Tanzania safari for three generations: Tarangire, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti

Arrive in Arusha

Kilimanjaro International Airport to Arusha

• Early welcome dinner, about 6:30 pm
• Nuit : Arusha
• Environ 1 h de route

Après-midi

On a clear afternoon Kilimanjaro shows above the clouds from the airport road, a good first thing for the children to spot. Any arrival time works: if you land early, the afternoon is for the pool, a nap after the long flight, or a short walk in the garden. At about half past five your See Sight Tours guide gives a short briefing for all three generations: why game drives start early, how the two 4x4s are arranged so each family rides together, which seats suit stiff backs, what to wear against tsetse flies, and how bush toilet stops work.

Soir

The welcome dinner follows at about half past six, early enough for young children and tired travellers. If your flight lands late, your guide catches you up at breakfast.

Compris

• Pick-up at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO)
• Welcome briefing for the whole family
• Welcome dinner

Tarangire's elephants and baobabs

Arusha to Tarangire National Park

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

Matin

After a relaxed breakfast we leave at about half past eight in two 4x4 Land Cruisers and drive about two hours south-west on tarmac, some 120 km, through Maasai grazing country, with a stop for coffee and a toilet halfway.

Après-midi

We reach our lodge, in or beside Tarangire National Park, in time for lunch. The hottest hours are for a rest and the lodge pool, which we ask for, which suits grandparents and children alike, and the animals shelter from the heat too. At about four we drive out along the Tarangire River. In the dry months it is the main water for miles around, so elephant herds come down to drink, and the great baobabs above the banks carry scars where elephants have stripped the bark. Zebra, giraffe and wildebeest graze the grass beside the river, and lions rest in the shade.

Soir

The drive is about two and a half hours, with the roof up for standing, and we are back before dark for dinner at about seven.

Compris

• Lunch at the lodge
• Late-afternoon game drive along the Tarangire River

Tarangire to Mto wa Mbu and Karatu

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

This is the one packing morning of the first half, kept gentle. Early risers can join an optional dawn drive at about half past six, back for breakfast; everyone else sleeps in. At about nine we drive slowly out of the park with the bags aboard, then about an hour and a half north on tarmac, some 90 km, to Mto wa Mbu, a farming town at the foot of the Rift Valley wall whose name means river of mosquitoes in Swahili. A local guide leads a short, flat walk of about 40 minutes through the banana groves and irrigated rice fields; grandparents who prefer can follow the same lanes in the vehicle and meet us at a painters' workshop.

Après-midi

Lunch is in the village, with a fee paid to the community. Then a 40-minute climb up the escarpment to Karatu, a cooler highland town among farms at about 1,500 metres.

Soir

We check in by mid-afternoon, and the rest of the day is for the lodge pool, where we have asked for one, and an early dinner.

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

Ngorongoro Crater at opening

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 a quarter past six with breakfast packed and blankets in the vehicles, climb through the forest of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and stop at the rim, where the caldera lies some 600 metres below. We drive down as the descent road opens, early in the morning at a time we confirm with your dates, among the first vehicles of the day, 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, wildebeest and hippos live here all year, and it is the best chance on this trip of a black rhino, though they are few and usually distant. There is no walking: you watch from your seat or stand under the roof.

Après-midi

Breakfast and lunch are picnics at sites with toilets, one beside a hippo pool. We climb out in the early afternoon, within the time each vehicle is allowed on the floor, as it gets busy, and are back at the lodge by about three, with the rest of the day free.

Compris

• Ngorongoro Crater rim viewpoint
• Ngorongoro Crater game drive from the opening of the descent road
• Picnic breakfast and lunch on the crater floor

A coffee farm, then fly to the Serengeti

Karatu to the Lake Manyara airstrip, flight to Seronera in the central Serengeti

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Serengeti
• Environ 45 min de route

Matin

After breakfast we walk a coffee farm near the lodge with a local guide: the children pick ripe red cherries, everyone sees the beans hulled and roasted over a fire, and the adults taste a cup. Older children and parents can follow the farm tracks by bike instead.

Après-midi

After an early lunch we drive about 45 minutes, some 25 km, to the Lake Manyara airstrip on the escarpment and board a scheduled light aircraft to Seronera, about an hour over the crater highlands and the short-grass plains. Flying replaces the five-hour gravel drive into the Serengeti that most northern circuit trips take, which is the hardest day for grandparents and young children alike. Our 4x4s and driver-guides leave Karatu at dawn with the main luggage and meet the plane, so your bag on the flight can be small.

Soir

From the airstrip a short game drive among the kopjes of the Seronera valley brings us to camp for an early dinner.

Compris

• Coffee farm visit near Karatu with a local guide
• Scheduled light-aircraft flight from the Lake Manyara airstrip to Seronera
• Game drive from Seronera airstrip 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

One leaves camp at first light, at about 6:15 to 6:30 all year this close to the equator, with hot chocolate and coffee in flasks, for the hours when lions and cheetahs hunt and the light is low. The other leaves after a full breakfast at about half past eight, for grandparents and children who need their sleep.

Après-midi

Both explore the Seronera valley, where lions rest on the granite kopjes and leopards lie up in the sausage trees along the river, and both are back at camp for lunch. The hot middle hours are for a rest, a book or the pool where the camp has one.

Soir

At about four everyone drives out together until sundown, then dinner is early. If you have booked the optional balloon flight (the operator usually sets a minimum age of 7), you lift off at dawn instead and rejoin us after a champagne breakfast in the bush.

Compris

• Dawn game drive or a later morning drive, your choice
• Lunch at camp
• Late-afternoon game drive to sunset

Activités en option

• Hot-air balloon flight at dawn. Booked in advance; the operator usually sets a minimum age of 7, so a 6-year-old may not fly. Confirmed at booking.

Fly home from the Serengeti

Seronera airstrip, flight to Arusha, then Kilimanjaro International Airport

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

Matin

A last game drive after breakfast, with the bags already in the vehicles, ends at the Seronera airstrip, where we board a scheduled light aircraft back to Arusha airport. The flight takes about an hour to an hour and a half, depending on stops at other airstrips, and from the window the plains, the crater highlands and the Rift Valley lakes pass below; children often remember it as well as the animals. Flying saves the six to seven hours of road that most northern circuit trips spend getting back from the Serengeti. The 4x4s drive back without us.

Après-midi

In Arusha we have lunch together and a chance to rest, 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 the cabin bag for the plane within the small-plane limit.

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