Pemba - Tanzania: Serengeti Safari (5 days)

Tanzania: Serengeti Safari from £1,395 pp *

Day 1 - Fly to Arusha

On arrival you will be transferred to Ngorongoro for your first overnight stay. This afternoon, we take a tour of the Ngorongoro Crater. We descend from the upper rim, driving down a steep track that drops about a staggering 600m to the grassy plain, lake and marshes of the basin floor below. This winding track is restricted to small 4WD vehicles. Among the animals to watch out for are elephant, black-maned lion, cheetah, buffalo and rhino. The perennial marshes teem with birdlife. The crater itself, technically classed as a caldera, owes its existence to the violent fracturing of the Rift Valley over a period of some 25 million years. At one time a volcano occupied this spot that then became extinct and collapsed into the empty magma chamber beneath it; leaving only the gigantic natural basin and is now considered a veritable “Garden of Eden”. (Lunch and dinner.)

Day 2 - Enroute from Ngorongoro to Serengeti

After breakfast, depart for the Serengeti, with game viewing en-route. Overnight at Serengeti (full board).

Day 3 - Game drives

The Serengeti covers almost 15,000 square km in area and is Tanzania’s oldest, and arguably, greatest park. Although the Serengeti is famed for the awe-inspiring spectacle of the annual migration, it still offers some of the best game viewing in Africa. While we are here we shall move through as many different habitats that are part of the Serengeti as possible and seek out the daily drama of the struggle between prey and predator, large and small, from the lions, leopards and cheetahs to the elephants, giraffe and buffalo. Every turn of the game drives reveal something of this stunning world where more than 500 species of birds recorded here! The vastness of the space under the vault of the sky gives one a liberating sense of space difficult to find anywhere else. Overnight at Serengeti (full board).

Day 4 - Head to Lake Manyara

We head to Lake Manyara National Park for our first game drive. Lake Manyara is nestled at the bottom of the Great Rift Valley and is just 330 sq km, of which up to 200 sq km is the lake from which the park receives its name. The park boasts a variety of habitats, ecosystems and animals. The various habitats of the lush forests, the acacia woodlands, the grassy floodplain, the alkaline lake surface and the volcanic peaks are home to prey and predators large and small. As well as over 400 species of bird! After lunch, enjoy a game drive in the park. Overnight lodge (full board).

Day 5 - Transfer to Arusha

Following a game drive in the morning after breakfast, depart for Arusha. From here join your return flight to the UK. (Breakfast.)

* Sample price indication based on 2 sharing and subject to change.