Safari Highlight
Overview
You arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport JRO. From now on, my team and I will take care of you. Don’t worry, we won’t crowd you, but if you need us, we’ll be there. After your arrival, we will take you to your hotel and help you check in. On arrival day we will do a short briefing with you for the upcoming safari. The exact time for this will be arranged when we pick you up at the airport. We recommend at least one night to acclimatise.
Arusha Accommodations
Luxury Safari
Adventure
Tarangire National Park
We pick you up at 8:30 am with a modified Toyota Landcruiser with a safari roof at your hotel in Arusha or in the surrounding area. We drive about 120 kilometers on-road to Tarangire National Park. This vehicle is at your exclusive disposal for the whole safari.
Already on our drive to the camp we start with the first off-road game drive. After lunch we drive into Tarangire National Park to look for lions, leopards, elephants, buffalos, pythons, zebras, oryx antelopes, impalas and more. There are also over 450 species of birds here. After a picnic in the afternoon, the game viewing continues. After dusk we drive back to camp. Here a lovingly prepared dinner awaits you and your first night in the bush, listening to the sounds of the African night.
Tarangire National Park is known among insiders for one of the world’s largest elephant populations and our destination on our safari. The hilly landscape with the huge baobab trees against the blue sky is simply breathtaking. Around the Tarangire River, herds of up to 300 elephants gather in the dry season to drink or cool off.
And towards the end of the dry season, the elephants push open the riverbed with their huge tusks to dig for groundwater. Or they help themselves to the baobab trees to quench their thirst. But bird lovers also get their money’s worth here. The swamps in Tarangire National Park have one of the world’s largest numbers of breeding bird species.Tarangire National Park is also known as the “Park of the Elephants”. In the dry season, huge herds of elephants can be seen here.
Tarangire Accommodations
Luxury Safari
Mid range
Lake Manyara National Park & The Great Rift Valley
If you are up for it, we will start the first game drive before breakfast. If you want to sleep a little longer, we start after breakfast and combine the game drive with the drive to the breathtaking Lake Manyara National Park. tree-climbing lions only at Lake Manyara National ParkThe stunning Great African Rift Valley, formed over the last 35 million years by the breakaway of the Arabian Plate from the African Plate.
The pink flamingos offer a breathtaking play of colors. Lake Manyara – a jewel of Africa – rests nestled in a breathtaking landscape surrounded by a narrow green belt of forest. Overlooked by the majestic escarpment of the Rift Valley, it is only understandable that this graceful place represented for Ernest Hemingway the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in Africa.
The narrow belt of acacia forest inside the alluvial plain is the preferred haunt of tree-climbing lions and elephants that move carefully and effortlessly through the thicket despite their impressive tusks. The contrast to the intimacy of the forest is the grassy alluvial plain, from which one can look far east across the 950 m high, soda-rich Lake Manyara to the jagged blue volcanic peaks that rise mightily from the endless Masai steppe. Especially the pink flamingos, which stop at the lake in their thousands on their migration alongside the pelicans, cormorants and storks, offer a breathtaking play of colors.
Lake Manyara Accommodations
Luxury Safari
Adventure
Serengeti National Park
After an early breakfast (7.30 am), we start the long journey to the Serengeti National Park. This trip is one game drive, you will be amazed. After lunch at Naabi Hill Gate, we will pass the official entrance to the Serengeti National Park. We will spend the whole afternoon game driving and arrive at our new camp shortly after dusk. Here, besides a spectacular ambience, the sounds of the African night and an enchanting dinner await you again.
The Serengeti National Park is Tanzania’s oldest park and world famous for its annual wildlife migration. Driven by the ancient rhythm of the circle of life, over a million wildebeest set off at the same time each year and more than 200,000 zebras and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelles join the migration. Their destination is the fresh grazing grounds in the north, where the species regenerates in a short time and 8,000 calves are born every day before the 1,000 km long and arduous migration begins again.
But this natural wonder of the world also has impressive things to offer outside of the migrations: large herds of buffalo, smaller groups of elephants and giraffes, several thousand eland, lyre and hartebeest, impala, grant gazelles, as well as spotted hyenas and the beautiful serval.
Omnipresent in Tanzania’s largest national park is the fight for life and death between predator and prey. Majestic lions reign supreme on the great plains, while graceful leopards stalk through the dust-orange acacia tree landscapes along the Seronera River and cheetahs hunt their prey in the south-eastern part of the Serengeti National Park.
Just as overwhelming as the animal spectacle, is the sight of the almost infinite Serengeti plains stretching from the dry, golden shimmering savannah to the red glowing horizon in the evening. During the rainy season, the dusty savannah magically transforms into a sea of green, dotted with wildflowers. We do have some Maasai friends who wholeheartedly enjoy giving us an insight into their culture. Not for money, but because they are proud of their culture and open-minded.
We are always happy to adapt to the wishes and needs of our guests. During the day there is always enough time to relax, enjoy the moment or let yourself be pampered by the comforts of the lodges. Game drives are scheduled early in the morning or at dusk in the evening. The Serengeti is a savannah that stretches from northern Tanzania, east of Lake Victoria, to southern Kenya, covering an area of about 30,000 square kilometres.The word Serengeti is derived from the Maasai language from the term “esirinket” and means “the endless land” or “endless plain”.
Extensive, flat grassy steppes in the south contrast with gently rolling, sparsely forested plains in the north. The central savannah is almost treeless, and in the southeast rises the volcanic Ngorongoro Conservation Area (a World Heritage Site since 1979). The highest mountains are about 1850 metres above sea level, lower parts of the savannah reach down to about 920 metres. The Serengeti area encloses the Serengeti National Park, which, with its 14,763 square kilometres, is one of the largest and best-known national parks in the world and has been part of the UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site and the 23,051 km² Biosphere Reserve since 1981. Southwest of the national park is the 2200 km² Mazwa Wildlife Sanctuary, located at 1000 to 1500 meters above sea level, and north of the corridor is the Grumeti Sanctuary, with about 2000 to 3000 km². In addition, the 3000 km² Ikorongo Conservation Area borders the Serengeti.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area & Crater
We start early in the morning again, because today another big highlight is waiting for you, the Ngorongoro Crater – a World Heritage Site – where we are allowed to do a maximum of six hours game drives to protect the animals! After lunch, game viewing continues and gradually we drive up the crater rim and make our way back to Arusha.Between ten and 15 specimens of the highly endangered black rhino still live here.
Down in the world’s largest perfect caldera (collapsed volcano) live about 30,000 large mammals, including the highest density of predators in Africa. The Ngorongoro Crater is a breathtakingly exciting place to see all the BIG FIVE: Lions, Leopards, Buffalo, Elephants and there are still between ten and 15 specimens of the endangered black rhinoceros, whose population in the 1960s was still over a hundred animals. In addition, zebra, hippo, wildebeest, hyena and other birds such as flamingos on Soda Lake, geese, storks, vultures and more live in this wonderful crater. The large animal migrations in the Serengeti also pass through the Ngorongoro Crater.
There is no other caldera in the world with a similar animal population. A visit to the crater is one of the highlights of any Tanzania trip. Due to the weather, one should avoid the big rainy season in April/May, and also the most popular travel time July/August is subject to certain restrictions in the experience due to the high number of visitors in the Ngorongoro Crater. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area also includes smaller craters such as Empakaai and Olmoti further north-east in the highlands, as well as the wide, flat plains of the Malanja Depression in the west and the Olduvai Gorge, which is famous for the discovery of numerous hominid fossils.
The special characteristic of the conservation concept is that, in contrast to national parks and game reserves, the integration and specific use of the area by the Maasai is also anchored. Thus, visitors repeatedly meet the Maasai, who are allowed to live here with their cattle and use the natural resources for their nomadic way of life. The Ngorongoro Crater gives its name to the entire conservation area.
Ngorongoro Accommodations
Mid range
Adventure
BEST TIME TO VISIT TANZANIA
The main travel seasons for northern Tanzania are mid-December to mid-March and July to October. Months with increased rainfall are November (“short rainy season”) and mid-March – mid-May (“long rainy season”).
