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 820 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 relaxed, family-friendly safari through Tarangire, the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater, with comfortable lodges, a private 4x4, and a patient guide who is wonderful with children.
This 6-day family-friendly lodge and tented-camp safari is a relaxed, comfortable introduction to Northern Tanzania’s best-loved wildlife parks – Tarangire National Park, the Serengeti, and the Ngorongoro Crater. It is designed with families in mind, with an easy pace, private travel, and a knowledgeable guide who looks after every detail. You explore in a private 4×4 safari Land Cruiser with a pop-up roof, accompanied by a professional English-speaking driver-guide.
After arriving and settling in near Arusha, you begin among the elephant herds and baobabs of Tarangire, spend two unhurried nights in the heart of the Serengeti in search of big cats and the great herds, and finish with a game drive on the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater, home to the Big Five including the rare black rhino.
Accommodation is in comfortable, well-located 3-star lodges and tented camps on a full-board basis while on safari, with an Arusha guesthouse on arrival and departure. It is a safe, welcoming way for families to experience a classic Tanzania safari.
Arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport, where you are met and transferred to Arusha for a relaxed overnight at Parachichi House on a bed-and-breakfast basis, ready to begin your safari the next morning.
After breakfast, drive to Tarangire National Park, Tanzania’s third-largest park and a sanctuary for large elephant herds, with baobab-dotted plains and wildlife gathering along the Tarangire River – a wonderful first day for families. In the evening, drive to Manyara Safari Lodge for dinner and overnight.
Depart for the Serengeti National Park, with a picnic lunch and wildlife viewing en route. Arrive in time for a sunset game drive across the plains, followed by dinner and overnight at Serengeti Heritage Camp.
Spend a full day exploring the Serengeti, one of the last places on earth where wildlife still roams in such numbers. Enjoy morning and afternoon game drives with a picnic lunch, watching for big cats, wildebeest, and abundant birdlife, before returning to Serengeti Heritage Camp for dinner and overnight.
Still atSerengeti National Park · Serengeti Heritage Camp
After breakfast, enjoy a sunrise game drive in the Serengeti, then travel toward the Ngorongoro highlands with game viewing and a picnic lunch en route. Arrive at Ngorongoro Wild Tented Lodge for dinner and overnight.
After breakfast, descend into the Ngorongoro Crater for a game drive in search of the Big Five, including the rare black rhino. After lunch, ascend from the crater and drive back to Arusha for a final overnight at Parachichi House.
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.
Yes – unless stated otherwise, our safaris are private departures for your party only, with your own driver-guide and 4×4 vehicle. You set the pace and can adjust game-drive times with your guide each day.
Your quote covers park and conservation fees, accommodation on the stated board basis, a professional English-speaking driver-guide, a private safari vehicle with a pop-up roof, game drives per the itinerary, and drinking water in the vehicle. International flights, visas, travel insurance, tips and personal expenses are excluded.
Tanzania is a year-round destination. June to October offers classic dry-season game viewing; the green season (November to May) brings lush scenery, newborn animals and fewer crowds. The Great Migration moves through the Serengeti all year – tell us your dates and we will advise where the herds are likely to be.
Absolutely. Every itinerary is a starting point – we tailor the parks, pace, lodges and length to your interests and budget. Just let us know what you have in mind and we will build it around you.
Once you are happy with the plan we confirm availability and send a booking form and invoice. A deposit secures your dates, with the balance due before travel. We confirm exact amounts and payment options when you enquire.
Most visitors need a tourist visa for Tanzania (available online or on arrival) and a yellow-fever certificate if arriving from a risk country. We recommend consulting a travel clinic about malaria prevention and routine vaccinations well before departure.
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 Serengeti is big, open country. Its name comes from the Maasai word for plains that seem to run on forever, and once you are out on the short grass south of Seronera you will see why. The park covers about 14,750 km² and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but numbers do not say much. What matters is that this is one of the few places left where very large herds still move freely, and the lions, cheetahs, leopards and hyenas that follow them are part of everyday life on a game drive.
Wildebeest and zebra get the headlines, but they are only one part of it. Expect giraffe, buffalo, elephant, topi, hartebeest, Thomson’s and Grant’s gazelle, and a long list of birds, from secretary birds striding through the grass to vultures circling a kill. The central Seronera area, with its river valley and rocky kopjes, is well known for big cats, and leopards are often found resting in the sausage trees along the watercourses. Black rhino live here too, but they are rare and you should treat a sighting as a bonus.
There is no bad month in the Serengeti, only different ones. The herds follow the rain in a rough loop through the year:
The pattern shifts every year with the rains. Our Great Migration tracker shows where the herds are likely to be month by month, and the Tanzania weather guide explains the seasons in more detail.
By road, central Serengeti is a full day from Arusha, roughly seven to eight hours with stops, passing Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro highlands on the way. Most travellers break the drive with a night near the crater. If time is short, light aircraft fly from Arusha to several Serengeti airstrips in about one to two hours, depending on which part of the park you are heading for and how many stops the plane makes.
Most of our Northern Circuit safaris build towards the Serengeti and give it at least two or three nights, because the distances inside the park are large. A common shape is Tarangire, then Ngorongoro, then the Serengeti, then a flight back to Arusha or straight to the coast. After a Kilimanjaro climb, a few days sitting in a vehicle watching lions is a very good way to rest tired legs.
You can choose between permanent lodges, fixed tented camps and seasonal mobile camps that move to follow the herds. Mobile camps put you close to the action in migration season, while lodges in the central area suit families and first-time visitors. We will match the camp to the month and to where the animals are likely to be.
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.
Parachichi House is a modern bed-and-breakfast in Arusha, a short drive from Arusha Airport. It is a practical town base at the start or end of a northern-circuit safari rather than a wilderness property.
Rooms are comfortable and air-conditioned, with free Wi-Fi, and the property has a full-service spa with a steam room. There is a multi-cuisine restaurant and a bar on site.
A buffet breakfast is included, and the central location makes airport transfers and pre-safari logistics easy. It suits travellers who need a comfortable, well-connected overnight in town.
Manyara Safari Lodge, part of the Heritage Camps and Lodges collection, sits on the Rift Valley escarpment along the border of Lake Manyara National Park. Its elevated position makes it a comfortable base for Lake Manyara and the route north.
Rooms include standard rooms and family suites, and the escarpment setting keeps the lodge largely free of insects. Facilities are a bar and lounge, a restaurant with private dining areas, and guided bird-watching.
Meals are served in the restaurant during safari stays. It suits families and travellers who want a settled, well-located base near the park.
Serengeti Heritage Camp is a tented camp in the Serengeti, giving guests a classic under-canvas base close to the plains and the wildlife. It suits itineraries that want a bush-camp feel in the central park.
Accommodation is in en-suite safari tents. Facilities include a campfire area, full-board dining, solar power and easy game-drive access from the camp.
Meals are provided full-board during safari stays. It offers a tented-camp atmosphere rather than lodge-style comfort.
Ngorongoro Wild Camp is a semi-permanent tented camp in the southern Ngorongoro Conservation Area, with raised canvas tents on private viewing decks. It gives access to the crater while keeping a genuine bush-camp feel.
The tents are comfortable and set on decks for wildlife viewing, and the camp runs on solar power. Facilities include free Wi-Fi, a restaurant tent with full-board and Maasai-barbecue menus, and an evening fire pit.
Meals are provided full-board in the dining tent. The camp is unfenced, so wildlife passes close to the tents – an authentic experience that should be presented as a tented camp rather than a lodge.
