Northern Circuit · Eight Days

The Northern Circuit, properly paced

Tarangire, Lake Manyara, the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater in the order the geography wants, with no day where the only thing that happens is a road.

Days

Nights

Parks

Full

Board

I · Overview

The route, and why this shape

Four parks on one road out of Arusha, anticlockwise, with the crater at the end.

Eight days is the length most people should book and the length most people do not. Five days works if your window is fixed, but two of them are spent driving. Ten is better if you have it. Eight is the shape that earns its money: two nights in Tarangire, two at Seronera, a real night in the Karatu highlands, a night on the crater rim, and no day where the only thing that happens is a road.

The route runs anticlockwise out of Arusha. Tarangire first, because the elephants are the best introduction to scale in East Africa and the drive is short enough to arrive with the afternoon intact. Lake Manyara next, for a few hours on the way up the Rift wall: a groundwater forest that costs you almost nothing in time. Then the long day west onto the plains and two nights where the resident prides live.

The crater comes last on purpose. It is the most photographed place in Tanzania and the most crowded, and it is far better on day eight than on day two, when you already know what a lion looks like at forty metres and can spend your attention on the rhino.

Length

8 days / 7 nights

Country

Tanzania

Start / end

Arusha → Arusha

Tour type

Private safari

Group size

Private — 1 to 6 guests per vehicle

Meal plan

Full board on safari; dinner and breakfast in Arusha

Best months

June – October, and January – March

Activity level

Easy — vehicle-based

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 eight

Every day opens. Two nights in Tarangire, one in Karatu, two at Seronera, one on the rim. See every lodge and camp we use

Day

Arrival

Kilimanjaro International, and an hour to Arusha

03°22′S 36°41′E

Dinner

Kilimanjaro International, and an hour to Arusha

03°22′S 36°41′E

Most long-haul routings put you down at Kilimanjaro International between early afternoon and early evening. Your guide meets you at the door with your name on a board and drives you the fifty kilometres west to Arusha, through coffee shambas and the lower slopes of Mount Meru. He will do most of the talking on the way in, because you will not feel like it.

Nothing is scheduled today, and that is deliberate. You have lost a night to the aircraft, and Arusha sits at 1,400 metres, which is enough to make the first evening feel longer than it is. Eat early, repack into a soft bag for the vehicle, and sleep.

If you want it, your guide will run through the week over dinner: the shape of each day, which seat in the vehicle you want, and what to keep in the day bag. You will spend the better part of forty hours in that vehicle over the next week, so the seat matters more than you would think.

Meals

Dinner

Travel

JRO to Arusha · about 50 km · about 1 hour

Highlight

Nothing scheduled, on purpose

Meet at Kilimanjaro International

Arusha, 1,400 m

No game drive today

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Kahawa House

★★★★☆

Arusha, garden lodge on the edge of town

Quiet, en-suite, a garden to sit in and an early breakfast before the road south.

LUXURY

Legendary Lodge

★★★★★

Arusha, coffee-estate lodge outside town

Larger rooms among the coffee, with a pool and a proper dinner for the one evening you will not be in a park.

Day

Tarangire

South to the baobabs and the river

03°50′S 36°00′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

South to the baobabs and the river

03°50′S 36°00′E

You leave after breakfast and drive south-west on the Great North Road, then east onto the floor of the Rift. The country changes twice in ninety minutes: cultivated highland, then Maasai grazing land, then baobab. Your first giraffe is usually seen from the tarmac, before the gate.

Tarangire in the dry months holds the largest elephant population in the north, because the river runs when nothing else does and the herds come to it. You will not see one elephant. You will see a family of forty crossing the track at a walk, and the guide will turn the engine off so you can hear them.

The afternoon drive runs the river circuit south of the gate. The baobabs here are the oldest living things you will see on this trip, and the big ones carry the scars where elephants have stripped the bark for moisture in bad years. The evening drive is short and close in, and you are back before the six o’clock gate closure, because the fine for being late is real.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Arusha to Tarangire gate · about 120 km · about 2 hours

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, tented camp near the gate

En-suite tents under the acacia, full board, and close enough to the gate that a dawn start does not need a pre-dawn drive.

LUXURY

Lemala Mpingo Ridge Lodge

★★★★★

Tarangire, lodge on the escarpment

Rooms facing down over the river valley, and a deck where the elephants cross below you at the end of the afternoon.

Day

Tarangire

A full day for the southern swamps

03°55′S 36°05′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

A full day for the southern swamps

03°55′S 36°05′E

An early start, with breakfast boxes in the vehicle, because the two hours after sunrise are worth the rest of the day put together. You are on the swamp circuit by seven, when the light is still low and the elephants are moving down off the high ground to drink.

The southern swamps are the reason for the second night. Most eight-day itineraries give Tarangire one afternoon and treat it as a warm-up, and that is a mistake: the swamp circuit holds the biggest tuskers left in the north and a lion population most visitors never reach because it is two hours from the gate. Pythons are seen in the trees here, though not to order.

Look up as well as out. Tarangire holds more breeding bird species than any habitat of its size, and the dry riverbed draws them together: yellow-collared lovebirds, hornbills, and the ashy starling that lives nowhere else. You come back to camp through the midday heat and go out again at four. Tarangire is one of the parks where night drives are licensed, and one can be arranged for this evening.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Full day in the park · no transfer

Highlight

Silale swamp, two hours from the gate

Dawn departure

Southern swamps

Night drive possible

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Mbali Mbali Tarangire River Camp

★★★★☆

Tarangire, tented camp near the gate

Second night at the same camp: no packing, no transfer, and the whole day inside the park instead.

LUXURY

Lemala Mpingo Ridge Lodge

★★★★★

Tarangire, lodge on the escarpment

Second night. Staying put lets you sit out the last hour of light at the river rather than driving to a new bed.

Day

Manyara

The groundwater forest, then up the Rift wall

03°23′S 35°49′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

The groundwater forest, then up the Rift wall

03°23′S 35°49′E

Out of Tarangire after breakfast and north to Lake Manyara, which you visit for a few hours rather than a day. That is the right amount. Manyara is a narrow park pressed between the escarpment and the lake, and its groundwater forest is unlike anything else on the route: closed canopy, fig and mahogany fed by springs at the foot of the Rift wall, blue monkeys overhead and troops of baboon on the track that are among the largest anywhere.

The tree-climbing lions are the park’s marketing and you will probably not see them. What you will see is the forest, the hippo pool at the river mouth, and, if the water level is right, flamingo on the soda flats in numbers that read as a pink line rather than as birds. Flamingo numbers swing with the lake, so this is not a promise.

Then the climb. The road goes up the Rift wall in switchbacks to Karatu at about 1,500 metres, with a viewpoint at the top that everyone stops at and that is worth stopping at. You sleep in the highlands tonight among coffee farms, and it is cold enough after dark for a jacket.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Tarangire to Karatu via Manyara · about 130 km · about 2½ hours

Highlight

Fig forest, hippo pool, and the escarpment viewpoint

Groundwater forest

Hippo pool

Rift escarpment climb

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Tloma Lodge

★★★★☆

Karatu, coffee-farm lodge in the highlands

Cottages among the coffee, a fire in the evening, and a reasonable start for the drive west in the morning.

LUXURY

Gibb's Farm

★★★★★

Karatu, estate lodge on the crater highlands

Larger rooms, a pool, and a kitchen that is the best on the route. The one night where the lodge is part of the point.

Day

Transfer

West across the plains to Seronera

02°26′S 34°50′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

West across the plains to Seronera

02°26′S 34°50′E

The long day. You leave early and drive west into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, past the crater rim without descending, then across the short-grass plains and out through Naabi Hill gate onto the Serengeti proper. It is the drive people remember most clearly, because the transition is so complete.

Olduvai Gorge is a short detour off the road and worth it: nearly two million years of hominin occupation cut into the gorge wall, and a museum on the rim that puts the Laetoli footprints in front of you. Past Naabi the land simply opens. For forty minutes there is nothing on the horizon but grass and the occasional kopje. Between December and March the southern plains hold the migration, and you may not reach camp on schedule, which is a good problem.

You arrive at Seronera in the late afternoon with time for a short drive before dark. The Seronera valley has permanent water and the highest year-round predator density in the ecosystem; this is where the resident lion prides live and where leopard in a sausage tree is most likely.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Karatu to Seronera · about 250 km · 5–6 hours with game driving

Highlight

Through Naabi Hill gate and onto the open plains

Olduvai Gorge

Short-grass plains

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, with the late drives and field breakfasts that a private vehicle makes possible.

Day

Serengeti

The Seronera valley, all day

02°26′S 34°49′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

The Seronera valley, all day

02°26′S 34°49′E

A full day with no transfer, which is the single most valuable thing on any safari itinerary and the first thing cut when a trip is compressed. You are out at six with breakfast in the vehicle.

The valley follows the Seronera river, and in the dry season the river is the reason everything is here. Lion are close to certain. Leopard are likely if your guide knows the individual trees, which is a real skill and the main thing separating a good guide from an adequate one. Cheetah hunt the open ground south and east of the river in the early morning before the heat. Nothing on this list is promised.

Balloon flights leave from near here at first light and can be added; it is a serious expense and worth doing once. If you are not flying, the alternative is to push further out than most vehicles go, towards the Moru kopjes, where there is a resident black rhino population and rock paintings that predate the park by centuries.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Full day in the park · no transfer

Highlight

Leopard in the riverine fig, lion on the kopjes

Leopard country

Kopje prides

Optional balloon

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

Day

Transfer

East again, and up to the crater rim

03°10′S 35°35′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

East again, and up to the crater rim

03°10′S 35°35′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 early light is often better than the route in. Lunch is on the road, and Olduvai is there again if you skipped it on the way out. You are climbing to the Ngorongoro rim by mid-afternoon.

The rim sits at about 2,300 metres and it is properly cold, particularly after dark. The first sight of the crater from the top is the one moment on this trip that reliably 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.

You sleep on the rim tonight rather than back down in Karatu, and that is worth the premium. It puts you at the descent road at dawn rather than an hour behind the vehicles that stayed below, and on the crater floor an hour is the difference between an empty track and a queue.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Seronera to the Ngorongoro rim · about 190 km · 4–5 hours

Highlight

First sight of the caldera, 2,300 m, cold after dark

Morning game drive out

Rim viewpoint

Layer up

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

Departure

Down into the crater, then out

03°10′S 35°35′E

Breakfast · Lunch

Down into the crater, then out

03°10′S 35°35′E

You descend at first light. Vehicles are limited to six hours on the floor, so the day is timed tightly and there is no lingering over breakfast. The descent road drops six hundred metres in a few kilometres and you are on the floor before the light has properly arrived.

What the crater has that nowhere else on this route does is black rhino: a few dozen animals, and this is the most reliable place in Tanzania to see one. Add the highest lion density on the continent, the Lerai fever-tree forest and a soda lake with flamingo, all inside a closed bowl of about 260 square kilometres. It is not wild in the way the Serengeti is wild. It is a spectacle, and it is worth being one. Lunch is at the Ngoitokitok hippo pool, eaten inside the vehicle unless you want a kite to take it.

You come up the ascent road around midday and drive back to Arusha or straight to Kilimanjaro International. Your guide will time the day to your flight; if you are going on to Zanzibar, connections leave from both Arusha and JRO.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch

Travel

600 m descent · crater floor · rim to JRO about 250 km, 5 hours

Highlight

Black rhino, then the road home

Dawn descent

Six-hour limit on the floor

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	$7,770	$7,770
2 guests	1 room	$5,460	$10,920
3 guests	2 rooms	$5,450	$16,350
4 guests	2 rooms	$4,870	$19,480
5 guests	3 rooms	$4,990	$24,950
6+ guests	3 rooms	$4,680	$28,080

Single supplement

$1,150

Added when a guest does not share a room

Child, 3 – 11 years

30% off

Sharing with two adults

Peak season uplift

Included in the rates above

July – October, and the festive weeks

Luxury rates by group size, per person and group total
Group size	Rooms	Per person	Group total
1 guest	1 room	$16,190	$16,190
2 guests	1 room	$11,690	$23,380
3 guests	2 rooms	$12,410	$37,230
4 guests	2 rooms	$11,100	$44,400
5 guests	3 rooms	$11,660	$58,300
6+ guests	3 rooms	$10,910	$65,460

Single supplement

$3,340

Added when a guest does not share a room

Child, 3 – 11 years

30% off

Sharing with two adults

Peak season uplift

Included in the rates above

July – October, 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 private 4×4 with a roof hatch
A professional guide throughout, English-speaking
All accommodation as listed: full board on safari, dinner and breakfast in Arusha
All national park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area fees, including the crater service fee
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
Night drive in Tarangire, if you add one
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 6 · at dawn

Balloon over the Serengeti

An hour over the plains at first light, landing to a breakfast set out in the grass. Weather-dependent, minimum age <span class=”it-todo”>7</span>, and booked well ahead — Serengeti balloons sell out months before the high season.

USD 750 per person

Tarangire · day 3 · after dark

Night drive in Tarangire

Tarangire is one of the few national parks licensed for night drives. A spotlit drive after dinner for the animals a day drive never shows you: genet, civet, bushbaby, and lion on the move. Usually 16 and over.

USD 190 per person

Lake Eyasi · from Karatu

A morning with the Hadzabe

An early start from Karatu down to Lake Eyasi to walk with Hadzabe hunters, one of the last hunter-gatherer communities in Africa. It costs the Manyara afternoon or adds a night; we will tell you which is better for your dates.

USD 110 per person, for 2 guests

After day 8 · 3–5 nights

Zanzibar, afterwards

Flights leave Arusha and Kilimanjaro daily and take under two hours. The usual shape is three nights on the east coast or in Stone Town, added to the end rather than squeezed into the middle.

From USD 1,340 per person, 3 nights

VI · The ground

Where this itinerary takes you

Four 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. Two nights, because the swamp circuit is two hours from the gate.

Lake Manyara National Park

A narrow strip between the Rift escarpment and a soda lake. Groundwater forest fed by springs at the foot of the wall, large baboon troops, hippo at the river mouth, and flamingo when the water level allows. A few hours here on the way up to Karatu is the right amount.

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, and one full day with no transfer.

Ngorongoro Crater

The largest intact volcanic caldera in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Around 25,000 large animals on 260 square kilometres of crater floor, including the most reliable black rhino in Tanzania. Saved for the last morning, when your eye is trained.

The question everyone asks

Will you see the migration?

1.5M+

Wildebeest, zebra and gazelle, moving continuously

The herds do not arrive on a date. They follow rain, and rain in the Serengeti ecosystem is not punctual, so anyone who guarantees you a river crossing on a specific day is selling something they do not control.

What is predictable is roughly where. December to March the herds are calving on the short-grass plains you cross on day 5. May and June they move west and north. July to October they are in the far north on the Mara, which is a day’s drive beyond Seronera and not on this route. This itinerary is built around resident game in the Seronera valley, which is there in every month; if the migration is the point of your trip, tell us the dates and we will re-shape the Serengeti nights toward wherever the herds are.

VII · Season

The best time to travel

Including the months we will tell you to avoid.

June to October is the long dry season and the most popular time to come. Water is scarce, so game concentrates at the Tarangire river and the Seronera river and becomes far easier to find. Grass is low, which matters more than people expect: you can see cats at a distance. This is the season the journey card is built for, and the busiest.

January to March is the second dry window and the calving season on the southern plains you cross on day 5. Half a million wildebeest calves are born inside about three weeks, and the predator activity that follows is the most concentrated of the year. Fewer vehicles than July, and Tarangire is quieter, though the elephants are more spread out.

November brings the short rains. They are usually brief afternoon storms rather than washouts, the landscape turns green, and rates drop. It is an underrated month if you do not mind mud on the Serengeti roads.

April and May are the long rains, and we will tell you plainly that this is not the time for this route. The Tarangire swamp circuit and some Serengeti tracks become difficult, some camps close, and the grass is high enough to hide a lion at thirty metres. If these are the only weeks you have, we would rather build you something different than sell you this.

VIII · Flights

Getting there and back

Fly into Kilimanjaro International. Day 1 is empty so an evening arrival still works.

Fly into Kilimanjaro International (JRO), not Dar es Salaam. Dar adds a domestic leg and most of a day; JRO is about an hour from Arusha and it is the airport this itinerary is built around. Most European routings connect through Doha, Istanbul, Amsterdam or Addis Ababa.

Day 1 is deliberately empty so that an evening arrival still works. If your flight lands late at night, or you want a margin against a lost bag, add a night in Arusha before you start.

Coming home, the crater rim is a long drive from JRO, so day 8 is built for an evening departure rather than an afternoon one. Tell us your flight time and we will time the crater descent to it, or add a night in Arusha if the connection is tight.

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 here: the nearest hospital to Seronera is a flight away, not a drive.

Check that your policy covers safari activity 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.

Guide tips are usually handled at the end of the trip; 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

Arusha-based, and Tanzanian-owned

We are not a booking agent forwarding you to an operator. The vehicles, the guides and the office are ours, in Arusha, which is why we can change a plan mid-trip when the animals do something unexpected.

The crater at the end, not the start

Most eight-day circuits put Ngorongoro on day two because it is close to Arusha. We put it on day eight because it is crowded and closed and you will get more from it once you have learned to look.

One guide for the week

The same person from the airport to the airport. A guide who has watched you for four days knows whether you want the leopard or the light, and starts driving to it without being asked.

We will tell you not to come in April

There are weeks when this route is not worth doing, and we would rather move you or lose the booking than take money for a trip we know will disappoint.

XI · Questions

Frequently asked

What guests ask before booking this itinerary.

How much does an 8 day Tanzania safari cost?

The rate depends on your group size and which accommodation tier you choose, and it moves with the season. 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.

How is this different from the seven-day itinerary?

One night and one park. The seven-day route drives past Lake Manyara and puts two nights on the Ngorongoro rim early in the week. This one visits Manyara properly, sleeps a night in the Karatu highlands, and saves the crater for the last morning. If you have the extra day, this is the better shape.

Is eight days enough for the northern circuit?

Yes. It is the length that lets every park have the nights it deserves without a single-night stop. What eight days is not enough for is adding the Mara River in the far north or the southern parks; those need their own trip.

When is the best time to do this itinerary?

June to October for concentrated dry-season game at the rivers, or January to March for the calving season on the plains you cross on day 5 and fewer vehicles. November is a good, quieter compromise. We do not recommend April or May for this route.

Will we see the Great Migration?

It depends on the month. From December to March the herds are on the southern plains that this route crosses. From July to October they are on the Mara River in the far north, which is a day beyond Seronera and not on this itinerary. The Seronera valley has resident lion, leopard and cheetah in every month, which is what the two Serengeti nights are built around. Tell us your dates and we will say plainly where the herds are likely to be.

Is this safari suitable for children?

It is a private safari, so it can be. Serengeti game drives have a minimum age of 5 and we apply 6; some camps set 6 or 12; night drives and the balloon have their own limits. The drives on days 5 and 7 are long. Tell us the ages and we will tell you plainly whether this route works. Child rates are 30% below the adult rate for children sharing with two adults.

How much driving is there each day?

Three of the eight days are transfers and four are spent in the parks; day 1 is an hour from the airport. Days 5 and 7 are the long ones, each with a game drive built in. Exact drive times for this itinerary are about 2 to 6 hours, with the long days built around a game drive — we will give you a realistic figure rather than an optimistic one.

Can we add a night drive?

In Tarangire, yes. It is one of the parks licensed for night drives, and the natural slot is the evening of day 3. The Serengeti and the crater do not allow them. The permit is on top of park fees and the price is about USD 180 per person. Night drives are usually for guests aged 16 and over.

Can I extend the trip to Zanzibar?

Yes, and it is the most common extension. Flights from Arusha and Kilimanjaro take under two hours and run daily. Three to five nights on the coast is the usual shape. 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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