9 days Calving Season Tented Lodge Safari
- Highlights: Tarangire, Serengeti Central & South and Ngorongoro
- With plenty of time to follow the path of the migration and experience the baby-boom across the savannah
- Duration: 9 days/8 nights
- Best time: December-March
- Start/finish: Arusha
- Activities: game drives
- Accommodation: Luxury Tented Lodges
- Comfort: Very comfortable
Day 1: Kilimanjaro Airport – Arusha (lodge)
Day 2: Arusha – Tarangire
Day 3: Tarangire – full day
Day 4: Tarangire – Serengeti Central
Day 5: Serengeti Central – full day
Day 6: Serengeti Central – Serengeti South
Day 7: Serengeti South – full day
Day 8: Serengeti South – Ngorongoro
Day 9: Ngorongoro – Arusha/Kilimanjaro airport
Day 1: Arrival Kilimanjaro Airport – Arusha lodge
On arrival at Kilimanjaro Airport you will be met by our guide, who will drive you to your lodge in Arusha (45-60 minutes).
Dinner and accommodation: Ilboru Safari Lodge
Day 2: Arusha – Tarangire
Distance: 120 km
Time/road condition: approximately 3 hours
After breakfast depart for Tarangire National Park where we will arrive at lunchtime. After a hot lunch, it’s on safari in this amazing and relatively quiet park with spectacularly massive baobab trees and gigantic herds of elephants.
Dinner and accommodation: Maramboi Tented Camp
Day 3: Tarangire – full day
Driving in the park, observing elephants, sometimes very close to the campsite near the (dry bedding of the) river. Drive to Larmaku Swamp, a large swamp where you can find elephants and other animals, cooling down in the water and sheltering for the sun in the shadow of the acacia trees. Regarding encountering wildlife we can not guarantee anything, but the chance that you will see large herds of elephants in this park is 99,9%.
Dinner and accommodation: Maramboi Tented Camp
Day 4: Tarangire – Serengeti Central
Distance: 300 km
Time/road condition: 6-7 hours, partly paved, mostly sandy and bumpy.
We leave for Serengeti National Park via the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a spectacular area with panoramic views over the crater hundreds of meters below. We have lunch “on the road’’ heading for the heart of the Serengeti National Park, the area near the Seronera River. Today is an exhilarating day as a large part of this route is straight across the centre of the savannah. Optional: A visit to a Maasai Boma where you will experience how semi-nomadic communities continue to live according to their age-old traditions.
Dinner and accommodation: Kati Kati Tented Camp
Day 5: Serengeti Central – full day
Today we leave with a packed lunch and spend the whole day on safari, in search of the huge groups of Wildebeest and Zebra along the banks of the river. It is possible that we might be spectators to a dramatic event of a leopard hunting a wildebeest. An unbelievably breath-taking experience. We go off-road and take you to areas where the masses don’t get to. Here you will find the “Kopjes”, outcrops of granite that stick out like rocky islands in a sea of grass, a point where you might find a lion! Very photogenic! It is absolutely a day to activate your mind, body and all your senses and to embrace the real Africa.
Dinner and accommodation: Kati Kati Tented Camp
Day 6: Serengeti Central – Serengeti South
Today we leave after breakfast for the endless savannah of the Serengeti: The area around Ndutu Lake. This area is also ‘home’ all year round to huge numbers of elephant, giraffe, impala as well as many of the large cat family. Bird watchers will enjoy sightings of many bird species. From December this is also the grazing grounds for thousands of Wildebeest. In February it becomes the ‘nursery’ to newly born calves and in May they begin their long journey to better grazing areas.
Dinner and accommodation: Ndutu Kati Kati Tented Camp
Day 7: Serengeti South – full day
This will be an unforgettable day. We spend it following the herds of young ‘mothers and babies’. There is so much to see and experience in this part of Serengeti. You could easily spend two days in the magnificent surroundings of this typical African landscape. The lodge is without a doubt a place to relax in and re-live the memorable images of an amazing day.
Dinner and accommodation: Ndutu Kati Kati Tented Camp
Day 8: Serengeti South- Ngorongoro
Distance: 160 km
Time/road condition: 3 hours, sandy and bumpy roads
After breakfast depart for a game drive in the famous Ngorongoro Crater. We wind our way down into the caldera, with the most breathtaking views along the way. Armed with your guide’s years of experience and his ‘eagle-eyes’, we might even encounter rhino. The chance of seeing an active pride of lions at close quarters is high on the list of possibilities. During the picnic lunch at the Hippo Pool, you will enjoy all the sights and sounds of the ‘laughing’ hippos enjoying a wallow in the cool water and a mud-bath.
Dinner and accommodation: Ngorongoro Farm House
Day 9: Ngorongoro – Arusha of Kilimanjaro Airport
Distance: 155 km
Time/road condition: Approximately 2,5 hours to a lodge or the airport in Arusha, about 3,5 hours (200 km) to Kilimanjaro International Airport. Depending on your itinerary, we will drive you to a lodge in Arusha, the Arusha Airport (for domestic flights e.g. to Zanzibar) or to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your return flight home. Late checkout is optional for additional charges.
9 days Calving Season Tented Lodge Safari
2 pax: $ 3.795 per person (1 double room)
3 pax: $ 3.660 per person (1 double room and 1 single room)
4 pax: $ 3.250 per person ( 2 double rooms)
5 pax: $ 3.250 per person (2 double rooms + 1 single room)
6 pax: $ 3.100 per person (3 double rooms)
Child discount (2-16 years): on request (depending on age and sharing rooms).
Included:
- Breakfast 8x (day 2-9), lunch 8x (day 1-8), dinner 8x (day 1-8)
- 8 overnight stays in accommodations according to program
- Admissions, game drives and activities according to program
- Transport in 4×4 safari car with a roof hatch
- Transfer from and to the airport
- Professional, English speaking guide
- Bottled water in the car
Not included: international flights, optional activities, visa, cancellation and travel insurance, soft drinks, alcoholic drinks and tips.