Tarangire, the Serengeti and the crater, with a chef along
The same three parks as our other five-day trips, done as comfortably as we know how. You'll sleep at Lake Burunge in baobab country, spend two nights in a tented camp in the central Serengeti, and finish on the Ngorongoro highlands.
A professional cook travels with you, which changes lunch out in the field entirely, and there's a walk through Mto wa Mbu village with a local lunch built into the price.
Couples and small groups who want the classic route without roughing it, and anyone who would rather have four very good nights than six ordinary ones.
This is a starting point, not a fixed departure. You can change the route, the pace, the camps and the length, and most people do. Customize this safari
A leisurely breakfast, then the drive to Tarangire, which gets called the elephant playground and earns it. The park is all baobabs and seasonal swamp, and the swamps pull in a remarkable number of birds.
Look out for lion, leopard, cheetah and caracal, and for the smaller things too: dik-dik, impala, eland and waterbuck. Lunch at a picnic site, then on to the lodge.
On to the Serengeti, which the Maasai called siringet, the place where the land runs on forever. You'll be game driving most of the way in rather than simply covering ground.
Lion, cheetah, leopard, giraffe, elephant and buffalo all live here, and in the right months the migration herds are on the plains too. Into camp in the evening for a hot shower and dinner.
A full day of game drives, which is when you start seeing behaviour rather than just animals: a pride at rest, a stalk that comes to nothing, birds you would never have noticed on day one.
Sunrise and sunset are both worth being out for, and your guide will plan the day around whichever you care about more.
One more morning drive to take in the central Serengeti, known as Seronera after the river that runs through it all year and keeps the resident game close.
Picnic lunch, then a game drive on the way to your lodge on the Ngorongoro highlands.
Down into the crater after breakfast. It's the largest intact caldera in the world, and inside its walls are big-tusked elephants, black rhino, the famous black-maned lions, and herds of gazelle, wildebeest and zebra.
Watch for the smaller predators too: caracal and serval both live down there, along with the spotted hyenas the lions spend their lives arguing with. Then up and out, and back to Arusha.
So, what does it cost? We price every safari individually, because it really depends on when you travel, which camps you pick and how many of you there are. The same route in February and in August won't cost the same.
Tell us your dates and roughly what you have in mind, and we'll send you a full, itemised quote. Not a vague range, a real quote.
Per person, based on two of you travelling together. The per-person price comes down in a bigger group, and we confirm your exact figure in writing when we quote. Rates as published for 1 April 2026 to 30 April 2030.
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