7 Days Ndutu Calving Season, Serengeti & Ngorongoro Midrange Safari
Ndutu · Serengeti · Ngorongoro
Accommodation is in lodges.
Tanzania · Midrange · Big Time pick
6 Days Great Migration Ndutu Safari
A 6-day midrange Great Migration safari centred on Ndutu. Accommodation is in lodges.
- Duration
- 6 days
- Where
- Ndutu
- Comfort
- Midrange
- Transport
- 4×4 Land Cruiser
- Accommodation
- Overnight at the lodge.
Price
Price on request
Day by day
Your itinerary, day by day.
Starts in Arusha · finishes in Arusha
The route, days and named stays are as planned. What is included at each stop, from food, park fees and drinking water to room types, permits and border arrangements, and any camp or lodge not named here, is set out in your written quotation. Game drives on travel days depend on arrival and departure times, timings can change with road and park conditions, and wildlife sightings are never guaranteed. Photographs illustrate each day’s destination; they are not pictures of a particular departure.
Wide open plains with a distant herd in northern Tanzania. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: xorge (CC BY-SA 2.0) Arusha to the Ndutu plains
Arusha → Ndutu
The journey begins with the long drive west from Arusha into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the authority that manages the Ndutu plains. As the land opens out on the southern edge of the Serengeti, the grass shortens and the horizon widens until it seems to have no end. Arriving in the afternoon leaves time to settle in near Lake Ndutu and take a first look across the plains, where wildebeest and zebra may already be spread out in their thousands if the herds have arrived.
- Overnight
- Lodge in the Ndutu area, named in your quotation
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
Wildebeest on the shore of a lake in Tanzania. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: xorge (CC BY-SA 2.0) Among the calving herds
Ndutu
This is the day the journey was built around. When the herds are here, thousands of calves are born on these plains in the space of a few months. The movement of the herds decides where to spend the morning, and the best viewing is often simply stopping among them and watching the rhythm of grazing, calling and nursing. The NCAA gives late December to April as the season for the herds around Ndutu, so in another month the plains belong to the residents.
- Overnight
- Lodge in the Ndutu area, named in your quotation
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
Young lions resting together in northern Tanzania. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: xorge (CC BY-SA 2.0) Following the predators
Ndutu
Where the herds give birth, the hunters follow. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority counts Ndutu among the best places in the area to see predators, and today’s drives turn the attention to them: cheetahs scanning the open grass from a termite mound, lions resting in the shade, hyenas moving purposefully along the edge of the herds. Hunts are unpredictable and often brief, so patience matters more than distance covered, and quiet, respectful viewing matters most of all.
- Overnight
- Lodge in the Ndutu area, named in your quotation
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
A giraffe feeding in an acacia in northern Tanzania. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: xorge (CC BY-SA 2.0) Lake Masek and the woodland edge
Ndutu
Away from the open plains, Ndutu has a quieter side. Acacia trees, marshes and woodland surround Lake Ndutu and the soda lake Masek, and the animals that live here all year — giraffe, impala, elephant and the tiny dik-dik — are easier to appreciate among them. The lake shores and woodland edges make a change of pace from the herds, and a good place to look for the smaller and shyer residents such as the bat-eared fox, before returning to the plains as the light softens late in the day.
- Overnight
- Lodge in the Ndutu area, named in your quotation
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
A lioness standing on short grass in northern Tanzania. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: xorge (CC BY-SA 2.0) A last full day on the plains
Ndutu
A final full day lets you return to whatever has held your attention most, whether that is a cheetah family, a pride that has been feeding nearby or the herds themselves as they shift with the grazing. The calving season is also a time of constant movement: by around April the wildebeest, zebra and gazelles begin heading north again, so each visit to Ndutu catches a different moment in a cycle that repeats every year but never quite the same way twice.
- Overnight
- Lodge in the Ndutu area, named in your quotation
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
Plains zebras on grassland in Tanzania. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: xorge (CC BY-SA 2.0) Leaving Ndutu for Arusha
Ndutu → Arusha
There is usually time for a last look across the plains before setting off, and the early part of the day is often when the grassland is at its most alive. The drive back east to Arusha retraces the route through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a long road that gives time to look through photographs and talk over the week. Arusha is the usual hub for flights and for travel on to other parts of northern Tanzania.
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
Like the shape of these days? Tell us your dates and who is travelling, and our team will set out the stays, meals and inclusions in a written quotation.
Where you stay.
Overnight at the lodge. The camp or lodge is discussed with you during planning and confirmed with your itinerary, subject to availability. How accommodation works on our safaris
Places along the way.
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Your journey begins with a conversation
Make this journey your own.
Tell us your dates, who is travelling and anything you would like to change. Our team will tell you what this journey can include.