10 Days Safari To Manyara, Serengiti, Ngorongoro & Ndutu

Our professional tour guides will meet you at the hotel and briefing you about the tour. You will travel up to Lake Manyara where you will be able to see tree climbing lions which are the park’s main attraction. Why these lions habitually climb trees is still up for debate but viewing a pride relaxing in an acacia tree is an incredible site.

The alkaline Lake Manyara covers over half the surface of the park and attracts flamingos and other waterfowls as well as more than 400 different bird species. But other animals such as giraffes, hippos, wildebeests, impalas, monkeys and baboons are also often spotted here. You will leave the park in the late afternoon and make your way to the Kirurumu Manyara Tented Lodge. After some time to freshen up, you will have dinner at the lodge. Thereafter you will return to the Lake Manyara National Park for a night game drive, to spot nocturnal wildlife – not to be missed.

Breakfast is enjoyed at the lodge before you head off to the multi-cultural town of Mto wa Mbu. Here you will be met by a local guide who will give you a short briefing on the upcoming tour – exploring the village and its surroundings on foot. During your experience you will witness traditional wood carvers as well as local artists at work. After a traditional African lunch you leave this lively town and continue your journey to Lake Eyasi. For the adventurous, there is the option to skip the Mto wa Mbu cultural programme and join a quad bike tour from Karatu to Lake Eyasi (optional and at additional cost – please contact our consultants for more information).

After breakfast, a true African experience awaits. You will visit the Hadzabe, an ethnic minority and one of Tanzania’s last hunter-gatherer tribes. They have managed to maintain their traditional lifestyle until this day in this dry and mostly barren area. Thereafter you will pay a visit to the pastoral nomads and herdsmen, known as the Datoga tribe. The experience is completed with a stop at the blacksmiths where you will witness craftsmen in rather rudimentary working conditions. After this interactive cultural experience you will continue to Karatu, where you will arrive in the afternoon. Enjoy some free time – relax at the lodge or join an elephant cave walk (optional and at additional cost – please contact our consultants for more information).

After breakfast our professional guide will brief you on your itinerary and review the expectations for your safari, giving you a taste of what’s to come. Please ask the guide questions at this time and as they come up during the safari and drive to Ngorongoro Conservation Area, first crossing the Maasai Steppe and the Great Rift Valley Escarpment, and then winding up into the fertile Ngorongoro Highlands. The Conservation Area is a wildlife and cultural preserve that covers 3,200 square miles, of which mere102 square miles represent Ngorongoro Crater.

Early in the morning you will have an opportunity to view different wild life. Today, the volcano is a Mecca for those looking to witness a whole host of animals and to take in “that” view. The crater floor itself, with its flat expanse and fertile soil, has become the year round home for many of Africa’s largest animals such as the black rhino, black manned lion (the blacker the mane the older and more virile the lion) and the continent’s densest population of spotted hyena….to name but a few. Sometimes there are more than 30,000 animals in and around the crater, including black rhino, cheetah, lion, hyena, eland, and numerous antelope. On the floor of the crater, the alkaline Lake Magadi serves as an important water source, also attracting flamingo flocks during the dry season. Nearby, the small Lerai Forest, with its yellow fever acacia trees, provides shade and shelter for wildlife. You will often see baboons, vervet monkeys, and even elephants in its thicket. Thorny bush, grasslands, hippo pools and a second small lake are also found on the floor. You’ll soon see why Ngorongoro is considered to be among the world’s great wonder, breakfast box and picnic lunch are saved to maximize your wildlife viewing time on the crater floor, enjoy your picnic lunch near a hippo pool.

After breakfast at your hotel depart the cool, grassy Ngorongoro Conservation Area and later arrive on the great Serengeti plains for a different but just as spectacular wildlife viewing experience. You will pass one of the world’s greatest prehistoric archaeological sites, called Olduvai Gorge, and then continue your way over the scrublands. The wooded knolls around Naabi Hill Gate mark the Serengeti’s official entrance, which then drops into the park’s signature wide-open plains. Like no other, this stretch embodies the meaning of the word “Serengeti,” which from the Maasai “Siringet” and has been artistically translated as “the land that flows on forever”. Serengeti National Park covers 6,000 square miles of pristine land and offers not only expansive vistas but the largest migration of mammals on earth, including 2 million wildebeest.

There is nothing as marvellous as traversing the plains of the Serengeti, Tanzania’s second largest national park, covers nearly 6,000 square miles of grassland, plains, savannah, kopjes, hills, woodlands, and riverine forests. The Grumeti, Mbalageti, and Mara river systems serve as critical water sources and are often excellent sites for wildlife viewing. Beyond the heralded migration of wildebeest and zebra, the Serengeti is best known for its big predators, including cheetah and leopard, as well as large prides of lions and clans of hyenas. Other commonly seen animals include gazelle, buffalo, giraffe, topi, hartebeest, ostrich, and jackal, but it is the full diversity of wildlife and habitats that you will truly find amazing. The greater Serengeti ecosystem actually covers the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the Maasai Mara in Kenya, and numerous surrounding wildlife-protected lands that combine for a total of almost 17,000 square mile.

What is the story behind the Big Five? It actually has nothing to do with the size of the animals. In the 1800s, colonial trophy hunters named buffalo, rhino, elephant, lion, and leopard as the most difficult animals to hunt on foot. Thus, they were named the Big Five. Years later, tourism companies adopted the term and the list became the so-called five must-see animals while on safari. While it is possible to spot all the listed animals on your trip, leopard and rhino sometimes prove difficult to track down as they are both solitary, reclusive species. Ultimately, however, wildlife viewing in the Serengeti will be nothing short of amazing.

Optional Serengeti Balloon Excursion
Those with advance reservations will have the opportunity to balloon across the plains during one of your mornings in the Serengeti. A pre-dawn wake-up call leaves you time to drive to the balloon launch site in order to catch the most dramatic light. Then take to the skies just as the sun rises. Glide over the plains and acacia treetops, taking in spectacular views of the Seronera River Valley and the surrounding plains. After your descent, enjoy a magnificent champagne breakfast right in the midst of the Serengeti wilderness.

Your exploration takes you to various parts of the Serengeti ecosystem, including Ndutu area, the southernmost corner, where large herds of wildebeest tend to congregate in the so-called green months. The southern plains of the Serengeti eco-system fall outside of national park boundaries into what is known as the Ndutu area. Seasonally, this area is home to vast numbers of wildebeest, zebra and gazelle, as they migrate over the plains in search of food and water.

After your last breakfast in the African bush, your guide will take you to the Seronera Airstrip where you will bid farewell to your guide. From here you will either go back to Moshi to embark on your home bound journey or continue to Zanzibar for a few relaxing days on the beach (optional).