6-Day Tanzania Classic: Tarangire, Serengeti & Ngorongoro

Your driver-guide meets you at your Arusha hotel in the morning for the drive of about two and a half hours to Tarangire National Park. The park is famous for its large elephant herds and giant baobab trees, and in the dry season the Tarangire River draws wildlife from all around. Enjoy a picnic lunch in the park and an afternoon game drive before settling in for the evening.

After breakfast, drive through the farmland around Karatu and climb into the highlands of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, with views from the crater rim, before descending to the Serengeti's short-grass plains. You enter the park at Naabi Hill Gate and game drive to the central Serengeti in the afternoon. It is a long but rewarding day of six to seven hours on the road, broken up by wildlife viewing and a picnic lunch.

Spend the whole day on game drives in the central Serengeti. The Seronera River valley holds water all year and is one of the best places in Africa to see lions, leopards and cheetahs, along with giraffes, buffalos and many kinds of antelope. Head out early for the best light and return to your lodge for lunch, or take a picnic and stay out all day.

Your guide plans the day around where the animals are. Depending on the time of year, that could mean searching for the great wildebeest migration, visiting the granite kopjes where lions rest, or following the rivers in search of leopard. For a special start, add a sunrise hot-air balloon flight over the plains followed by a bush breakfast (extra cost, book in advance).

Enjoy a final morning game drive in the Serengeti, then leave through Naabi Hill Gate and climb back into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. You arrive in the afternoon at your lodge on the crater rim, where evenings are cool at over 2,000 metres, so keep a warm layer handy.

Set off early to descend into the Ngorongoro Crater, a collapsed volcano about 20 kilometres across and home to thousands of large animals. The crater floor is one of the best places in Tanzania to look for the endangered black rhino, alongside lions, elephants, hippos, flamingos and big herds of zebra and wildebeest. After a picnic lunch, climb out of the crater and drive back to Arusha (about three hours), where your safari ends at your hotel or the airport.