7 Days Best of Norther Tanzania Budget Safari

Duration

8 Days

Tour Type

Budget Safari

Group Size

2 - 6

Language

English Language.

From $2,550 / per person

 4.8/5

Trip Overview

This 7-days- camping itinerary takes you through Tanzania’s remote areas with, awe-inspiring wildlife, and landscape. Your adventure begins in Tanzania’s biggest breeding site of the lesser flamingoes in lake Natron. Then to the fable Serengeti to deliver iconic big cats sighting, while Ngorongoro offers a chance to see the endangered black rhino, before meeting the Bushmen people for an up-close cultural experience. Finish by searching for the legendary tree-climbing lions of Lake Manyara.

Day 1: Arusha - Lake Natron.

“Off-the-beaten truck”
You leave Arusha after breakfast with a picnic lunch packed safely away. The Rift Valley landscape drifts past as your guide heads for Lake Natron, the least visited area on the itinerary but one capable of delivering legendary landscape. Home to East Africa’s biggest breeding site of the lesser flamingoes and water birds, check into your camp giraffe camp. After settling in you will be accompanied by a local guide from the area to do some of the activities on offer Maasai village visit, waterfall, Lake for the flamingoes sighting, and the vultures nesting site. Your Accommodation Maasai Giraffe Eco Lodge is situated near Engare Sero village in Northern Tanzania. The site offers a magnificent view of the Ol Donyo Lengai volcano and Lake Natron.

Day 2 - 3: Lake Natron - Serengeti National Park.

“Two days exploring Serengeti north”
After breakfast, drive to Serengeti National Park through Kleins Camp gate. Afterwards, we visit the most famous wildlife sanctuary in the world – Serengeti National Park. The word ‘Serengeti’ means ‘endless plains, which describes the park’s 5,600 square mile boundary. Yet for its sprawling area, the Serengeti does not disappoint when it comes to rich game viewing. Annually, from May to December, millions of animals embark on a migration that brings them from central Serengeti to Kenya’s Maasai Mara and back again in an incredible spectacle. Even during the ‘down-time’, vast herds of wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle roam here, along with groups of elephants, giraffes, and buffalo. As the lions, leopard, cheetah, hyenas, and jackals stalk their meals, three days of exploring the eastern and northern Serengeti for un-matched big cats sighting. Our campsite Nguchiro is in the heart of it all, which allows movement to explore the big cat’s territories.

Best Time to Visit: June to February (Areas are best at different times)

High Season: July to March (The Seronera area is crowded)

Best Weather: June to October (Little to no rainfall)

Day 4: Serengeti - Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

After breakfast, a game drive in Serengeti National Park with a picnic lunch, until noon, when you will have another game drive to see the beauty of this great park. In the afternoon, after lunch, en route to Ngorongoro Crater for dinner and overnight at Ngorongoro Crater. Your campsite Simba Campsite lies on the very rim of Ngorongoro Crater and has an excellent view across the caldera. A fantastic sunrise over the crater rim opposite makes a fine breakfast scene. Often there are zebra wandering around the camp!

Day 5: Ngorongoro Crater - Lake Eyasi

After an early breakfast around 05:50 am, descend into the crater at 06 am for a 6-7-hour game drive with a picnic lunch, and start your game drive in the world’s largest UN-flooded caldera, the intact and unfilled volcanic caldera formed when a large volcano exploded and collapsed on itself two to three million years ago. The crater floor covers 265 square miles with steep walls measuring 600 meters. Not only do we find this amazing geographic feature but it has become a bit of a trap, with a massive population of wildlife that has stumbled into the crater, which today is estimated to be nearly 30,000 large animals, including buffalo, elephant, zebra, wildebeest, hyena, hippo, lions, ostrich, and other antelope. We enjoy lunch near the hippo pool of Ngoitokitok Spring, before driving out of the crater, and heading to lake Eyasi for dinner and overnight at Eyasi Campsite.

Day 6: Lake Eyasi - Lake Manyara Area.

Spend time with hunters, gathers and blacksmith people, accompanied throughout by an enticing guide and a local guide from the area, guests have the opportunity to engage with the Bushmen and learn all about their time-honoured hunting techniques, survival skills, and cultural norms. A veritable step back in time, this is an undeniably authentic cultural journey into rural Tanzania that reveals the untold world of these charismatic people.
Amongst the world’s last remaining hunter-gatherer tribes inhabiting the scrubby bushland, Hadzabe men search for food and return home with golden honey, sweet fruit, or hearty wild game when, and if available. Women go out in large groups and forage for bright berries, baobab fruit, and tubers, depending on availability. After returning to the camp for your branch then proceed to Manyara camp for dinner, and overnight.

Day 7: Lake Manyara National Park - Arusha Town

Leave the camp after an early breakfast with a nice packed picnic lunch to go with and proceed to Lake Manyara national park for game viewing. The park is home to the famous tree-climbing lions, elephants, giraffes, buffalo, big troops of baboons and more than 400 species of birds have been recorded, and even a first-time visitor to Africa might reasonably expect to observe 50 of these in one day. Inland of the floodplain, a narrow belt of acacia woodland is the favoured haunt of Manyara’s legendary tree-climbing lions and giraffes sitting down.
After lunch leaves the park and head to Arusha, and your guide will drop you at your hotel, or airport for your onwards connection.

Best Time to Visit: June to September (easier to spot animals)

High Season: July to March (Northern section gets crowded)

Best Weather: June to October (few showers of rain)