Great Migration Safari

Karibu (welcome)! Transfer from the airport to your hotel in Arusha to check in and rest for the start of your Great Migration Classic Safari tour starting tomorrow.

This morning you’ll venture southwest to Tarangire National Park, a must-see known for its baobab trees. The Tarangire River is the primary water source for the park giving it a vibrant quality many African landscapes lack. Outside of the Serengeti and during the dry season, Tarangire National Park hosts the highest concentration of animals, providing the perfect conditions for you to seek them out. See large herds of elephants and other game amid the mixed vegetation of palm and baobab trees along the Tarangire riverbank.

What’s more, it’s possible to see lions, giraffes, buffalo, leopards, cheetahs, impalas, zebras, and less common species like the minor kudi, oryx, and even the sable antelope due to the ideal (hotter) climate of the lowlands. From the vantage of the Tarangire Safari Lodge and a safari tour, you’ll be able to see a wide variety of animals.

After enjoying this majestic park, you’ll continue to Lake Manyara National Park and onto Maasai lands where you might encounter these ancient nomadic tribes. The Maasai have inhabited this area for thousands of years and continue to uphold their traditions.

One of Tanzania’s most unique gems, Lake Manyara National Park is small (only 330 square km) and is mostly occupied by its namesake lake of which stretches for over 50 km and dramatically transforms throughout the rainy and dry seasons each year. You can expect to find more than 400 species of birds, including colorful flocks of flamingo, as well as big game mammals (giraffes, leopards, lions, and hippos). Here you’ll have the opportunity to go on safari to Lake Manyara in the afternoon for a chance sighting of hunting carnivores.

Say goodbye to Lake Manyara after a sunrise safari and head toward the legendary Serengeti National Park, the natural extension of Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve. From the months of July to October of each year, approximately 1.5 million wildebeest, 250,000 zebra, and 500,000 gazelles, followed by the lions and hyenas on the hunt, herd between these parks on what is famously known as The Great Migration.

After your afternoon game drive, you’ll relax in a fresh-drawn bath at your new accommodation in the park, in time for a traditional meal under the stars.

Rise with the sun for your second day in Serengeti National Park, taking full advantage of your luxury camp’s exclusive location in the middle of Seronera. As wildlife is most active at sunrise and sundown, you’ll have an early start to the day to seek out the “big 5” (lions, buffalo, elephants, rhinoceros, and leopards) as well as a second outing in the late afternoon.

In between safaris, relax at camp, set in the middle of the unending plain that evokes a typical African landscape complete with infinite skies and innumerable stars.

Enjoy an early morning game drive on the way to Ngorongoro Conservation Area where you’ll get to visit another singularity of the Serengeti, the kopjes (islands of rock in a sea of grass where lions, leopards and cheetahs love to rest). Leaving behind the endless plain, and if time allows, you’ll have the option to visit the Olduvai Gorge, home to numerous fossils and artifacts of early hominids, before carrying on to a Maasai boma (Maasai village). Here you’ll experience the Maasai’s ancestral traditions and then continue to the day’s final destination, Pakulala Safari Camp.

Perched on the rim of the famous Ngorongoro Crater, Pakulala Safari Camp offers visitors sweeping vistas over the African landscape as well as a look into its relationship to the Maasai and flora and fauna through its sustainable tourism practices.

At sunrise, you’ll climb into your 4x4 vehicle to venture into the Ngorongoro Crater for your game drive and to take a closer look at the magnificent landscape. A volcanic caldera 600 meters in depth and more than 20 kilometers in diameter, Ngorongoro Crater sustains the highest permanent concentration of African wildlife, including thousands of wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, gazelles, and lions, which, unlike the Serengeti, do not migrate because of the continuous presence of water. The crater is also home to over 40,000 Maasai shepherds and is dominated by the Rift Valley and nine volcanoes, each well over four million years old.

After spending time in the “Volcano of Eden” you’ll make your way to Lake Eyasi. Marvel at the landscape, untouched by time and civilization, and home to the last remaining tribes of Africa’s bushmen, like the Datoga and Hadzabe tribes.

Getting a very early start this morning, you’ll walk among the acacias and majestic baobabs to encounter the Datoga and Hadzabe tribespeople to learn about their cultural practices. Dressed in minimal tanned skins and adorned with necklaces made of fruit seeds, the bushmen will greet you with genuine curiosity speaking in their unique tongue-clicking language. Here you’ll spend some time learning of the Hadzabe’s hunting practice where you’ll walk with them in the savanna surrounding Lake Eyasi and understand what it takes to survive.

In the afternoon, you’ll transfer to the airport in Arusha in time for your evening flight.