Tanzania Safari - Great Migration Calving Season

Welcome to Tanzania!

On arrival at Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania, you will be met by your driver and taken to your hotel in Arusha, the safari capital of Tanzania, close to Mount Kilimanjaro and gateway to the great National Parks.

Your Big Safari Company will be there to welcome you at your hotel and where you also have the chance to meet your fellow travellers and get to know each other better during the Welcome Dinner.

Today, we head off to start our safari adventure.

We depart Arusha after breakfast and drive to the village of Mto Wa Mbu village. Here you can either explore the village on foot with a guide or tour the village in a Tuk Tuk, visiting farms, local houses, schools, milling machines and churches.

We take our lunch at the local banana plantation where they grow more than 30 different varieties of bananas. Other than learning how the banana is grown, you’re also told of the different uses of this versatile fruit.

After lunch we head into Manyara National Park, which is located in a spectacular region of the Great Rift Valley, and has a large lake, wetland forest, acacia woodland and open grassland. Wildlife roams the plains and frequent the waters of the lake and the Simba River, which are teeming with hippo. The forests of the region are home to blue monkeys, vervets, baboons, aardvark, pangolin, leopard and even black rhino. The area is also home to famous tree-climbing lions.

You'll spot your first wild animals before you reach the lodge. Standing high cliff above Lake Manyara, the our lodge for the next two nights commands panoramic views across the Great Rift Valley.

In the evening we have dinner together at the lodge.

This morning, you can enjoy a visit to Tanzania's first and only Treetop walkway in the country - an excellent way to experience the groundwater forest ecosystem from a unique birds-eye view. The walkway's suspension bridges connect several viewing decks situated around tree trunks and the local guides provide fascinating information on the trees, butterflies, birds, monkeys and wildlife.

Afterwards, enjoy a game drive in the park with a picnic lunch. The rest of the afternoon is free.

After dinner this evening, we venture out again on a night game drive in Lake Manyara National Park. A whole new world of nocturnal animal species awaits and gives a different perspective of the park and its wildlife. Lake Manyara National Park is the ideal location for a night game drive because of its many ecosystems.

After breakfast depart Lake Manyara for Ngorongoro Crater.

Our lodge for the next two nights is set in 50 acres of Tanzanian bush in the volcanic landscape located near to Ngorongoro Crater.

After lunch, we visit a Maasai village. A semi-nomadic indigenous people, the Maasai live in northern Tanzania and Kenya. For centuries, they've existed in harmony with wildlife, living in 'bomas', made from mud, sticks, grass and cow dung. Today, some 42,000 Maasai live in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area with their cattle, donkeys, goats and sheep. The Maasai are allowed to take their animals into the Crater for water and grazing, but not to live or cultivate there. During our visit, we'll learn about their unique culture.

This morning we depart very early to descend into the crater for a full day game viewing on the crater floor.

The centrepiece of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is the breathtaking Ngorongoro Crater, the world's largest intact volcanic caldera. The crater floor is a natural sanctuary for thousands of animals and many species of
insects and birds, including the big five.

We'll spend the day in the Crater, enjoying a picnic lunch as we go before ascending back to the lodge at the end of the day.

After breakfast, we depart the Ngorongoro Crater as we make our way to probably Tanzania's most famous park - the Serengeti.

We drive towards our lodge in the Serengeti, spotting game and enjoying lunch as we go.

The name Serengeti comes from the Maasai 'Siringet', meaning an endless plain. Declared a Game Reserve in 1929, in 1951 the Reserve became Tanganyika's first National Park, which included the Ngorongoro Crater.

Further alterations to the park's limits took place to provide more protection to the wildebeest migration. Covering 14,763 square kilometres, today it is roughly the size of Northern Ireland and Tanzania's largest National Park.

The Ndutu area is popular with the wildebeest and zebra, which often calve in its short grassy plains.

Our lodge here offers a superb base from which to explore the range of habitats that lie within easy reach - swamps, woodlands, soda lakes and the world famous Serengeti short grass plains.

After breakfast depart for game drive in the short grass plains, where we will also enjoy a picnic lunch.

Later in the day we can take part in a walking safari with a ranger.

There is also the possibility this morning to enjoy a Hot Air Balloon ride as dawn breaks over the Serengeti and view the beautiful plains from the air (supplement payable).

Today, enjoy a full day game drive in the iconic Serengeti. Discover the wildlife of the Ndutu or Seronera zones, stopping for a picnic lunch en route.

Return back to your lodge in time for dinner and enjoy your last night in the Serengeti.

Today, enjoy a full day game drive in the iconic Serengeti. Discover the wildlife of the Ndutu or Seronera zones, stopping for a picnic lunch en route.

Return back to your lodge in time for dinner and enjoy your last night in the Serengeti.