8-Day Tanzania Safari - Tarangire, Manyara, Lake Natron, Serengeti & Eyasi

Departing from your hotel in Arusha at around 7:30 AM, you head for Tarangire National Park with a picnic lunch. Tanzania's third largest national park is known for its ancient baobab trees and some of the largest elephant herds in Africa. The Tarangire River is the centrepiece of the park and supports lions, leopards, cheetahs, lesser kudu, buffalo, oryx, eland, giraffes, and zebras alongside its famous elephant population. After the game drive, you return to your lodge for dinner and overnight.

Distance: Approximately 120 km from Arusha to Tarangire

Activity: Full-day game drive in Tarangire National Park with picnic lunch

Accommodation: Lodge or tented camp in Tarangire

Meals: Full Board

Departing from your lodge at 7:00 AM with a picnic lunch, you drive to Lake Manyara National Park. As you enter the park, the lush forest of acacia and mahogany sets the mood for the day ahead. The full-day game drive covers the park's varied habitats — groundwater forest, open floodplain, and the alkaline lake shore. Buffalo, giraffes, impalas, baboons, and blue monkeys are reliably seen. The park is particularly celebrated for its tree-climbing lions, though spotting them requires patience and luck. In the right season, the lake shore turns pink with flamingos.

Distance: Approximately 130 km from Tarangire to Lake Manyara

Activity: Full-day game drive in Lake Manyara National Park with picnic lunch

Accommodation: Lodge or camp near Lake Manyara or Karatu

Meals: Full Board

Departing after breakfast with packed lunches, the drive takes you to the surreal shores of Lake Natron. The lake's highly alkaline, mineral-rich waters average just one metre in depth and produce a striking natural landscape unlike anywhere else in East Africa. After checking in, you join a Maasai guide for a walk along the shoreline in search of lesser flamingos. Lake Natron is the most important and most consistent breeding site for lesser flamingos in East Africa, supporting up to two million birds during the breeding season (peak September to January).

Distance: Approximately 170 km from the Lake Manyara area to Lake Natron, around 3.5 hours

Activity: Flamingo shoreline walk with a Maasai guide at Lake Natron

Accommodation: Lodge or camp at Lake Natron

Meals: Full Board

The day starts early at around 6:00 AM with a guided hike to the Ngare Sero waterfalls, a short walk through a scenic volcanic ravine where water cascades down the rock face into a clear pool. After returning for breakfast, the drive heads toward Serengeti National Park through towns, savannah, and forested highland scenery. You enter the Serengeti in the afternoon and begin your first game drive across the central plains, where wildebeest, zebras, gazelles, and lions are commonly seen.

Distance: Approximately 250 km from Lake Natron to central Serengeti, around 4-5 hours

Activity: Morning hike to Ngare Sero waterfalls; afternoon game drive in the central Serengeti

Accommodation: Lodge or tented camp in central Serengeti

Meals: Full Board

A full day exploring the Serengeti. The Seronera area is one of the most wildlife-rich zones in the park, with the Seronera River providing a permanent water source that supports year-round concentrations of predators and prey. Lions, leopards, and cheetahs are all regularly encountered, along with elephants, giraffes, hippos, ostriches, and vast herds of wildebeest and zebra. An early morning departure around 6:00 AM maximises predator sightings; alternatively, you may opt for a more relaxed start with an extended afternoon session.

Distance: Game drives within Serengeti National Park

Activity: Full-day game drives in the central Serengeti

Accommodation: Lodge or tented camp in central Serengeti

Meals: Full Board

After breakfast you depart with a packed lunch and spend the morning on a final game drive in the Serengeti. In the afternoon you transfer to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, stopping near Karatu. Depending on your accommodation choice, you stay either inside the conservation area or at a lodge near Karatu, with dinner and overnight.

Distance: Approximately 145 km from Serengeti to Ngorongoro area

Activity: Morning game drive in the Serengeti; afternoon transfer to Ngorongoro

Accommodation: Lodge or tented camp on the Ngorongoro crater rim or near Karatu

Meals: Full Board

An early start at 6:30 AM takes you down into the Ngorongoro Crater for a five-hour game drive. The crater floor is home to an extraordinary density of wildlife within its 260 square kilometre floor: elephants, buffalo, black rhino, hippos, hyenas, cheetahs, and lions — including the famous black-maned males — are all regularly encountered. A picnic lunch at the hippo pool is followed by the ascent back to the rim. In the afternoon you drive to your lodge at Lake Eyasi for dinner and overnight. If time and energy allow, a short evening walk along the lake shore to look for flamingos and waterbirds is a pleasant option.

Distance: Approximately 60 km from Ngorongoro area to Lake Eyasi

Activity: Full Ngorongoro Crater game drive with picnic lunch; transfer to Lake Eyasi

Accommodation: Lodge or camp at Lake Eyasi

Meals: Full Board

An early start at around 5:30 AM for a visit to the Hadzabe — one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer communities in East Africa, whose way of life has changed very little over tens of thousands of years. You participate in their early morning activities including a bush walk, traditional hunting techniques, fire-making, and other daily practices such as honey gathering and baobab fruit foraging. Later in the day you visit the Datoga, skilled farmers, livestock keepers, and craftsmen who forge knives, arrowheads, and jewellery that they trade with the Hadzabe and beyond. After lunch at your lodge, you drive back to Arusha, arriving by around 5:00 PM.

Distance: Approximately 150 km from Lake Eyasi to Arusha

Activity: Hadzabe cultural walk; Datoga community visit; return to Arusha

Accommodation: N/A – departure day

Meals: Full Board

Extend your trip

Add a Zanzibar beach stay after your safari, or combine this route with a Kilimanjaro climb. Explore our full range of Serengeti safari itineraries and Ngorongoro packages.