TZ: 6 Days Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Tarangire or Lake Eyasi ex Arush

Meal Plan: Lunch and Dinner

7:30 am pick up from Arusha and drive on the highway, travelling through the Maasai country, be on the lookout for Maasai herders

Arriving at Lake Manyara National Park, we are greeted by its shimmering blue alkaline lake and rich, jungle-like forest. The park is famous for its multitudes of pink flamingos, making the lakeshore their home in a carpeted swath of pink feathers.

Lake Manyara is also known for its herds of elephants, towers of giraffes, wildebeests, impalas, leopards, and noisy troops of baboons.

Ever see a tree-climbing lion? These unusual subspecies are a Favorite of the park. You’ll find them up in a tree, resting or scouting for prey.

Toward evening, we’ll leave the park and to your lodge for dinner and overnight.

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

In the early morning, we’ll have breakfast and then depart in our 4x4 Jeep on the way to the Serengeti.

Soon, the immense expanse of the great Serengeti will roll out before us. This is Tanzania’s largest, oldest, and most famous park. The greatest number of lions in the region, if not Africa, are found here, along with leopard, rhino, elephant, buffalo, hartebeest, topi, and waterbuck.

Meals and overnight at your Lodge/Tented Camp.

Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Let’s get up early to enjoy the morning light play upon the great plains and massive wildlife stirring into the new day. While here, we’ll take as many game drives as you please – just discuss with your driver/guide, who will have lots of suggestions for spots to visit

The Serengeti is a large space with lots of opportunities to explore the wildlife over its limitless horizons.

Of special note – this is where incredible numbers of wildebeests and zebras breed, and during the season (February – March) up to 500,000 calves are born on these plains.

Also, the Serengeti holds all manner of creatures – look out for honey badger, otter, wild dog, mongoose, and monkey.

We will also visit areas of forest and marsh and look for hippo and crocodile.

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast and head out, soon coming to perhaps the most special anthropological site in the world, Olduvai Gorge. Huge caches of early mankind’s fossilized tools and artifacts have been found here, giving us a roadmap of how we evolved.

Later, proceed to one of the world’s great wonders, the Ngorongoro Crater.  Stand upon the crater rim. Looking out into the vast bowl of the volcanic caldera – 263 sq km (101 sq mi) – you’ll be viewing an isolated ecosystem of grassland, swamp, and woodland, all of it holding over 25,000 animals.

We will descend the steep crater walls in our Jeep and spend the day exploring this hidden world, cut off from the rest of Africa by its steep walls. Into this rich environment, we’ll be tracking lion, leopard, zebra, buffalo, black rhino, and even pink flamingos on the alkaline shores of Ngorongoro’s Lake Magadi.

We will break from your explorations, have your picnic lunch, soaking up the unique and very special green world that surrounds you

Late afternoon, we’ll head back up the crater and take in fiery sunsets at the crater’s rim.

Dinner and overnight at your lodge/Tented Camp

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Get up early to catch the breathtaking sunrise at the crater’s rim. Breakfast and depart for Tarangire National Park.

The park is known for populous elephant herds marching over its grassy plains and by its tall, unusual baobab trees. And though this reserve is home to a migration of over 250,000 animals, it is still not heavily touristed.

Look out for wild dog, antelope, and over 500 species of birds.

Or skip Tarangire and instead visit Lake Eyasi, one of the last spots in Africa where you can see hunter-gatherers, the Hadzabe people, still living as they have for eons. Stay overnight here and observe how the Hadzabe practice their hunting arts and ceremonial cultural dances.

Meal Plan: Breakfast

Breakfast and take a short morning game drive, enjoying the solitude at a lightly touristed park.

After your peaceful morning in the park, from either Tarangire , you will head back to Arusha, bringing you to your hotel or the airport.

Or if you have opted to visit Lake Eyasi, a great soda lake inhabited by the Hadzabe people, who have lived here for 10,000 years. This visit, which can occur before proceeding to Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti, brings us in contact with these indigenous bushmen who still hunt and gather as they always have—a rare display of ancient African culture.

(This can be done before proceeding to Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti)