8-Day Tanzania Birding and Wildlife Safari

After a wonderful breakfast at Ngorongoro Coffee Lodge, we will drive to Lake Manyara National Park and start a game drive exploring the park with your best tour operator, Oreteti Safaris Ltd. Game drives allow guests to explore parts of the park that are off-limits to day visitors and uninhabited. Set out every morning and afternoon in a canvas-covered open 4x4 safari vehicle with your guide and tracker by your side. Together, you will explore the park's various habitats, pausing by the lake to take in the various bird species and search for pink flamingos. In quest of wildlife, you will travel through a diverse landscape of acacia woodlands, grassy floodplains, and lofty forests. These include the renowned tree-climbing lions of Manyara, which you may see resting in favorite locations, as well as sizable family herds of elephants.

Dark male giraffes may be seen casually staring over the roofs of green trees, and an Olive baboon troop of 200 fuzzy creatures can be spotted who is always up for a good time. On the shoreline, a subspecies of the common wildebeest play, while enormous buffalo bulls with spectacular horns enjoy the seeping muddy shallows. There are sporadic sightings of the elusive leopard and Cape clawless otter

Lake Manyara National Park is a spectacular landscape that is home to a variety of games and is one of Tanzania's lesser wilderness enclaves. A captivating setting where one may truly enjoy and marvel at the magnificent world of wildlife.

The stunning Lake Manyara covers two thirds of the park with water depths, and the Manyara ecosystem's other components include lofty hills, growing marshlands, dense trees, broad grassy plains, and hot springs.

You will check in at the camp of your choice upon arrival—Accacia luxury camp, Serengeti heritage luxury lodge, or River Lodge—during the road transfer to the Serengeti National Park. The Serengeti National Park, which in Masai means "endless plains," is unquestionably one of the most famous wilderness locations in the world and a constant source of inspiration for authors, filmmakers, and photographers.

You can organize your few days in the Serengeti with the aid of your guide. Enjoy twice-daily game drives with stops at sunrise and dusk. You might even go on a full-day game drive and have a delicious lunch to spend the entire day outdoors.

Early in the morning, you will be picked up by Miracle experience, for a Hot Air Balloon Safari, which will end at around 09:30 am. We will enjoy a two-day game drive at the Serengeti national park, the endless plains as the native called it. As you crest the hillside, spread out before you, as far as the eyes can see, is the vast Serengeti. Serengeti means "endless plains" in Kiswahili and this 6,900 sq mile (18,000 sq km) park. It is inhabited by more than 2 million large animals including more than a million wildebeest, hundreds of thousands of plains zebras, and Thomson's gazelles. Large predators including lions, cheetahs, and hyenas are drawn to the area by this abundance of prey that migrates throughout the park. Many smaller animals like rock hyrax, bat-eared foxes, mongoose, honey badgers, jackals, monkeys, baboons, and African hares also inhabit the area along with nearly 500 species of birds.

Relaxation, Dinner, and Overnight, will be at your chosen accommodation.

On this day it is best to leave the hotel as early as possible so you can see the variety of animals that are only active during the morning hours; breakfast will be packed in lunchboxes specifically for this purpose. At 6:30 AM you will set off for Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and after about an hour you will already be inside the crater. Ngorongoro is one of the most famous and interesting of Tanzania's national parks because here you can find the greatest number of different animal species per square kilometer. You will have the chance to see buffalo, elephants, lions, wildebeests, zebras, hippopotami, and feline species such as caracals and servals. The luckiest travelers might even see a rhinoceros, an animal whose numbers are rapidly declining. By lunchtime you will arrive at the lakeside, where you will be offered lunchboxes, after which the safari will continue, ending in a few hours with a transfer to Serengeti National Park. On your travels, you will also visit a memorial dedicated to two West German researchers, Bernhard and Michael Grzimek. It is them we have to thank for Northern Tanzania National Parks having survived till our times in its current natural state. You can read their full story in the book "Serengeti Shall Not Die" which can be found on Amazon.com for USD 10–25.

On this day it is best to leave the hotel as early as possible so you can see the variety of animals that are only active during the morning hours; breakfast will be packed in lunchboxes specifically for this purpose. At 6:30 AM you will set off for Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and after about an hour you will already be inside the crater. Ngorongoro is one of the most famous and interesting of Tanzania's national parks because here you can find the greatest number of different animal species per square kilometer. You will have the chance to see buffalo, elephants, lions, wildebeests, zebras, hippopotamus, and feline species such as caracals and servals. The luckiest travelers might even see a rhinoceros, an animal whose numbers are rapidly declining. By lunchtime you will arrive at the lakeside, where you will be offered lunchboxes, after which the safari will continue, ending in a few hours with a transfer to Serengeti National Park. On your travels, you will also visit a memorial dedicated to two West German researchers, Bernhard and Michael Grzimek. It is them we have to thank for Northern Tanzania National Parks having survived till our times in its current natural state. You can read their full story in the book "Serengeti Shall Not Die" which can be found on Amazon.com for USD 10–25.

We will wake up Very early in the morning, have an early breakfast then, descend down to the crater floor for a day of wildlife viewing in one of the most incredible places on earth. After a stop for a picnic lunch near Hippo Lake, enjoy more wildlife viewing in the afternoon. Later, drive up the steep road out of the crater and transfer to Lake Manyara National Park across the Great Rift Valley. Although only 205 sq miles in size, this enchanting park is noted for its beauty and incredibly lush acacia forest of giant figs and mahogany trees, which are home to troops of baboons and blue monkeys. Dinner and your overnight stay will be at a tented camp/lodge.
Relaxation, Dinner, and Overnight, will be at your chosen accommodation.

Our own safari guide will pick you up from your accommodations in Karatu in the morning. On a decent tarmac road that winds through gently rolling Maasai plains with sporadic acacia trees, we will travel to Tarangire National Park. As we go at high speed, we will pass numerous Maasais wearing vibrant clothing wandering alongside the road, riding bicycles, herding livestock, and pulling carts pulled by donkeys. Numerous more animals can be found at the Tarangire National Park, which is widely renowned for its sizable elephant herds. We will see the seasonal marshes, savanna, and life-giving Tarangire River from the open top of our cutting-edge safari vehicle. Make an effort to come across a variety of animals, including zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, elephant, and giraffe, to mention a few. It is possible to see lions pursuing their prey or leopards sitting on the trees above while watching. Following a long game drive in which we take in the many views and sounds of the environment, we'll travel to your lodging where you'll have dinner and spend the night.

Today will be a delightful and different day. You will wake up very early, just before sunrise, and follow your guide until he finds the Hadza people, one of the last truly nomadic tribes in Africa. After some explanations about the tribe, you will join them in their daily morning activities.
This experience is out of the beaten track and does not feel touristic. The photographic opportunities are out of this world. This tour will be a highlight of your safari. The experiences you have with the Hadza people can be joining the men in their daily hunting or the women in their fruit-gathering session. You will learn about many aspects of the Hadzabe way of living. After finishing the activities with the Hadza people, you will visit the beautiful Lake Eyasi, a seasonal shallow Salt Lake on the floor of the Great Rift Valley, followed by a return to Arusha town for drop-off at your hotel or any point in town.