10 Day Private Deluxe Green Season & Cultural Safari

Upon your arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport a Hazina Afrika visa specialist will greet you in the Arrivals area and assist you with obtaining your tourist visa (tourist visa fee is included), help collect your luggage and accompany you through customs and escort you to a Hazina transfer representative who will be waiting outside the secured area to warmly welcome you to Tanzania. The road transfer to your hotel in Arusha will be approximately one hour. After check-in, your transfer rep will brief you on the following day’s schedule, review a safari safety check list and answer any questions you may have. Dinner and overnight at The African Tulip Boutique Hotel in a Deluxe Room.

Your tour of Arusha city will begin after a leisurely breakfast at the African Tulip Hotel. Your city guide will pick you up at the pre-arranged time from your hotel and the tour will involve visiting several historic or noteworthy sites. Your guide will also take you to visit a local orphanage and primary school and also a large, outdoor market where the majority of locals do all of their shopping. A delicious hot buffet lunch will be served at the Arusha Coffee Lodge located on the outskirts of Arusha in a beautiful garden setting removed from the hustle and bustle of the city. After lunch take a relaxed coffee tour of the nearby Burka Coffee Estates and enjoy a fresh cup of Tanzanian coffee. Finish off the visit with a stop at the Shanga Shop, an organization offering training and employment to disabled Tanzanians in crafting beautiful glass work, beadwork, paintings and textiles.

After an early morning breakfast, a Hazina representative will transfer you to the Arusha Domestic Airport to catch Auric Air 8am flight to the Central Serengeti. Your flight path will take you over the Ngorongoro Crater, the southern Serengeti plains to the Central Serengeti so enjoy the fabulous views below. Your driver guide will be waiting at the Seronera airstrip to welcome to you to the Serengeti to begin your safari adventure. Spend the next two days game driving the Central Serengeti and the Seronera Valley. The Seronera River Valley is home to a great diversity of wildlife due to its unique ecological niche as a transitional zone where two distinctly different habitats, the plains and woodlands, merge and various species of wildlife from both habitats can coexist. Seronera is headquarters for many of the Serengeti wildlife research projects, including the Serengeti Lion Project and the Frankfurt Zoological Society. Two nights at the lovely Pumzika Serengeti Camp.

This morning depart from Serengeti National Park and head to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Spend the two days exploring this vast area of the Ndutu woodlands and surrounding plains. During the green season spanning from December to April, majority of the Great Migration should be located in this area. The Great Migration is comprised not only of the wildebeest, zebra, eland and Thompson gazelle herds, totalling upwards of 2.5 million animals altogether, but the migration is also accompanied by the predators including lions, cheetahs, hyenas and jackals. Two nights at Ang’ata Migration Camp.

Finish game driving Ndutu this morning and begin heading southeast towards Ngorongoro Highlands. Visit Olduvai Museum en route. Olduvai is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world. Known as “The Cradle of Mankind”, the gorge stretches for nearly 50 km from Lake Ndutu to the Olbalbal Depression. The Leakey’s are the archaeologists responsible for most of the excavations and discoveries in Olduvai Gorge. They unearthed about 60 different hominid remains dating back from 2 million years ago to 17,000 years ago. The remains of about 7,000 extinct animal species have also been unearthed and moulds of some of these artifacts can be seen in the small on-site museum. Overnight at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge perched on the rim of the Crater.

Today, begin your day early with 6am game drive into the Ngorongoro Crater floor to escape the crowds that can gather later in the morning with the packaged group tours. The Crater is your best opportunity to see the highly endangered black rhino so spend some time scanning the horizon with your binoculars and to try spot one. Enjoy a picnic breakfast watching an African sunrise and spend the rest of the day exploring the world famous Ngorongoro Crater often referred to as “Africa’s Garden of Eden”. Encompassing an area of only 265 sq/km, the dense concentration of wildlife in a confined area allow for incredible game viewing and photo opportunities. Depart from the Crater in the afternoon and head to the nearby town of Karatu for overnight at Endoro Lodge.

Depart Endoro Lodge at sunrise and stop at Lake Eyasi Cultural Centre to pick up a cultural guide and sign in. The Hadzabe are an ethnic group living around Lake Eyasi in the central Rift Valley and in the neighbouring Serengeti Plateau. Some 300–400 Hadzabe live as hunter-gatherers, much as they have for thousands or even tens of thousands of years. They are the last functioning hunter-gatherers in Africa. The Hadzabe are not closely related to any other people. While traditionally considered an East African branch of the Khoisan peoples, primarily because their language has “clicks”, modern genetic research suggests that they may be more closely related to the Pygmies. The Hadzabe language appears to be an isolate, unrelated to any other. If you are lucky, you may be able accompany the Hadzabe men in a morning hunt. In the afternoon visit the Datoga tribe and observe blacksmithing and village life. Return to Endoro Lodge in the late afternoon.

After breakfast at Endoro Lodge head to Lake Manyara National Park approximately 30 minutes away and spend the morning game driving through the lush groundwater forest. Lake Manyara is famous for its tree climbing lions although the likelihood of seeing lions in a tree is greater in the Serengeti than at Manyara due to the dense forest making visibility difficult. Birdlife is abundant as are the number of baboons and other primates. Head back to Arusha in the afternoon and early dinner and day room at the African Tulip Boutique Hotel before evening transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport to catch your return flight.