Tanzania Guided Group Safari

It is an afternoon start at your pick-up point in Arusha after which your guide heads through gently rolling agricultural land before the road rises sharply into the cooler air of a Rift Valley escarpment and your accommodation for the night: Lake Manyara Lodge. You have a scheduled game drive the next day so all you have to do now is relax. Complete with rim-flow pool and lounge overlooking Lake Manyara, the lodge has panoramic views and usually rewards its guests with spectacular sunsets: the perfect start to your safari.

It is an early start this morning: Lake Manyara National Park is your first stop and there is plenty to see. Centred around a hippo-filled lake, the park is home to lions, elephant, buffalo and giraffe and at times is covered in pink rafts of flamingos. You return to the lodge for lunch before travelling on to the Serengeti National Park and your accommodation for the next two nights, Serengeti Serena Lodge.

The next day sees you on the savannah, soaking up the drama of the Serengeti on morning and afternoon drives. It is big game country and home to excellent game viewing all year round. And if you visit at the right time of year, you will be in time for the annual wildebeest migration when nearly two million animals arrive in the area, harried on all sides by predators and making for raw and thrilling game viewing.

After breakfast you drive across the Serengeti plains on your way to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a journey broken by a picnic lunch as well as frequent game sightings. Your destination is the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera – the Ngorongoro Crater – a place that carries another superlative description as home to the densest concentration of big animals in Africa. You have time to soak up the views first: your accommodation is Ngorongoro Serena Lodge, one of the few lodges located on the rim of the Crater itself and the views are magnificent. Your guide leads a full-day safari the next day, descending into the crater in search for Ngorongoro’s Big 5 (leopard, lion, elephant, rhino and buffalo) as well as hippo, spotted hyena and a multitude of plains game.

Leaving the Ngorongoro area, you travel south to the Tarangire National Park and Tarangire Sopa Lodge, tucked away within the park among granite boulders and Tarangire’s signature baobab trees. You arrive in time for lunch and then it is off to explore. A sanctuary for Tanzania’s biggest elephant herds, Tarangire is also home to lions that have developed the somewhat endearing habit of climbing trees, if only to beat the heat. You may also see animals not associated with the northern savannahs such as the long-necked gerenuk, and with an amazing 550 bird species on record, Tarangire is a birdwatcher’s paradise. Back at camp you have a swimming pool to enjoy as well as complementary Wi-Fi in public areas.

After breakfast at the lodge your guide takes a slow drive through the park for a last game sighting or two. Leaving Tarangire, you then pass through a landscape of thatched villages and plantations before arriving in Arusha at around midday. The tour comes to an end as you then connect with your onward travel arrangements.