Tanzania Group Safari2 — 6 Days Adventure Parks of Tanzania

Overview

Discover the wild beauty and natural wonders of Tanzania on this 6 Days Exploring the Adventure Parks of Tanzania safari. This exciting journey takes you through some of the country’s most spectacular national parks, including Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara National Park, Serengeti National Park, and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Experience thrilling game drives across diverse landscapes, from ancient baobab forests and scenic lakeshores to the endless plains of the Serengeti. Encounter Tanzania’s incredible wildlife, including elephants, lions, giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, buffaloes, and many other species. This safari combines adventure, breathtaking scenery, and unforgettable wildlife experiences across Tanzania’s famous Northern Circuit.

Safari Highlights

Nature walks
Game Drive

Detailed Itinerary

Day 1: Arrival in Arusha

Upon arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport or Arusha Airport, you will be welcomed by your safari guide and transferred to your hotel in Arusha.

Arusha is the main starting point for northern Tanzania safaris and offers beautiful views of Mount Meru. Depending on your arrival time, you can relax at your hotel, explore the town, or prepare for your upcoming adventure.

Your guide will provide a safari briefing and explain the journey ahead.

Accommodation Options

Budget: Arusha Planet Lodge

Mid-range: Four Points by Sheraton Arusha

Luxury: Gran Meliá Arusha

Meals: Dinner

Day 2: Arusha to Tarangire National Park

After breakfast, depart Arusha and drive to Tarangire National Park for your first wildlife adventure.

Tarangire is known for its spectacular landscapes, ancient baobab trees, and one of the largest elephant populations in Tanzania. The park becomes especially rewarding during the dry season when wildlife gathers around the Tarangire River.

Enjoy a game drive through the park while searching for elephants, lions, giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, buffaloes, warthogs, antelopes, and numerous bird species.

After a picnic lunch, continue exploring the park before transferring to your lodge for dinner and overnight.

Accommodation Options

Budget: Fanaka Safari Camp

Mid-range: Marera Valley Lodge

Luxury: Tarangire Treetops

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 3: Lake Manyara National Park and Transfer to Serengeti

After breakfast, depart for Lake Manyara National Park.

Enjoy a game drive through this beautiful park located along the Great Rift Valley. Lake Manyara is famous for its diverse habitats, including groundwater forests, open grasslands, and the alkaline lake that attracts thousands of birds.

Look out for elephants, giraffes, buffaloes, hippos, monkeys, flamingos, and the famous tree-climbing lions that are sometimes seen resting in acacia trees.

After lunch, continue your journey towards Serengeti National Park through the scenic Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Arrive in Serengeti and enjoy an afternoon game drive while searching for wildlife before reaching your lodge.

Accommodation Options

Budget: Seronera Public Campsite

Mid-range: Serengeti Heritage Camp

Luxury: Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 4: Full Day Safari in Serengeti National Park

Spend a full day exploring the world-famous Serengeti National Park.

The Serengeti is one of Africa’s greatest wildlife destinations and offers excellent opportunities to observe predators, large animal herds, and breathtaking landscapes.

Explore the Seronera Valley, one of the richest wildlife areas in the park, where you can spot lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, buffaloes, giraffes, hyenas, hippos, and many other species.

Depending on the season, you may witness the Great Migration as thousands of wildebeests and zebras move across the plains in search of fresh grazing.

Enjoy a picnic lunch in the wilderness before continuing your afternoon game drive.

Accommodation Options

Budget: Seronera Public Campsite

Mid-range: Serengeti Heritage Camp

Luxury: Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 5: Serengeti to Ngorongoro Conservation Area

After breakfast, enjoy a final morning game drive in Serengeti before departing for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Travel through beautiful landscapes while watching wildlife along the way. You may stop at viewpoints overlooking the Ngorongoro Crater, where you will enjoy spectacular views of the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera.

The crater supports a high concentration of wildlife and is home to elephants, lions, buffaloes, zebras, wildebeests, hippos, hyenas, and the endangered black rhino.

Arrive at your lodge for dinner and overnight.

Accommodation Options

Budget: Simba Public Campsite

Mid-range: Rhino Lodge

Luxury: Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 6: Ngorongoro Crater Safari and Return to Arusha

After an early breakfast, descend into the Ngorongoro Crater for an unforgettable wildlife experience.

Explore the crater floor during a game drive while searching for the Big Five and other wildlife species. The crater’s enclosed ecosystem provides excellent opportunities for sightings throughout the year.

Enjoy a picnic lunch near the hippo pool before ascending the crater and beginning your journey back to Arusha.

Arrive in Arusha in the late afternoon where your safari ends, or transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your onward flight.

Meals: Breakfast and Lunch

Optional Activities

Hot air balloon safari over the Serengeti.
Champagne bush breakfast after a balloon flight.
Maasai village cultural experience.
Olduvai Gorge archaeological visit.
Guided wildlife photography safari.
Bird watching experience.
Sundowner experience in the Serengeti.
Bush dinner under the African sky.
Coffee plantation tour in Arusha.
Mto wa Mbu cultural village visit.
Walking safari in selected conservation areas.
Scenic flight over the Serengeti.

Best Time to Visit

This safari can be enjoyed throughout the year, with each season offering a unique experience. The dry season from June to October is excellent for wildlife viewing because animals gather around permanent water sources. January to March is a great period for witnessing the wildebeest calving season in the southern Serengeti, while July to October offers opportunities to see parts of the Great Migration. Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Serengeti, and Ngorongoro all provide rewarding wildlife experiences in every season.

Tour Includes

Travel in a 4×4 car
Professional guide
Park fees
Accommodation
Meals
All Activities In Itinerary

Tour Excludes

Alcoholic drinks
Laundry
Tips
Shopping
Insurance
Anything not included per itinerary

All Three Northern Circuit Parks in Six Days

This six-day itinerary covers all three of Tanzania’s flagship northern circuit parks, Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti and Tarangire, in a single well-paced week, giving a genuinely comprehensive first look at northern Tanzania’s wildlife diversity.

Each park contributes something distinct: Ngorongoro’s exceptionally dense, concentrated wildlife within a volcanic caldera, the Serengeti’s vast open plains and resident predators, and Tarangire’s elephant herds and iconic baobab-studded landscape.

Practical Notes

Most nationalities can apply for a Tanzania e-visa online before travel. A yellow fever certificate is required for entry if arriving from a country with risk of transmission. Travel insurance covering wildlife or trekking activities and medical evacuation is strongly recommended.

Tanzanian shillings are useful for everyday purchases, tips and markets, while US dollars printed after 2009 are widely accepted for park fees, conservation fees and lodge bills.

Because lodge and permit availability tightens considerably during the June to October peak season, we recommend booking this itinerary at least three to four months in advance for travel during that window.

Tipping is customary though not compulsory. Your driver-guide is typically tipped at the end of the full trip, scaled to group size and length of stay, and we’re glad to advise on typical ranges when you book.

A private 4×4 safari vehicle with a pop-up roof and an experienced English-speaking driver-guide accompanies you throughout this itinerary.

Why This Combination Works So Well

Because all three parks sit within Tanzania’s northern circuit and are connected by reasonably short drives, this six-day itinerary covers considerable ecological variety without excessive travel time between destinations, a key reason it remains one of our most popular standard Tanzania itineraries.

Travelers consistently describe the contrast between Ngorongoro’s compact, dense wildlife and the Serengeti’s vast open plains as one of the itinerary’s most memorable aspects, two very different ways of experiencing East African wildlife within days of each other.

Wildlife and the Great Migration in the Serengeti

The Serengeti’s vast, open plains support one of the last great terrestrial wildlife migrations on earth, as roughly two million wildebeest, zebra and gazelle move in a broadly circular pattern through the ecosystem each year, following the rains in search of fresh grass. Depending on the season, this can mean vast herds spread across the southern plains during calving season, dramatic river crossings in the west and north, or smaller, more dispersed groups elsewhere in the park — so the exact experience varies considerably by month. Beyond the migration, the Serengeti’s year-round resident wildlife, including some of Africa’s largest lion prides and healthy cheetah and leopard populations, makes it a rewarding destination regardless of when the herds themselves are present.

Wildlife Density in the Ngorongoro Crater

The Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera, contains an estimated 25,000 large mammals within its roughly 260-square-kilometre floor, a natural enclosure formed when a volcano larger than Kilimanjaro collapsed in on itself some two to three million years ago. Because the crater walls largely confine the resident wildlife year-round, sighting rates for lion, elephant, buffalo, hippo and the crater’s small but present population of black rhino are exceptionally high regardless of season, making it one of the most reliable single-day game drives in Africa. The descent into the crater floor along a steep access road, followed by a full day exploring the grassland, swamp and forest habitats within, is typically treated as its own dedicated day on a Tanzania itinerary.

Elephants and Baobabs at Tarangire

Tarangire National Park is known for two distinctive features: some of the largest elephant herds in Tanzania, with family groups sometimes numbering in the hundreds gathering along the Tarangire River during the dry season, and a landscape studded with ancient, swollen baobab trees that can live for well over a thousand years. The Tarangire River is the area’s only permanent water source through the dry months, which concentrates wildlife along its banks and makes June through October a particularly productive period for game viewing here. The park also supports species less commonly seen elsewhere in northern Tanzania, including fringe-eared oryx and gerenuk, alongside large pythons that are more frequently spotted here than in other parks in the region.

Climbing Routes on Mount Kilimanjaro

Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak at 5,895 metres, can be climbed via several established routes that vary in scenery, traffic and acclimatisation profile. The Marangu route, the only one with hut-based rather than tented accommodation, is the shortest but also has one of the lower summit success rates due to its fast ascent profile; Machame, nicknamed the Whiskey Route, is more scenic and allows better acclimatisation over a longer itinerary; and Lemosho, the longest of the popular routes, offers the most gradual ascent and correspondingly higher success rates. Regardless of route, the climb passes through five distinct ecological zones, from cultivated farmland through rainforest, moorland and alpine desert to the arctic summit zone, a transition unlike almost any other trek in the world.

Wildlife Photography Tips

Early morning and late afternoon light, when the sun sits low and animals are most active, consistently produces the strongest wildlife photographs, which is part of why most game drives are scheduled around dawn and dusk rather than the middle of the day. A telephoto lens in the 100-400mm range covers most safari situations, though a wide-angle lens is worth having for landscape shots and for scenes where wildlife is close enough to include the surrounding habitat. Resting a camera on a beanbag across the vehicle’s window frame, rather than relying purely on handheld shots, noticeably improves sharpness, especially in the low light typical of early morning game drives.