As soon as you step out of Arusha International Airport terminal, you will be gritted by your guide and start your journey to your first safari in Tanzania: Lake Manyara Park.

Located beneath the cliffs of the Manyara Escarpment, on the edge of the Rift Valley, Lake Manyara National Park offers varied ecosystems, incredible bird life, and breathtaking views.

In contrast with the intimacy of the forest, is the grassy floodplain, across the alkaline lake, to the jagged blue volcanic peaks that rise from the endless Maasai Steppes. Large buffalo, wildebeest and zebra herds congregate on these grassy plains, and so do the giraffes.

Squadrons of banded mongoose dart between the acacias, whereas the diminutive Kirk’s dik-dik forages in their shade.

Manyara provides the perfect introduction to Tanzania’s birdlife. More than 400 species have been recorded, and any visitor to Africa might reasonably expect to observe 100 of these in one day. 

After breakfast you will be heading into the Tarangire National Park for a morning game drive. The park runs along the line of the Tarangire River and is mainly made up of low-lying hills on the Great Rift Valley floor. Its natural vegetation mainly consists of Acacia woodland and giant African Baobab trees, with huge swamp areas in the south. Both the river and the swamps act like a magnet for wild animals, during Tanzania’s dry season. In the afternoon you will eat your lunch at the picnic overlooking Tarangire River before you depart for Ngorongoro Conservation Area where you will overnight in a beautiful hotel.

Tarangire– This National Park enables you to experience an unrivalled landscape of open plains, dotted with thousands of baobabs. Not only does the meandering Tarangire River attract a vast number of wildlife, but the Park is also especially renowned for its huge elephant herds, enabling its visitors the spotting of entire thick-skinned families! 

Tarangire National Park has some of the highest population density of elephants as compared to anywhere in Tanzania, and its sparse vegetation, strewn with baobab and acacia trees, makes it a beautiful and distinctive location to visit. 

Before the rains, droves of gazelles, wildebeests, zebras, and giraffes migrate to Tarangire National Park’s scrub plains where the last grazing land still remains. 
Herds of up to 300 elephants scratch the dry river bed for underground streams, while migratory wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, hartebeest and eland crowd the shrinking lagoons.

The swamps, tinged green year round, are the focus for 550 bird varieties, the most breeding species in one habitat anywhere in the world. 
Disused termite mounds are often frequented by colonies of the endearing dwarf mongoose, and pairs of red-and-yellow barbet, which draw attention to themselves by their loud, clockwork-like duetting.

At the end of our visit we will drive to our lodge. 

After an adventurous one hour drive on dusty roads we will arrive to the northern shore of Lake Eyasi: a mildly alkaline lake which stretches some 50km across the south-western area of the Ngorongoro Crater.

The shores of Lake Eyasi are still inhabited by Hadzabe Bushmen: hunter gatherers, who can perhaps be considered one of the most interesting tribes in Tanzania and eastern Africa. Their language resembles the click languages of other bushmen further south, in the Kalahari and they are often willing to provide visitors with an insight into their simple bush homes, consisting in no more than a tree canopy or a cave. You will experience their everyday life at close range and be able to witness the tribe’s men skillfully hunt small antelopes and baboons with bows made from giraffe tendons and poison coated wood arrows.

After Lunch we will drive to visit another group of nomadic Bushmen: the Datoga Tribe. 

Datoga people are agro-pastoral nomadic, and nowadays they do some small blacksmith works, like jewelry and arrow-heads. They live in several areas in Tanzania, and the majority lives near Lake Eyasi. 

This tribe consider themselves the oldest tribe in Tanzania (the Maasai and Bushmen also claim this fame). The men of the tribe do the pastoral and blacksmith work, while the women cares for the children’s and home duties.

The married women are dressed with beautiful leather dress and have tattoos around their eyes for decoration. 

After breakfast we will do our way to the gate of Ngorongoro. You then enter the conservation area of Ngorongoro and descend 600m into this magnificent crater for a morning, half-day game drive.

The Ngorongoro Crater is the largest unbroken ancient volcanic caldera in the world. In 1979, this nearly three million year old area was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The former volcano crater is also considered to be “Africa’s Garden of Eden”, as it is a haven for thousands of wild game, including lions, elephants, wildebeests, zebras, rhinos, Thomson’s gazelles and buffaloes.

The crater is among the 8 Natural Wonders of the World. The crater is one of the most densely crowded African wildlife areas in the world and is home to an estimated 30,000 animals including some of Tanzania’s last remaining black rhino. Supported by a year round water supply and fodder, the Ngorongoro Crater supports a vast variety of animals, which include herds of wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, eland, warthog, hippo, and giant African elephants. 

You will enjoy a picnic lunch in the crater, after which you will climb up of the crater and travel to Ndutu – where you will spend the night. 
Going through Ngorongoro Conservation Area you will have the opportunity to visit Manyata, a village of the Maasai Tribe, and get an insight into their unique customs and their everyday life.

The Maasai tribe lives in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are known for there welcome dans where the men sing and jump as high as possible with straight legs, to show how fit they are. The women stand at the side, singing with the men and do a special dance for women only.

The Maasai believes that all the cows in the world belong to them and where given them by god. The wealth of a family is measured by the number of cows they own. 

The Maasai tribe lives in villages (Manyata) and each women builds a small house (Boma) for her family. The Boma’s structure is made of wood and it is covered by a mixer of mud, wood and sticks, grass, cow dung, human urine, and ash.Traditionally, men are wearing sheets that are wrapped around the body. Usualy, the main colour is red but you can see some blue color and a paid pattern. Men and women are wearing ornaments made of colourful beads.  

Serengeti National Park is the star of many nature documentary films. The great migration of the wildebeest brings thousands of tourists. 
Serengeti National Park is undoubtedly the best-known wildlife sanctuary in the world and it has the greatest concentration of plains game in Africa. 
Established in 1952, it is home to the great migration of wildebeest and zebra. The resident population of lion, cheetah, elephant, giraffe, and birds is also impressive. The Park can be divided into 3 sections:  

• The southern/central part (Seronera Valley) with it’s classic savannah, dotted with acacias and filled with wildlife.
• The western corridor is marked by the Grumeti River, and has more forests and dense bush.
• The north meets up with Kenya’s Maasai Mara Reserve, is the least visited section. 

It is the migration for which Serengeti is perhaps most famous – over a million wildebeest and about 200,000 zebras flow south from the northern hills to the Ndutu plains for the short rains every October and November, and then swirl west and north after the long rains in April, May and June.

During the months of July-September the herds will cross the Mara River again and again in search of fresh grass. They will have to face the mighty crocodiles in the river, which are waiting quietly in the water for their opportunity. 

Serengeti is also known as the “endless plains” in the Maasai language. This will be your area of exploration for the following two days. You will have the opportunity to discover this fascinating area and its wild inhabitants driving through the vast Serengeti Plains. 

This our last day of safari in we will start it early, after breakfast, to enjoy the morning hours with the waking herds. We will say our goodbye to our guide and departure to Zanzibar.

For the next 2 nights you will enjoy the white beaches of the island, the blue-clear water of the ocean and the worm hospitality of the people of Zanzibar.

You will enjoy a full day in Zanzibar and all it have to offer. On day 8, after breakfast, take a last tour in Zanzibar a before heading to the airport for your flight back home.