Safaris
You visit: Ngorongoro · Serengeti · Tarangire
4 Days Budget Camping Safari – Tarangire, Serengeti & Ngorongoro
- Days
- 4
- From
- $925pp
- Style
- Budget
The route
5 stops · about 785 km by road
Drawn from the itinerary below: drives on the main safari roads, flights as dashed arcs, climbs as a dotted footpath. Distances are approximate.
A 5-day mid-range lodge safari through Tarangire, the Ngorongoro Crater, and Lake Manyara, with a Maasai village visit and a guided Kilimanjaro day hike on the lower Marangu route - a day trip into the park, not a summit climb.
This 5-day mid-range lodge safari combines Northern Tanzania’s classic wildlife parks with a rewarding day hike on the lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. You explore Tarangire, the Ngorongoro Crater, and Lake Manyara, meet a local Maasai community, and finish with a guided day trek into Kilimanjaro National Park. Travel is private throughout, in a 4×4 safari Land Cruiser with a pop-up roof (a maximum of two guests sharing) and a professional English-speaking driver-guide.
Highlights include the elephant herds and baobabs of Tarangire, a game drive on the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater in search of the Big Five, and the tree-climbing lions and birdlife of Lake Manyara, followed by a genuine cultural visit to a Maasai village at Mto wa Mbu.
On the final day, an experienced mountain guide leads a full-day hike on the Marangu route to Maundi Crater and Mandara Hut, the first hut on the mountain. This is a day trip into the park’s forest and lower slopes, not a summit climb. Accommodation is in comfortable lodges on a full-board basis while on safari, with bed-and-breakfast nights in Arusha.
Arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport or Arusha Airport, where you are met and transferred to Medan Lodge in Arusha for an overnight on a bed-and-breakfast basis, ready to begin your safari the next morning.
Pickup from Medan Lodge at 08:30 and drive to Tarangire National Park, known for its large elephant herds, ancient baobab trees, and wildlife along the Tarangire River. Enjoy a day of game viewing before driving in the evening to Acacia Farm Lodge for dinner and overnight.
After an early breakfast, drive to the Ngorongoro Crater and descend for a sunrise game drive with a picnic lunch, searching for the Big Five around the crater floor and hippo pool. Later, ascend from the crater and return to Acacia Farm Lodge for dinner and overnight.
After breakfast, drive to Lake Manyara National Park in the Great Rift Valley, known for its tree-climbing lions, elephants, hippos, and birdlife, with a picnic lunch and a game drive. Afterwards, visit a local Maasai community at Mto wa Mbu before driving to Arusha for overnight at Medan Lodge.
After breakfast, set off at 06:30 for the Marangu Gate of Kilimanjaro National Park and a full-day guided hike. Trek up through the rainforest to Maundi Crater and Mandara Hut, the first hut on the Marangu route, then descend and drive back to Arusha for a final overnight at Medan Lodge. This is a day hike into the park’s forest and lower slopes, not a summit climb.
Every day of this itinerary is tailor-made and can be shaped around your dates, pace and budget. When you are ready, our team handles every detail - you simply arrive and enjoy.
Kilimanjaro is a non-technical trek – no ropes or climbing skills are needed – but it is a serious high-altitude challenge. A good level of general fitness and some hill-walking preparation make it far more enjoyable. Determination matters as much as fitness.
Longer routes (7-8 days) give your body more time to acclimatise and significantly improve your summit chances. We help you choose the route – Machame, Lemosho, Marangu or Rongai – that best fits your experience, budget and time.
Your guides are trained in altitude first aid, monitor you twice daily with pulse-oximeter checks, and carry emergency oxygen. “Pole pole” (slowly, slowly) is the golden rule – a steady pace is the key to summiting safely.
Your climb includes park fees, mountain accommodation, all meals on the mountain, a professional crew (guides, cook and porters) and group equipment. Porters carry your main duffel; you carry only a daypack. We send a full packing list and can arrange gear rental.
The main seasons are January-March (colder, quieter, often clearer) and June-October (dry and popular). We generally avoid the long rains of April-May. Full-moon dates are popular for summit night.
A deposit secures your climb dates and permits; the balance is due before you arrive. Once booked we send a detailed packing list, training tips and pre-departure guidance.
You visit: Ngorongoro · Serengeti · Tarangire
You visit: Lake Manyara · Ngorongoro · Serengeti · Tarangire
You visit: Kilimanjaro · Ngorongoro · Serengeti · Tarangire
Tell us your dates and what matters most - our team designs every journey by hand and replies within 24 hours, seven days a week.
Arusha is our home town and the starting point for almost every trip we plan. It sits at around 1,400 metres on the lower slopes of Mount Meru, which keeps the air fresher than you might expect this close to the equator. It is a busy, working East African town rather than a resort: matatu minibuses, coffee and banana farms on the edges, markets full of produce, and the headquarters of the East African Community. Most safaris on the Northern Circuit begin here, and so does the drive to the Kilimanjaro gates.
Arusha is pleasant all year. June to August is the coolest stretch, with chilly mornings and evenings. The long rains usually arrive around March to May and the short rains around November, but town life carries on as normal. Our Tanzania weather guide covers the parks and the mountain too.
Most international visitors land at Kilimanjaro International Airport, roughly an hour’s drive east of Arusha depending on traffic. Arusha also has its own smaller airport on the west side of town for domestic and light-aircraft flights to the parks and the coast. By road, Arusha is about five to six hours from Nairobi, with a border crossing at Namanga.
You can stay in town, close to restaurants and shops, or just outside on coffee estates and garden properties with views of Meru and, on clear mornings, Kilimanjaro. Before a climb or a safari, most travellers spend one or two nights here to rest after the flight.
Arusha is the hinge of every itinerary. We meet you at the airport, brief you the evening before you set off, and check your gear before a Kilimanjaro climb. From here it is a few hours to Tarangire, Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro on a private safari, and a short flight to Zanzibar when you are ready for the beach. If you arrive with a spare day, we will suggest something worth doing with it.
Tarangire is the park people tend to underrate until they get there. It is a land of huge, ancient baobab trees, wide grassy swamps and the Tarangire River, which keeps flowing when the rest of the region dries out. In the dry season that river pulls in wildlife from far around, and the result is some of the biggest elephant herds you will see anywhere in northern Tanzania. It is also close to Arusha, which makes it an easy first stop on safari.
Elephants are the main reason to come. Families of dozens are a normal sight, walking in single file down to the river or dusting themselves under the baobabs. Alongside them you can expect buffalo, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, impala, waterbuck and dik-dik, plus lions that know the herds will come to drink. Look out for species that are harder to find further north, such as fringe-eared oryx and lesser kudu. Tarangire is also excellent for birds, from colourful lovebirds and hornbills to big ground birds like the kori bustard and ostrich.
Even in the wetter months, Tarangire is worth a day if it is on your way. Our Tanzania weather guide explains what each month is like.
Tarangire is roughly two to two and a half hours from Arusha by road, almost all of it on tarmac, heading south towards Babati. That means you can leave Arusha after breakfast and be on a game drive before lunch. It is also a simple drive on to Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro highlands afterwards.
We often start a Northern Circuit safari here. A night or two in Tarangire, then Ngorongoro, then the Serengeti is a classic route that builds as you go. If you have only a few days after climbing Kilimanjaro, Tarangire and the crater make a strong short safari with no flights needed. You can then fly from Arusha to the coast for a few days on Zanzibar.
There are lodges and tented camps both inside the park and on its edges. Camps inside put you close to the river for early starts, while some of those outside the boundary can offer guided walks and other activities, depending on the camp and local park rules. We will suggest which suits you, depending on how much time you have and how you like to travel.
The Ngorongoro Crater is the floor of an old volcano that collapsed in on itself, leaving a bowl about 260 km² across and roughly 600 m deep. Standing on the rim on a clear morning, you look down onto grassland, a soda lake, swamps and patches of forest, all ringed by steep green walls. Because so much wildlife lives inside such a small space, a single day on the crater floor can show you more species than a week in many other places. It is part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where Maasai families still graze their cattle alongside the wildlife on the highlands around the crater.
The crater is one of the best places in Tanzania to look for black rhino, although they are shy and usually seen at a distance. Lions and spotted hyenas are common, and you are likely to see buffalo, wildebeest, zebra, Grant’s gazelle, warthog and hippos at the pools. Large bull elephants wander the swamps and the Lerai forest. Flamingos gather on the shallow soda lake when water levels suit them, and the birdlife around the marshes is rich all year.
The crater is good in every season because most animals live there year round. June to October is dry, with clear views and the most visitors. The green months from November to May bring fresher scenery and fewer vehicles, with the heaviest rain usually in April and May. Whatever the month, the rim sits at well over 2,000 m, so mornings and evenings are cold. Bring a warm layer. See our Tanzania weather guide for more on the seasons.
The drive from Arusha to the crater rim takes about three to four hours on a good tarmac road through farmland and the town of Karatu, with the option of stopping at Lake Manyara or Tarangire on the way. Descending to the crater floor takes around half an hour down a steep, winding track. We aim to be on the floor early, when the light is soft and the animals are most active.
Ngorongoro sits naturally between Tarangire or Lake Manyara and the Serengeti, so it slots into almost every Northern Circuit route. Many travellers spend one full day in the crater, then continue west to the Serengeti or south to Ndutu in calving season. It also works well as a short safari after climbing Kilimanjaro, since it is close to Arusha and needs no flights. Have a look at our safari ideas to see how we build it in.
You have three broad choices. Lodges on the crater rim give you the view and the shortest drive down in the morning, but they cost more and the nights are chilly. Camps and lodges around Karatu, among coffee farms and forest about forty minutes away, are often better value and a little warmer. There is no accommodation on the crater floor itself, so every visit is a day trip from above.
Lake Manyara is a small park with a lot packed in. It lies at the foot of the Great Rift Valley escarpment, so you drive in under a wall of rock with a shallow alkaline lake stretched out beside you. Between the two is a band of tall, shady groundwater forest, kept green by springs that seep from the foot of the cliffs. In a single morning you can move from forest to woodland to open lake shore, and that change of scene is what makes Manyara feel different from the bigger parks around it.
The forest near the gate is busy with olive baboons and blue monkeys, and elephants often feed among the trees. Further in you will find giraffe, buffalo, zebra, wildebeest and impala, with hippos in the pools near the lake. Manyara is famous for its tree-climbing lions. They are seen sometimes, lying out along the branches of acacia trees, but they are unpredictable and many visitors leave without spotting them, so enjoy it as a lucky extra rather than a promise. The lake itself is the real highlight for birders: flamingos gather in the shallows when conditions suit them, along with pelicans, storks and a wide range of water birds.
Manyara can be visited all year. The dry season from June to October is easiest for general game viewing, as the bush is thinner and animals come to water. The wetter months, roughly November to May, are the best time for birds, with migrant species arriving and the forest at its most lush. Flamingo numbers rise and fall with the water level, so they are never guaranteed. Check our Tanzania weather guide for month by month conditions.
The park gate is about two hours from Arusha on tarmac, at the small town of Mto wa Mbu. That makes Manyara an easy half day or full day visit, and it sits directly on the road to the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti, so you do not have to go out of your way to include it.
Because it is right on the main safari road, we often use Manyara as the first afternoon of a safari or as a gentle stop on the way to Ngorongoro. It pairs well with Tarangire for travellers with limited time. It also suits people coming down from Kilimanjaro who want a short, relaxed taste of safari before heading to the beach. Browse our safari ideas to see where it fits.
Most travellers stay on top of the escarpment, where lodges and camps look out over the lake and the Rift Valley, or in and around Mto wa Mbu, where simpler camps are good value. A few tented camps sit closer to the park itself. Staying nearby lets you be at the gate when it opens, when the forest is cool and quiet.
Kilimanjaro has been at the heart of what we do since 2012. At 5,895 m, Uhuru Peak on the Kibo crater rim is the highest point in Africa, and the mountain stands alone above the plains rather than as part of a range. You do not need ropes or climbing experience to reach the top. What you need is enough days, steady walking and a crew who keep the pace slow. Along the way you pass through farmland, rainforest, heather and moorland, high alpine desert and finally the cold, stony summit zone with its glaciers.
The higher you go, the less oxygen there is in each breath, and your body needs time to adjust. Climbing too fast is the main reason people feel unwell on the mountain. So our guides walk slowly, the Swahili pole pole, encourage you to drink plenty of water, and plan routes where you climb higher in the day and sleep lower at night. They check on you every day, and if your health needs it, going down is always the right call. Adding a day to your climb is the single most useful thing you can do.
The main climbing seasons are January to March and June to October, when the weather is drier and clearer. January to March tends to be a little warmer and quieter. June to October is cooler and busier. April, May and November are wetter, though climbs still run. Our Tanzania weather guide has more detail.
Most people who are reasonably fit and walk regularly can reach the summit if they give themselves enough days. You do not need to be an athlete. Training on long hill walks with a daypack in the months before is the best preparation. Summit night is the hardest part, usually starting around midnight so you reach the top near sunrise.
Kilimanjaro International Airport sits between Arusha and Moshi, and the route gates are roughly one to two hours’ drive from Arusha. Many of our travellers climb first, then rest their legs on a private safari and finish on the beach in Zanzibar, from the summit to the sea. Read more about our climbs on the Kilimanjaro page.
