Tanzania Adventure Safari

Includes a guided walk amongst the wildlife in the Arusha National Park. Arusha National Park is a multi-faceted jewel, often overlooked by safarigoers, despite offering the opportunity to explore a beguiling diversity of habitats within a few hours. The small national park includes the slopes, summit, and ash cone of Mt. Meru, the Momela Lakes, Ngurdoto Crater, and the lush highland forests that blanket its lower slopes. Game viewing around the Momela Lakes is at a laid-back and quiet pace, and while passing through the forest many visitors stop to search for troupes of rare colubus monkeys playing in the canopy. Warthorg and black-and-white colobus monkey is easily seen. Giraffes glide across the grassy hills, between grazing zebra herds, while pairs of wide-eyed dik-dik love dart into scrubby bush.

Your guide will drive you from Arusha to Lake Manyara Park. The trip takes an esimated 2 hours.

On todays game drive you will have to keep your eyes peeled in order to spot some of this area's beautiful and elusive big cats. It will take a keen eye to take notice of the tree climbing lions, or the camouflaged spotted leopards. You should try to look around shaded area during the hotter hours of the day, as the wildlife will be looking for a cool area to relax.

On this morning game drive you will explore Lake Manyara National Park, which is best known for baboons. However your skilled guide will point out the numerous herbivores that make this park their home such as hippos, impalas, elephants, wildebeests, buffalo, warthogs and giraffes.

On this afternoon game drive you can have the opportunity to do some bird watching. Lake Manyara provides great opportunities for ornithologists keen on viewing and observing over 300 migratory birds, including flamingo, the long-crested eagle and the grey-headed kingfisher. Remember if you feel like stretching, you can always opt out of any game drive and explore some of the activities at the lodge.

Depart early morning around 6:30 am to be at the village by 9:00 am before the sun is too strong. Meet the local Hadza or Dorobo tribespeople, and depart on foot to track small game. Your guide will accompany to translate into English. Bow and arrow are used in the hunt, and you can try your hand at archery practice. After a short hunt try some bush meat and see a traditional dance. A picnic lunch is provided, or eat a local lunch prepared by the women (extra $10 paid to local villagers). After lunch, visit another tribe called the Datoga or Barbaig. See the work of a local blacksmith where spears, rings, earrings and local silver is forged and worked. Tour will return to camp in late afternoon.

Your guide will drive you from Lake Eyasi to the Ngorongoro Conservation area. The drive usually takes about 2 hour.

Just inside the Ngorongoro conservation area, a majestic waterfall beckons travelers to enjoy a light hike through the forest highlands. Along the way, experience the ‘elephant caves’: cave-like structures created by elephants digging up the earth to ingest the vitamin-rich soil. This soil also attracts other large animals like Buffalo, Bushbuck, Waterbuck, and Baboons.

You'll drive approximately 20 minutes from your camp or lodge to the main gates of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. There are only three roads that connect the crater rim with the crater floor, one for driving down, one for driving up and another that goes both ways. The crater is roughly 20 km/12 mi wide and 600 m/2,000 ft deep, once you've reached the top of the caldera it takes about 45 minutes to descend to the crater floor. The floor is home to a rich and highly concentrated wildlife. Some 20,000 mammals live there, including about 20 black rhinoceros, making the crater the best place in Tanzania to see the rhino. The crater floor also has one of the highest carnivore densities in the world. Lions, cheetahs, hyenas and jackals are commonly seen, while leopards, servals and bat-eared foxes may be seen with some good luck. You'll spend most of the day in the crater.

Private transportation and guide in the Ngorongoro national park.

Enjoy a box lunch while you travel (included in tour price).

Your guide will pick you up from the Ngorongoro Conservation area and drive you to the famous plains of the Serengeti. On this drive you have the option of stopping at Olduvlai gorge, the Serengeti welcome centre and lookout point, or stop for lunch at a picnic spot. After entering Serengeti park you will have the chance to enjoy game viewing as you drive through the park to your next accommodation. This drive takes 5 to 6 hours depending on the number of stops you make and how much game viewing you enjoy along the way. Expect longer trip times during the rainy seasons.

The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is commonly referred to as "The Cradle of Mankind." It is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa. Olduvai is in the eastern Serengeti Plains in northern Tanzania and is about 30 miles (48 km) long. The gorge is named after the Maasai word for the wild sisal plant Sansevieria ehrenbergii, commonly called Oldupai.

Today head out with your guide to explore the wide expanse of the Serengeti. The park is well known for its healthy stock of resident wildlife, particularly the "Big Five", named for the five most prized trophies taken by hunters: lion, leopard, elephant, black rhinoceros, and African buffalo. Though there are only a few black rhino in the park, you may still spot them. The Serengeti has the largest population of lion and giraffe in all of Africa and the largest concentration of topi and Coke's hartebeest (kongoni). Enjoy the challenge of spotting other game such as cheetah, Thomson's and Grant's gazelle, eland, waterbuck, hyena, baboon, impala, African wild dog and giraffe. The park also boasts about 500 bird species, including ostrich, secretary bird, Kori bustard, crowned crane and marabou stork.

Head out into the park early in the morning as animals are more active in the early morning and afternoon. Tanzania's oldest and most renowned national park, the Serengeti offers the most expansive game-viewing in Africa: great herds of buffalo, smaller groups of elephant and giraffe, and thousands upon thousands of eland, topi, kongoni, impala and Grant’s gazelle.

Spend the day taking in the spectacle of the famous wildebeest migration. This annual migration through the Serengeti and Masai Mara is one of the safari highlights of Africa. The wildebeest migration moves in a basic clockwise direction throughout the year in Serengeti eco-system and move north into Masai Mara, Kenya from June/July through to Sep/October. Sightings cannot be guaranteed as the herds move according to availability of food source and migration movements can be erratic. The herds are accompanied by zebra and Thomson's gazelle and are stealthily hunted by local predators such as leopard, lion and hyena.

If time allows, your expert guide will squeeze in one more game drive before dropping you off at the airstrip. It will be your last chance to see the park's diverse range of animals.

Take your flight from Serengeti to Arusha today. The flight will do more than one stop on the way. The flight duration is approximately 2hrs.

Stop for lunch at the Arusha Hotel in this tourism capital of Tanzania. Shop the local souvenir market.

Includes opportunity to visit local handicrafts market to stock up on souvenirs.

Airport transfer between your Arusha hotel and Kilimanjaro International airport with private vehicle and english speaking driver.