Skip the long drives and fly straight into the Serengeti for a relaxed, luxury-paced wildlife safari.
A six-day safari designed around light aircraft flights, so you spend your time on game drives rather than transfers. You fly into the heart of the Serengeti, enjoy unhurried days among its plains, then combine the experience with the incomparable Ngorongoro Crater.
Flying in means more time with wildlife and less time on the road – ideal for travellers who value comfort and pace. Your days are spent in a private 4×4 with an expert guide, staying at fine lodges and tented camps.
It is a wonderfully easy way to experience two of Africa’s greatest wildlife areas at a gentle, luxurious rhythm.
Arrive in Arusha where you are met and transferred to your lodge to rest before the safari begins.
A morning flight into the Serengeti, met by your guide for an afternoon game drive on the plains.
A full day exploring the Serengeti’s rich central plains, home to big cats and endless herds.
Continue by road (or optional flight) to the Ngorongoro Highlands, game-driving as you go.
A full descent into the crater in search of lion, rhino, elephant and flamingo.
Transfer back to Arusha for your departure.
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.
Arusha National Park is a compact, multifaceted gem of varied ecosystems situated just a short drive from Arusha town, making it an ideal destination for day trips. The eco-landscape is incredibly diverse for its small size, featuring the lush montane forest of Mount Meru, the dramatic cliffs of the Ngurdoto Crater, and the serene Momella Lakes. The park provides spectacular, close-up views of Mount Meru’s ash cone, offering a cooler, forested mountain sanctuary right on the doorstep of the city.
While the park lacks massive lion and rhino populations, it offers highly specialized wildlife sightings, including Tanzania’s highest concentration of giraffes. The montane canopy is the definitive place to observe the acrobatic black-and-white colobus monkeys and elegant blue monkeys swinging through the vines. The Momella Lakes host thousands of seasonal pink flamingos, while the marshy crater floors shelter herds of buffalo, warthogs, and waterbucks.
Activities are exceptionally active, with options for guided walking safaris, canoeing excursions on the Momella Lakes, and multi-day mountaineering climbs up Mount Meru. Logistics are the easiest in northern Tanzania, requiring less than an hour’s drive from Arusha city center or Kilimanjaro International Airport. Lodging inside the park focuses on historic colonial-style safaris, mountain climbing huts, and peaceful eco-lodges tucked into the lower forest canopy.
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.
Gran Melia Arusha is a five-star hotel set between a working coffee plantation and the Mount Meru river basin, in Arusha’s diplomatic quarter. It is a top-tier town base for the start or end of a premium safari or climb.
Rooms are air-conditioned and the hotel is fully equipped. Verified facilities include a heated outdoor infinity pool, a spa and fitness centre, a rooftop cocktail lounge, three restaurants and a business conference centre, with high-speed Wi-Fi.
Dining spans several restaurants with views towards Mount Meru. It suits travellers who want the highest level of comfort in Arusha before heading to the parks or the mountain.
Serengeti Bushtops sits on a private rise in the wild northern reaches of the Serengeti, looking out over an ocean of golden grassland that runs uninterrupted to the horizon. It is a “wild luxury” camp in the truest sense – remote, intimate and built for travellers who want the drama of the plains on their doorstep. Its position places guests within reach of the Mara River, where between roughly July and October the Great Migration gathers in its thousands and the famous river crossings unfold.
Accommodation is in a handful of vast canvas suites raised on wooden decks, each with its own private hot tub, an open fire for cool evenings and a shaded veranda facing the wilderness. Interiors pair polished timber floors and hand-crafted furniture with the soft glow of lanterns, and a personal butler is on hand throughout your stay to arrange sundowners, bush breakfasts and the small, unhurried moments that define time here.
Days move to the rhythm of the wilderness – early game drives in search of big cats and migrating herds, long lunches back at camp, spa treatments on your deck, and evenings around the fire beneath an enormous starlit sky. Private dinners set out on Simba’s Rock and candle-lit tables in the grass turn the everyday into the unforgettable, making Bushtops one of the most romantic and immersive bases from which to witness the migration.
Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge is built into the stone of the Ngorongoro Crater rim, with rooms looking down onto the crater floor. Its rim position gives easy access to the crater for the game-drive day.
This is a luxury lodge where rooms are centrally heated for the cool highland climate. Verified facilities include a Maisha Spa with in-room massage, a main dining room, a bar, cultural activities and free Wi-Fi.
Meals are usually full-board, with crater-rim dining and optional bush dinners. It is a premium base for the Ngorongoro Crater, well suited to travellers seeking comfort at altitude.
