The morning picks you up from your hotel, drives you north of Arusha City, and then on to Tarangire National Park for a game viewing drive followed by a packed lunch served at a picnic site. Tarangire is known for its large concentration of herds of elephants and giant baobab trees.

Tarangire National Park Herds of up to 300 elephants scratch the dry river bed for underground streams, while migratory wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, hartebeest and eland crowd the shrinking lagoons. It’s the greatest concentration of wildlife outside the Serengeti ecosystem – a smorgasbord for predators – and the one place in Tanzania where dry-country antelope such as the stately fringe-eared oryx and peculiar long-necked gerenuk are regularly observed. During the rainy season, the seasonal visitors scatter over a 20,000 sq km (12,500 sq miles) range until they exhaust the green plains and the river calls once more. But Tarangire’s mobs of elephant are easily encountered, wet or dry. The swamps, tinged green year round, are the focus for 550 bird varieties, the most breeding species in one habitat anywhere in the world.

Late in the afternoon, drive out of the park and continue driving, crossing the Rift Valley escarpment to the Ngorongoro Highlands. Dinner and overnight at the Country Lodge in Karatu.

Day 2

After breakfast, drive to Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and descend into the Ngorongoro Crater for a game viewing drive.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area covers 8,292 square kilometers. It is one of the three divisions that comprise Ngorongoro District in Arusha Region. The main feature of the NCA include the Ngorongoro Crater, The Serengeti Plains that support about 2.0 millions migratory wildlife species of the Serengeti Mara-ecosystem (TAWIRI, 2003) and the catchment forest; the Northern Highland Forest Reserve (NHFR) known as ‘Entim Olturot’ in Maa language. Other important features found in the NCA are the archaeological and palaeontological site located at Oldupai Gorge and the early human foot-prints that were discovered at Alaitole in Ngarusi area. Because of these particular features and the harmonious co-existence between wildlife and people that has existed for many years, NCA was accorded the status of a World Heritage Site and listed as one of the International Biosphere Reserve by the UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Reserve Programme

Late afternoon ascent of the crater and continue a short drive to the Ngorongoro Highlands.
Dinner and overnight at the Country Lodge in Karatu.

Day 3

After breakfast, take a short drive to Lake Manyara National Park for a game viewing drive. Lots of baboons loiter in the park. With luck, you may also see the tree-climbing lions.

Lake Manyara National Park
Stretching for 50km along the base of the rusty-gold 600-metre high Rift Valley escarpment, Lake Manyara is a scenic gem, with a setting extolled by Ernest Hemingway as “the loveliest I had seen in Africa”.

The compact game-viewing circuit through Manyara offers a virtual microcosm of the Tanzanian safari experience.

Size: 330 sq km (127 sq miles), of which up to 200 sq km (77 sq miles) is lake when water levels are high.
Location: In northern Tanzania. The entrance gate lies 1.5 hours (126km/80 miles) west of Arusha along a newly surfaced road, close to the ethnically diverse market town of Mto wa Mbu

For the bird lovers, Lake Manyara is a paradise.

Late in the morning, drive out of the park and drive back to Arusha, arriving at midday.