Northern Serengeti · Nine Days

Nine days for the Mara River crossings

A crater morning, a day with the Seronera cats, and then four nights on the Mara River — because a crossing cannot be scheduled, and three full days is the honest answer to that.

Days

Nights

Days on the river

Jul–Oct

Only

I · Overview

The route, and why this shape

One line north out of Arusha. Nothing backtracked, and the last leg is by air.

This itinerary exists because of one fact: between late July and October the wildebeest are on the Mara River in the far north of the Serengeti, and a river crossing is the single thing more people ask us for than anything else. It is also the single thing we cannot promise. The herds mass, stand, and either go or turn away, and no guide alive can tell you which in advance.

So the shape of the trip follows from that. It runs north in one line out of Arusha — a night on the Ngorongoro rim for the crater at dawn, two nights at Seronera for the resident cats, and then four nights at Kogatende with three full days on the river and nothing else scheduled. You fly out from the Kogatende airstrip rather than drive two days back, which is what pays for the third day on the water.

The trade-off is plain. Tarangire and Manyara are driven past, not into. Every day of this trip either moves you north or keeps you on the Mara, and if what you want is the full northern circuit, the eight-day classic is the better trip. If what you want is the river, this is how you give yourself a fair chance at it.

Length

9 days / 8 nights

Country

Tanzania

Start / end

Arusha → Kogatende airstrip

Tour type

Private safari

Group size

Private — 1 to 6 guests per vehicle

Meal plan

Full board

Best months

Late July – October; August is the peak

Activity level

Easy — vehicle-based, long days

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 nine

Every day opens. One crater morning, two nights at Seronera, four nights on the Mara. See every lodge and camp we use

Day

Arrival

Arusha, and nothing scheduled

03°22′S 36°41′E

Dinner

Arusha, and nothing scheduled

03°22′S 36°41′E

You land at Kilimanjaro International, fifty kilometres east of Arusha, and your guide drives you in through coffee shambas under the southern side of Mount Meru. Most long-haul routings put you down in the afternoon or evening, and that is why this itinerary does not try to reach a park today.

Nothing is scheduled. Arusha sits at 1,400 metres, which is enough to make the first evening feel longer than it is, and the next eight days run north in one direction with no rest day built in. Eat early. Repack into a soft bag — hard cases do not fit under the bench seats and they will not fit in the aircraft on day 9 either.

Do one piece of admin tonight rather than on the road: agree the tipping arrangement with your guide and change money for it. Then sleep. The vehicle leaves after breakfast and the rim is four hours away.

Meals

Dinner

Travel

JRO to Arusha · 50 km, about 1 hr

Highlight

A night at 1,400 m before the road west

Meet at Kilimanjaro International

Soft bag for the aircraft

No game drive today

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Kahawa House

★★★★☆

Arusha, garden lodge on the edge of town

En-suite rooms in a garden, dinner and breakfast, and a short run to the road west in the morning.

LUXURY

Legendary Lodge

★★★★★

Arusha, coffee-estate lodge

Cottages set among old coffee trees below Meru, with a proper dinner and a quiet first night.

Day

Transfer

West to the Ngorongoro rim

03°14′S 35°29′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

West to the Ngorongoro rim

03°14′S 35°29′E

West out of Arusha on tarmac, past the turn for Tarangire and up the Rift wall above Lake Manyara. There is a viewpoint at the top of the escarpment and it is worth the stop: the soda lake below you, the groundwater forest along its western edge, and the floor of the Rift running south. Karatu is highland farming country at 1,900 metres, and it is where lunch is.

This trip drives past Tarangire and Manyara without going in. That is a real trade-off and it is deliberate — the days are being spent on the Mara River instead, and a night in each of those parks would cost you a full day in the north when the herds are there.

The road climbs through the Lodoare gate into the conservation area and reaches the rim at about 2,300 metres. The first sight of the crater from the top is the one moment on this route that outperforms the photographs. It is properly cold up here after dark. Bring a fleece out of your bag before dinner.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Arusha to the Ngorongoro rim · about 190 km, 3½–4 hours

Highlight

The crater from the rim in the late afternoon

Rift escarpment viewpoint

Karatu highlands

Crater rim overnight

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Pakulala Safari Camp

★★★★☆

Ngorongoro Conservation Area, rim

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

LUXURY

Entamanu Ngorongoro

★★★★★

Ngorongoro Conservation Area, rim

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

Day

Ngorongoro

Down into the crater, then on to Seronera

03°10′S 35°35′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Down into the crater, then on to Seronera

03°10′S 35°35′E

You descend at first light. The road drops six hundred metres onto the floor of a collapsed volcano nineteen kilometres across, and the first hour after the cloud lifts is the best game viewing of the day. The walls are steep enough that most of the animals never leave, which is why the density is what it is — roughly twenty-five thousand large animals on 260 square kilometres.

It is the most reliable place in Tanzania to see black rhino. There are only a few dozen and they are usually distant, so bring the binoculars. Lion here are habituated to a degree that is almost uncomfortable, and the old bull elephants on the Lerai flats carry some of the heaviest ivory left in East Africa.

This is a long day, and it is the price of putting the crater on a trip that is really about the north. Up the ascent road by late morning, then west across the short-grass plains, past the Olduvai turn, and into the Serengeti at Naabi Hill. The last two hours to Seronera are a game drive whether anyone calls them one or not.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

600 m descent · then about 3–4 hours on to Seronera

Highlight

Black rhino at first light, the plains by evening

Black rhino

Six-hour limit on the floor

Naabi Hill gate

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge

★★★★☆

Central Serengeti, Seronera valley

Tented, en-suite, inside the park, so the morning drive starts at the tent flap rather than at a gate.

LUXURY

Lemala Ewanjan Tented Camp

★★★★★

Central Serengeti, Seronera valley

Fewer tents, further from the main track, and a private guide vehicle for the late drives.

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

No transfer, no packing. Seronera is here for a reason that has nothing to do with the migration: in August the herds are two hundred kilometres north of this valley, and the valley is still the most reliable big-cat ground in the Serengeti. The river holds water all year, and the fig and sausage trees along it are the most dependable leopard habitat in the country.

The granite kopjes standing out of the grass are lion furniture — shade, a vantage point, and safe ground for cubs. Cheetah work the open ground south and east of the river in the early morning before the heat. Leopard is likely if your guide knows the individual trees. It is not promised.

The honest reason for this day is insurance. The Mara River can give you three days of waiting; Seronera gives you the cats now, so that whatever the river does, the trip has already paid for itself. Balloon flights leave from near here at first light and can be added.

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 staying put 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 the option of a dawn start and breakfast taken in the field.

Day

Transfer

North through Lobo to the Mara

01°34′S 34°53′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

North through Lobo to the Mara

01°34′S 34°53′E

The road north leaves the Seronera valley and runs up the eastern side of the park through Lobo, where the ground breaks into hills and kopjes and the grass gets longer. It is roughly 150 kilometres of gravel to Kogatende, and it is driven as a game drive with lunch in a box, so it takes the whole day and should.

Somewhere after Lobo you will see the first column — a line of wildebeest walking north with their heads down, then another line parallel to it, then the horizon moving. In August the bulk of the herd is between Lobo and the river, and the last hour of this drive is often the densest game you will see on the trip.

Kogatende sits on the south bank of the Mara River at about 1,500 metres. Across the water is the Lamai Wedge, and beyond that the Kenyan border. You are as far north as the Serengeti goes. Four nights here, three full days, and the same camp throughout.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Seronera to Kogatende through Lobo · about 150 km, a full day of game driving

Highlight

The first wildebeest column, somewhere after Lobo

Lobo hills

First migration columns

Kogatende by evening

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Gnu Mara River Camp

★★★★☆

Northern Serengeti, Kogatende, south bank of the Mara

A seasonal tented camp inside the park, en-suite, full board, within a short drive of the main crossing points.

LUXURY

Sayari Camp

★★★★★

Northern Serengeti, Kogatende or the Lamai Wedge

Larger tents, a smaller camp, and a vehicle and guide on call for the whole of every day.

Day

Mara River

The river, all day

01°34′S 34°53′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

The river, all day

01°34′S 34°53′E

This is what the trip is for, and it works like this. The herds mass on one bank, usually in the late morning, and stand. They may cross in twenty minutes or they may turn away and graze for two days. Nobody knows which, including the wildebeest. A crossing cannot be scheduled, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something they do not control.

So the day is built around waiting well. Out at first light along the south bank, checking the known crossing points — there are a dozen or so in regular use between the Kogatende bridge and the Mara Bridge downstream. Your guide reads the build-up and picks a position early, because when it goes it goes fast and the vehicles that arrive late see dust.

Lunch is in the vehicle. The river itself holds crocodile of genuinely large size and hippo in every pool, and the north bank has resident lion whether or not the herd moves. If nothing crosses today, you will still have watched a hundred thousand animals decide not to.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Full day on the Mara River

Highlight

Crossing points, and the wait

Crossing points

Crocodile and hippo

Lunch in the vehicle

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Gnu Mara River Camp

★★★★☆

Northern Serengeti, Kogatende, south bank of the Mara

Second of four nights. No packing, and the camp knows which crossing points were busy yesterday.

LUXURY

Sayari Camp

★★★★★

Northern Serengeti, Kogatende or the Lamai Wedge

Second night. The camp’s own guides share the morning’s river reports over breakfast.

Day

Mara River

Across to the Lamai Wedge

01°30′S 34°50′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Across to the Lamai Wedge

01°30′S 34°50′E

The Kogatende bridge lets you drive to the north bank, and today you use it. The Lamai Wedge is the triangle of Serengeti between the river and the Kenyan border, and in August and September a large part of the herd is up here, grazing the wedge and crossing back south as the grass goes.

That is the thing people do not expect: the herds cross the Mara in both directions, repeatedly, through these months. It is not one event. It is a river the migration lives on for ten weeks, and being on the north bank doubles the number of crossing points you can reach in a morning.

The wedge is also quieter than the south bank, with fewer vehicles and longer views west toward the Isuria escarpment. Lion are resident here in numbers, following the herd, and the open ground is good cheetah country. Back across the bridge before the light goes; the park closes at six and it is not negotiable.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Full day · north bank via the Kogatende bridge

Highlight

The north bank, and the herds on the Kenyan side of the river

Lamai Wedge

Crossings both directions

Resident lion

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Gnu Mara River Camp

★★★★☆

Northern Serengeti, Kogatende, south bank of the Mara

Third night. By now the guide and the camp between them have a map of where the herd is and which way it is leaning.

LUXURY

Sayari Camp

★★★★★

Northern Serengeti, Kogatende or the Lamai Wedge

Third night, with a bush dinner set out on the bank if the camp offers one.

Day

Mara River

The last full day on the river

01°34′S 34°53′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

The last full day on the river

01°34′S 34°53′E

The third day is the one that makes the difference. Camps that sell two nights here give you one full day, and the odds on a single day are honestly not good. Three consecutive days on the river in August put you in front of the build-up often enough that a crossing becomes likely rather than lucky. It is still not certain.

Today goes wherever the last two days say it should. If the herd is stacked on the north bank, you cross the bridge again. If it is massing at the southern points, you sit at the one your guide thinks will go and you wait, with the engine off, for as long as it takes.

If you have already seen a crossing, use the day differently. Walk with an armed ranger where the camp can arrange it, or drive west along the river toward the Mara Bridge where the traffic thins to nothing. Last sundowner on the bank. You fly out in the morning.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Full day on the Mara River

Highlight

Wherever the herd is leaning this morning

Third full day

Guide’s call

Last night in the north

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Gnu Mara River Camp

★★★★☆

Northern Serengeti, Kogatende, south bank of the Mara

Fourth and last night. Pack tonight for the aircraft — soft bags only, and a weight limit that the camp will tell you.

LUXURY

Sayari Camp

★★★★★

Northern Serengeti, Kogatende or the Lamai Wedge

Fourth night. The staff will have your bags weighed for the flight before dinner.

Day

Departure

Kogatende airstrip, and home

01°34′S 34°53′E

Breakfast

Kogatende airstrip, and home

01°34′S 34°53′E

A short drive at first light on the way to the strip, which in practice is the best hour of the day — cold, low light, and the herds still moving. The Kogatende airstrip is minutes from the camps, and the aircraft lands on gravel with the river in view.

The flight south takes you the length of the Serengeti, usually with one or two stops at other airstrips on the way. Arusha is the normal arrival, with a road transfer on to Kilimanjaro International, though some schedules land at JRO direct. Tell us your international flight before we book the hop and we will fit it.

Light aircraft have a baggage limit, usually fifteen kilograms in soft bags, and that is the reason the hard case stayed in Arusha. If you are going on to Zanzibar, the connection can be made the same day from Arusha.

Meals

Breakfast

Travel

Kogatende to Arusha by scheduled light aircraft · about 2 hours with a stop

Highlight

A last hour on the river, then the plains from above

Kogatende airstrip

Light aircraft to Arusha

Onward to Zanzibar possible

Where you sleep

Departure day — no overnight

III · Rates

What it costs, by group size

A safari gets cheaper per person as the vehicle fills. Choose a tier to see the table.

Comfort rates by group size, per person and group total
Group size	Rooms	Per person	Group total
1 guest	1 room	$8,760	$8,760
2 guests	1 room	$6,290	$12,580
3 guests	2 rooms	$6,210	$18,630
4 guests	2 rooms	$5,620	$22,480
5 guests	3 rooms	$5,700	$28,500
6+ guests	3 rooms	$5,390	$32,340

Single supplement

$1,120

Added when a guest does not share a room

Child, 6 – 11 years

30% off

Sharing with two adults; under 6 not accepted on this route

Peak season uplift

Included in the rates above

August, and the northern camps’ high-season rates

Luxury rates by group size, per person and group total
Group size	Rooms	Per person	Group total
1 guest	1 room	$26,390	$26,390
2 guests	1 room	$19,340	$38,680
3 guests	2 rooms	$20,790	$62,370
4 guests	2 rooms	$18,670	$74,680
5 guests	3 rooms	$19,670	$98,350
6+ guests	3 rooms	$18,440	$110,640

Single supplement

$5,710

Added when a guest does not share a room

Child, 6 – 11 years

30% off

Sharing with two adults; under 6 not accepted on this route

Peak season uplift

Included in the rates above

August, and the northern camps’ high-season rates

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 private 4×4 with a roof hatch, days 1 – 8
A professional guide throughout, English-speaking
All accommodation as listed, full board
All national park and conservation area fees, including the crater service fee
Light aircraft, Kogatende to Arusha, on day 9 — scheduled flight, soft bags up to 15 kg
Airport transfers, Kilimanjaro International, both ways
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
Walking safari fees, where arranged at Kogatende
Drinks at the camps, beyond what is listed
Tips for your guide and camp staff
Personal spending and souvenirs
Anything listed under optional extras below

V · Add-ons

Worth adding, if you have the days

Priced separately and arranged on request.

Kogatende · one more night

A fourth day on the river

The single most useful thing you can add. If the herd is stacked on the wrong bank for three days, a fourth is the difference. It also softens the flight-day timing if your international departure is early.

USD 680 per person, for 2 guests

Seronera or Kogatende · at dawn

Balloon over the Serengeti

An hour over the plains at first light, landing to a breakfast set out in the grass. In the north it flies over the herds themselves. Weather-dependent and booked months ahead for August.

USD 750 per person

Before day 1

A night in Arusha before you start

Most long-haul flights land in the evening. A night in Arusha before day 1 means the road west starts rested, and it protects the trip if a bag goes missing on the way in.

USD 250 per person, for 2 guests

After day 9 · 3–5 nights

Zanzibar, afterwards

The Kogatende flight lands in Arusha in time for a same-day connection to the coast. Three nights on the east coast after nine days of five o’clock starts is the usual shape.

From USD 1,340 per person, 3 nights

VI · The ground

Where this itinerary takes you

Two parks, one ecosystem, and one river that the whole trip is aimed at.

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 morning here, at first light, on the way north.

Serengeti, Seronera

The year-round core of the park. The Seronera River holds water in every month, and the fig and sausage trees along it carry the highest leopard density in the ecosystem. Resident lion, cheetah on the open ground — the cats you are not relying on the river for.

Serengeti, Kogatende and the Mara River

The far north of the park, where the Mara River cuts across from Kenya and the migration lives from late July to October. A dozen or so regular crossing points between the Kogatende bridge and the Mara Bridge, the Lamai Wedge on the north bank, and large crocodile in every pool.

The question everyone asks

Will you see a crossing?

Full days on the river — the honest answer to a question no one can promise

No. Not as a promise. The herds arrive on the Mara from late July and cross it in both directions until the rains pull them south in October or November, but a crossing is not a scheduled event. They mass on a bank, stand for an hour or a day, and then either go or walk away. Vehicles, wind, a crocodile, or nothing at all can decide it. Anyone who guarantees you a crossing on a date is guessing.

What we can do is stack the odds. Three consecutive full days at Kogatende in August, with the same guide reading the same river each morning and access to both banks by the bridge, puts you in front of the build-up often enough that most guests who do this see at least one crossing. Some see several. A few, in a bad week, see none, and we will not pretend that does not happen.

VII · Season

The best time to travel

Late July to October only. We will say so plainly if your dates do not fit.

Late July to October is the only time this route works, because it is the only time the herds are on the Mara. August is the peak: the bulk of the migration is between Lobo and the river, crossings are at their most frequent, and the camps are at their fullest and their most expensive. Book the northern camps early — for August they sell out months ahead.

September is usually as good as August and a shade quieter. Early October still works most years, but the herd begins drifting south toward the end of the month as the short rains start, and a late October departure is a gamble we will tell you about before you book.

November to June, the herds are not here. From December to March they are calving on the southern short-grass plains, and from April to June they are moving north-west through the Grumeti. Kogatende in those months is beautiful, empty, and the wrong place to be — so we do not sell this itinerary outside its window.

If your dates fall in January to March, look at the calving-season itinerary instead. If they fall in April or May, we would rather build you something different than take a booking for a river with no wildebeest on it.

VIII · Flights

Getting there and back

Fly into Kilimanjaro International; fly out of the Kogatende airstrip.

Fly into Kilimanjaro International (JRO). It is about an hour from Arusha and it is the airport this itinerary is built around. Nairobi works if you can find a good connection to JRO or Arusha; Dar es Salaam adds most of a day.

Arrive the day before if you can. The first eight days run north without a rest day, and starting a nine-day trip on no sleep costs you the crater morning, which is the first thing you paid for.

Coming home is different from most itineraries: you fly out of the Kogatende airstrip in the northern Serengeti on day 9. The light aircraft lands at Arusha, usually with stops on the way, and you are then driven on to JRO — or some schedules land at JRO direct. Give us your international departure time before we book the hop.

Light aircraft carry a soft-bag limit, usually fifteen kilograms per person. 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.

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 here — Kogatende is about as far from a hospital as you can get in Tanzania, and the way out is by air.

Check that your policy covers safari activity, light-aircraft flights and any add-on you have booked. Balloon flights are excluded by some insurers.

Tips

Usual range USD 10 – 25 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.

Your guide is with you for eight days and is usually tipped at the airstrip on the last morning. Camp staff tips go into a shared box so that housekeeping and kitchen are included, not only the people you see.

Drinks

USD 3 – 20 at the camps

Drinking water in the vehicle is included throughout. Everything at the camp bar is charged to your tent unless your camp is explicitly all-inclusive — some of the northern camps are, and we will tell you which.

Personal spending

Entirely up to you

Laundry at the camps, curios, and anything you forgot to pack. Cash in small US dollar notes is more useful than a card once you leave Arusha — the northern camps have little or no connection, 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

Three days on the river, not one

Most migration itineraries give Kogatende two nights, which is one full day, and a single day on the Mara is a coin toss. Four nights here is the whole point of this trip and everything else is shaped to afford it.

We fly you out instead of driving you back

Kogatende to Arusha by road is two long days. The light aircraft takes a morning, and the two days it saves are the two days you spend on the river.

One guide, one river, eight days

The same person from the airport to the airstrip. By the third morning on the Mara your guide has watched the herd build and turn twice and knows which bank it is leaning toward before breakfast.

We will tell you when not to book it

This route is sold for late July to October and not otherwise. If your dates fall outside that, we will say so and build you something that works, rather than take money for an empty river.

XI · Questions

Frequently asked

What guests ask before booking this itinerary.

How much does a 9 day Mara River crossing safari cost?

The rate depends on your group size and which accommodation tier you choose, and the northern camps in August are the most expensive beds in Tanzania. The table above sets out the per-person price for every group size from one to six. Our rates for this itinerary are set out in the table above — ask us and we will quote for your exact dates rather than give you a range.

Are we guaranteed to see a river crossing?

No, and we would not book with anyone who says yes. The herds mass and either cross or turn away, and nothing schedules it. Three full consecutive days at Kogatende in August is the honest way to give yourself a fair chance, and most guests who do that see at least one. We have written about this at length in why crossings cannot be booked.

Which month is best?

August. The bulk of the herd is on or near the river, crossings are at their most frequent, and the trade-off is the busiest camps and the highest rates. September is nearly as good and a little quieter. Late July and early October work most years. Outside that window we do not sell this route — see the migration month by month.

Why not include Tarangire and Lake Manyara?

Because every night in those parks is a night off the Mara. This route is built around the river and it drives past both without going in. If you want the full circuit, the eight-day classic is the better trip; if you want the crossings, this is.

Why does the trip end at Kogatende and not Arusha?

Because Kogatende to Arusha by road is two long days, and by air it is a morning. Flying out is what makes the third day on the river affordable in time. The aircraft lands at Arusha with a road transfer on to Kilimanjaro International, or at JRO direct on some schedules. Flight details are confirmed with your booking, once the airline sets the schedule for your dates.

Is this safari suitable for children?

It is a private safari, so it can be, but the days on the river are long and involve a lot of waiting with the engine off. We would suggest twelve and up. The Serengeti’s minimum age for game drives is five and we apply six; several of the northern camps set their own limits higher. Child rates are 30% below the adult rate for children sharing with two adults.

How much driving is there?

Two long transfer days — Arusha to the rim, and the crater morning followed by the run to Seronera — then a full-day game drive north to Kogatende. After that the driving is short and local for three days, and day 9 is a flight. Exact drive times are shown on each day above.

Can we walk at Kogatende?

Often, yes. Walking with an armed ranger can be arranged through several of the northern camps, usually for guests aged sixteen and over, and it is a good use of a morning if you have already seen a crossing. Night drives are not permitted anywhere in the Serengeti or the crater. Walking fees are about USD 30 – 60 per person.

What is the baggage limit for the flight out?

Light aircraft in the Serengeti usually allow fifteen kilograms per person in soft bags, hand luggage included. Hard cases are not accepted. If you have more than that we can store a bag in Arusha on day 1 and return it to you on day 9 — tell us in advance.

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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