8 Days Safari in Tanzania

You touch down at Kilimanjaro International Airport, where a professional driver guide is waiting to meet you. After a warm welcome and a short briefing on the trip ahead, you set off for Arusha, the busy town where most northern Tanzania safaris begin, about an hour away through farmland and roadside markets.

What happens next depends on when you land. If you arrive with time to spare, you can visit a local cultural centre to get a first look at Tanzanian craft and tradition, from carving and painting to the everyday life of the region. It is a gentle way to shake off the flight and start tuning into the place.

Otherwise the afternoon is simply yours to rest and settle in at Runako Lodge. Unpack, take a slow walk around the grounds, and get an early night, because the parks start tomorrow. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are provided, and you spend the night at Runako Lodge.

After breakfast you set off for Tarangire National Park, a drive of a couple of hours from Arusha. Tarangire is easy to recognise by its giant baobab trees, which stand across the grassland like something out of a storybook, and by the large elephant herds that gather along the Tarangire River, especially in the dry season.

You check in and have lunch at your lodge before heading out for an afternoon game drive. The park is quieter than the big name reserves, which is part of its appeal, and there is plenty to look for. Herds of elephant move between the trees, and you keep watch for lion resting in the shade, leopard if fortune favours you, and the zebra, antelope, and buffalo that graze the open ground.

Tarangire is also a strong birding park, so expect colour and noise from the branches as you drive. Your guide reads the land and follows the signs of recent movement, though as always the animals keep their own schedule. In the evening you head to Karatu Tented Lodge for dinner. All three meals are provided and the night is spent at Karatu Tented Lodge.

After a relaxed breakfast you return to Tarangire for another session of game viewing, this time with the whole day ahead of you. The park holds more than six hundred bird species along with a long list of grazers, so the morning drive gives you room to slow down and take in animals you may have rushed past the day before.

The unhurried pace pays off. You can sit with a herd of elephant as they feed, watch the interplay along the river, and let your guide point out the smaller details that make the park tick, from weaver colonies to the sculpted old baobabs.

In the afternoon you head out on foot for a walking safari led by armed rangers. Following the wildlife trails on foot is a different feeling altogether, closer and quieter, and you may come near elephant, giraffe, impala, and eland, learning to read tracks and signs as you go. It sharpens your senses in a way no vehicle can. When the walk is done you return to camp. Meals are provided across the day and you overnight again at Karatu Tented Lodge.

After breakfast you drive to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and climb to the crater rim, then wind down the steep track onto the floor of the caldera. The Ngorongoro Crater is a UNESCO listed site and the largest intact dormant volcanic caldera on earth, and the view from the rim as you begin the descent is one you will not forget in a hurry.

Down on the grass the wildlife is packed into a compact bowl, which gives you a real chance at a lot in a single day. Look for zebra and wildebeest in big numbers, hippo in the pools, and the predators that hunt them, lion out on the plains and the odd cheetah working the open ground. With patience the crater can deliver much of the Big Five in one visit.

You also stop by Lake Magadi, the shallow soda lake at the crater's heart, where flamingo often gather in a pink band along the water. A picnic lunch is taken down on the floor before you climb back out in the afternoon. All meals are provided and you return for the night to Karatu Tented Lodge.

After your morning meal you leave for Lake Manyara National Park. On the way you stop in the lively town of Mto wa Mbu, a crossroads where many Tanzanian tribes live together. You can browse the market stalls, meet the people who live and trade there, and get a feel for daily life away from the parks.

Inside Manyara the scenery turns fast, from shady groundwater forest to the open flats along the lake. The park is well known for the lions that sometimes rest up in the trees, an unusual habit you may be lucky enough to catch, and for the many primates that live in the forest, including baboon and blue monkey.

Beyond that, keep watch for gazelle, waterbuck, and the enormous flocks of birds that work the shoreline, from pelican to the flamingo that colour the shallows when the water suits them. Sightings shift with the hour and the season, so the guide will read the day as it comes. In the late afternoon you head back up to the highlands and spend the night at Karatu Tented Lodge, where all meals are provided.

Today is a travel day with a payoff at the end. After an early breakfast you set out for the Usambara Mountains in the country's northeast, a long drive broken by a lunch stop along the way. The road takes you out of the safari country and into a greener, cooler world of steep ridges, forested slopes, and terraced farms clinging to the hillsides.

The scenery does a lot of the work on this leg. As you climb into the range the air freshens and the views open up over rolling hills and deep valleys, a real change of gear from the dust and heat of the plains. It is worth keeping the camera close for the vistas that appear around the bends.

When you reach the mountains you check into Muller's Mountain Lodge, an old colonial era farmhouse set in gardens with plenty of quiet corners. The evening is for resting and settling into the slower rhythm of the highlands. All three meals are provided and you spend the night at Muller's Mountain Lodge.

This is the active heart of the trip. You start the morning on foot with a hike from the lodge up toward Kivuga Peak, following forest paths through some of the richest habitat in the range. Along the way keep an eye out for black and white colobus monkey in the canopy, along with the butterflies and chameleons the Usambaras are known for.

The forest here is old and full of life, and your guide will point out the trees, birds, and small creatures that make the mountains special. Near the top a picnic lunch is spread out with wide views over the ridges and valleys below, a fine place to rest your legs and take it all in.

In the afternoon you swap boots for a bicycle and set off on a cycling tour along scenic routes and through traditional villages. Riding through the farmland at an easy pace lets you meet the people who live here and see how the mountain communities work the land. It is a relaxed, human way to end the day. All meals are provided and you overnight once more at Muller's Mountain Lodge.

Over breakfast you take a last look at the mountains before beginning the drive back toward Arusha. The return leg retraces some of the fine scenery you passed on the way out, giving you a final stretch of the green highlands before the land flattens toward the plains again.

What happens at the end of the drive depends on your plans. If you are heading home, you will be transferred in good time to the airport for your flight. If you would rather keep the holiday going, you can carry on to Zanzibar for beach days and coastal life on the island.

Either way, this is where the eight day Tanzania safari comes to a close, with the parks, the crater, and the mountains all behind you. The team is happy to help arrange any add on nights or onward travel if you want to stretch the trip further. Breakfast is your final meal on the tour before the drive back.