Great Migration
Overview
Lake Natron · Northern Serengeti · Western Serengeti · Central Serengeti · Ngorongoro · Tarangire · Kilimanjaro
Every day here is private — your own guide and your own vehicle — so the order holds but the hours are yours to move.
Your guide meets you at Kilimanjaro International Airport and drives you to Arusha Serena Hotel, Resort & Spa, on the shore of Lake Duluti.
Gardens, water, and a day with nothing in it — which you will be glad of, because tomorrow is a long drive.
Your Stay
Arusha Serena Hotel, Resort & Spa
North through Maasai country to Lake Natron, which is one of the most dramatic places in Tanzania and one of the least visited.
The lake is alkaline, shallow and full of flamingo, ringed by volcanic mountains with Ol Doinyo Lengai — still active — standing over it.
You stay at Africa Safari Lake Natron, with all of that in front of you.
Your Stay
Africa Safari Lake Natron
Optional today
Today you enter the Serengeti from the north-east and work your way towards the Mara River.
Between July and October this is where the migration is: hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and zebra gathered along the river, with everything that hunts them close behind.
A first afternoon game drive, and then Mara River Camp.
Your Stay
Mara River Camp
A full day in the north, which is what a crossing requires — your guide positions you at the crossing points and you wait, because the herds move when they move and not before.
When it happens it is the most violent thing most people will ever watch: crocodile in the water, predators on the bank, and a great deal of noise.
When it does not happen there is still more game per hour here than almost anywhere else in the park.
Optional today
After breakfast you cross into the western corridor, a strip of riverine forest and open savannah that runs towards Lake Victoria and carries its own migration routes.
You stay at Lahia Tented Lodge, which looks out a long way.
Your Stay
Lahia Tented Lodge
East into the Seronera Valley, the heart of the park and the densest predator country in it — leopard in the riverine trees, lion on the kopjes, cheetah on the open ground.
An afternoon working the valley, and then Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge.
Your Stay
Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge
Optional today
One last morning game drive in the central Serengeti, and then the climb east through the highlands.
You finish at Lion’s Paw Camp, set near the crater rim, ready for the descent in the morning.
Your Stay
Lion's Paw Camp
Optional today
The descent into the crater is more than six hundred metres, and what is at the bottom is one of the highest concentrations of wildlife on the continent held inside twenty kilometres of caldera.
The Big Five are all possible in the day, black rhino included, along with hippo, hyena and flamingo.
Afterwards you climb out and carry on to Kitela Lodge in the Karatu highlands.
Your Stay
Kitela Lodge
Optional today
A morning in Mto wa Mbu — farms, the market, and a town where a remarkable number of Tanzania’s communities live within a few streets of each other.
Then south to Tarangire and Elephant Springs by Karibu Camps.
Your Stay
Elephant Springs by Karibu Camps
Optional today
A full day in Tarangire, following the river through the baobabs to the elephant herds the park is known for.
Afterwards, the road back to Arusha and Meliá Arusha.
After breakfast you drive to the Marangu Gate, where the oldest route up Kilimanjaro starts.
The day hike takes you up through the rainforest with a local guide — enough of the mountain to understand it, without a week of it.
You come back down to Marangu and stay at the Pink Flamingo Boutique Hotel.
Materuni Village in the morning, on the slopes of Kilimanjaro: a guided walk through the coffee to the waterfall, and the coffee-growing itself, which the Chagga will take you through properly.
Then Kikuletwa, where warm, startlingly clear water sits under fig trees and you can swim in it.
Back to Arusha for the last night.
Optional today
Shanga first, where artisans with disabilities make jewellery, glassware, textiles and homeware, and will show you the workshop.
Then the Cultural Heritage Centre — carvings, gemstones and a very large amount of Tanzanian art under one roof.
Afterwards, on to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your onward flight.
Everything below is settled before you travel. What isn’t covered is listed just as plainly, so nothing on this trip arrives as a surprise.
Included
Not included
Tell us roughly when, and we’ll come back with dates, the camps that are open and what the 13-day rate looks like for your party.
Or reach the team in Arusha directly — +255 654 592 688 or WhatsApp.
