Tanzania family safari: Tarangire, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti

Arrive in Arusha

Kilimanjaro International Airport to Arusha

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Arusha
• Environ 1 h de route

Après-midi

Any arrival time works: if you land early, the afternoon is for the pool and the garden, and a nap after the long flight.

Soir

Before dinner your See Sight Tours guide meets the families for a short briefing on the week: why the safari days start early, how the two 4x4s work with each family in its own vehicle, what to wear against tsetse flies, and what the children can look out for each day. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner. If your flight lands late, your guide catches you up at breakfast.

Compris

• Pick-up at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner

A Maasai village and Tarangire

Arusha to a Maasai village near Tarangire, then Tarangire National Park

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Tarangire
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we load the two 4x4 Land Cruisers and drive about two hours south-west on tarmac, some 120 km, through Maasai grazing country. Shortly before Tarangire we stop at a Maasai village, where a family shows us their homes, the cattle enclosure and the beadwork, and the children can ask about school and herding; a fee goes to the community.

Après-midi

We reach our lodge, in or beside the park, for lunch. The middle of the day is for the pool and a rest, while the animals shelter from the heat too. At about four we go out on the first game drive along the Tarangire River. In the dry months it is one of the few reliable sources of water for miles, so elephant herds come down to drink, and the huge baobabs above the river are scarred where elephants have stripped the bark.

Soir

We are back for dinner after sunset.

Compris

• Maasai village visit near Tarangire, with a community fee
• Lunch at the lodge
• Late-afternoon game drive along the Tarangire River

Tarangire at dawn and a bush breakfast

Game drives in Tarangire National Park

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Tarangire

Soir

We leave the lodge at first light, about half past six, with blankets in the vehicle, because the early hours are cool and the animals are moving: lions finishing the night's hunt, elephants walking down to the river, giraffes browsing the acacias. Around nine we stop at a picnic site in the park for a cooked bush breakfast in the open, a highlight for most children. We drive on through the late morning and are back at the lodge for lunch. The afternoon is free: swim, sleep, or sit on the terrace with binoculars and see what comes to the waterhole. Older children and adults can take a short guided walk with an armed ranger instead, where the park and the lodge allow it. At about four the vehicles go out again for anyone who wants a second drive before sunset.

Compris

• Dawn game drive in Tarangire National Park
• Bush breakfast at a picnic site in the park
• Lunch at the lodge
• Late-afternoon game drive

Mto wa Mbu and a coffee farm by bike

Tarangire to Mto wa Mbu, then up to Karatu

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Karatu
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

A slow game drive out of Tarangire after breakfast, then about an hour and a half north on tarmac, some 90 km, to Mto wa Mbu, a busy farming town at the foot of the Rift Valley wall whose name means river of mosquitoes in Swahili.

Après-midi

A local guide walks us for about an hour through the banana groves and irrigated rice fields and past a workshop of painters, and we stop for lunch in the village, with a fee paid to the community. Then we climb the escarpment to Karatu, about 40 minutes, a cooler highland town of coffee and wheat farms. After checking in, we visit a coffee farm near the lodge. Children and adults who want to ride follow the farm tracks by bike with a local guide, past the coffee bushes, then everyone sees the beans picked, hulled and roasted, and tastes the result: coffee for the adults, something sweeter for the children. The late afternoon is free.

Compris

• Game drive out of Tarangire National Park
• Mto wa Mbu banana and rice field walk with a local guide
• Lunch in Mto wa Mbu
• Coffee farm visit near Karatu, with a guided bike ride for those who want it

Ngorongoro Crater as the road opens

Karatu to the Ngorongoro Crater floor and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Karatu
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

We leave Karatu at about half past five with breakfast packed, climb through the forest of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and stop briefly at the rim, where the whole caldera lies some 600 metres below. We drive down the descent road as it opens, among the first vehicles, while mist still lies on the floor. Ngorongoro is a collapsed volcano with about 260 square kilometres of grassland, swamp and a soda lake inside its walls. Lions, hyenas, buffalo, zebra and wildebeest live here all year, and it is the best chance on this trip of a black rhino, though they are few and usually distant.

Après-midi

Breakfast is at a picnic site by a hippo pool, and lunch is a picnic too. We climb out in the early afternoon as the floor gets busy and are back at the lodge by about half past two.

Soir

At about four we visit a school or community project near Karatu for an hour, where the children can meet local children or see the project at work; then the evening is free.

Compris

• Ngorongoro Crater rim viewpoint
• Ngorongoro Crater game drive from the opening of the descent road
• Picnic breakfast and picnic lunch on the crater floor
• School or community project visit near Karatu, late afternoon

Over the highlands to the Serengeti

Karatu over the Ngorongoro highlands to Olduvai Gorge and Naabi Hill, then the central Serengeti

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Serengeti
• Environ 5 h de route

Après-midi

A picnic lunch follows at Naabi Hill, the gate into the Serengeti, while the driver-guides clear the park formalities, which can add time, and there is a short climb for the view across the short-grass plains. The last 50 km to our camp near Seronera is a slow game drive, not a transfer, so the afternoon ends with animals. We arrive in the late afternoon.

Compris

• Olduvai Gorge museum and viewpoint
• Picnic lunch and short walk at Naabi Hill
• Game drive from Naabi Hill to camp

A full day in the Serengeti

Dawn and late-afternoon game drives around Seronera

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Serengeti

Matin

The vehicles leave camp before sunrise, which this close to the equator comes at about half past six all year, with hot chocolate and coffee in flasks. The first hours are when lions and cheetahs hunt and the light is low and warm. The Seronera valley at the centre of the park holds resident predators in every season: lions rest on the granite outcrops called kopjes, and leopards often lie up in the sausage trees along the river. If you have booked the optional balloon flight, you lift off at dawn instead and rejoin us after a bush breakfast. We are back at camp for brunch, and the hot middle hours are for a rest, a book, or the pool where the camp has one. About four, we drive out again until sundown. In a vehicle of six at most, your driver-guide has time to wait at a good sighting rather than race to the next one.

Compris

• Dawn game drive
• Brunch at camp
• Late-afternoon game drive to sunset

Activités en option

• Hot-air balloon flight at dawn. Booked in advance; operators usually take children from about 7, with a height rule, so a 6-year-old may not be able to fly.

Fly home from the Serengeti

Seronera to Seronera airstrip, flight to Arusha, then Kilimanjaro International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

A last morning drive after breakfast, with the bags already in the vehicle, ends at the Seronera airstrip, where we board a scheduled light aircraft back to Arusha airport. The flight takes about 40 minutes to an hour, depending on stops at other airstrips, and from the window the plains, the crater highlands and the Rift Valley lakes pass below; children usually remember it as much as the animals. Flying saves the six to seven hours of driving that other family safaris spend getting back from the Serengeti. The 4x4s and driver-guides drive back without us.

Après-midi

In Arusha we have lunch together, then drive about an hour, some 50 km, to Kilimanjaro International Airport. If you are staying on in Arusha, we drop you at your hotel instead. Flight times are set by the airline, so book an international flight leaving JRO after about 6:30 pm, and pack in a soft bag within the small-plane limit, often 15 to 20 kg, confirmed at booking.

Compris

• Morning game drive to the Seronera airstrip
• Scheduled light-aircraft flight from the Serengeti to Arusha airport
• Lunch in Arusha
• Drop-off at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) or your Arusha hotel