A 6-day family-friendly mid-range safari through Tarangire, Serengeti National Park, and Ngorongoro Crater, with comfortable 3-star accommodation, private 4x4 game drives, and a Zanzibar flight connection.
This 6-day family-friendly mid-range safari takes you through three of Northern Tanzania’s most rewarding wildlife areas – Tarangire National Park, the Serengeti, and the Ngorongoro Crater. You travel privately in a 4×4 safari Land Cruiser with a pop-up roof, accompanied throughout by a professional English-speaking driver-guide who tailors each game drive to your family’s pace.
Your journey begins among the elephant herds and giant baobabs of Tarangire before crossing into the vast plains of the Serengeti, where big cats, grazing herds, and birdlife reward morning and afternoon drives. The safari climbs to the Ngorongoro Crater for a day exploring one of Africa’s most concentrated wildlife arenas, with the chance to see elephants, lions, buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, and, with luck, the elusive black rhino.
Accommodation is comfortable 3-star lodges and rest houses on a full-board basis while on safari, with a final night in Arusha on bed and breakfast. The trip closes with a flight connection to Zanzibar, and a return flight from Zanzibar to Arusha is included as part of the package.
Pickup from Arusha Airport at 09:00 and drive to Tarangire National Park for your first safari experience. Tarangire is known for large elephant herds, baobab trees, and wildlife around the Tarangire River. Enjoy game viewing in the park before returning to Jua Manyara Lodge for the evening.
After breakfast, depart for Serengeti National Park. Enjoy wildlife viewing en route with a picnic lunch before arriving in the Serengeti. Continue with an afternoon and sunset game drive before dinner and overnight at Serengeti Seronera Rest House.
Spend a full day exploring Serengeti National Park, one of Africa’s most famous wildlife areas. Enjoy morning and afternoon game drives across the plains, with opportunities to see big cats, grazing herds, birds, and seasonal wildlife movement. Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Seronera Rest House.
After breakfast, leave Serengeti with a sunrise game drive and continue with game viewing en route toward Ngorongoro. Enjoy a picnic lunch along the way before arriving for dinner and overnight at Ngorongoro Rhino Lodge.
After breakfast, descend into Ngorongoro Crater for a game drive in one of Tanzania’s most remarkable wildlife areas. Look for elephants, lions, buffalo, zebras, wildebeest, and, with luck, black rhino. After lunch, ascend from the crater and drive back to Arusha for overnight at Parachichi House on bed and breakfast.
After breakfast, transfer from Parachichi House to Arusha Airport for your flight connection to Zanzibar. This marks the end of the safari services.
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.
Tell us your dates and what matters most - our team designs every journey by hand and replies within 24 hours, seven days a week.
Tarangire National Park is a classic safari destination in northern Tanzania, famous for its wild, dramatic landscapes dominated by thousands of ancient baobab trees. The park’s eco-landscape centers around the perennial Tarangire River, which serves as the primary northern water source during the harsh dry season. The surrounding terrain is a beautiful mix of open acacia savannah, seasonal swamps, and deep river valleys that create a highly photogenic backdrop for big-game viewing.
During the dry months from July to October, the park experiences a massive mini-migration as thousands of animals travel from the surrounding dry Maasai Steppe to gather along the riverbanks. Tarangire is world-renowned for hosting some of the largest elephant herds in Africa, with groups of up to 300 individuals frequently seen bathing and digging for water in the dry riverbeds. This high concentration of prey draws prominent predator populations, including tree-climbing lions, leopards, and large packs of spotted hyenas.
Safari activities focus on extensive game driving along the river loops, alongside options for guided bush walking tours and bird-watching excursions to spot over 500 native species. Logistics are straightforward, with the main park gate located roughly a comfortable two-hour drive on paved roads from Arusha town. Accommodations are diverse and upscale, featuring luxury eco-lodges perched on scenic ridges, elevated treehouse suites built directly into living baobabs, and classic mobile tented camps.
The Serengeti National Park is Tanzania’s flagship safari destination and a world-renowned wilderness sanctuary celebrated for its immense, uninterrupted sense of space. The eco-landscape is defined by its iconic, endless short-grass plains, granite rock outcroppings (kopjes), and riverine forests that stretch north toward Kenya’s Maasai Mara. The park is a highly dynamic ecosystem that changes radically with the seasons, transforming from a golden, windswept desert in the dry months to a vibrant green sea of grass after the rains.
The park is the definitive home of the Great Wildebeest Migration, a continuous annual cycle where over two million wildebeests, zebras, and gazelles march across the plains in search of fresh grazing land. This massive concentration of migratory prey supports Africa’s highest density of large apex predators, making it common to see lions hunting in teams, cheetahs tracking game from the kopjes, and leopards resting in sausage trees. The wildlife volume here is widely considered second to none, delivering exceptional big-game viewing throughout the year.
The primary safari activities revolve around morning and afternoon game drives, long-range migration tracking, and iconic hot air balloon safaris over the savannah at sunrise. Logistics are supported by a well-maintained network of internal airstrips (such as Seronera and Kogatende) connecting directly to Arusha, alongside traditional driving access via the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Accommodations represent the pinnacle of safari hospitality, ranging from ultra-luxury permanent stone lodges to exclusive, mobile canvas tented camps that relocate seasonally to match the moving herds.
The Ngorongoro Crater is a breathtaking global wonder, standing as the world’s largest intact, unfilled volcanic caldera and a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site. The eco-landscape is a self-contained Eden, featuring a 600-meter-deep rock wall that encloses a diverse interior floor filled with open grasslands, acacia forests, swamps, and a central alkaline lake. This unique geographical bowl creates a highly concentrated ecosystem where over 25,000 large mammals live year-round within a compact, easily explorable space.
The crater floor offers one of the absolute best opportunities in Africa to view the endangered Black Rhino roaming in its natural habitat. The resident wildlife population is incredibly dense, featuring prominent prides of black-maned lions, massive bull elephants, spotted hyenas, and vast herds of wildebeest, zebras, and gazelles. Due to the rich grazing land and constant water supply, the animals have no need to migrate, resulting in world-class big-game viewings across all seasons.
Activities are strictly regulated, consisting of half-day or full-day game drive descents down the steep, single-track volcanic walls into the caldera floor. Logistics involve a scenic drive up through the cool, misty montane forest of the crater rim, which requires specialized 4×4 safari vehicles and official park permits. Accommodations are legendary, featuring ultra-luxury stone lodges built directly along the crater rim to offer panoramic, bird’s-eye views of the landscape below.
Arusha is the base camp for the northern safari circuit. It sits at around 1,400 metres on the southern slopes of Mount Meru, which gives it a mild, green climate, and almost every Tanzanian safari, Kilimanjaro climb and Zanzibar add-on begins or ends with a night here.
It is a working city rather than a resort. The Clock Tower roundabout at its centre is traditionally held to mark the midpoint between Cairo and Cape Town, and the Cultural Heritage Centre on the western edge of town houses one of East Africa’s largest collections of African art and Tanzanite. Most arrivals land at Kilimanjaro International Airport, roughly an hour east, and transfer straight here.
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.
