The Ultimate Northern Circuit — 8-Day Big Five Safari

Arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport, where your guide meets you and drives you to your lodge on the edge of Arusha.

After time to rest, join your guide for a welcome dinner and a full safari briefing: the route for the week, what each park is known for, and practical tips for game drives and photography from the vehicle.

Overnight: lodge in Arusha (Full Board)

Drive west to Lake Manyara National Park, which lies at the foot of the Great Rift Valley escarpment. Within a few minutes of the gate you enter a lush groundwater forest of fig and mahogany trees, home to large olive baboon troops and blue monkeys.

Game drives continue onto the open floodplain, where buffalo, giraffe, zebra and wildebeest graze and hippos rest in the pools. Depending on water levels, the lake shore can attract flamingos and pelicans, and the park's lions are sometimes found resting in the branches of acacia trees. More than 400 bird species have been recorded here.

In the afternoon, drive up the escarpment to your lodge in the Mto wa Mbu or Karatu area.

Overnight: lodge in the Lake Manyara area (Full Board)

Spend a full day in Tarangire National Park, about an hour and a half from Lake Manyara. In the dry season this is one of the best parks in Africa for elephants, with large herds coming down to the Tarangire River beneath giant baobab trees.

Game drives follow the river and the surrounding woodland, where lion, leopard, giraffe, buffalo and fringe-eared oryx are regularly seen, and where the dense acacia trees hide pythons and a remarkable variety of birds. Enjoy a picnic lunch at a shaded viewpoint over the river.

In the late afternoon, drive to the green Karatu highlands for the night.

Overnight: lodge in Karatu (Full Board)

Climb through the forest of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, with a stop at the crater rim viewpoint, before descending onto the short-grass plains towards the Serengeti.

On the way, visit Olduvai Gorge, where fossil discoveries made by the Leakey family transformed our understanding of human evolution. The small museum gives a clear introduction to the site.

Enter the Serengeti in the early afternoon and game drive towards your camp, crossing open plains where gazelle, topi and ostrich graze and lion prides rest on rocky kopjes.

Overnight: tented camp in the Serengeti (Full Board)

Spend the whole day exploring the central Serengeti around the Seronera Valley, the most reliable area of the park for big cats all year round.

Go out at dawn, when lions return from the night's hunting and cheetahs begin to scan the plains. Your guide follows the rivers lined with sausage and acacia trees, where leopards rest in the branches, and the kopjes, granite outcrops that offer shade and lookouts for predators.

Return to camp or stop for a picnic lunch in the field, then head out again in the afternoon. An optional sunrise hot-air balloon flight can be booked for this morning.

Overnight: tented camp in the Serengeti (Full Board)

Today your guide takes you to a second area of the Serengeti, chosen according to where the migration is grazing that month: the southern plains in the calving season, the western corridor and Grumeti River at the start of the dry season (around June), or the northern-central woodlands around Lobo as the herds move north.

Watch columns of wildebeest and zebra, the predators that follow them and the vultures and hyenas that clean up after a kill. Lunch is a picnic on the savanna.

The famous Mara River crossings take place in the far north of the park, usually between July and October. They can be added to this safari with an extra night or a light-aircraft flight — ask us when you plan your dates.

Overnight: tented camp in the Serengeti (Full Board)

Leave the Serengeti early and drive to the Ngorongoro Crater, descending 600 metres onto the crater floor for a game drive of several hours.

The crater is a self-contained world of grassland, marsh, forest and a soda lake, home to lion, spotted hyena, elephant, buffalo, hippo, large herds of zebra and wildebeest, and one of Tanzania's last populations of black rhino. With so much wildlife in a small area, it gives you the best chance in the country of seeing the Big Five in a single day.

Enjoy a picnic lunch by a hippo pool, then climb back up to your lodge on the rim in time for sunset over the caldera.

Overnight: lodge on the Ngorongoro Crater rim (Full Board)

After breakfast, drive through the farmland and coffee estates of the Karatu highlands and down the Rift Valley escarpment towards Arusha, with time to stop at a local craft market for souvenirs.

Enjoy a farewell lunch in Arusha before your transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your onward flight, or to your hotel if you are staying longer.

End of safari.