Northern Circuit · Seven Days

Seven days, shared

Tarangire, two nights at Seronera and the Ngorongoro Crater in one 4×4 with up to six other guests — the same guide and parks as a private trip, at the price a shared vehicle makes possible.

Days

Nights

Parks

Seats, max

I · Overview

The route, and why this shape

Three parks, one vehicle shared with up to six others, on a date that does not move.

A joining safari is a private safari with the price divided by more people. The route, the guide and the parks are the ones a private seven-day trip gets: Tarangire, two nights in the central Serengeti, and the crater. The difference is that the date is set, the 4×4 is shared with up to six other guests, and the plan is the plan. Nobody adds a night at Seronera on day four because six other people booked the week as written.

The shape is the honest seven-day one. Arusha for a night, Tarangire for an afternoon and a night, then one long day west across the Ngorongoro highlands onto the plains. Two nights at Seronera buy the full day that makes the Serengeti worth the drive. Back east to sleep on the crater rim, down onto the floor at first light, and back to Arusha the same afternoon.

What it costs you is the second night in Tarangire and the freedom to linger. What it saves you is most of the vehicle and guide cost, which is the largest line on a safari after park fees. If you are travelling alone or as a couple and the dates suit, this is the cheapest way to do the northern circuit properly. If you want to set your own pace, book the private version instead.

Length

7 days / 6 nights

Country

Tanzania

Start / end

Arusha → Arusha

Tour type

Joining safari — set departures, shared vehicle

Group size

Up to 7 guests per vehicle, every seat a window seat

Meal plan

Full board on safari, bed and breakfast in Arusha

Best months

June – September, and December – January

Activity level

Easy — vehicle-based, one long drive day

Vehicle

Toyota Land Cruiser 4×4 with a pop-up roof, a window seat for every guest, charging points and a cool box

II · The days

Day by day, all seven

Every day opens. One night in Tarangire, two at Seronera, one on the rim, Arusha either end. See every lodge and camp we use

Day

Arrival

Arusha, and the people you will share the week with

03°22′S 36°41′E

Dinner

Arusha, and the people you will share the week with

03°22′S 36°41′E

You are met at Kilimanjaro International and driven fifty kilometres west to Arusha, about an hour, through coffee shambas and the lower slopes of Mount Meru. Arusha sits at 1,400 metres and the first evening feels longer than it is. Nothing is scheduled.

This is the day a joining safari differs from a private one, so it is worth saying plainly what you have bought. The departure date is fixed. The vehicle is a 4×4 shared with up to six other guests — seven in total, and every one of them has a window seat. The guide is the same kind of guide a private trip gets, and the parks are the same parks. What you do not get is the right to change the route on day three because you would rather have another morning with the lions.

In the evening the guide runs through the week for the whole group. Ask about the vehicle then — you will be in it for the better part of thirty hours over six days. Repack into a soft bag, change money for tips, and sleep.

Meals

Dinner

Travel

JRO to Arusha · 50 km · about 1 hr

Highlight

A briefing, a vehicle, and six other names

Meet at Kilimanjaro International

Group briefing

No game drive today

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Kahawa House

★★★★☆

Arusha, garden lodge

A quiet lodge on the edge of town, en-suite, bed and breakfast, where the group meets before the road south.

LUXURY

Onsea House & Machweo Wellness Retreat

★★★★★

Arusha, boutique hotel

The Upgrade tier sleeps in a smaller property with better beds and a proper dinner — you share the vehicle, not the room.

Day

Tarangire

Elephants, baobabs, and the river

03°50′S 36°00′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Elephants, baobabs, and the river

03°50′S 36°00′E

Out of Arusha after breakfast, south-west on tarmac for two hours, then the turn onto the park road. The landscape changes twice in ninety minutes — cultivated highland, Maasai grazing country, then baobab. Most groups see their first giraffe from the tarmac.

Tarangire in the dry season concentrates its game on one river, and that is the whole point of coming. Between June and October the elephant herds along the Tarangire River are the densest in northern Tanzania, in family groups of fifteen and twenty and occasionally in aggregations of several hundred on the same stretch of sand. In December and January, the other months this departure runs, the herds are more spread and you work harder for them.

One night here, not two. On a private trip we would argue for the second night and the southern swamps; on a seven-day joining departure the Serengeti has to have two, and something gives. What you get is a full afternoon on the river circuit, which is where the elephants are, until the light goes and the gate closes at six.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Arusha to Tarangire gate · about 120 km · 2–2½ hrs

Highlight

The densest elephant population in northern Tanzania

Big elephant herds

Baobab country

River circuit

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Mbali Mbali Tarangire River Camp

★★★★☆

Tarangire, outside the park boundary

Tented, en-suite, full board, close enough to the gate for an early start without a pre-dawn drive.

LUXURY

Lemala Mpingo Ridge Lodge

★★★★★

Tarangire, on the escarpment

Larger tents looking down over the river valley, and a deck facing the evening elephant crossings.

Day

Transfer

Across the highlands to the Serengeti

02°26′S 34°49′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Across the highlands to the Serengeti

02°26′S 34°49′E

The long day, and the one that makes the trip. You leave early, climb the Rift wall past Lake Manyara to Karatu at 1,900 metres, then up again onto the Ngorongoro highlands. There is a viewpoint on the rim where the group stops and looks down six hundred metres into the caldera you will descend on day six. Today you drive past it.

West of the crater the road drops onto the short-grass plains of the southern Serengeti ecosystem — treeless and volcanic, and between December and March the calving ground for the migration. Olduvai Gorge is a short detour off this road; whether the group stops depends on the departure and on the time, because Naabi Hill gate and the last two hours to camp are the fixed points of the day.

Past Naabi the land simply opens. The last stretch into the Seronera valley is a game drive whether or not anyone calls it one, and you arrive with enough light for a short drive before dark. It is a long day in a shared vehicle; the seats rotate, and the guide will say so at breakfast.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Tarangire to Seronera · about 330 km · 6–7 hrs with stops

Highlight

Rift wall, crater rim viewpoint, then the plains open

Ngorongoro rim viewpoint

Short-grass plains

Naabi Hill gate

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge

★★★★☆

Central Serengeti, Seronera valley

A tented camp in the year-round core of the park — permanent water, and the highest concentration of big cats in the Serengeti.

LUXURY

Lemala Ewanjan Tented Camp

★★★★★

Central Serengeti, Seronera valley

Fewer tents, further from the main track, and the group’s vehicle collects you from the door for the early drive.

Day

Serengeti

A full day in the Seronera valley

02°26′S 34°49′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

A full day in the Seronera valley

02°26′S 34°49′E

One full day, no transfer, no packing. This is the day the seven-day shape is built around and the reason Tarangire had to give up its second night.

The Seronera River holds water all year, and the fig and sausage trees along it are the most dependable leopard habitat in Tanzania. Dependable is not guaranteed — a leopard is found by a guide who knows the individual trees and stops for no reason you can see. The granite kopjes standing out of the grass are lion furniture: shade, a vantage point, and safe ground for cubs. Cheetah hunt the open ground south and east of the river in the first cool hours.

Where the migration is today depends entirely on the month. On the June and July departures the herds are usually moving through the west and centre; on the December and January departures they are on the southern plains you crossed yesterday. In August and September they are in the north and this route does not reach them. The guide will tell the group at breakfast where the vehicle is going and why.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Full day in the park

Highlight

Leopard in the riverine fig, lion on the kopjes

Leopard country

Kopje prides

No transfer today

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge

★★★★☆

Central Serengeti, Seronera valley

Second night. The value of two nights here is the early morning — you are already inside the park when the cats are moving.

LUXURY

Lemala Ewanjan Tented Camp

★★★★★

Central Serengeti, Seronera valley

Second night, with breakfast taken in the field if the group chooses the dawn start.

Day

Transfer

East again, and up to the crater rim

03°14′S 35°29′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

East again, and up to the crater rim

03°14′S 35°29′E

You drive back east with a game drive built into the morning, so the return is not wasted — the route out past Naabi in low light is often better than the route in. Lunch is on the road and you are climbing to the Ngorongoro rim by mid-afternoon.

The rim sits at about 2,300 metres and it is properly cold after dark; a fleece is not optional. The first sight of the crater from the top is the one moment on this trip that consistently outperforms the photographs — a caldera roughly nineteen kilometres across with its own weather, often with cloud pouring over the western wall while the floor stays clear.

The group sleeps on the rim rather than down in Karatu, and on a joining trip that matters more than usual. Seven people and one vehicle need to be on the descent road when it opens at six, and a rim lodge puts you there without an hour’s drive in the dark first.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Seronera to the rim · about 150 km · 4–5 hrs with a game drive

Highlight

A morning drive out, then 2,300 metres and a cold night

Morning game drive out

Rim viewpoint

Cold at 2,300 m

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Pakulala Safari Camp

★★★★☆

Ngorongoro Conservation Area, crater rim

On the rim, which means a short descent in the morning rather than an hour’s drive before the gate opens. Bring a fleece.

LUXURY

Entamanu Ngorongoro

★★★★★

Ngorongoro Conservation Area, crater rim

Rim-facing rooms with the crater floor below the window, and fires lit in the evening.

Day

Ngorongoro

Down into the crater, then back to Arusha

03°10′S 35°35′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Down into the crater, then back to Arusha

03°10′S 35°35′E

You descend six hundred metres at first light onto the floor of a collapsed volcano, before the cloud has properly lifted. Vehicles are limited to six hours on the floor, so the morning is timed tightly and there is no lingering over breakfast — on a joining departure that means the group leaves together at the time the guide sets.

What the crater has that nowhere else on this route does is black rhino. There are only a few dozen, they are usually distant, and this is still the most reliable place in Tanzania to see one. Around them: the highest lion density in Africa, habituated to vehicles to a degree that is almost uncomfortable, old solitary elephant bulls carrying the heaviest ivory left in the north, buffalo, hyena, and flamingo on the soda lake when the water is right.

Up the ascent road around midday, lunch, then the road east to Arusha — about 190 kilometres and four hours. If your flight leaves tonight and you have told us, the vehicle continues to Kilimanjaro International instead; everyone else sleeps in Arusha.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

600 m descent · crater floor · rim to Arusha about 190 km, 4 hrs

Highlight

Black rhino, then the road east

Dawn descent

Black rhino

Six-hour limit on the floor

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Kahawa House

★★★★☆

Arusha, garden lodge

The same lodge as night one. A shower, a proper bed, and the group’s last dinner together.

LUXURY

Onsea House & Machweo Wellness Retreat

★★★★★

Arusha, boutique hotel

Back to the Upgrade property — the evening is unscheduled and most people are asleep by nine.

Day

Departure

Arusha, and out

03°22′S 36°41′E

Breakfast

Arusha, and out

03°22′S 36°41′E

No alarm. Breakfast at the lodge, then the drive to Kilimanjaro International in time for your flight, whatever time it leaves. The group disperses today — some to the airport, some to the Zanzibar flight, some staying on in Arusha.

If you are continuing to the coast, flights leave from both Arusha airport and Kilimanjaro and take under two hours. Three to five nights is the usual shape, and our joining Zanzibar week is built to start the day after this one ends.

Tips for the guide are usually handled this morning, and on a shared vehicle the group normally agrees an amount between them rather than each person tipping separately. Your guide will not raise it; someone in the group usually does.

Meals

Breakfast

Travel

Arusha to JRO · 50 km · about 1 hr

Highlight

A late breakfast, then the airport or Zanzibar

Airport transfer

Onward to Zanzibar possible

No game drive

Where you sleep

Departure day — no overnight

III · Rates

What it costs, by group size

Priced per person, per seat. On a joining departure the rate does not fall with group size — the vehicle is already shared.

Comfort rates by group size, per person and group total
Group size	Rooms	Per person	Group total
1 guest	1 room	$3,780	$3,780
2 guests	1 room	$3,780	$7,560
3 guests	2 rooms	$3,780	$11,340
4 guests	2 rooms	$3,780	$15,120
5 guests	3 rooms	$3,780	$18,900
6+ guests	3 rooms	$3,780	$22,680

Single supplement

$920

Added when a guest does not share a room — or ask to be paired

Child, 6 – 11 years

30% off

Sharing with two adults; under 6 not accepted on a shared vehicle

Peak season uplift

Included in the rates above

July – September, and the festive weeks

Upgrade rates by group size, per person and group total
Group size	Rooms	Per person	Group total
1 guest	1 room	$7,610	$7,610
2 guests	1 room	$7,610	$15,220
3 guests	2 rooms	$7,610	$22,830
4 guests	2 rooms	$7,610	$30,440
5 guests	3 rooms	$7,610	$38,050
6+ guests	3 rooms	$7,610	$45,660

Single supplement

$2,290

Added when a guest does not share a room — or ask to be paired

Child, 6 – 11 years

30% off

Sharing with two adults; under 6 not accepted on a shared vehicle

Peak season uplift

Included in the rates above

July – September, and the festive weeks

All figures in US dollars, per person sharing unless stated. Valid for travel until 30 June 2027. Park fees, guiding, vehicle, accommodation and full board are included — see what is and is not covered below.

IV · Included

What is in the price, and what is not

Stated in full, both ways.

What is included

All game drives in a shared 4×4 with a roof hatch — 7 seats, all window
A professional guide throughout, English-speaking, the same guide all week
All accommodation as listed: full board on safari, bed and breakfast in Arusha
All national park and conservation area fees, including the crater service fee
Airport transfers, Kilimanjaro International, on the set arrival and departure days
Drinking water in the vehicle throughout
A licensed, English-speaking professional guide, trained in wilderness first aid
Round-the-clock support from our Arusha office, and a first-aid kit in every vehicle

What is not

International flights to and from Tanzania
Tanzania visa — USD 50, or USD 100 for United States passports
Travel insurance, which we ask every guest to hold
Balloon flight over the Serengeti
Airport transfers outside the set arrival and departure days
Drinks at the lodges, beyond what is listed
Tips for your guide and lodge staff
Personal spending and souvenirs

V · Add-ons

Worth adding, if you have the days

Priced separately and arranged on request.

Seronera · day 4 at dawn

Balloon over the Serengeti

An hour over the plains at first light, landing to a breakfast set out in the grass. The group’s vehicle collects you afterwards and rejoins the day. Weather-dependent, minimum age <span class=”it-todo”>7 — to confirm</span>, and booked months ahead in the high season.

USD 750 per person

Before day 1

A night in Arusha before you start

Most long-haul flights land in the evening. Arriving the night before the departure date means you meet the group rested, and it protects your seat if a flight is delayed — a joining vehicle cannot wait for one person.

USD 250 per person, for 2 guests

Day 3 · if the group agrees

Olduvai Gorge, on the drive west

Nearly two million years of hominin occupation cut into the gorge wall, and a small museum on the rim. Whether the group stops depends on the day’s timing and is decided by the guide.

USD 50 per person

After day 7 · 5 nights

Joining Zanzibar, afterwards

Our shared-transfer Zanzibar week is timed to start the day after this one ends. Stone Town, a spice farm and the east-coast beaches; the flight from Arusha takes under two hours.

From USD 1,310 per person, 6 days

VI · The ground

Where this itinerary takes you

Three parks, one ecosystem, from the Rift floor to the crater rim.

Tarangire National Park

2,850 square kilometres along a single permanent river. In the dry months the river concentrates the largest elephant population in northern Tanzania, and the park holds more breeding bird species than any other habitat of its size on earth. One night here, on purpose.

Serengeti National Park

14,750 square kilometres of plain, kopje and riverine forest. The Seronera valley in the centre holds water year-round and carries resident lion, leopard and cheetah whether or not the migration is anywhere near. Two nights, the minimum that makes the drive worth it.

Ngorongoro Crater

The largest intact volcanic caldera in the world, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Around 25,000 large animals live on 260 square kilometres of crater floor, including the most reliable black rhino in Tanzania. One night on the rim, one morning on the floor.

The question everyone asks

Who else is in the vehicle?

Seats, every one of them at a window

People who booked the same week you did, from wherever they booked it. Usually couples and solo travellers, usually a mix of nationalities, usually between twenty-five and sixty-five. We do not screen them and we do not pretend to. What we can say is that a vehicle of seven strangers who all chose the same route on the same dates tends to have more in common than a dinner party does.

The practical rules matter more than the social ones. The vehicle leaves when the guide says it leaves. Seats rotate so nobody owns the front for the week. If one person wants to sit with a leopard for an hour and six do not, the guide decides, and the decision is usually the leopard. Children under six are not accepted on a shared departure; if you are travelling with young children, the private version of this route is the right one.

VII · Season

The best time to travel

Departures run in six months. Here is why the other six are empty.

June to September is the long dry season and the months this departure runs most often. Water is scarce, game concentrates at the rivers and pools, and the grass is low enough to see cats at a distance. Tarangire is at its best. The migration is in the west and centre in June, and by August it is in the far north, which this route does not reach — Seronera’s resident game is what you are booking in those months.

December and January are the other departure months. It is green and hot, the southern plains you cross on day three hold the migration and the start of the calving, and there are fewer vehicles than July. Tarangire’s elephants are more dispersed; you will still see them, in smaller numbers.

Set departures do not run in every month, and that is deliberate. There are no departures in April or May: the long rains make some tracks difficult, some camps close, and the grass is high enough to hide a lion at thirty metres. We would rather have no vehicle on the road than a full one on a bad week.

February, March, October and November are not scheduled either, though all four are good months for a private trip. If your dates fall outside the departure calendar, ask — a private version of the same route runs any week of the year except the two we have just named.

VIII · Flights

Getting there and back

Fly into Kilimanjaro International. Land on or before the departure date — the vehicle leaves without you otherwise.

Fly into Kilimanjaro International (JRO). It is 50 kilometres from Arusha and about an hour by road, and it is the airport this departure is built around. Nairobi and Dar es Salaam both work but both add a day, and on a fixed-date trip an added day is a missed day.

Arrive on or before the departure date. The group leaves Arusha on the morning of day two whether or not your flight was delayed, so if your only routing lands late on day one, book the extra night beforehand and land on the day before.

Coming home, the itinerary ends in Arusha on the morning of day seven, after a night in town. Any departure time from JRO works that day. If you would rather go straight from the crater to the airport on the evening of day six, tell us before you book — the vehicle can drop you at JRO on the way back to Arusha, but it cannot wait for a late check-in.

Tanzania requires a visa for most passports — USD 50, or USD 100 for United States citizens, valid up to 90 days. Apply online in advance rather than on arrival.

IX · Other costs

What else you will spend

Visas, insurance, tips and drinks — set out so there is no surprise on the ground.

Visa and entry

USD 50 — USD 100 for US passports

Tanzania issues a tourist visa online (eVisa) or on arrival at Kilimanjaro. Applying in advance is faster and avoids the queue at immigration, which after an evening arrival can be long.

A yellow fever certificate is required only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is endemic. Coming directly from Europe or North America, it is not.

Travel insurance

Typically USD 60 – 150 per trip

We ask every guest to travel insured. Medical cover and evacuation are the parts that matter — the nearest hospital to the Serengeti is a flight away, not a drive.

On a fixed-date departure, cancellation cover matters more than usual: if you miss the start you cannot move the trip, so make sure the policy covers the cost of the seat.

Tips

Usual range USD 10 – 20 per guest per day

Tipping is customary in Tanzania and it is genuinely optional. The figures below are what guests commonly give, not what is expected of you, and no one will treat you differently for giving less.

On a shared vehicle the group normally agrees a pooled amount for the guide at the end of the week; lodge staff tips go into a shared box at reception so that housekeeping and kitchen are included, not only the people you see.

Drinks

USD 3 – 20 at the lodges

Drinking water in the vehicle is included throughout. Everything at the lodge bar is charged to your room unless your camp is explicitly all-inclusive, and most on this route are not.

Personal spending

Entirely up to you

Souvenirs, curio stalls, laundry at the lodges, and anything you forgot to pack. Cash in small US dollar notes is more useful than a card once you leave Arusha — some camps have no connection at all, and cards fail more often than they work.

Notes dated before 2009 are refused across Tanzania. Bring newer ones.

X · Why us

Why book this with us

The same guide as a private trip

A joining departure does not get the junior guide. It gets one of the same people who drive our private safaris, for the whole week, from the Arusha briefing to the airport.

Seven seats, seven windows

We do not sell a middle seat. The vehicle carries at most seven guests, everyone can see out, and the seats rotate so nobody spends the week at the back.

We will tell you what you are giving up

One night in Tarangire instead of two, and no changing the plan mid-trip. Those are real costs and this page says so, because a guest who expected a private trip at a joining price does not book again.

No departures in the wrong months

The calendar has gaps in it on purpose. We do not run this route in April or May, and we would rather leave a week empty than fill a vehicle for a trip we know will disappoint.

XI · Questions

Frequently asked

What guests ask before booking this itinerary.

How much does a 7 day joining safari cost?

Per person, per seat, and it moves with the season and the tier you choose. Unlike a private safari the price does not fall as your own party grows — the vehicle is already shared. Our rates for this departure are set out in the table above — ask us and we will quote for a named departure date rather than give you a range.

What does “joining safari” actually mean?

You join a vehicle that leaves on a fixed date with other guests who booked the same week. The guide, the parks and the lodges are the same kind a private trip gets. What is different: the date cannot move, the vehicle carries up to seven guests, and the route is not changed mid-trip because everyone in the vehicle bought the same plan. We have written the comparison out in full.

Can I book it for a date that is not on the calendar?

Not as a joining trip — a departure needs a group, and a group needs a fixed date. The same route runs as a private safari any week of the year except April and May, at the private price. See the seven-day private itinerary.

Does the departure go ahead if only two people book?

The minimum number of guests for a departure to run, and how far in advance we confirm it, is two guests, confirmed 30 days before departure. We will tell you the status of your date when you enquire rather than take a deposit on a departure that may not fill.

Who will I be sharing with?

Whoever booked the same week. Usually couples and solo travellers, usually a mix of nationalities, and we do not screen beyond the minimum age. Solo travellers can be paired in a twin room to avoid the single supplement — say so when you book.

Is this safari suitable for children?

Children under six are not accepted on a shared departure. From six upwards they are welcome, on the understanding that the vehicle keeps the group’s schedule, including a six-to-seven-hour drive on day three and a first-light start on day six. Child rates are 30% below the adult rate for children sharing with two adults. For younger children, book the private version.

Will we see the Great Migration?

It depends on the departure month, and no honest operator will promise it. June and July departures usually find the herds in the west and centre; December and January on the southern plains you cross on day three. August and September departures will not see the herds — they are in the far north — and you are booking the Serengeti’s resident lion, leopard and cheetah instead.

How much driving is there?

Day three is the long one: Tarangire to Seronera across the highlands, roughly 330 kilometres and six to seven hours with stops. Day five is four to five hours back to the rim with a game drive built in, and day six is about four hours from the crater to Arusha after the morning on the floor. Exact timings for a given departure are given in the joining instructions.

Can I extend to Zanzibar afterwards?

Yes. Our joining Zanzibar week is timed to start the day after this one ends, on shared transfers, and a private extension of any length can be added instead. Flights from Arusha take under two hours. Rates are from USD 1,340 per person for three nights.

XII · Your trip

Request your personalised safari proposal

Tell us how you like to travel and we will put together a personalised proposal for this route — dates, camps and a firm price per person. No payment is required at this stage.

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