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Safari Starting Mwanza

Safari Overview

This eight-day safari provides the opportunity to visit the iconic national parks you have been dreaming of with impressive year-round game viewing and migratory activity. Get ready to enjoy extensive game drives, spotting an amazing array of wildlife in their natural habitat against breathtaking landscapes.

As you enter the Serengeti National Park, a World Heritage Site, and home to the great migration, you will find the area teeming with wildlife; it is truly an incredibly special place.

Ngorongoro Conservation area and the vast, volcanic Ngorongoro Crater boasts the densest wildlife populations on earth and is home to the Big Five.

With a spectacular setting, Lake Manyara National Park is famous for its unusual tree-climbing lions, vast elephant herds, and more than 400 species of birds.

The Tarangire National Park boasts a great diversity of wildlife and is known for huge herds of elephants, and large numbers of ancient baobab trees.

Safari Highlights

  • View teeming wildlife on the Serengeti plains
  • Descend into the wildlife-dense Ngorongoro Crater
  • Witness the tree climbing lions and flocks of pink flamingos at Lake Manyara
  • Track elephants in Tarangire National Park

Duration

8 days

Travels To

Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, Serengeti, Tarangire

Starts | Ends

Mwanza | Arusha

Safari Itinerary

Day One: Mwanza to the Serengeti

You will be picked up from your hotel in Mwanza and depart for the Serengeti with lunch boxes.

The drive from the Ndabaka Gate to your lodge is the beginning of your exploration of the Serengeti.

Lodge options in Serengeti

Day Two: Explore the Vast Plains of the Serengeti

After an early breakfast, begin a full day of game viewing on the vast plains of the Serengeti, stopping for a picnic lunch, possibly by a hippo pool or one of the many animal watering holes.

Regarding sheer volume and variety of game, the Serengeti is tough to beat. An early start makes for the best chance of seeing big predators such as leopards, lions, and perhaps even cheetahs trailing the herds of wildlife (wildebeest, zebra, antelope, etc).

Serengeti National Park is a World Heritage Site teeming with wildlife across its endless plains. You will experience the unspoiled natural splendour of the best of Tanzania and exhilarating game sightings.

Lodge options in Serengeti

Day Three: Track the Great Migration in the Serengeti

Depending on the season you will be traveling, we aim to get as close to the Great Migration as possible.

The short rains begin around early November. A little after this, in late November and December, the herds of the wildebeest migration arrive on the short-grass plains of the Serengeti. These are south and east of Seronera, around Ndutu, and include the north of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Dispersed across these plains, wildebeest and zebra fill the landscape, feeding on the fresh, nutritious grasses. They stay here through January, February, and March, with most wildebeest calves born in a short window around February. Gradually, they spread west across these plains, and then around April, they started their great migration north.

Lodge options in Serengeti.

Day Four: Explore the Serengeti, Observing the Wildlife

Staying close to where the wildlife will be when you travel, you’ll continue exploring Serengeti National Park.

Relax in the changing landscapes, from vast plains, woodlands, and kopjes to rivers and watering holes.

Enjoy a full day of game drive wandering through this African treasure at your heart’s content before returning to the lodge by dusk.

Lodge options in southern Serengeti/Ndutu area.

Day Five: Visit Olduvai Gorge, the Birthplace of Mankind & the Famed Ngorongoro Crater

After breakfast, drive to Ngorongoro and the famed Olduvai Gorge, an important archaeological site for human evolution and one of the seven natural wonders of Africa.

Enjoy a picnic lunch at the museum and then continue towards the Ngorongoro Crater with an optional stop at a Maasai Village.

In addition to the high possibility, the Big Five sightings will be ready for the many other animals the crater is home to, including elephant, hippo, wildebeest, warthog, zebra, cheetah, hyena, jackal, gazelle, eland, waterbuck, and more.

The crater animals are recorded to be more than 25,000 in total. Over 550 bird species are also found in the Ngorongoro conservation area.

The Maasai people live around the Ngorongoro highlands, and you may have an opportunity to visit a Maasai boma and interact with the Maasai. You will learn more about their way of life and culture and perhaps enjoy a traditional dance performance.

Lodge options on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater.

Day Six: Descend Into Ngorongoro Crater to View a Huge Concentration of Wildlife

After breakfast, descend into the famous Ngorongoro Crater, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Wildlife has mainly remained isolated in this massive volcanic caldera due to the steep walls, restricting wildlife from moving in and out.

Depart in the afternoon for Lake Manyara through rural highland scenery.

Lodge options in Lake Manyara area.

Day Seven: Witness Tree-Climbng Lions & Flamingo Colonies at Lake Manyara

Set out in the morning with picnic lunch boxes for game-viewing in the unique groundwater forest of Lake Manyara National Park.

Lake Manyara National Park is famous for tree-climbing lions, where you can spot acacia, sausage trees, and colonies of flamingos on the alkaline lakeshore.

As you approach the lake, small savannahs are populated by giraffes, warthogs, wildebeest, zebra, and buffalo. The shore of the lake, set in a flat expanse of land, is home to many hippos who rest all day immersed in water among marsh and reed beds. The lake also hosts hundreds of colorful migratory birds, such as pelicans, flamingos, herons, ibis, and ducks.

In the afternoon, depart for Tarangire, Tanzania’s fourth-largest national park.

Lodge options in Tarangire National Park.

Day Eight: View Large Elephant Herds & Grand Baobab Trees in Tarangire

After breakfast, enjoy an early morning game drive in the park.

Tarangire is home to magnificent elephant herds and equally grand Baobab trees set among typical African scrubland. During the dry season, many animals gather in the park because it is one of the few year-round water sources in the area.

Depart for Arusha to continue with your onward travel plans.

Depending on your flight schedule, there may be time for lunch and shopping in Arusha. Fortes can make arrangements for an optional lunch or a day room to relax at a hotel if required.

Start Planning Your Safari Adventure

Talk to one of our safari specialists today for a tailor-made Tanzania safari.
Enquiry Form

Start Planning Your Safari Adventure

Talk to one of our safari specialists today for a tailor-made Tanzania safari.
Enquire Now
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