Tanzania family safari: Tarangire, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti

1. Day 1: Arrive in Arusha

   Kilimanjaro International Airport to Arusha

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Arusha
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO), between Moshi and Arusha. We meet you after arrivals and drive about an hour west, roughly 50 km, to your hotel in Arusha, the safari town at the foot of Mount Meru. On a clear day Kilimanjaro shows above the clouds from the airport road, which is a good first thing to spot from the car window. Any arrival time works: if you land early, the afternoon is for the pool and the garden, and a nap after the long flight. 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.

   Included

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

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   Activity: Any arrival time works on day 1.

   

2. Day 2: A Maasai village and Tarangire

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

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Tarangire
   Day 2 details

   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. 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. We are back for dinner after sunset.

   Included

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

   Easier option: Skip the late drive and stay at the lodge pool.

   Free time: Midday free at the lodge

   Activity: Dress everyone in khaki, beige or green, not dark blue or black, against tsetse flies.

3. Day 3: Tarangire at dawn and a bush breakfast

   Game drives in Tarangire National Park

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Tarangire
   Day 3 details

   Sleeping two nights here means no packing today. 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.

   Included

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

   Easier option: Skip the afternoon drive and stay at the lodge pool.

   More active option: A short walk with an armed ranger for older children and adults, where the park and lodge allow; the age limit is confirmed at booking.

   Free time: Afternoon free at the lodge

   Activity: An early start, about 6:30 am. Blankets are in the vehicles for the cool first hour.

   

4. Day 4: Mto wa Mbu and a coffee farm by bike

   Tarangire to Mto wa Mbu, then up to Karatu

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Karatu
   Day 4 details

   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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Walk the coffee farm with the guide, or ride to it in the vehicle, instead of cycling.

   More active option: The bike ride on the coffee farm tracks.

   Free time: Late afternoon free at the Karatu lodge

   Activity: About an hour on foot in Mto wa Mbu on flat paths, and about an hour by bike on easy dirt tracks. Bikes and helmets in children's sizes are confirmed at booking.

   

5. Day 5: Ngorongoro Crater as the road opens

   Karatu to the Ngorongoro Crater floor and back

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Karatu
   Day 5 details

   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. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Skip the community visit and stay at the lodge pool.

   Free time: Early afternoon and evening free at the Karatu lodge

   Activity: The earliest start of the trip, about 5:30 am. The rim and the crater floor are cold at dawn: bring warm layers for everyone. The school visit follows term dates; out of term we visit a community project instead.

   

6. Day 6: Over the highlands to the Serengeti

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

   • Drive about 5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Serengeti
   Day 6 details

   This is the one long road day of the trip, about five hours of driving and over our usual four, because there is no shorter road into the Serengeti. We break it up. We leave Karatu at about half past seven, cross the highlands past the crater rim and drop down the dry western slopes on gravel, past Maasai herders and their cattle, to Olduvai Gorge, where Mary Leakey found a hominin skull about 1.75 million years old in 1959; the small museum and the view over the gorge take about an hour, and children can see casts of the finds. 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.

   Included

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

   Easier option: Stay at the vehicle at Naabi Hill instead of climbing it.

   Activity: About five hours of driving, broken by Olduvai Gorge, a picnic at Naabi Hill and a game drive at the end; gravel and dust after the crater rim.

7. Day 7: A full day in the Serengeti

   Dawn and late-afternoon game drives around Seronera

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Serengeti
   Day 7 details

   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.

   Included

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

   Optional experiences

   • 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.

   Easier option: Skip the afternoon drive and stay at camp.

   Free time: Midday free at camp

   Activity: Not every Serengeti camp has a pool; we tell you which yours has when we confirm your dates.

   

8. Day 8: Fly home from the Serengeti

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

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   Day 8 details

   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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Activity: Book a flight leaving JRO after about 6:30 pm. Small-plane bag limit, often 15 to 20 kg per person in a soft bag, confirmed at booking; extra luggage can go back by road.

Wildlife and weather: June to October is the dry season and fits northern summer holidays: cool mornings, thin grass and animals close to water, when Tarangire's elephant herds are at their biggest. The great Serengeti herds pass through the central and western Serengeti around June and July and are mostly in the far north from August, which this trip does not reach; resident lions, cheetahs and elephants stay all year. January and February are green and warm, with calving on the southern plains, and we may base the Serengeti nights further south then. We do not run from March to May or in November, the rains.

• Arusha1 night
• Tarangire2 nights
• Karatu2 nights
• Serengeti2 nights