Your itinerary
Day 1
Day 1: Welcome to Tanzania
Welcome to Tanzania, a country of volcanic highlands, vast savannahs and some of East Africa’s most celebrated wildlife regions. On arrival at Kilimanjaro Airport, you’ll transfer to Lake Duluti Lodge. Set on a working coffee farm beside the volcanic crater lake of Duluti, with private chalets facing the grounds and indigenous trees, it offers a restful first base as you begin your journey through northern Tanzania. Before dinner, you may wish to join a tour of the coffee plantation to learn more about one of the region’s long-established crops. This evening, meet your Driver Guide and your group for dinner at the lodge and settle into your first night in East Africa.
Meals: Dinner
Day 2
Day 2: Onto Tarangire National Park
Begin the day in Arusha with a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience at Shanga, a social enterprise that trains and employs Tanzanians with disabilities through craft. As you walk through the workshop, you’ll watch weaving, glassblowing, beading, paper making and metalwork, with many pieces made using recycled materials. Continue to Tarangire National Park for lunch before heading out on an afternoon game drive. Named for the river that draws wildlife across its dry-season landscape, Tarangire is known for its elephant herds, baobab trees and strong game viewing. Later, continue to your camp for dinner and the evening in the park.
Meals: Breakfast,Lunch,Dinner
Day 3
Day 3: Discover Tarangire’s Wildlife
Explore Tarangire in the cooler morning hours, when the bush is beginning to stir and the first light reaches across the park’s open savannah and riverine woodland. Enjoy breakfast in the bush, a memorable way to begin the day surrounded by the sounds and scale of Tarangire. Return to camp for lunch and time at leisure before heading out again later in the day. As the light softens towards sunset, continue your exploration of the park and pause for a sundowner in the bush. There is also the opportunity to visit a Maasai village and gain insight into local traditions and community life.
Meals: Breakfast,Lunch,Dinner
Day 4
Day 4: Culture and Nature in Ngorongoro
Set out before sunrise for a final game drive in Tarangire, when the early light and cooler hours bring a different feel to the park before you continue towards the Ngorongoro Highlands. Stop at Gibb’s Farm for a Farm-to-Table lunch and a tour of the estate, where coffee, fruit, vegetables and herbs are grown on the fertile slopes outside Karatu. This evening, you may wish to relax at the lodge, take in the highland setting or enjoy the views across the coffee country around Oldeani.
Meals: Breakfast,Lunch,Dinner
Day 5
Day 5: Visit Hadzabe Community and Lake Eyasi
Travel to Lake Eyasi, a seasonal soda lake on the floor of the Great Rift Valley, where today’s visits focus on two of northern Tanzania’s communities. Spend time with the Hadzabe, whose way of life remains closely tied to hunting, gathering and detailed knowledge of the surrounding bush. You’ll learn more about food preparation, daily skills and their distinctive click language, and may also try archery. After lunch, continue to the Datoga, pastoral people known for cattle keeping and long-established blacksmithing traditions. Before returning to your lodge, explore more with Trafalgar Choice. You may join a Swahili lesson with a Local Specialist, or walk with your Driver Guide through a Karatu village known for its markets, farming and mix of communities. Later, return to your lodge for dinner and the evening.
Meals: Breakfast,Lunch,Dinner
Day 6
Day 6: See the Wildlife of Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti
Descend into Ngorongoro Crater for a morning game drive across the floor of the world’s largest intact and unfilled volcanic caldera, where year-round water and grazing support a high concentration of wildlife. Pause for a picnic lunch on the crater floor before continuing west towards Serengeti National Park. From the Maasai word Siringet, meaning “wide endless plains,” Serengeti is Tanzania’s first national park and one of Africa’s most recognized safari landscapes. Arrive at camp in time for dinner and a free evening. You may wish to settle in by the firepit, listen to the sounds of the bush after dark or simply take in your first night in the Serengeti.
Meals: Breakfast,Lunch,Dinner
Day 7
Day 7: Explore Serengeti National Park
Spend the day on game drive in Serengeti National Park, continuing your exploration of one of Africa’s most important wildlife areas. Look out for lion, elephant, giraffe, zebra and antelope as you move through the park, with each part of the day bringing different wildlife activity across the plains and around the kopjes. This evening, return to camp for dinner in a traditional boma setting, where the circular layout and fireside atmosphere draw on a style of enclosure long used across East Africa.
Meals: Breakfast,Lunch,Dinner
Day 8
Day 8: Farewell Serengeti
Transfer to the Serengeti airstrip for your flight to Arusha, with the chance to spot wildlife on the way as you make your final journey across the park. Lifting off from the Serengeti gives you a last view of the landscape that has shaped your safari, from open plains to winding tracks below. On arrival in Arusha, continue towards Kilimanjaro for a day room at an airport hotel where you’ll have time to freshen up and relax before your onward journey. You’ll transfer to Kilimanjaro International, where you’ll say goodbye to your Driver Guide and your Small Group as your Tanzania journey comes to an end (onward flights should not be booked to depart until after 5 pm).
Meals: Breakfast
What’s included
What’s not included
Additional information
Private Bush Breakfast in Tarangire
Savor a private bush breakfast set beneath acacia shade as first light brushes the grasslands and riverine thickets of Tarangire. Fresh coffee and warm breads arrive to a soundtrack of doves and distant antelope on the move.
Unhurried and atmospheric, this open-air meal lets you pause amid the landscape, attuning to the sounds of the waking bush while the first light over the savannah reveals new details in every direction.
Dining Summary
- 7 Dinner (D)
- 7 Breakfast (B)
- 6 Lunch (L)
How You'll Travel
- Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
- Coach, 4 x 4 safari vehicle travel, and select flights
- Premium regional accommodation
Authentic Dining
- Arusha: Join your Driver Guide and your small group for dinner at Lake Duluti Lodge, your exclusive small-group hotel near Arusha. Set on a working coffee farm beside Lake Duluti, the lodge brings together private chalets, indigenous trees and the slopes below Mount Meru as you begin your journey through Tanzania.
- Tarangire National Park: Enjoy a private bush breakfast served in an exclusive wilderness setting. With your small group, there’s time to relax over breakfast in the open air, take in the sounds of the landscape and watch for wildlife moving through the surrounding bush.
- Karatu: Enjoy lunch at Gibb’s Farm, a historic coffee estate founded in the 1920s on the fertile slopes outside Karatu. During your visit, explore the gardens, coffee fields and working farm that have shaped the property for generations, and see how the produce grown here continues to define the meals served at one of northern Tanzania’s long-established guest estates.
- Ngorongoro Crater: Picnic on the floor of Ngorongoro Crater, with open grassland, lake water and the steep caldera walls around you.
- Serengeti: Gather for dinner in a traditional boma, where the open fire and enclosed setting bring everyone together after a day in the Serengeti. Shared with your small group, the evening centers on good food, conversation and the atmosphere of dining out in one of Africa’s great safari landscapes.
Premium Experience
- Lake Eyasi: Meet the Hadzabe near Lake Eyasi and learn more about one of East Africa’s last hunter-gatherer communities. See how hunting, gathering and food preparation remain part of daily life, hear their distinctive click language and gain a clearer understanding of the skills and knowledge tied to this landscape.
Operated By
Insight Vacations
Arusha Shanga Social Enterprise Visit (MAKE TRAVEL MATTER)
Explore Shanga in Arusha and join a guided visit through a working social enterprise where creativity fuels opportunity. Watch artisans at glassblowing kilns, weaving looms and beading benches while hearing how training and steady work empower Tanzanians with disabilities.
Learn how recycled glass and metals become functional art as your MAKE TRAVEL MATTER Experience supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11. The visit deepens your understanding of sustainable craftsmanship and community resilience in northern Tanzania.
Tarangire National Park Game Drives
Join guided game drives across Tarangire National Park, scanning open savannah and riverine woodland for big-tusked elephants, giraffe, zebra and—if luck allows—lions resting among granite outcrops. Travel between baobab-studded hills and sandbanks as your Driver Guide interprets tracks and behavior.
Gain insight into how the Tarangire River acts as a lifeline in the dry season, drawing wildlife from a wide ecosystem. Expect classic northern Tanzania scenery with elephant herds and towering baobabs framing your views.
Tarangire Bush Sundowner
Raise a glass with a sundowner in the wilderness as the day’s heat fades and golden hour light pools across Tarangire’s plains. Your guide selects a safe, scenic perch to soak in the evening mood.
Silhouettes of baobabs etch the horizon while wildlife gravitates to water in the cooler air. This time-honored ritual distills the essence of life on safari—unhurried, reflective and deeply connected to the landscape.
Gibb’s Farm Estate Walk & Farm-to-Table Lunch
Taste a farm-to-table lunch at Gibb’s Farm, a storied 1920s coffee estate on the Ngorongoro highlands near Karatu. Plates showcase seasonal produce grown within steps of your table.
Wander kitchen gardens and coffee groves with staff who share cultivation practices and the rhythms of estate life. The setting blends fertile slopes, gracious hospitality and fresh, regional flavors shaped by the farm’s own harvest.
Lake Eyasi Hadzabe Cultural Encounter & Bush Skills
Meet the Hadzabe near Lake Eyasi and explore living hunter-gatherer traditions guided by community members. Walk short bush paths, observe daily tasks and discuss how knowledge of wild foods and the seasons informs life here.
Hear their distinctive click language, see how fire is made and try your hand at archery. The encounter offers perspective on resilience, resourcefulness and close ties to landscape in this semi-arid Rift Valley environment.
Lake Eyasi Datoga Blacksmithing & Homestead Visit
Visit a Datoga homestead to witness age-old blacksmithing traditions that remain central to community life around Eyasi. In the smithy, sparks fly as artisans shape tools, arrowheads and ornaments.
Watch hand-forged tools and beadwork emerge from recycled metal while discussing pastoral heritage, craft skills and the role of cattle across the Rift Valley. It’s a thoughtful look at ingenuity and continuity within northern Tanzania’s cultures.
Ngorongoro Crater Descent & Game Drive
Descend into Ngorongoro Crater for a panoramic game drive inside the world’s largest intact caldera. Cross open grasslands, marshes and fever-tree groves where predators and plains game thrive in close proximity.
Travel beneath 600-meter walls fed by year-round water and grazing, a natural amphitheater within the UNESCO-listed Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Wildlife density and dramatic geology combine to make this one of East Africa’s most compelling safari settings.
Picnic Lunch on the Ngorongoro Crater Floor
Unpack a picnic on the crater floor, surrounded by open grassland, shallow lakes and views that reach to the rim. It’s a rare chance to pause within the heart of this famed volcanic basin.
Share lunch as waterbirds patrol the shallows and breezes ripple the grass, with the steep caldera walls forming a sweeping backdrop. The setting turns a simple meal into a moment of quiet connection with the landscape.
Serengeti National Park Game Drives
Explore Serengeti National Park on unhurried game drives across wide, sunlit plains punctuated by granite kopjes. Scan for lions on rocky perches, elephants in acacia woodland and herds moving along river lines.
Follow seasonal wildlife movements as your Driver Guide interprets behavior in a landscape whose Maasai name—Siringet—evokes “the place where the land runs on forever.” Scale, space and wildlife converge for classic East African safari scenes.
Serengeti Traditional Boma Dinner
Gather for a traditional boma dinner, circling the open fire under the Serengeti stars. The setting blends savory regional dishes with the warmth of flickering embers and canvas-tented camp life.
Dine within an enclosure inspired by East African homesteads, where the circular space fosters conversation and reflection after a day on safari. It’s an atmospheric close to wildlife-rich hours on the plains.
Scenic Bush Flight from Serengeti to Arusha
Fly from a remote airstrip in the Serengeti on a scenic bush flight that lifts you over plains, kopjes and winding game trails. Window seats reveal a tapestry of grasslands and glinting river loops below.
As you rise above the plains, occasional herds appear as moving specks—an aerial finale that connects the routes you’ve driven with the vastness of northern Tanzania’s ecosystems.
Maasai Village Visit (Tarangire Region)
Visit a Maasai village near Tarangire to learn about pastoral culture shaped by age-set traditions and cattle herding. Engage in a respectful, guide-hosted exchange that highlights daily life and community values.
Discuss artistry and symbolism in beadwork, hear song and dance, and gain context for Maasai history in this region. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.
Lake Duluti Coffee Farm Walk & Tasting
Stroll the fields on a Lake Duluti coffee farm walk, tracing the journey from bean to cup amid shade trees and fertile volcanic soils. A local guide explains cultivation and harvesting techniques.
Learn how altitude and the Mount Meru foothills shape Tanzania’s arabica character, then sample fresh roasts to compare aromas and flavor. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.
Swahili Lesson with a Local Specialist
Learn basic Swahili phrases with a Local Specialist, practicing greetings, numbers and everyday expressions useful for markets and friendly encounters along the way.
Understand why Kiswahili is East Africa’s lingua franca and build confidence using it during your journey. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.
Karatu Guided Village Walk & Market Visit
Join a guided village walk in Karatu to see smallholder farms, brickmaking and daily life along red-earth lanes at the gateway to the Ngorongoro highlands.
Depending on timing, step into the lively market to meet traders, sample produce and glimpse routines beyond the safari parks. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.
