5 Days Upper-Midrange Tarangire, Serengeti, Ngorongoro & Lake Manyara Safari
Big Time pick
Tarangire · Serengeti · Ngorongoro · Lake Manyara
Accommodation is in lodges.
Tanzania · Midrange
7 Days Ndutu Calving Season, Serengeti & Ngorongoro Midrange Safari
A 7-day midrange safari for the calving season in Ndutu, with the Serengeti and Ngorongoro. Accommodation is in lodges.
- Duration
- 7 days
- Route
- Ndutu → Serengeti → Ngorongoro
- Comfort
- Midrange
- Transport
- 4×4 Land Cruiser
- Accommodation
- Overnight at the lodge.
Price
Price on request
The way through.
- 01Ndutu
- 02Serengeti
- 03Ngorongoro
Places as named in the journey title. Nights in each are set out in your itinerary.
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.
A wildebeest mother and calf in the Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: Joachim Huber (CC BY-SA 2.0) Arusha to the crater highlands
Arusha → Ngorongoro
The safari leaves Arusha in the 4×4 Land Cruiser for the Ngorongoro highlands, the gateway to Ndutu and the southern Serengeti. The first night is spent on or near the crater rim, where the NCAA notes lodges and campsites are found, and where the view into the caldera gives a first sense of the landscape ahead. The crater itself, a collapsed volcano formed about 2.5 million years ago, is saved for the end of the journey, when the herds of the south have been seen.
- Overnight
- Lodge in the Ngorongoro area, named in your quotation
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
Wide open plains with a distant herd in northern Tanzania. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: xorge (CC BY-SA 2.0) Down to the Ndutu plains
Ngorongoro → Ndutu
From the highlands the journey descends to Ndutu, on the southern edge of the Serengeti plains. The NCAA describes short grassland, with acacia trees, marshes and woodland around Lake Ndutu and the soda lake Masek. From about the end of December, the migration herds arrive here, and thousands of calves are born before the wildebeest, zebra and gazelles begin moving north again in April. A first game drive is a chance to find the herds, if they are in.
- 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) Calving season on the short grass
Ndutu
A full day at Ndutu in calving season can be extraordinary, as the herds give birth on the short grass and the young calves find their feet. Predators follow the herds, and the NCAA counts Ndutu among the best places in the conservation area to see them: lions, cheetahs and hyenas work the edges of the herds. Nature can be hard to watch here, and it is worth giving yourself time to take in what is happening. Herd timing varies, and sightings are never certain.
- Overnight
- Lodge in the Ndutu area, named in your quotation
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
Cheetahs resting in the grass in Tanzania. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: xorge (CC BY-SA 2.0) Ndutu’s residents
Ndutu
Ndutu is not only about the migration. The NCAA lists giraffe, impala, elephant, dik-dik, lion, cheetah, leopard, hyena and bat-eared fox as residents all year, and the woodland around the lakes is a good place to look for them. A second full day gives time to explore the marshes and lake shores as well as the open plains, and to return to any sighting that rewarded patience the day before. Lodges, tented camps and special campsites are available in the area.
- Overnight
- Lodge in the Ndutu area, named in your quotation
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
A male lion scanning the horizon in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: Giles Laurent (CC BY-SA 4.0) North into the Serengeti
Ndutu → Serengeti
Leaving Ndutu, the journey heads north into the Serengeti National Park, managed by Tanzania National Parks and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981. In calving season, the herds are in the south, so the Serengeti’s central areas are a chance to see its resident wildlife: lions, leopards, elephants and buffalo, with more than 500 bird species. Seronera airstrip lies in the heart of the park, a reminder of how central this area is.
- Overnight
- Lodge in the Serengeti, named in your quotation
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
Herds on the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater, seen from the rim. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: Eric Kilby (CC BY-SA 2.0) Serengeti to the crater
Serengeti → Ngorongoro
Where time allows, a morning drive in the Serengeti, among the predators that live there all year, is followed by the drive back towards Ngorongoro, where the night is spent near the crater rim. TANAPA notes that the Serengeti holds the world’s last remaining large-mammal migration, and by now the journey has seen the southern end of that story. The night is near the crater, ready for an early descent tomorrow.
- Overnight
- Lodge in the Ngorongoro area, named in your quotation
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
The grassland and crater walls of the Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: Pavel.shyshkouski (CC BY-SA 4.0) Into the crater, then Arusha
Ngorongoro Crater → Arusha
The last day descends into the Ngorongoro Crater, accessible all year round and home to more than 25,000 animals, including the Big Five. Its floor of grassland, swamps and rivers makes for a full and varied game drive, with rhinos, lions and elephants among the animals to look for. After climbing out of the crater, the Land Cruiser returns to Arusha, ending a week that followed the migration’s calving season and finished in the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera.
- 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.