Day 1 - Arrive Arusha

Arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport (international flight timing to be advised) where you will clear immigration and collect your bags before being met by our representative and assisted with your transfer to Gran Melia Arusha, approximately 1-hour drive from the airport.

Arusha is located in the northern highlands of Tanzania, beneath the twin peaks of Mt. Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro. It is the safari capital Tanzania and the third largest city in the country. Guests embarking on the popular northern safari circuit all stop in the ‘Geneva of Africa’ to prepare for their journeys into the African bush and some of the best game viewing areas in the world. The city is close to the Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Lake Manyara National Park, Olduvai Gorge, Tarangire National Park, Mount Kilimanjaro, and Arusha National Park. The micro climate caused by the mountain and a plentiful water supply make it an excellent agricultural area and it is well known for exporting coffee, flowers, fruits and vegetables to Europe and supplying the many lodges and hotels in the country.

Overnight: Gran Melia Arusha

Meal Plan:

Day 2 - Day trip to Mount Kilimanjaro

After breakfast, meet your driver guide at the lobby and transfer to Londorossi gate to start walking.

You will be picked up by your mountain guide to head to Londorossi gate (2,360m / 7,742f). Sign in at the Kilimanjaro park authorities’ office and continue driving towards the plateau. Near Moram gate (3500m) leave the car and walk on the plateau towards Shira 1 camp (3,720m / 12,276f). Here enjoy a picnic lunch with good views on Kilimanjaro if it is not covered in clouds. Return to the vehicle waiting at the edge of Shira plateau via Londorossi gate and Boma junction before you return to Arusha. Picnic lunches will be provided.

Later drive back to the hotel for dinner and overnight.

Overnight: Gran Melia Arusha

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 3 - Lake Manyara National Park

Enjoy breakfast at the hotel.

Drive to Lake Manyara National Park, the smallest park in the northern circuit. On arrival, proceed on the treetop walk which takes approximately 45 minutes. Afterwards proceed on a game drive with picnic lunch. Later, drive to Escarpment luxury lodge for dinner and overnight.

Manyara Treetop Walkway takes you on a sky-high adventure through the beautiful forest of Lake Manyara. Walk among the treetops and experience untouched nature and wildlife from a unique perspective. This 370m airwalk starts with a short boardwalk that gradually rises from ground level up through the canopy of the forest. You walk over a series of suspension bridges with thick netting on the sides and reach a height of 18m off the ground. Each of the bridges end on a viewing deck situated around tree trunks. These treetop platforms are perfect places to stop and enjoy life in the canopy amongst butterflies, monkeys and birds. During this walk guides will point out interesting facts about the Lake Manyara flora and fauna, while you can enjoy a unique birds-eye view of the world around you. This is Tanzania's first Treetop Walkway and one of the longest in Africa. A great outdoor activity for nature lovers and adventure seekers.

Overnight: Escarpment Luxury Lodge

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 4 - Ngorongoro Crater via Karatu

After breakfast at the lodge, drive to Karatu for a cooking lesson and lunch and later visit the AK Philanthropy Bike Shop project. Later in the afternoon, drive to Ngorongoro for sundowners.

If you love cooking or have always wanted to try your hand at creating some African dishes using traditional cooking methods this Insider Access activity is just for you. The cooking takes place in Nazira’s home; she is the chef who will teach you to cook like a Tanzanian. You will help prepare the food and cook it, under instruction of your guide and Nazira, on the traditional charcoal jiko’s (ovens) before sitting down to sample your creations.

AKP's Bike Enterprise Program empowers local communities through mobility. Health care workers can see more patients, students can make the journey to school, middle to low income workers can get to work in an affordable manner, and families can carry more goods to and from home. AKP's Bike Shop on the edge of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area employs four women who have gone through extensive training to become bike mechanics and operate their own business enterprise. Typically, this type of job would be given to a male. Through this female-driven model, AKP empowers women by providing them with a new set of skills, the ability to earn their own income and help breakdown the gender stereotypes. 

Overnight: Sanctuary Ngorongoro Crater Camp

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 5 - Ngorongoro Crater

Breakfast at the lodge.

This morning you will descend into the Ngorongoro crater for a full day crater tour.

Ngorongoro Crater is a deep, volcanic crater and the largest unbroken caldera in the world. About 20 kilometres (12 miles) across, 600 meters (1,969 feet) deep and 300 square kilometres (186 square miles) in area, the Ngorongoro Crater is a breath-taking natural wonder. Within the crater rim large herds of zebra and wildebeest graze nearby while sleeping lions laze in the sun. At dawn, the endangered black rhino returns to the thick cover of the crater forests after grazing on dew-laden grass in the morning mist. Just outside the crater's ridge, tall Maasai herd their cattle and goats over green pastures living alongside the wildlife as they have for centuries.

Overnight: Sanctuary Ngorongoro Crater Camp

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 6 - Serengeti National Park

Enjoy breakfast at the camp.

Fly to Serengeti arriving at the Camp for a hot lunch and afternoon walking safari.

The Serengeti, one of the planet's biggest and most enduring wildlife havens, stretches all the way from the Ngorongoro Highlands to Lake Victoria (almost the size of New Jersey) and presents the oldest and largest ecosystem on the planet. It takes its name from a Maasai word, siringitu, "the place where the land moves on forever". Under an enormous African sky, the plains indeed seem infinite, as if a greater power announced to the resident wildlife, 'you can have all this', with the generous sweep of a celestial arm.

Overnight: Serengeti Walking Camp North & South

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 7 - Serengeti National Park

Full day at Serengeti National Park with option of walking safari and game drives.

The Serengeti, which covers over 12,000 square kilometers (4,633 square miles), is home to more than three million large animals across dozens of species. The best known of these are the enormous herds of wildebeest and zebra which, driven by the instinct to survive, chase after new pasture following the rains on annual march of almost 1,000 kilometers (386 miles). This is the largest, and one of the last, great terrestrial migrations on earth.

This awe-inspiring movement of animals supports many predators. Sleek savannah dwelling cheetahs who pick off the weak and straggling to enormous crocodiles that lie motionless most of the year in anticipation of the annual feast as a never-ending column of animals moves relentlessly on across land and water. Big cats thrive here - appropriate given that this area began as a sanctuary to preserve lions from hunting in 1921.

Overnight: Serengeti Walking Camp North & South

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 8 - Serengeti National Park

Full day at Serengeti National Park with option of walking safari and game drives.

Within the impressive proportions of the Serengeti, with its big skies, big spaces, big beasts making big journeys, keep your eyes peeled for the small: showy agama lizards and rock hyraxes make their homes amongst granite kopjes that dot the park. More than five hundred bird species have been recorded here as well as 100 varieties of dung beetle, laboriously rolling their cargo onward.

Overnight: Serengeti Walking Camp North & South

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 9 - Fly to Arusha - depart

Savor your last breakfast in the bush. Thereafter transfer to the airstrip and fly to Arusha where you're met by your driver and transfer to Gran Melia for your day room and lunch.

In the late afternoon transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your International flight.

Overnight:

Meal Plan: B,L