8 Days Tanzania mid-range Safari

Day 1 – Arusha – Lake Manyara

Travel time: 2½ hours
Distance: 130 km

Your guide will pick you up from Arusha to start your 8 Days Tanzania Safari and transfer you to Lake Manyara National Park. You arrive in time for lunch at the lodge and after lunch you head into the Lake Manyara National Park for an afternoon game drive. This national park consists of a massive but shallow soda lake (covering two-thirds of the park). The park’s varied habitat attracts a wide variety of animals including one of Africa’s largest concentrations of elephants, the rare tree-climbing lions, as well as large flocks of flamingos attracted by the algae in the lake.

Dinner and overnight as per the standard and type of accommodation option requested between Luxury and Mid luxury. Tonight will mark the beginning of your African safari.

Day 2 – Lake Manyara National Park – Serengeti Plains

Travel time: 6 hours
Distance: 205 km

After breakfast you head towards the Serengeti National Park via the beautiful high lying farmland of Karatu and the Ngorongoro Conservation area later descending into the heart of wild Africa the Serengeti National Park. You head to the central park area known as the Seronera area which is one of the richest wildlife habitats in the park. You arrive in time for lunch and enjoy an afternoon game drive in the Serengeti National Park.

Dinner and overnight in the Seronera area as per the standard and type of accommodation option requested.

Day 3 – Serengeti Plain

You can be one of a few fortunate people to glide in a Hot Air Balloon over the Serengeti Plains (available at supplementary cost by pre-arrangement). Floating silently above the awakening bush while viewing wildlife and enjoying the amazing scenery of Tanzania.

After breakfast you will do a full day game drive with lunch at the lodge. You will follow the Kopjes Circuit, which goes anti-clockwise around the Maasai Kopjes and usually attracts a number of lions and some formidably large cobras. Kopjes are weathered granite outcrops scattered around the plains most of which are miniature ecosystems providing shade and drinking water in pools left in the rock after the rains. This attracts wildlife and lions which like to lie in wait for animals coming to drink!

Dinner and overnight in the Seronera area as per the standard and type of accommodation option requested.

Day 4 – Serengeti Plains

After breakfast you enjoy a full day game drive with lunch at the lodge along the Sogore River Circuit which loops into the plains south of the Seronera River and which is good for lions, Thomson gazelle, topi, ostrich and cheetah sightings. The visitor’s centre not far from the Serengeti Seronera Lodge and public campsites is well worth a visit after the morning’s game drive. This nicely designed centre offers some interesting wildlife displays as well as a gift shop selling information leaflets and maps of the area. You will enjoy a relaxed picnic lunch at the centre in the shade of the giant acacia trees.

Dinner and overnight in the Seronera area, as per the standard and type of accommodation option requested.

Day 5 – Serengeti Plains – Ngorongoro Crater

Travel time: 4 hours
Distance: 145 km

After breakfast at the lodge do you depart for Ngorongoro Conservation area. You will stopover at Olduvai Gorge which boasts of a history dating back to the dawn of time. It was here, that the anthropologists Drs. Lois and Mary Leakey discovered the skulls of the’Nutcracker Man’ and ‘Handy Man’, both very significant links in the chain of human evolution.

You arrive in time for lunch at the lodge and spend the afternoon at leisure.

Dinner and overnight as per the standard and type of accommodation option requested on the crater rim, no accommodation available inside the crater.

Day 6 – Ngorongoro Crater

After breakfast you descend 600m into this magnificent crater for a full-day game drive. The Ngorongoro Crater is one of the most densely crowded African wildlife areas in the world and is home to an estimated 30,000 animals including some of Tanzania’s last remaining black rhino. Supported by a year round water supply and fodder, the Ngorongoro National Park supports a vast variety of animal which include herds of wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, eland, warthog, hippo, and giant African elephants. Another big draw card to this picturesque national park is its huge population of predators, which include lions, hyenas, jackals, cheetahs and the ever-elusive leopard. You will enjoy a picnic lunch on the crater floor.

Dinner and overnight as per the standard and type of accommodation option requested on the crater rim, no accommodation available inside the crater.

 Day 7 – Ngorongoro Crater – Tarangire National Park

Travel time: 3½ hours
Distance: 155 km

After breakfast you depart for the Tarangire National Park. The park runs along the line of the Tarangire River and is mainly made up of low-lying hills on the Great Rift Valley floor. Its natural vegetation mainly consists of Acacia woodland and giant African Baobab trees with huge swamp areas in the south. Both the river and the swamps attract wild animals during the dry season. The Tarangire National Park is known to have some of the largest elephant herds in Africa not forgetting its home to three rare species of animals i.e. the Greater Kudu, the Fringed-eared Oryx, as well as a few Ashy Starlings. You will have a picnic lunch and there after an afternoon game drive.

Dinner and overnight in the Tarangire National Park area as per the standard and type of accommodation option requested.

Day 8 – Tarangire National Park – Arusha

Travel time: 2 hours
Distance: 120 km

You will  enjoy an early morning game drive in the Tarangire National Park, followed by breakfast at the lodge.You will then transfer back to Arusha and upon arrival in Arusha you will have lunch and then mark the  end of your Tanzania safari adventure.