9 Days of Luxury and Adventure in Northern Tanzania

On arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport and after customs and immigration formalities, you will be met by our representative who will drive you to Arusha City which is the safari capital of Tanzania. It is located beneath the peak twins of Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro. Arusha is a major international diplomatic hub.
Arusha is your gateway to the safari adventures that can be found on the famed northern circuit. Arusha is a dynamic and bustling city where Africa and the west collide in a dizzying, fascinating fusion. With a domestic airport (Arusha) and an international airport (Kilimanjaro), it's also the perfect place to launch your adventures to Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, or even neighboring countries such as Rwanda, Kenya, or Uganda. The city is the capital of the East Africa Community and also houses the East Africa Court of Justice, located in the northern highlands of Tanzania.
Your overnight stay will be at the Gran Melia Luxury Hotel in Arusha.

You'll be picked up from your hotel at 8 am and start a beautiful journey across the Great Rift Valley to Lake Manyara for a full-day game drive. Although small in dimension (205 sq miles), your first encounter will probably be spotting large troupes of baboons. The park has breathtaking scenery and is well famous for its lush acacia forest, giant figs, and mahogany trees, as well as for a growing population of baboons and blue monkeys. Permanent residents of this park also include giraffes, elephants, impalas, and a huge amount of buffaloes. Lake Manyara is an alkaline soda Lake that is home to an incredible array of bird life that thrives on its brackish waters. Pink flamingos stoop and graze by the thousands of colorful specks against the grey minerals of the lake shore. Yellow-billed storks swoop and corkscrew on thermal winds rising up from the escarpment, and herons flap their wings against the sun-drenched sky. After lunch at the picnic site then slowly start to head to the hotel.

After an early breakfast, depart towards the most famous National park in the world, the Serengeti. The drive itself, although long, is spectacular. This will be an unforgettable moment for anyone seeing it for the first time. As you progress well into the Serengeti, you will see why the name means, in the local language, "endless plains". It has the greatest concentration of plains game in Africa. It is the migration for which Serengeti is perhaps most famous. The plains will stretch to the horizon defying your senses and perception of distances. It is the home to the great migration of 2 million wildebeests, hundreds of thousands of zebras, and all kinds of antelopes. As for the big cats and large predators, it's the place of choice to look out for lions, cheetahs, leopards, and hyenas, with many television scenes like the famous River Crossings having been filmed in this park. Serengeti is truly home to the legendary Great Wildebeest Migration. Late in the afternoon drive to the lodge

On this day you spend the whole day in the Serengeti National Park. We are completely flexible with your preferences and this day will be organized according to your wishes. On every day of the safari, your guide will discuss with you the best timings for you, including the game drives and the wake-up time. For example, on this day, you could do a morning game drive, return to the camp for lunch and relaxation and finish with an afternoon game drive, or you could do a full day game drive with a picnic lunch. During game drives sometimes you may drive for a long time without spotting any animal and then suddenly they appear! The guide will take you to the best spots according to your animal wish list! Sometimes you may spot animals in the trees, flying, camouflaged in the bush, in rivers, and in streams. This is the adventure of a lifetime! On this day there is an option of doing the hot air balloon in the morning at an extra cost according to availability. Overnight at the same lodge.

After breakfast we have a morning game drive in the Serengeti, enjoying nature and the endless plains with plenty of animals to see. We have lunch at the Naabi hill gate. After lunch, we proceed towards Ngorongoro and head to Karatu town which is nearby Ngorongoro. We arrive at the lodge in the afternoon to enjoy the rest of the day and digest all the impressions from the Serengeti. You enjoy the rest of the afternoon at the Lodge. Dinners and overnight at The Manor Hotel. Manor House is one of the first safari lodges of its kind to blend East African hospitality with old-world Afro-European architecture and decor. Located adjacent to the famous Ngorongoro conservation area and within a 1500-acre Arabica coffee estate, The Manor is reminiscent of an elegant up-country farm home in the Cape Dutch style of architecture.
The Hotel also offers activities such as horseback riding and coffee plantation tours at an extra cost.

On this day we have an early breakfast then drive to the Ngorongoro Crater we stop at the Loduare entrance gate then proceed. The Ngorongoro Crater is one of Africa’s most famous. Elephants, elands, hart beasts, and the endangered rhinos are among the residents of the crater. There are also resident zebras and wildebeests in the crater that do not take part in the annual migration. Hippos are found in the permanent freshwater pools and the swamps in the crater. Other non-migratory herbivorous mammals that are found in the Conservation Area include buffaloes, waterbucks, warthogs, kudus, and other species of antelope. The carnivores found include lions, cheetahs, hyenas, leopards, jackals, serval cats, and endangered wild hunting dogs. You are unlikely to escape other vehicles here, but you are guaranteed great wildlife viewing in a genuinely mind-blowing environment. A packed lunch will be served at a picnic site and later drive to your lodge for dinner and your overnight stay.

After breakfast, we leave this beautiful place and head to Tarangire NP. We have a few stops on the way and after approx 2 hrs we arrive at the gate. The park is named after the Tarangire River which runs through it. This is the only source of water for wildlife in the region during the dry season. In some places, the vegetation is quite dense with elephant grass and acacia woodlands. The park is well known for its elephant families, which can often be seen congregating by the river. Tarangire is the best place to see these gentle giants in their natural habitat, from the adorable calves all the way up to the intimidating bulls. You may also see giraffes, bushbucks, and hartebeest. Predators such as lions, leopards, wild dogs, and cheetahs can be found. Plenty of breeding species of birds found in Tarangire National Park than anywhere else on the planet. After lunch and an extensive game drive, we will head to our accommodation. Dinner and your overnight stay will be at Swala Game Lodge.

On this day we spend the whole day in Tarangire enjoying all sorts of wildlife. Also for those who love birds, this is a perfect place for them. With its unique landscape of red earth, towering baobab trees, and beautiful acacia, Tarangire is a photographer's dream. Visiting Tarangire during the dry season gives you your best chance to see these four members of the Big Five, as water scarcity forces animals to congregate near the Tarangire River. The lack of water also means that vegetation thins, allowing you to spot leopards and lions more easily than in the verdant rainy season. While lions are a common sight in Tarangire, leopards, and cheetahs are less commonly spotted. Cheetahs, in particular, find it difficult to hunt in the densely wooded park where their speed is nullified. The endangered African wild dog can occasionally be spotted in less crowded areas of the park too. In the evening we return to the lodge. Night game drives, balloons, and Nature Walks can be arranged at extra cost.

After breakfast, we start to drive heading to Arusha. We have a few stops on the way before reaching Arusha. In this tour accommodations in Arusha are included on a BB basis. Depending on your schedule. If you are spending the afternoon in Arusha we can arrange a short town tour to the local market at an extra cost. Otherwise enjoy the rest of the day at the hotel