7D6N Tanzania Safari Experience by National Geographic Journeys

Arrive at any time. Arrival transfer is included.

Our trips throughout Kenya and Tanzania have a maximum group size of six travellers in addition to a CEO and a driver who are both trained safari guides. That means everyone gets a window seat and twice the insight about the astounding wildlife all around you.

Airport Transfer

Kilimanjaro International Airport – Arusha 30m 10km
You will be met at the airport and transferred to the hotel to start your adventure.

Arrival Day and Welcome Meeting

The adventure begins tonight. Feel free to explore before your welcome meeting, but make sure you’re back in time to meet the group. Check for the meeting time on the welcome note at the hotel. After introductions, your CEO will review the details of your tour. Please note that normal check-in times apply at our start hotels, but you can usually store your luggage for the day if you arrive early.

Lodge
Ilboru Safari Lodge (or similar)

This morning, make your way to Mto wa Mbu village, a vibrant settlement of Tanzania’s diverse tribal groups. Take a guided walk through the village, visiting the local market and meeting artisans in their workshops; then sit down for a traditional lunch with a local family. Continue to the Rift Valley escarpment and settle into our safari camp, located at the edge of Lake Manyara National Park. Set out on our first safari drive to discover East Africa’s legendary wildlife, searching for lions, elephants, hippos, giraffes, and more.

This western wall of the Rift Valley escarpment is truly stunning. It provides a backdrop for your search of the park’s bird life, tree-climbing lions, elephants, hippos, and baboons. The afternoon is spent viewing wildlife along the main road that winds through a lush, cool forest that’s dominated by large ficus trees covered in bromeliads and ferns.

7-Seat 4×4 Safari Vehicle
Arusha – Lake Manyara National Park 2h-3h 130km
Get a better view and take better snapshots aboard this off-road ride with a pop-up top.

Your G for Good Moment: Mto wa Mbu Village Visit and Lunch

Take part in a cultural walk to learn about life in this East African town. Mto wa Mbu has attracted some 18,000 residents from 120 different tribes. During the two-hour tour, visit the village’s local market, go right to the farmer’s fields, see how huts are constructed, and meet artisans in their shops. Afterwards, sit down with our new friends and enjoy a traditional lunch of meat and plantains.

Lake Manyara National Park Safari
Lake Manyara National Park

This western wall of the Rift Valley escarpment is truly stunning. It provides a backdrop for your search for the park’s phenomenal bird life (including raptors), tree-climbing lions, elephants, zebras, hippos, baboons, and buffalos. Look up and see some of the more than 400 species of birds, including pink flamingos, pelicans, cormorants, and storks.

Beyond wildlife, Lake Manyara NP is home to giant fig trees, acacia woodlands, mahogany trees, and grassy flood plains. The contrasts of this area are simply breathtaking; the open plains, huge escarpment, central alkaline lake, dense woodlands, and distant volcanic peaks coming together in an area best described by Ernest Hemingway as “the loveliest I have seen in Africa.”

Hotel
Rift Valley Photographic Lodge (or similar)

Travel through the breathtaking Rift Valley to a Maasai village. Here, we learn about the G Adventures-supported Clean Cookstoves Project, dedicated to providing clean-burning cookstoves to Maasai communities throughout Tanzania. Enjoy a presentation by a Masaai woman on the impact of the project, and take a guided tour of the village, visiting traditional homes or bomas and helping build a new stove.

Continue to our safari camp in Serengeti National Park, stopping en route at the Olduvai Gorge Museum and Visitor’s Centre located near the site where National Geographic archaeologists Louis and Mary Leakey discovered early hominid fossils and stone tools in 1960.

7-Seat 4×4 Safari Vehicle
Lake Manyara National Park – Serengeti National Park 5h-6h 220km
Get a better view and take better snapshots aboard this off-road ride with a pop-up top.

Your G for Good Moment: Clean Cookstove Project Visit

Visit a Maasai village in the Monduli District and witness the benefits of the G Adventures-supported Clean Cookstove Project. In Tanzania, 95% of people rely on cooking with wood and coal. Women and girls spend hours walking to collect wood every day (making them vulnerable to assault and unable to use their time to go to school). Indoor smoke from open-fire stoves causes cancer, emphysema, pneumonia, blindness, and burns. Take a guided tour of these villages and meet the women that have been trained as stove engineers, visit bomas (traditional homes), and observe (or get your hands dirty) by helping the Stove Team build a stove in a home. See the beneficial impact of the clean-burning stoves on the health and daily lives of the Maasai villagers, especially the women.

Your Journeys Highlight Moment: Clean Cookstove Project Talk

G Adventures has partnered with the Masai Stoves and Solar Project to install more efficient cookstoves across the Serengeti in order to cut down on smoke-related illnesses. Enjoy an exclusive talk with some of the “Masai mamas” and learn how their lives have been impacted and their community empowered.

Olduvai Gorge Museum
Olduwai Gorge

The Olduvai Gorge is a steep ravine in the Great Rift Valley of Tanzania. It is one of the world’s most important paleoanthropological sites. Beginning in 1931, excavations by Louis Leakey revealed evidence of early man dating back nearly 2 million years. Visit the Olduvai museum and see bone fossils and fragments of ancient stone tools. This UNESCO World Heritage site provides an intriguing glimpse into the origin and evolution of man in these Serengeti Plains of Africa.

Serengeti National Park Safari
Serengeti National Park

This is the reason you came to Africa. Charge your camera, grab your binoculars, and set out on safari. Your eagle-eyed driver will keep an eye out for wildlife – buffaloes, elephants, lions, wildebeests, zebras, and more. Tanzania’s Serengeti tends to be less crowded than some of Kenya’s reserves, so enjoy the scenery, the vast expanse of the grasslands, the play of light and shadow, and the up-close look at wild Africa.

Lodge
Serengeti Tortilis Camp (or similar)

Immerse yourself in the splendor of the Serengeti, one of Africa’s most celebrated wildlife reserves. Discover the park’s iconic creatures when you set out in a 4×4 on morning and afternoon safaris through the golden grasslands. With luck, spot all of Africa’s “big five” lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, and buffalo. Later, visit the Serengeti Wildlife Research Centre, and enjoy a talk by one of the visiting researchers.

Serengeti National Park Safari
Serengeti National Park
This is the reason you came to Africa. Charge your camera, grab your binoculars, and set out on safari. Your eagle-eyed driver will keep an eye out for wildlife – buffaloes, elephants, lions, wildebeests, zebras, and more. Tanzania’s Serengeti tends to be less crowded than some of Kenya’s reserves, so enjoy the scenery, the vast expanse of the grasslands, the play of light and shadow, and the up-close look at wild Africa.

7-Seat 4×4 Safari Vehicle
Serengeti National Park
Get a better view and take better snapshots aboard this off-road ride with a pop-up top.

Your Journeys Highlight Moment: Serengeti Wildlife Research Centre Lecture
Visit the Serengeti Wildlife Research Centre, where most of the wildlife researchers and scientists are based for projects within Serengeti National Park and surrounding protected areas. Enjoy a lecture by one of the visiting researchers; topics will vary based on the studies being done at the time.

Lodge
Serengeti Tortilis Camp (or similar)

Depart the Serengeti this morning, looking out for the park’s wild denizens along the drive. Check in to our comfortable tented camp near the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and enjoy a fiery African sunset from the deck.

Please note that due to the high-altitude location of our camp, temperatures can drop at night. We recommend bringing extra layers to wear during the evening and following morning.

Serengeti National Park Safari
Serengeti National Park
This is the reason you came to Africa. Charge your camera, grab your binoculars, and set out on safari. Your eagle-eyed driver will keep an eye out for wildlife – buffaloes, elephants, lions, wildebeests, zebras, and more. Tanzania’s Serengeti tends to be less crowded than some of Kenya’s reserves, so enjoy the scenery, the vast expanse of the grasslands, the play of light and shadow, and the up-close look at wild Africa.

7-Seat 4×4 Safari Vehicle
Serengeti National Park – Ngorongoro 4h 160km
Get a better view and take better snapshots aboard this off-road ride with a pop-up top.

Lodge
Pembeni Rhotia (or similar)

Spanning more than 20 kilometres in diameter, the Ngorongoro Crater is the largest non-flooded caldera in the world and is inhabited by some 25,000 animals. Descend into this green-walled paradise early in the morning on safari. As you ride past herds of zebra and flocks of flamingo, keep your eyes peeled for a pride of lions or a lone leopard. Enjoy a picnic lunch on the floor of the crater; then drive to Arusha.

7-Seat 4×4 Safari Vehicle
Ngorongoro – Arusha 4h-5h 200km
Get a better view and take better snapshots aboard this off-road ride with a pop-up top.

Ngorongoro Crater Wildlife Safari Drive
Ngorongoro Crater
Set the alarm and prepare for an early start to see the wonders of the Ngorongoro Crater. Here you’ll see Maasai herdsmen in the morning mist. Your driver/guide will take you down into the crater and to all the best spots to view wildlife. Spot zebra, gazelles, buffaloes, and warthogs. The swamp and forest are home to hippos, rhinos, elephants, baboons, and monkeys. Keep your eyes peeled and camera ready to capture a pride of lions or a lone leopard walking along the crater floor.

Hotel
Ilboru Safari Lodge (or similar)

Depart at any time.

Departure Day
Not ready to leave? Your CEO can help with travel arrangements to extend your adventure.