4-Day Serengeti and Ngorongoro Camping Safari

You'll be met at Kilimanjaro International Airport and transferred around 45 minutes to Arusha Planet Lodge, set on the edge of town with views towards Mount Meru. Your guide will meet you here to run through the days ahead, confirm camping arrangements, and check equipment before you head into the parks. There is time to rest after the flight and adjust to the altitude, which sits around 1,400 metres in Arusha itself.

The rest of the day is unstructured. You can relax by the lodge gardens, sort your kit for the camping days ahead, or take an early night. Dinner is served at the lodge, giving you a proper meal before three nights under canvas.

You'll leave Arusha after breakfast for the long drive west, roughly six to seven hours, passing through the Great Rift Valley and skirting Ngorongoro Conservation Area before descending onto the short-grass plains. The tarmac gives way to dirt as you enter Serengeti National Park through Naabi Hill Gate, where you can stretch your legs and scan the plains for early wildlife, often giraffe, gazelle and the first scattered wildebeest.

Your guide will use the final hours of daylight for a game drive into the central Seronera area, known for resident lion prides and regular leopard sightings in the riverine trees. You'll arrive at your campsite in time to set up before dark, with the cook preparing dinner as the sky turns over the plains and camp sounds take over from engine noise.

You'll have a full day exploring the Seronera area of the central Serengeti, starting with an early game drive while temperatures are cool and predators are often still moving. This region holds permanent water in the Seronera River, which draws game year-round and makes it one of the most reliable areas in the park for lion, leopard and resident hippo pods in the river pools.

You'll return to camp for lunch, then head out again in the afternoon as the light softens and animals become active once more. Your guide will follow fresh tracks and radio reports from other vehicles to look for cheetah on the open grass and elephant herds moving between waterholes. Dinner is at your campsite, with the Serengeti's flat horizon giving way to a wide, unbroken night sky.

You'll break camp early and drive back towards Ngorongoro, descending into the crater itself on the steep access road that drops around 600 metres from the rim to the floor. The crater holds a dense concentration of wildlife within its walls, including black rhino, dense lion prides, and large herds of buffalo and zebra grazing around the soda lake and swamp areas.

Your guide will spend the morning working the crater floor before the exit road closes to vehicles, watching for hyena near the lake margins and flamingo gathered in the shallows. After lunch you'll climb back out of the crater and begin the drive to Arusha, arriving in the evening in time for your onward flight or overnight stay.