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 845 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.
Follow the wildebeest to the southern Serengeti and Ndutu plains during the dramatic calving season, when hundreds of thousands of calves are born.
A seven-day safari timed for the calving season (roughly December to March), when the Great Migration gathers on the short-grass plains of Ndutu and the southern Serengeti. It is one of nature’s greatest events: up to half a million wildebeest calves born within a few weeks, and the predators that follow them.
Your journey builds from the elephants of Tarangire and the wildlife-rich Ngorongoro Crater to two full nights in the Ndutu area, right among the herds, before a final stretch of classic Serengeti plains. Comfortable lodges and camps, a private 4×4 and an expert guide put you in the heart of the action.
This is a bucket-list wildlife experience for photographers and safari lovers alike – intimate, dramatic and unforgettable.
Drive from Arusha to Tarangire for an afternoon game drive among elephants and baobabs.
Transfer to the Ngorongoro Highlands with time to enjoy the crater-rim setting.
Descend into the crater for a morning game drive, then continue onto the Ndutu plains to reach the heart of the calving grounds.
A full day among the migration herds, following newborn calves and the predators drawn to the plains.
Game-drive north through the Serengeti’s southern and central plains, rich with resident wildlife.
A full day exploring the Seronera region, famous for its lions, leopards and cheetahs.
Still atSerengeti National Park · Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge
A final morning drive before your flight or drive back to Arusha.
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.
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.
Ndutu is where the great herds come to give birth. The area sits partly inside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, on the edge of the southern Serengeti plains, around two small soda lakes, Lake Ndutu and Lake Masek. For much of the year it is quiet acacia woodland and dry grass. Then the rains arrive, the short grass on the plains turns green and full of nutrients, and hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and zebra move in to feed and to drop their calves.
In calving season the plains fill with wildebeest as far as you can see, and newborn calves are up and running within minutes of birth. All that new life draws predators. Lions, spotted hyenas and jackals are everywhere, and the open grassland is one of the best places in Tanzania to watch cheetahs hunt. You may also find servals, bat-eared foxes and, with luck, a leopard in the woodland around the lakes. It can be raw to watch, but it is the migration at its most dramatic and intimate. Away from the herds, the lakes attract flamingos and other water birds.
In a typical year the herds arrive on the southern plains around December, and calving runs from roughly late January to March, with a peak in February. These timings vary with the rains. If the short rains fail or come late, the herds may wander or arrive later, and in a wet year they may spread wider. Once the plains dry out, usually around April or May, the herds move west and north, and Ndutu goes back to being a quiet corner. Our Great Migration tracker follows the herds through the year.
By road, Ndutu is roughly five to six hours from Arusha, crossing the Ngorongoro highlands and dropping down onto the plains on rough tracks for the final stretch. Most travellers break the journey with a night near the crater. There is also an airstrip at Ndutu, and light aircraft from Arusha take around one to one and a half hours, depending on stops.
Ndutu works best between December and March, which lines up well with the January to March Kilimanjaro climbing season. A common plan is to climb, spend a day in the Ngorongoro Crater, then two or three nights at Ndutu among the calving herds, perhaps with time in central Serengeti. From there you can fly to Zanzibar for a few days by the sea.
Accommodation here is mainly tented, from a small number of permanent lodges near the lakes to seasonal camps that open only during the calving months and pack up when the herds leave. Seasonal camps put you right among the action, so they book up early for February. We will advise where to stay based on where the herds are expected that year.
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.
Tarangire Safari Lodge sits on a bluff overlooking the Tarangire River inside Tarangire National Park, an area famous for its large elephant herds and baobab trees. Its position gives sweeping views and direct access to game drives.
Accommodation is in en-suite tents and rooms with a classic safari style. Facilities include a swimming pool, a restaurant and game-drive access, with family rooms available.
Meals are provided during safari stays. It is a comfortable mid-range lodge with a strong sense of place, well suited to travellers who want to be inside the park.
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. 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.
