4 Days Safari 3 Night: Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro

Day 1 Arrival in Arusha

You will be picked up from the airport by a Zanzibar Safari representative and conveyed to your accommodation in Arusha where you will overnight, relax, and prepare in anticipation of the adventures to come.

Accommodation

Luxury: Grand Melia Lodge / Mount Meru Hotel / Arusha Coffee Lodge

Mid-range: Ilboru Safari Lodge / Arusha Planet Lodge/ Airport Planet Lodge

Budget: Outpost Lodge / Tulia Boutique Hotel  / Green Mountain Hotel

Day: 2 Tarangire National Park

In the morning we will collect you from our lodge in Arusha with our safari guide greeting you with a broad smile in anticipation of our coming adventures. The drive to Tarangire on a good tarmac road takes us across gently rolling Maasai plains with scattered acacia trees. As we zip along we pass many Maasai in their colourful attire walking on the roadside, riding bicycles, herding cattle, and driving donkeys carts.
Tarangire National Park, well known for its large elephant herds, is a diverse landscape of seasonal swamps, savanna and the life giving Tarangire River which wends its’ way through the park. From the open roof of the vehicle we will seek out the myriad animals that here inhabit including zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, elephant and giraffe. It is possible we will glimpse Simba stalking his prey or leopard relaxing in the trees. After an extensive game drive, we leave the park and head for our nearby lodge where we enjoy dinner and relaxation with our quarters awaiting us.

Accommodation

Luxury: Kitela Lodge / Lake Manyara Kilima Moja / The Retreat at Ngorongoro

Mid-range: Eileen’s Tree Inn / Endoro Lodge / Karatu Simba Lodge

Budget Camping: Lilac Campsite/ Panorama Campsite

Day 3 Lake Manyara National Park

On this day, after breakfast, we drive to Lake Manyara National Park, a small but diverse park 120km west of Arusha. The park’s namesake, a shallow salt lake, covering some seventy percent of the parklands, floods and drys with the seasons, and is home to thousands of flamingo and over 500 other bird species. On our exploration of the park we will see monkey, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, elephant, and with some luck, lions lounging in the trees. In the afternoon we will return to our lodge for dinner, a digestif by the fire perhaps, conversation, and a reviewing in the minds eye the images of the wilds accrued during the day before retiring for our well earned rest.

Accommodation

Luxury: Kitela Lodge / Lake Manyara Kilima Moja / The Retreat at Ngorongoro

Mid-range: Eileen’s Tree Inn / Endoro Lodge / Karatu Simba Lodge

Budget Camping: Lilac Campsite/ Panorama Campsite

Day 4 Ngorongoro Crater

After an early breakfast, we depart our lodge for a drive through the Rift Valley to the cooler regions of the Ngorongoro highlands. The Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest volcanic caldera, formed with the massive explosion of a volcano once higher than Kilimanjaro some two to three million years ago, is almost 20km wide, approximately 600 m deep and is known for its large variety of wildlife, including the “Big Five” – lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino, and leopard. It is well recognized as one of the world’s wonders, veritably magnificent. In addition to the Big Five, the various springs attract animals such as wildebeest, gazelle, reedbuck, and more than 500 bird species. At a picnic site, we have our scrumptious lunch before enjoying further game viewing in the crater. We leave the crater in the evening driving up the steep winding track to wend our way back to Arusha, with our adventure at an end, replete with images of the African Wilds to take through our lives journey.