands.

You rise early and descend into the Ngorongoro Crater for your last game drive, dropping down the steep track to the floor while the light is still soft. Often described as the world's largest intact volcanic caldera, the crater shelters lion, zebra, buffalo, warthog and hippo, and gives you a real chance at the black rhino that shelter here. The shallow lakes draw flocks of flamingo and a long list of other birds.

With your guide's help you work the crater floor for its rarer residents while learning how this closed in ecosystem holds together. You stop for a picnic lunch down in the crater before climbing back out and turning toward Arusha.

Back in town you are transferred to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your departure, carrying home a deeper feel for the wild country of northern Tanzania. Breakfast and lunch are included on this final day.