Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngorongoro in 5 days, using the comfortable, well-positioned lodges most travellers choose. 4 nights on safari, priced on request.
Tarangire - Serengeti - Ngorongoro - Lake Manyara
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 5 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 planning outline starts in Arusha and continues towards the first park; the meeting point and timing are confirmed in the final proposal. Tarangire is the closest circuit park to Arusha and the first stop on most northern itineraries. The drive is short and the arrival is dramatic — open woodland dotted with ancient baobabs, termite mounds standing like chimneys, and the Tarangire River drawing a green line through country that is otherwise parched for much of the year. Drives work the river circuits where game concentrates, then out into the woodland and towards the southern swamps where the country opens up. Tarangire holds dry-country species the rest of the circuit lacks — fringe-eared oryx, lesser kudu and gerenuk — and its bird list exceeds 500 species, including the yellow-collared lovebird found nowhere else. A mid-range camp or lodge is proposed for this night, subject to availability and written confirmation.
Overnight: Tarangire
Day 2
The route then continues onward, 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. Game drives here work several habitats at once. The open plain carries gazelle, topi and hartebeest with cheetah working the edges; the kopjes hold lion, leopard and klipspringer; and the river courses draw elephant, hippo and an extraordinary range of birds. Spotted hyena are everywhere and worth watching properly — they are far more effective hunters than their reputation allows. This outline assumes a comfortable safari stay near the route. The named property remains a suggestion until quoted.
Overnight: Serengeti
Day 3
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 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. The suggested standard is mid-range. Citrus will confirm the property and contracted services in writing before booking.
Overnight: Serengeti
Day 4
This travel day carries the route onward, the drive to the crater rim gains altitude quickly, and by the time you reach the top the air is cold enough for a jacket. The rim road runs along the edge with the caldera falling away on one side, and even before descending the scale of the place is obvious: this is a complete ecosystem held inside a single collapsed volcano. 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
If this optional activity is included in your written quotation, the crater descent is the centrepiece of any northern circuit, and it starts before first light to make the most of a permit that runs to about six hours. Down on the floor the scale reverses — walls rising on every side, weather moving across in visible fronts, and 25,000 large animals concentrated in an area you can cross in an hour. Lion, hyena, elephant, buffalo and gazelles may be encountered; black rhino are present but sightings can be distant and no species is guaranteed. Birding at Manyara is exceptional, with over 400 recorded species across forest, floodplain and lake habitats. Within a single drive you can move from forest species like the crowned eagle and silvery-cheeked hornbill to thousands of flamingo and pelican working the shallows, with storks, spoonbills and waders along the shoreline between. Arusha is the working end point, with the final transfer stated in the written proposal.
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 + Manyara Serena
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
Groundwater forest beneath the Rift escarpment
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.
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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.