Seeing both countries properly usually takes ten days or more, but this route covers four of the biggest names, Amboseli, Ngorongoro, the Serengeti and Tarangire, in a single week. It moves at a steady pace rather than a rushed one, with one park a day and enough time at each to settle in before heading out on a game drive.
Pickup starts at 07:00 from your Nairobi hotel. The drive to Amboseli takes around four hours, and you arrive in time for lunch at your lodge. At 16:00 you head out for your first game drive. Amboseli sits at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, and its swamps hold some of the largest elephant herds in East Africa, along with buffalo, lion and plenty of plains game. Dinner and overnight at your lodge.
After an early game drive at 06:30, you have breakfast and then cross the border into Tanzania at Namanga, continuing to Arusha for lunch. In the afternoon you drive up into the Ngorongoro Highlands, arriving at your lodge on the crater rim in the early evening. Dinner and overnight at your lodge.
After an early breakfast at 06:30, you descend into the Ngorongoro Crater with a packed lunch for a full day of game viewing. The crater floor sits around 610 metres below the rim and holds one of the densest concentrations of wildlife in Africa, including your best chance on this trip of spotting the black rhino, alongside lion, elephant, zebra, wildebeest and hyena. You climb back out in the late afternoon. Dinner and overnight at your lodge.
After breakfast at 07:30, you drive to the Serengeti, with a stop at Olduvai Gorge on the way, where some of the earliest known human fossils were discovered. You continue into the park for an afternoon game drive, with lunch taken along the way. The Serengeti holds Africa’s largest lion population and large numbers of wildebeest, zebra and gazelle. Dinner and overnight at your camp.
Game drives run at 06:30 and 16:00, with a break at the lodge in between. Whether you catch the wildebeest migration here depends on the time of year, since the herds move between the Serengeti and Kenya’s Maasai Mara through the year, following the rains. Dinner and overnight at your camp.
After breakfast at 07:00, you begin the drive back through the Ngorongoro highlands toward Tarangire National Park, with lunch on the way. Tarangire is known for its baobab trees and large elephant herds, and its lions and leopards sometimes rest in the branches of sausage trees. An afternoon game drive follows. Dinner and overnight at your lodge.
After breakfast at 07:30, you drive to Arusha for lunch, then continue back across the border to Nairobi, arriving in the evening. The safari ends here, with drop-off at your hotel or the airport.
Safari rates change with the season, number of travellers and available accommodation.
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