Northern Circuit Safari: Wildlife and Zanzibar Experience

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This magnificent tour combines a shared group safari through the northern circuit wildlife with a visit to Zanzibar, giving you the chance to experience two major aspects of the archipelago. You’ll enjoy incredibly rich cultural and historical experiences, as well as a gorgeous seaside holiday.

Duration: 10 days

Cancellation: 24 hours

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Highlights

Arusha - Tarangire National Park

Tarangire National Park - After breakfast at the hotel, we’ll depart for Tarangire, Tanzania’s third-largest national park and a sanctuary for an unusually large elephant population. Majestic baobab trees are an interesting feature of the park, dwarfing the animals that feed beneath them. Animals concentrate along the Tarangire River, which provides the only permanent water supply in the area. There is a great diversity of wildlife here, including lions, leopards, cheetahs, and up to 6,000 elephants. Enjoy a game drive with a picnic lunch. After another game drive, you will head to your accommodations for dinner and your overnight stay.

Camp To Serengeti National Park

Serengeti National Park - After breakfast, you will head to the Serengeti, passing by Karatu and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area along the way. Upon arrival in the Serengeti, we will head to the Seronera area, one of the richest wildlife habitats in the park. The Seronera River acts as the source of water to this area. We will have lunch and drive through the sunset to our public campsite.

The Great Migration happens every year, and the best chance to witness it is from June to September in the northern Serengeti. During the drive, you will see thousands of wildebeest and zebras crossing the Mara River as they migrate in search of pasture.

Serengeti National Park To Ngorongoro Highlands

Serengeti National Park - Early in the morning after breakfast, you will drive off in search of the Great Migration. Afterwards, you will continue your full-day game drive before exiting the Serengeti.

Dinner and your overnight stay will be at a public campsite.

Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater - You’ll be picked up from the camp after breakfast and then drive to the Ngorongoro Crater with picnic lunch boxes in hand for a game drive. Often called the “Eighth Natural Wonder of the World,” the Ngorongoro Crater is the largest intact crater in the world. About two million years ago, the Ngorongoro volcano erupted, and its walls collapsed. The volcano floor sank to create a natural enclosure with 600-meter-tall walls. Now over 19 kilometers wide, the Ngorongoro Crater is filled with great areas of acacia forest, hippo-filled swamps, and open grasslands. These different habitats contain over 30,000 animals, including elephants, warthogs, flamingos, magnificent birdlife, the rare black rhinoceros, and all predatory cats. The Maasai can also be seen grazing their cattle alongside the buffalo and wildebeest. Afterward, you will drive to the Mto wa Mbu area for dinner and your overnight stay at the campsite.

Lake Manyara National Park - Arusha

Lake Manyara National Park - Lake Manyara National Park is dominated by a shallow alkaline lake at the base of the Rift Valley escarpment. It is famous for its tree-climbing lions and large elephant herds. The park entrance leads to a jungle-like groundwater forest, which is home to large numbers of olive baboons and blue monkeys. A thrilling 370m/1,200ft-long treetop walkway offers a bird’s eye view into this unique habitat. You will enjoy a six-hour game drive and stop at the picnic site for lunch with a spectacular view of hippos. Afterwards, you will exit the park gates and begin your trip back to Arusha, where you will overnight and have dinner at the hotel.

Arusha - Materuni Waterfalls - Zanzibar

Materuni Waterfalls - Today your driver-guide will pick you up from your hotel around 9:00 am and drive you approximately two hours to Moshi, where the Materuni village is located. Note that the road to the village is a bit bumpy.

Upon arrival, you will begin your hike to the waterfalls, which take about 45 minutes. Once at the waterfalls, you can swim, take pictures, and enjoy the view. Afterward, you will hike back to the starting point and have lunch. The food is locally sourced from the Chagga people. After lunch, you will witness local coffee processing, roasting, and grinding.

Afterward, you will drive to Kilimanjaro airport for your flight to Zanzibar. Upon arrival, a transfer to your accommodations will be waiting for you.

Beach Time

Nungwi Beach - You’ll spend several days in Zanzibar relaxing and taking your time after the thrilling safari. You are free to explore the area around the hotel, and we can recommend some activities for you to do upon your request. Our representatives will chauffeur you to the chosen activity, ensuring you have a memorable experience.

Beach Time

Hotel To Zanzibar Airport

Abeid Amani Karume International Airport - On this day, your spectacular adventure with us comes to an end. We hope you’ve already booked your flight tickets back home. Your driver will be waiting at the hotel to take you to Zanzibar airport. If you wish to extend your stay, please contact our office.

What's Included

Accommodations
Domestic flights
All meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner)
English speaking driver guide
Airport pickup and drop off
All park fees
All road transportation

What's Not Included

Tip
International flights

Additional Information

Diet restriction (we offer vegeterian meals)

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings

4.5

(2 Ratings)

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1 star

662jacekw

Jul 6, 2024

Unique and cost-effective mix of safari and Zanzibar leisure - We took 5 day safari with waterfall trip on the 6th day, overall it was a unique experience with the highlights being the Ngorongoro crater and Serengeti plains, where you can see vast variety of nature and animals. We saw lions with fresh prey twice but missed leopards or cheetahs - it's a game of luck. We decided to take a less costly option and share our car, which made planning more difficult, the biggest nuisance being the commute to parks which are quite far and having our time limited by others' arrival or departure. I would recommend focusing on 2 not 4 parks to spend as much time as possible tracking animals. The accommodation, hotel, lodges were good, the driver was experienced. Spending nights in the parks under a tent and with animals close was an extra special experience. The tour organizer made sure to make us feel special with a birthday surprise and was very responsive over the phone. Our relax time in Zanzibar was smooth with door-to-door drives, the hotel was very pleasant and surprisingly not busy. Overall we were lucky to spend time on safari and by the beach for a very reasonable price and I would recommend everyone doing it if they can.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

Departure17693765359

Jul 5, 2024

Created great memories! - My boyfriend and I had a great time on this trip. Everything was well coordinated and organized for us. The only thing we wish we would have known is that since the national parks are located far away from each other, there is a significant amount of time eaten up by traveling. So when they say “2 days in the Serengeti”, this is actually 2 half-days so about 8-10h of game drives total. It may sound like enough but it sometimes takes a while to spot animals since the area is very vast, so the more time spent in one place the better. If we had to redo it I would have chosen to visit fewer parks (Serengeti and Ngorongoro) and spend more time in those. In the end, we were able to see only 3 out of the Big 5. The organization could have been a bit better since we shared a Jeep with another family that had a different itinerary than us and finished one day earlier. Because of that, we had to leave the park early (around 11am even though we supposedly had a full day to spend in the Park) which was not really fair to the rest of us who were staying longer. We ended up back at the hotel at 2PM with nothing to do. With that said, when we complained the tour company was accommodating and arranged for some small activities to fill in our time. They were also very responsive on WhatsApp. My boyfriend’s birthday fell during the trip and the company arranged to have a surprise cake delivered after our hike to the waterfalls, which was a very thoughtful touch.

Review provided by Tripadvisor

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