Showcasing the very essence of the Serengeti and its surrounding areas, this compact 5-day road safari begins on the shores of beautiful Lake Manyara National Park before moving into the grandeur of the Serengeti, where traditional lodge accommodation is provided for two nights. Leaving the Serengeti, the tour includes a fascinating visit to Olduvai Gorge, the legendary ‘Cradle of Mankind’, before entering the world-famous Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area, where a half-day crater tour is included. All accommodation is provided in traditional safari lodges.

Wildlife Highlights: lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard, cheetah, hippos, crocodiles, wildebeest, zebra, antelope, gazelle, impala, waterbuck, topi, eland, plains game, giraffe, black and white rhino

Accommodation: Lake Manyara Serena Lodge, Serengeti Sopa Lodge, Ngorongoro Farm House

Day 1:  Arusha to Lake Manyara

Arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport where you will be met by your vehicle and driver. After lunch in Arusha town. Drive to the Manyara and into your lodge for dinner and overnight at Manyara Serena Lodge.

Distance/drive time: 130 km / 2 hours

Day 2:  Lake Manyara to the Serengeti

After breakfast, take a game-drive around Lake Manyara National Park, which is famous for its tree-climbing lions. With picnic lunch, drive to the Serengeti National Park and enjoy an afternoon’s game drive before checking into the Serengeti Sopa Lodge. Dinner at the lodge

Distance/drive time: 205 km / 4 hours

Day 3: On safari in the Serengeti

Enjoy a full day’s game driving around the vast and sensational Serengeti, which covers 14,763 sq. km of endlessly rolling savannah plains and is Tanzania’s most famous park wherein tens of thousands of hoofed animals roam in a constant and unremitting search for the fresh grasslands upon which their survival depends. The million-plus wildebeest are the predominant herbivore and also the main prey of a huge cast of large carnivores, principally lion and hyena. Whilst the annual migration is the Serengeti’s most famous attraction, the Park is also renowned for its lion, many of which have been fitted with radio-transmitter collars so that their movements may be tracked, and additionally for its wealth of cheetah, zebra, giraffe, Thomson’s and Grant’s gazelle, eland, impala, klipspringer, hippo and warthog. All meals at the lodge.

The Migration: Twice a year, propelled by the rains, 1.3 million wildebeest, 200,000 zebra and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelles gather in the Serengeti to undertake an 800 km trek to new grazing lands. The precise timing of the migration varies but generally, the herbivores congregate and move out at the end of May, sometimes over a period of weeks, sometimes over a period of as little as three or four days. They then head west on the first leg of a roughly triangular 800-km circuit that takes approximately 3-4 months and ends in the Masai Mara National Reserve of Kenya. When the grazing here is exhausted the tide of herbivores turns and reverses its progress returning to the short grass plains of Tanzania.

Day 4:  Serengeti to the Ngorongoro Crater

Leave the Serengeti and drive to the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area via Olduvai Gorge the ‘cradle of mankind’, and site of one of the most important and controversial Palaeolithic finds in recent history. Continue into the crater for an afternoon tour and picnic lunch. Often referred to as ‘the eighth wonder of the world’ the Ngorongoro Crater is one of Africa’s best-known wildlife arenas. A World Heritage Site, it is also one of the largest volcanic craters in the world (almost 20 kilometres wide, 610-760 metres deep and covering a total area of 264 square kilometres). An utterly unique biosphere, the Crater harbours grasslands, swamps, forests, saltpans, a freshwater lake and a glorious variety of birdlife, all enclosed within its towering walls. In the late afternoon, ascend to the rim of the crater and drive to your lodge for check-in at the Ngorongoro Farm House. Dinner at the farmhouse.

Distance/drive time: 150 km / 3 hours

Day 5:  Lunch in Arusha

After breakfast, drive to Arusha arriving in time for lunch at a local restaurant. After lunch transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your onward flight.

Distance/drive time: 190 km / 4 hours

Manyara

Lying in a shallow depression at the base of the western wall of the eastern arm of the Rift Valley, Lake Manyara typically shimmers in a lilac and gold heat haze, sometimes streaked pink with thousands of flamingos. Backed by a narrow band of forest, it rises to the dramatically sheer red and brown cliffs of the Mto wa Mbu Escarpment. The Park includes not only a substantial portion of the lake and its shores but also large areas of ground-water forest with giant fig and mahogany trees alternating with acacia woodland and open. The name is derived from the Maasai word for the Euphorbia tirucalli bush, which the tribesmen plant as a living stockade to keep their cattle from straying.

Wildlife highlights: The Park is famous for its spectacular tree-climbing lions and also offers; monkey, jackal, mongoose, hyena, hyrax, elephant, rhino, leopard, zebra, hippo, warthog, buffalo, Masai giraffe, duiker, waterbuck and impala. Birds: Manyara is noted for its wealth of birdlife, which includes many thousands of flamingoes as well as pelican, yellow-billed stork and white-necked cormorant.

Serengeti

The Serengeti, whose Maasai name ‘Siringet' translates as ‘the endless plains', offers unparalleled ornithological opportunities and an unrivalled natural arena wherein the glory and harmony of nature can be appreciated as nowhere else on earth. Fact File
Area:  14,760 sq km.
Location:  200 km west of Arusha: the park’s northern boundary abuts with the Kenya border, its western boundary reaches Lake Victoria.

The history of the Serengeti
Approximately one hundred years ago, the warlike Maasai first arrived in the Serengeti, bringing their cattle to graze on the rich grasslands. Prior to this the region was uninhabited and visited only by the hunter-gatherer Ndorobo and Ikoma tribes. The Maasai were followed, in 1913, by the Europeans, who were so quick to assess its game-hunting potential that, by 1921, the Serengeti’s teeming herds had been almost entirely decimated. This necessitated the establishment, firstly of a Reserve and finally, in 1951, a National Park. As a result, the Serengeti is an area where human habitation is prohibited.

Around and about
Olduvai Gorge, the ‘Cradle of Mankind’, where the remains of our earliest ancestors, the hominids, were found.