A Best 10 Days Northern Tanzania Safari

It is an early day! After early breakfast, you leave with packed lunch. The majestic Mount Kilimanjaro is the awe-inspiring landmark of Tanzania but you don’t need to climb it to experience its full beauty and the captivating terrain that surrounds it.

This peek of the Peak Hike is a Kilimanjaro day trip that gives you the opportunity to scramble up the first leg of the famed Marangu Route, through the rainforest twittering with bird life and chattering, curious blue monkeys. You expect to back to your hotel at around 1700 hours. Dinner and overnight at Salinero Hotel in Moshi.

After breakfast at the hotel, begin the drive northward to Tarangire National Park. You’ll arrive at the park in time for a picnic lunch. Later drive to Maramboi Tented camp. Maramboi is located just outside of Tarangire, and from camp, you’ll have a full view of the expansive Lake Manyara out in the distance. Grazing wildebeests are known to wander nearby.

Enjoy a full afternoon of wildlife viewing ahead of you in Tarangire. Tarangire is famous for elephants. It boasts one of the largest and most conspicuous elephant populations in Africa. Between the Tarangire River and the southern swamps, there is ample water year round to grow food for these huge creatures. You’re guaranteed to see large herds and gain up-close contacts with matriarchs, babies, teenagers, and bulls. Spend several hours surrounded by the herds, and you cannot help but get a sense for their wisdom and deep emotional bonds.

This morning you will take a short drive to Lake Manyara National Park. Set against the steep escarpment of the Rift Valley, you’ll find Manyara’s evergreen groundwater forest. While it may look like a rain forest, there is actually very little rainfall here. Instead, the vegetation is sustained by mineral springs seeping through porous volcanic soil. In additional to the evergreen groundwater forest, the park also contains a variety of ecosystems including acacia woodland, grassy plains, a swampy fan delta, and – of course – the expansive lake. This diversity attracts a wide variety of mammal, bird, and wildlife species.

Bird watching is spectacular at Manyara, with over 380 bird species recorded. Flocks of flamingos are attracted to the large amounts of algae in the lake’s soda environment, while the forest areas attract large flocks of pelicans, storks, herons, ibis, and egrets. Manyara is home to rare tree climbing lions. This adaptation is unusual for these big cats. Look for the antics of blue monkeys, vervet monkeys, and very active baboon troops. Buffalo, impala, giraffe, bushbuck, waterbuck, hippos, and lots of elephants roam near the lake. There are also sightings of klipspringers on the rocky escarpments on the southern side of the rift wall. Overnight at Manyara Kilimamoja Lodge.

Head out after breakfast for the drive to Serengeti National Park. Picnic lunch at Olduvai Gorge while you stop to visit the famous Leakey digs. The Rift Valley was home to the first humans, and the Leakey family has successfully excavated some of the oldest humanoid skeletons ever discovered. Many people believe that Olduvai is the birth place of humanity.

Once you enter the Serengeti, you will begin wildlife viewing as you travel the distance to Mawe Tented Camp in the Seronera area of the central Serengeti. The word “Serengeti” is derived from the Maasai language, meaning “endless plain.” This vast savanna grass land extends from Northern Tanzania and into the Maasai Mara in Kenya for over twelve thousand square miles, forming one of the world’s largest wildlife refuges. The annual migration is what makes the Serengeti famous. The migration includes vast herds of wildebeest, but also zebra and Thomson’s gazelle.

Full days of wildlife viewing as scheduled with your guide. Wildlife populations double during the migration season, but outside of the migration season, wildlife populations are still some of the densest on the African continent year round. They include substantial populations of plains game including buffalo, giraffe, and warthog; as well as a wide range of antelope species including dik dik, bushbuck, waterbuck, eland, impala, and topi. With so many prey animals available all year round, predators can manage smaller territories.
Big cat viewing is superb in this region of the Serengeti. Cats include lion, leopard, and cheetah. There are actually twelve different lion prides living within driving distance of the river. Not to be forgotten, the smaller cats such as caracals, servals, and African wild cats definitely make their presence known. Seronera or “siron” means bat-eared fox in the local language, so expect to see these small predators roaming across the valley.
The Serengeti is prime cheetah country, generally accepted as the best place on earth to view these predators. Cheetah do not live in prides, being much more solitary in nature. You usually see cheetah hunting alone, but you can still see brothers hunting together or a mother training cubs how to hunt. There have been many cheetah births within the last few years. A cheetah mother usually has between 3 and 5 cubs, with only 2 to 3 of them reaching maturity.

Today you’ll pack up and begin the drive into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area with your wildlife viewing continuing as you leave the Serengeti. Pause for a picnic lunch amidst the rolling savanna lands. As you enter the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, you will begin to see Maasai enkangs (“homesteads”). The Maasai enjoy special land use in the Conservation Area which allows them to live their traditional pastoral lifestyle, coexisting amongst the wildlife. You will often see young herders and their cattle moving around the area in the morning and evening hours.
There is substantial wildlife in the Conservation Area, so your cultural views will be mixed with wildlife observation. Note the changes in vegetation as you begin the climb up the slopes of the Ngorongoro Crater. The savannas disappear into lush, tropical-like plants, including sprawling coffee plantations. Ngorongoro National Park begins on the Crater Rim and the vast exploded caldera is at the bottom of the Crater. Arrive for dinner at Rhino Lodge.

Spend a full day exploring the wildlife in Ngorongoro Crater. Climb the steep crater slopes – reaching the crater rim at an elevation of 7,500 feet – and take in the view of a lifetime. Below you will stretch the crater floor, which contains five different ecosystems including grasslands, pools, marshes, a soda lake, and a forest. This is what makes the Crater such a special place for wildlife lovers, as there is tremendous species diversity. Many of these animals live their whole life at the bottom of this intact caldera.
Visibility is excellent, as much of the Crater is made up of grasslands. Zebra, wildebeest, and gazelle mingle together, while herds of buffalo graze the long grass areas. Bull elephants and rhino are often seen feeding in green marshes, and there are plenty of hyenas. Hippos lounge in the water holes and it is not uncommon to see lions. Flamingos settle on the soda lake at certain times of the day. The Crater is one of the few places in Tanzania that is home to rhino. Rhinos are the African continent’s most endangered animal. Overnight at Tloma Lodge.

Begin your journey back to Arusha after breakfast. You’ll have time to stop in at the Shanga Project, a cooperative of disabled Tanzanians who make high quality crafts using recycled materials. Transfer to Kilimanjaro Airport for your international flight.