A carefully paced 7-day route through Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro, staying in comfortable tented camps and established safari lodges throughout. 6 nights on safari, priced on request.
Tarangire - Serengeti - Ngorongoro - Lake Manyara
About this safari
The route opens in Tarangire — baobabs, a life-giving river and the circuit's greatest elephant numbers — and works through 3 further destinations over 7 days. It stays within Tanzania; the final proposal will confirm transfer times and the balance between travel and game viewing. Accommodation is at the mid-range standard: comfortable tented camps and established safari lodges. The balance most travellers settle on — proper beds, en-suite bathrooms and well-run lodges in good positions, without the premium that the top end of the market commands. Like every safari in this catalogue, it is priced on request rather than sold at a published rate, because park fees, permits, group size and available accommodation all change the figure.
Day by day
Written out in full before you book, so you can see exactly how the days are paced and where each night is spent.
Day 1
Arusha is the working gateway for this route. Citrus will set out the actual collection and transfer arrangements in writing. The road south-west from Arusha runs through Maasai grazing land before turning into Tarangire, and the change at the gate is immediate: baobabs. They stand alone across the open woodland, enormous and strange, and they give the park a landscape that exists nowhere else on the northern circuit. In the dry season the first elephants usually appear within minutes. The park's character comes from its trees. Baobabs — some of them well over a thousand years old, several scarred where elephants have stripped the bark for moisture — dominate the open woodland, and the late-afternoon light through them is the signature photograph of any northern circuit trip. Lion are common here and occasionally rest in the branches, as they do at Lake Manyara. The catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Tarangire
Day 2
This travel day carries the route onward, heading north through the Serengeti, the landscape changes as you go: the short grass of the south gives way to taller grassland, then to rolling hills and river courses lined with fig and sausage trees. This is the country the herds move through on their way to the Mara River, and in the right months it carries an extraordinary weight of animals. A full day in the Serengeti means covering distance, and that is no hardship. Between sightings the plains themselves hold attention — grass moving in wind, kopjes standing out of it, and the sense of space that no other park in East Africa quite matches. Your guide will usually pack lunch and stay out through the middle of the day, when many vehicles return to camp and the tracks empty. A mid-range camp or lodge is proposed for this night, subject to availability and written confirmation.
Overnight: Serengeti
Day 3
Game drives here work several habitats at once. The open plain carries gazelle, topi and hartebeest with cheetah working the edges; the kopjes hold lion, leopard and klipspringer; and the river courses draw elephant, hippo and an extraordinary range of birds. Spotted hyena are everywhere and worth watching properly — they are far more effective hunters than their reputation allows. The Serengeti holds one of the densest lion populations on earth, and the granite kopjes are the best place to look — prides use them for shade, vantage and shelter, and a pride draped across warm rock in early light is one of the defining images of the park. Cheetah favour the open plains where their speed counts, and leopard rest through the heat in the acacias along the Seronera river courses. This outline assumes a comfortable safari stay near the route. The exact property is proposed and confirmed during quotation.
Overnight: Serengeti
Day 4
A full day in the Serengeti means covering distance, and that is no hardship. Between sightings the plains themselves hold attention — grass moving in wind, kopjes standing out of it, and the sense of space that no other park in East Africa quite matches. Your guide will usually pack lunch and stay out through the middle of the day, when many vehicles return to camp and the tracks empty. Between the large predators there is a great deal else. Bat-eared fox and serval hunt the short grass, secretary birds stride through it, and agama lizards blaze orange and blue on the kopjes. Your guide will stop as readily for a serval hunting in long grass as for a lion, and on a good day that is exactly the right call. The suggested standard is mid-range. Citrus will confirm the property and contracted services in writing before booking.
Overnight: Serengeti
Day 5
Leaving the previous stop behind, today's route brings you up into the Ngorongoro highlands, where the temperature drops with the altitude and cloud sits in the forest along the rim. The conservation area is shared with Maasai pastoralists, and you will pass cattle and manyattas on the way — it is one of the few places where people and wildlife share protected land by design. Ngorongoro is the most dependable place in East Africa to see black rhino, though they are usually out on the open floor at some distance and best appreciated through binoculars or a long lens. Around them the floor carries wildebeest, zebra, eland and both Grant's and Thomson's gazelle in permanent residence, with flamingo working the soda shallows of Lake Magadi. The catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Ngorongoro
Day 6
This activity is a planning option and only forms part of the day when it appears in the written quotation. The next section of the circuit moves on, coming down from the highlands, the route drops towards the alkaline shallows of Lake Manyara with the escarpment wall running along the western side. It is a short transfer, which leaves time for a proper game drive through the forest and along the lake shore before the day closes. A mid-range camp or lodge is proposed for this night, subject to availability and written confirmation.
Overnight: Lake Manyara
Day 7
Citrus will time the last day around the agreed end point and onward arrangements. The park's baboon troops are among the largest recorded anywhere, and watching a few hundred of them work through the forest floor is a spectacle in its own right. Elephant move through the trees with surprising quietness, hippo hold the pools near the lake, and the alkaline shallows draw flamingo and pelican in numbers that vary with the water level. Arusha is the working end point, with the final transfer stated in the written proposal.
Safari ends
Where you stay
Comfortable safari lodges and tented camps are matched to the route and your dates. The exact properties are proposed and confirmed in your written quotation.
Recommended standard by stop
Tarangire: Comfortable safari lodge or tented camp · Serengeti: Comfortable safari lodge or tented camp · Ngorongoro: Comfortable safari lodge or tented camp · Lake Manyara: Comfortable safari lodge or tented camp
Your written quotation will allocate the nights and confirm each available property before booking.
These are planning examples, not confirmed inclusions for this package. Your written quotation will confirm exactly what is included.
The quotation will identify every separate cost before you confirm.
Where this safari goes
Tanzania
Baobabs, a life-giving river and the circuit's greatest elephant numbers
ExploreTanzania
Endless plains and the engine of the Great Migration
ExploreTanzania
A collapsed volcano holding its own complete ecosystem
ExploreTanzania
Groundwater forest beneath the Rift escarpment
ExploreTanzania
The northern circuit's starting line, beneath Mount Meru
ExploreBefore you ask
The catalogue sets the route and travel standard, but it does not publish a fixed price or a contracted inclusion list. Citrus will prepare a written quotation for your dates, party and rooming, showing the exact transfers, activities, accommodation, meals, fees and permits before you confirm.
No. Accommodation is proposed for your dates and confirmed in the written quotation before a booking is made. Where an approved budget property is named, it remains subject to availability and written confirmation.
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Tell us your dates and who is travelling, and we will come back with availability, honest advice on timing and a written quotation for this route.