Journeys: Tanzania Safari Experience
7 days, Arusha to Arusha
Itinerary
Day 1Arusha
Arrive at any time. Arrival transfer included.
Our trips throughout Kenya and Tanzania have a maximum group size of six travellers in addition to a CEO and a driver who are both trained safari guides. That means everyone gets a window seat and twice the insight about the astounding wildlife all around you.
Arrival Transfer
You will be met at the airport and transferred to the hotel to start your adventure.
Arrival transfer included from Kilimanjaro Airport (JRO) or Arusha Airport (ARK).
Arrival Day and Welcome Meeting
The adventure begins tonight. Feel free to explore before your welcome meeting, but make sure you’re back in time to meet the group. Check for the meeting time on the welcome note at the hotel. After introductions, your CEO will review the details of your tour. Please note that normal check-in times apply at our start hotels, but you can usually store your luggage for the day if you arrive early.
Day 2Arusha/Lake Manyara National Park
Visit Mto wa Mbu village for a guided cultural walk and a traditional lunch with a local family. Continue to our safari camp located outside Lake Manyara National Park. The camp provides unobstructed views of the Rift Valley Escarpment. Embark on an afternoon wildlife safari drive with phenomenal wildlife viewing and search out the famed tree-climbing lions.
This western wall of the Rift Valley escarpment is truly stunning. It provides a backdrop for your search of the park's bird life, tree-climbing lions, elephants, hippos, and baboons. The afternoon is spent viewing wildlife along the main road that winds through a lush, cool forest that’s dominated by large ficus trees covered in bromeliads and ferns.
7-Seat 4x4 Safari Vehicle
Get a better view and take better snapshots aboard this off-road ride with a pop-up top.
Your G for Good Moment: Mto wa Mbu Community Visit and Lunch
Take part in a cultural walk to learn about life in this East African town. Mto wa Mbu has attracted some 18,000 residents from 120 different tribes. During the two-hour tour, visit the community's local market, go right to the farmer's fields, see how huts are constructed, and meet artisans in their shops.
Afterwards, sit down with our new friends and enjoy a traditional lunch of meat and plantains.
Lake Manyara National Park Afternoon Safari Drive
This western wall of the Rift Valley escarpment is truly stunning. It provides a backdrop for your search for the park's phenomenal bird life (including raptors), tree-climbing lions, elephants, zebras, hippos, baboons, and buffalos. Look up and see some of the more than 400 species of birds, including pink flamingos, pelicans, cormorants, and storks.
Beyond wildlife, Lake Manyara NP is home to giant fig trees, acacia woodlands, mahogany trees, and grassy flood plains. The contrasts of this area are simply breathtaking; the open plains, huge escarpment, central alkaline lake, dense woodlands, and distant volcanic peaks coming together in an area best described by Ernest Hemingway as “the loveliest I have seen in Africa.”
Meals included:
Breakfast | Lunch | DinnerDay 3Lake Manyara National Park/Serengeti National Park
Travel through the Rift Valley and visit a Maasai village to learn about the Maasai people and the G Adventures-supported Clean Cookstove project. Enjoy an exclusive presentation by one of the Maasai women and hear how participation in the project has impacted her life and empowered other females around her. Take a guided tour of the village, meet the women that have been trained as stove engineers, visit bomas (traditional homes), and observe (or get your hands dirty) by helping the Stove Team build a stove in a home. After, stop at the Olduvai Gorge Museum and Visitors' Center before continuing to our safari camp located inside Serengeti National Park.
7-Seat 4x4 Safari Vehicle
Get a better view and take better snapshots aboard this off-road ride with a pop-up top.
Your G for Good Moment: Clean Cookstove Project Visit
Visit a Maasai village in the Monduli District and witness the benefits of the G Adventures-supported Clean Cookstove Project. In Tanzania, 95% of people rely on cooking with wood and coal. Women and girls spend hours walking to collect wood every day (making them vulnerable to assault and unable to use their time to go to school). Indoor smoke from open-fire stoves causes cancer, emphysema, pneumonia, blindness, and burns. Take a guided tour of these villages and meet the women that have been trained as stove engineers, visit bomas (traditional homes), and observe (or get your hands dirty) by helping the Stove Team build a stove in a home. See the beneficial impact of the clean-burning stoves on the health and daily lives of the Maasai villagers, especially the women.
Your Journeys Highlight Moment: Clean Cookstove Project Talk
G Adventures has partnered with the Masai Stoves and Solar Project to install more efficient cookstoves across the Serengeti in order to cut down on smoke-related illnesses. Enjoy an exclusive talk with some of the “Masai mamas” and learn how their lives have been impacted and their community empowered.
Olduvai Gorge Museum
The Olduvai Gorge is a steep ravine in the Great Rift Valley of Tanzania. It is one of the world’s most important paleoanthropological sites. Beginning in 1931, excavations by Louis Leakey revealed evidence of early man dating back nearly 2 million years. Visit the Olduvai museum and see bone fossils and fragments of ancient stone tools. This UNESCO World Heritage site provides an intriguing glimpse into the origin and evolution of man in these Serengeti Plains of Africa.
Serengeti National Park Safari
This is the reason you came to Africa. Charge your camera, grab your binoculars, and set out on safari. Your eagle-eyed driver will keep an eye out for wildlife – buffaloes, elephants, lions, wildebeests, zebras, and more. Tanzania’s Serengeti tends to be less crowded than some of Kenya’s reserves, so enjoy the scenery, the vast expanse of the grasslands, the play of light and shadow, and the up-close look at wild Africa.
Meals included:
Breakfast | Lunch | DinnerDay 4Serengeti National Park
Embark on morning and afternoon wildlife safari drives in our compact, safari 4x4, that features a pop-up roof for optimal wildlife observation. Visit the Serengeti Wildlife Research Centre, where wildlife researchers and scientists are working on projects within the National Park and surrounding protected areas. Enjoy a lecture by one of the visiting researchers. Topics will vary based on the studies being done at the time. Opt to take a sunrise balloon safari.
Serengeti National Park Safari
This is the reason you came to Africa. Charge your camera, grab your binoculars, and set out on safari. Your eagle-eyed driver will keep an eye out for wildlife – buffaloes, elephants, lions, wildebeests, zebras, and more. Tanzania’s Serengeti tends to be less crowded than some of Kenya’s reserves, so enjoy the scenery, the vast expanse of the grasslands, the play of light and shadow, and the up-close look at wild Africa.
7-Seat 4x4 Safari Vehicle
Get a better view and take better snapshots aboard this off-road ride with a pop-up top.
Your Journeys Highlight Moment: Serengeti Wildlife Research Centre Lecture
Visit the Serengeti Wildlife Research Centre, where most of the wildlife researchers and scientists are based for projects within Serengeti National Park and surrounding protected areas. Enjoy a lecture by one of the visiting researchers; topics will vary based on the studies being done at the time.
Optional Activities - Day 4 HideShow
Serengeti Balloon Safari
Spirited aloft in a hot-air balloon, view the wildlife and terrain of the Serengeti that only the birds see. Enjoy a champagne breakfast and keep that shutter-finger good and limber—you’ll be using it plenty over the course of your hour in the air.
Meals included:
Breakfast | Lunch | DinnerDay 5Serengeti National Park/Ngorongoro
Continue viewing wildlife on the drive out of the Serengeti to our comfortable tented camp. Relax this evening enjoying the African sunset on the deck with a cool drink.
Please note that due to the high-altitude location of our camp, temperatures can drop at night. We recommend bringing extra layers to wear during the evening and following morning.
Serengeti National Park Safari
This is the reason you came to Africa. Charge your camera, grab your binoculars, and set out on safari. Your eagle-eyed driver will keep an eye out for wildlife – buffaloes, elephants, lions, wildebeests, zebras, and more. Tanzania’s Serengeti tends to be less crowded than some of Kenya’s reserves, so enjoy the scenery, the vast expanse of the grasslands, the play of light and shadow, and the up-close look at wild Africa.
7-Seat 4x4 Safari Vehicle
Get a better view and take better snapshots aboard this off-road ride with a pop-up top.
Meals included:
Breakfast | Lunch | DinnerDay 6Ngorongoro/Arusha
Depart early into Ngorongoro Crater, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for a wildlife safari drive and picnic lunch. In the afternoon, drive to Arusha.
7-Seat 4x4 Safari Vehicle
Get a better view and take better snapshots aboard this off-road ride with a pop-up top.
Ngorongoro Crater Wildlife Safari Drive
Set the alarm and prepare for an early start to see the wonders of the Ngorongoro Crater. Here you’ll see Maasai herdsmen in the morning mist. Your driver/guide will take you down into the crater and to all the best spots to view wildlife. Spot zebra, gazelles, buffaloes, and warthogs. The swamp and forest are home to hippos, rhinos, elephants, baboons, and monkeys. Keep your eyes peeled and camera ready to capture a pride of lions or a lone leopard walking along the crater floor.
Meals included:
Breakfast | LunchDay 7Arusha
Depart at any time.
Departure Day
Not ready to leave? Your CEO can help with travel arrangements to extend your adventure.
Optional Activities - Day 7 HideShow
IIkidinga Village Hike & Visit
110-185USD per personTake a guided walk (about 1.5 hours) from Arusha to IIkidinga village. Visit a local home, coffee plantation, and banana plantation. This is a full day tour that includes lunch.
Arusha National Park Tour
200-500USD per personHome to the second highest peak in Tanzania, Mount Meru, Arusha National Park has abundant animal and bird life. Opt to participate in a full day safari tour of the area with views of Mount Kilimanjaro in the background.
Arusha Cultural Heritage Centre
FreeBrowse the Mask and Carving gallery highlighting work from all over the continent, and admire the traditional and contemporary paintings on display. Shop for exquisite precious and semi-precious stones, or hand crafted jewellery, or find an antique for your collection at home.