Early morning pick up from your hotel in Arusha at 8:00am for a drive to lake Manyara National Park takes about 4 hours. After having a picnic lunch in Manyara, you start a late afternoon game drive, which is the best time to view animals in this park. When you approach it from the east, the Rift Valley escarpment looms on the horizon forming an impressive backdrop to the lake. In the tall trees of the ground water forest, monkeys leap from branch to branch, and on the escarpment, elephants stand in the shade. Other animals frequently seen are zebras, impalas, monkeys, giraffes, buffalos, hippos, and others.
7 Days Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro & Tarangire Safari
Our 7 Days Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro & Tarangire Safari takes you to the most famous game parks in Tanzania. Lake Manyara National Park lies 130 kilometers outside of Arusha town and encompasses Lake Manyara and its surroundings.
7 Days Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro & Tarangire Safari
7 Days Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro & Tarangire Safari
Our 7 Days Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro & Tarangire Safari takes you to the most famous game parks in Tanzania. Lake Manyara National Park lies 130 kilometers outside of Arusha town and encompasses Lake Manyara and its surroundings. There are five different vegetation zones including groundwater forest, acacia woodland, open areas of short grass, swamps and the lake’s alkaline flats. The park’s wildlife includes more than 350 species of birds, baboon, warthog, giraffe, hippopotamus, elephant and buffalo. If lucky, catch a glimpse of Manyara’s famous tree-climbing lions. Night game drives are permitted in Lake Manyara. Located beneath the cliffs of the Manyara Escarpment, on the edge of the Rift Valley, Lake Manyara National Park offers varied ecosystems, incredible bird life, and breathtaking views. Known for its elephants and tree-climbing lions, Lake Manyara is also excellent for flamingos and other fascinating birds in and around the soda lake.
The Serengeti National Park is home to the greatest wildlife spectacle on earth – the great migration of wildebeest and zebra. The resident population of lion, cheetah, elephant, giraffe, and birds is also impressive. There’s a wide variety of accommodation available, from luxury lodges to mobile camps. The park covers 5,700 sq miles, (14,763 sq km), it’s larger than Connecticut, with at most a couple hundred vehicles driving around. It’s classic savannah, dotted with acacias and filled with wildlife. The western corridor is marked by the Grumeti River, and has more forests and dense bush. The north, Lobo area, meets up with Kenya’s Masai Mara Reserve, is the least visited section.
The Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera. Forming a spectacular bowl of about 265 square kilometres, with sides up to 600 metres deep; it is home to approximately 30,000 animals at any one time. The Crater rim is over 2,200 metres high and experiences its own climate. From this high vantage point it is possible to make out the tiny shapes of animals making their way around the crater floor far below. The crater floor consists of a number of different habitats that include grassland, swamps, forests and Lake Makat (Maasai for ‘salt’) – a central soda lake filled by the Munge River. All these various environments attract wildlife to drink, wallow, graze, hide or climb.
Tarangire National Park offers an unparalleled game viewing, and during the dry season elephants abound. Families of the pachyderms play around the ancient trunks of baobab trees and strip acacia bark from the thorn trees for their afternoon meal. Breathtaking views of the Maasai Steppe and the mountains in the south make a stopover at Tarangire a memorable experience. 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.
Itinerary Details
The drive to Serengeti National Park via Oldupai Gorge takes 3 to 4 hours. Olduvai Gorge is an archaeological site located in the eastern Serengeti plains, in which early human fossils were first discovered. It has an amazing landscape that resulted from the same tectonic forces that created the Great Rift Valley millions of years ago.
Morning and afternoon game drive in the Serengeti with a lunch and leisure break at the lodge or campsite in the mid afternoon .The term ‘serengeti’ means endless plains in maasai language. In the central plains there are carnivores like, leopards, hyena and cheetah. This park is normally the scene of the annual migration of the wildebeest and zebras, which occurs between Serengeti and kenya’s maasai mara game reserve. Eagles, Flamingos, duck, geese, vultures are among the birds that can be seen in the park.
After breakfast, Drive to Ngorongoro Crater for game drives. This is the best place in Tanzania to see black rhino as well as prides of lion that include the magnificent black-manned males. There are lots of colorful flamingos and a variety of water birds. Other game that you can see includes leopard, cheetah, hyena, other members of the antelope family, and small mammals.
Morning hike in the Southern Ngorongoro Conservation Area to the elephant cave and waterfall. In the afternoon visiting the Iraqw tribe cultural centre in Karatu to learn how the tribe protected their cattle from Masai incursions using underground settlements.
After breakfast depart for Tarangire National park, Tanzania’s third largest national park and sanctuary for an unusually large elephant population. Majestic baobab trees are an interesting feature of the park, dwarfing the animals that feed beneath them. Animals concentrate along the Tarangire River, which provides the only permanent water supply in the area. There is a great diversity of wildlife including lion, leopard, cheetah and up to six thousand elephant. Arrive in time for lunch after lunch, afternoon spent game viewing in the park.
Early morning game drive later return to your lodge for Breakfast. After breakfast check out with a short game drive en-route off Tarangire National Park and drive to Arusha, drop off at your respective hotel or Airport.
Included in the Safari Cost
- Arrival & Departure airport transfers complementary to all our clients.
- Transportation as per itinerary.
- Accommodation per itinerary or similar with a request to all our clients.
- Meals as per itinerary B=Breakfast, L=Lunch and D=Dinner.
- Services literate English driver/guide.
- National park & game reserve entrance fees as per itinerary.
- Excursions & activities as per itinerary with a request
- Recommended Mineral Water while on safari.
Excluded in the Safari Cost
- Visas and related costs.
- Personal Taxes.
- Drinks, tips, laundry, telephone calls and other items of a personal nature.
- International flights.
