A 10-day circuit taking in Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro, staying in comfortable tented camps and established safari lodges throughout. 9 nights on safari, priced on request.
Tarangire - Serengeti - Ngorongoro - Zanzibar
About this safari
The route opens in Tarangire — baobabs, a life-giving river and the circuit's greatest elephant numbers — and works through 3 further destinations over 10 days. It stays within Tanzania; the final proposal will confirm transfer times and the balance between travel and game viewing. Accommodation is at the mid-range standard: comfortable tented camps and established safari lodges. The balance most travellers settle on — proper beds, en-suite bathrooms and well-run lodges in good positions, without the premium that the top end of the market commands. Like every safari in this catalogue, it is priced on request rather than sold at a published rate, because park fees, permits, group size and contracted accommodation all change the figure.
Day by day
Written out in full before you book, so you can see exactly how the days are paced and where each night is spent.
Day 1
This itinerary is planned to finish on Zanzibar. The final day's transfer and departure arrangements are confirmed in the written proposal. The road south-west from Arusha runs through Maasai grazing land before turning into Tarangire, and the change at the gate is immediate: baobabs. They stand alone across the open woodland, enormous and strange, and they give the park a landscape that exists nowhere else on the northern circuit. In the dry season the first elephants usually appear within minutes. The park's character comes from its trees. Baobabs — some of them well over a thousand years old, several scarred where elephants have stripped the bark for moisture — dominate the open woodland, and the late-afternoon light through them is the signature photograph of any northern circuit trip. Lion are common here and occasionally rest in the branches, as they do at Lake Manyara. The catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Tarangire
Day 2
The next section of the circuit moves on, the road to the Serengeti climbs the Ngorongoro highlands and crosses the conservation area before descending onto the plains, and the moment of arrival is hard to mistake — the country simply opens, grass running unbroken to a horizon with nothing on it. The Maasai name, siringet, means the place where the land runs on forever, and it is a straightforwardly accurate description. With a full day there is time to work an area rather than pass through it. Following a single pride through a morning, waiting out a cheetah that is clearly building towards a hunt, or simply sitting with a leopard until it moves — these are the things a compressed itinerary cannot do, and they are what people remember. A mid-range camp or lodge is proposed for this night, subject to availability and written confirmation.
Overnight: Serengeti
Day 3
The Serengeti's scale means different sectors feel like different parks. The central Seronera valley is reliable year-round for resident predators; the western corridor follows the Grumeti River through denser country; the north is hillier and holds the Mara River crossings in season; and the southern short-grass plains empty and fill with the herds. Where you drive depends entirely on the month. A full day in the Serengeti means covering distance, and that is no hardship. Between sightings the plains themselves hold attention — grass moving in wind, kopjes standing out of it, and the sense of space that no other park in East Africa quite matches. Your guide will usually pack lunch and stay out through the middle of the day, when many vehicles return to camp and the tracks empty. This outline assumes a comfortable safari stay near the route. The named property remains a suggestion until quoted.
Overnight: Serengeti
Day 4
This travel day carries the route onward, the road climbs steeply out of the Rift Valley into the Ngorongoro highlands, through forest thick with wild olive and strung with lichen, and the air turns cold and damp. Then the trees break at the rim, and the crater is simply there below — twenty kilometres across, six hundred metres down, with its own weather moving across the floor. It is a genuinely arresting first view. Ngorongoro is the most dependable place in East Africa to see black rhino, though they are usually out on the open floor at some distance and best appreciated through binoculars or a long lens. Around them the floor carries wildebeest, zebra, eland and both Grant's and Thomson's gazelle in permanent residence, with flamingo working the soda shallows of Lake Magadi. The suggested standard is mid-range. Citrus will confirm the property and contracted services in writing before booking.
Overnight: Ngorongoro
Day 5
This activity is a planning option and only forms part of the day when it appears in the written quotation. The next leg links the two destinations, today is largely a driving day, and a necessary one. The distance between the Kenyan parks and the Tanzanian northern circuit cannot be covered and enjoyed in a single push, so the night in Arusha breaks the journey, allows vehicle and guide handover, and means the circuit starts properly rested. The catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Arusha
Day 6
The day is yours. The lagoon inside the reef is calm and shallow, shaded loungers and a swimming pool cover the hottest hours, and the pace is deliberately undemanding after a week of dawn starts. Snorkelling, diving, dhow trips and fishing can all be arranged locally, and the tide dictates the rhythm more than any schedule does. The itinerary continues by road, a short flight takes you from the dust and early starts of the mainland to an Indian Ocean island, and the change is total. Below, the coastline resolves into reef, lagoon and white sand; on landing the air is warm and heavy with humidity, and the pace drops immediately. After a week of safari, the transfer to the coast feels exactly right. A mid-range camp or lodge is proposed for this night, subject to availability and written confirmation.
Overnight: Zanzibar
Day 7
The day is yours. The lagoon inside the reef is calm and shallow, shaded loungers and a swimming pool cover the hottest hours, and the pace is deliberately undemanding after a week of dawn starts. Snorkelling, diving, dhow trips and fishing can all be arranged locally, and the tide dictates the rhythm more than any schedule does. The east and north coasts hold the beaches — fine white sand, a shallow turquoise lagoon inside the fringing reef, and dhows working the shoreline under sail. After a safari the main point is rest, and the days shape themselves around swimming, shade and long meals. The tidal range on the east coast is substantial, so the lagoon retreats and returns noticeably through the day. This outline assumes a comfortable safari stay near the route. The named property remains a suggestion until quoted.
Overnight: Zanzibar
Day 8
If this optional activity is included in your written quotation, stone Town rewards being walked rather than toured. The old quarter is a maze of coral-stone alleys too narrow for cars, lined with merchants' houses and the heavy carved doors the island is known for. It carries a difficult history — this was one of East Africa's major slave-trading centres, and the former market site is now a memorial and cathedral. The Old Fort, the House of Wonders and the evening food stalls at Forodhani Gardens fill an afternoon easily. Days on the coast run at whatever pace you set. Reef trips and dhow sailing are easily arranged, the fishing villages along the shore are worth walking through, and sunset from the water is the standard close to the day. All of these are normally arranged locally as optional extras rather than being built into the package. The suggested standard is mid-range. Citrus will confirm the property and contracted services in writing before booking.
Overnight: Zanzibar
Day 9
The day is yours. The lagoon inside the reef is calm and shallow, shaded loungers and a swimming pool cover the hottest hours, and the pace is deliberately undemanding after a week of dawn starts. Snorkelling, diving, dhow trips and fishing can all be arranged locally, and the tide dictates the rhythm more than any schedule does. Beyond the beach there is more here than most people expect. Spice farms in the interior still grow clove, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla, the remnants of the trade that made the island wealthy. Jozani Forest protects the Zanzibar red colobus, a monkey found nowhere else on earth. And the reefs — Mnemba Atoll in particular — offer genuinely good snorkelling and diving. The catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Zanzibar
Day 10
This outline leaves the final morning available for the confirmed transfer plan. Days on the coast run at whatever pace you set. Reef trips and dhow sailing are easily arranged, the fishing villages along the shore are worth walking through, and sunset from the water is the standard close to the day. All of these are normally arranged locally as optional extras rather than being built into the package. Zanzibar is the working end point. The quotation will state the last day's transfer and drop-off.
Safari ends
Where you stay
Accommodation below is the suggested standard for this package, taken from the Citrus catalogue. Where an entry describes a standard rather than a named property, we confirm the exact camp or lodge with your quotation. Named properties are suggestions and are substituted with comparable alternatives if they are unavailable for your dates.
Source catalogue listing
Tarangire Sopa + Kubu Kubu + Ngorongoro Serena + quality 4-star Zanzibar beach resort
This is reproduced exactly from the catalogue. The written quotation will allocate nights and confirm each available property before booking.
These are planning examples, not confirmed inclusions for this package. Your written quotation will confirm exactly what is included.
The quotation will identify every separate cost before you confirm.
Where this safari goes
Tanzania
Baobabs, a life-giving river and the circuit's greatest elephant numbers
ExploreTanzania
Endless plains and the engine of the Great Migration
ExploreTanzania
A collapsed volcano holding its own complete ecosystem
ExploreTanzania
The northern circuit's starting line, beneath Mount Meru
ExploreTanzania
Indian Ocean reef, spice history and the right way to end a safari
ExploreBefore you ask
The catalogue sets the route and travel standard, but it does not publish a fixed price or a contracted inclusion list. Citrus will prepare a written quotation for your dates, party and rooming, showing the exact transfers, activities, accommodation, meals, fees and permits before you confirm.
No. It is suggested accommodation from the source catalogue. Availability and any proposed alternative are confirmed in the written quotation before a booking is made.
Ask Citrus to revise it. Any change to route, nights or transport must be reflected in the final itinerary and quotation.
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Tell us your dates and who is travelling, and we will come back with availability, honest advice on timing and a written quotation for this route.