Chui means leopard in Swahili. Six days is the shortest trip that still gives you two nights in the Serengeti, and two nights is the difference between driving through the Serengeti and really being in it.
People often ask us for five days, or even four. We'll happily quote it, but we'll also be honest with you: you'd spend most of it in the car.
Travellers on a tight schedule, people adding a safari to a Zanzibar holiday, and anyone who wants the northern circuit without taking a second week off.
This is a sample itinerary. You can change every part of it (the route, the pace, the camps, the length) and most people do! Customize this safari
You'll head west from Arusha to Lake Manyara, with an afternoon game drive through the groundwater forest and out along the lake shore. It's a short day on purpose: most people only arrived the night before and are still finding their feet.
This is the long transfer day, broken up by the viewpoint on the crater rim and a stop at Olduvai Gorge. You'll enter the Serengeti through Naabi Hill gate in the early afternoon, and game drive your way to camp.
A full day, and on this trip, it's the day everything hinges on. Out at first light, back for the middle of the day, and out again until the light fades. Where you go depends entirely on the month, and on whatever your guide heard on the radio over breakfast.
A morning drive in the Serengeti, then east and up to the Ngorongoro rim, arriving in the late afternoon. Pack warm clothes for the evening, because the rim sits above 2,200 metres.
You'll head down as the gate opens. The crater floor is at its best in the first two hours, before the vehicles coming up from Arusha arrive. Look out for lion, elephant, buffalo, hippo and flamingo, and maybe a black rhino in the distance.
You'll be out of the crater by early afternoon, and down to Karatu for the night.
Back to Arusha in the morning, with a day room ready for you before an evening flight, or a transfer to Arusha airport for the short hop to Zanzibar.
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.
Priced per person, for a private trip. International flights aren't included.
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Eight days built around time with the animals: two full days in the Serengeti, a trip down into the crater, and Tarangire's big elephant herds.
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Seven days paced for families: Tarangire, Lake Manyara, the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater, without the long drives that make kids hate safaris.
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Ten days across every park on the northern circuit, with three nights in the Serengeti and not a single day that's just a transfer.