6-Day Majestic Tanzania Luxury Safari

A morning departure from Arusha to Tarangire National Park, arriving in time for lunch and an afternoon game drive among the baobabs and elephant herds of the river valley.

Tarangire is usually the first park on the northern circuit and an easy drive from Arusha. The afternoon drive follows the river valley, where the game gathers, with the baobabs throwing long shadows as the light drops.

Continue to Lake Manyara National Park, a narrow but exceptionally varied park running from groundwater forest to open floodplain. It is known for its tree-climbing lions and for large troops of baboon along the forest road.

The park changes character every few kilometres, which is its appeal: dense groundwater forest at the entrance, then open floodplain, then the alkaline lake shore. The tree-climbing lions are the headline, resting in acacia branches through the heat, though they are never guaranteed. Baboon troops here are among the largest in Africa.

Climb the escarpment and cross the Ngorongoro highlands, descending onto the Serengeti plains in the afternoon. Game viewing begins as you enter the park and continues to camp.

Game viewing begins the moment you pass the gate, with the plains widening as you drive in. Your guide will track where the migration currently sits and shape the coming days around it, whether that means the southern calving grounds or the northern river crossings.

An unhurried full day in the park, with the option of a dawn balloon flight over the plains followed by breakfast in the bush. The route each day is shaped by where the game and the herds are.

The Seronera valley holds water year-round, which is why lion, leopard and cheetah are all resident here rather than seasonal. Days are spent working the kopjes, where lion lie up on the warm rock, and the river lines where leopard rest through the heat. The scale takes time to absorb: the plains genuinely run to the horizon in every direction.

Travel south-east out of the Serengeti, pausing at Olduvai Gorge where some of the earliest hominin remains were found, and climb to the crater rim for the afternoon and evening.

The rim sits at over two thousand metres, so evenings are genuinely cold and the views across the caldera at dusk are the reason to be up here. Your descent is timed for first light, when the floor is at its most active and before the day's vehicles arrive.

A full descent onto the crater floor at first light, when the light is best and the game most active, before returning to Arusha in the afternoon.

The descent onto the crater floor takes around twenty minutes down a steep track, and the change is immediate: twenty-five thousand large animals inside a caldera you can see across. Black rhino are the sighting most guests hope for, and the crater is among the most reliable places in Africa for them. Lion prides here are large and unbothered by vehicles, and the elephant bulls carry some of the heaviest tusks left on the continent.