Ngorongoro Crater — Full-Day Big Five Safari

The Ngorongoro Crater is one of the most extraordinary places on Earth. A UNESCO World Heritage Site and the world's largest intact volcanic caldera, its floor of about 260 square kilometres is home to roughly 25,000 large animals, including all of the Big Five, in a self-contained world of grassland, swamp, forest and soda lake.

Down onto the crater floor

Leaving Arusha before dawn, you climb through the Karatu highlands to the forested rim and look down on the crater floor 600 metres below, before descending for a full game drive. Lions rest in the open, elephants browse along the Lerai Forest, buffalo and zebra graze the plains, hippos wallow in the pools and flamingos gather on Lake Magadi when water levels suit them.

A real chance of black rhino

The crater is one of the last strongholds of the black rhino in Tanzania, and your guide knows where they are most often seen. A picnic lunch at one of the crater's picnic sites breaks the day, and the afternoon drive often turns up spotted hyena, golden jackal and, with luck, serval or cheetah before you climb out and return to Arusha.