7 Days Great Migration Calving Safari

When your plane touches down at Kilimanjaro International Airport, it’s time for your Tanzanian safari adventure to begin! One of our safari experts from Chalema Tanzania Safaris will be waiting to meet you at the airport. Our next stop will be the phenomenal Arusha Planet Lodge, where you’ll get your first taste of the alluring atmosphere of an East African safari. Ilboru offers lovely accommodations in thatched rondavels, distributed across five acres of tastefully landscaped grounds. There’s no better place to relax and recover from the jetlag of international travel, so take your time today to enjoy the lodge’s great food and beautiful outdoor spaces. Tomorrow, our Tanzania safari begins in earnest!

Tarangire National Park is an up-and-coming star on Tanzania’s Northern Safari Circuit, and we’ll reach this sprawling wildlife reserve after driving from Arusha for about two or three hours—just in time for a morning game drive! You’ll quickly fall in love with the park’s towering baobab trees and family groups of roaming elephants. Keep your eyes peeled for leopards moving like dappled shadows through the acacia scrub; if you find a herd of especially nervous impala, you’ll want to stick around to see what happens. After enjoying a full day of authentic safari sightseeing in Tarangire, we’ll get checked in at tonight’s accommodations. We’ll be staying at the Marera Valley Lodge in nearby Karatu, just a couple of hours’ drive away on the other side of Lake Manyara. You can anticipate immaculate and comfortable rooms, expansive views of green fields, and charming flower gardens—not to mention a good meal!

Tanzania is perhaps best known as the home of the Serengeti National Park and its attendant wildebeest migration, which involves millions of antelopes and zebra. The wildebeest travel south in the early months of the year, during calving season. But the southernmost reaches of the Serengeti have their own allure during any season, and it’s here that we’ll find the fantastic region of Ndutu. This is a land of endless horizons, lone acacia trees dotting the plains, and all the wildlife you’d expect of an East African game park—in other words, the quintessential Tanzanian safari destination. Ndutu is also an especially great place to look for cheetah, so we’ll scour the length and breadth of the savanna on our hunt for this most majestic of big cats. Our accommodations for the next two nights will be at the Ndutu Bush Camp, where you’ll enjoy canvas safari tents, great meals, and Maasai cultural encounters.

With another full day to explore the Ndutu region to its fullest extent, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to see all of the plains game and carnivores your heart could desire. If you’re visiting during the wildebeest migration, make sure to keep an eye out for the predators that are drawn to the spectacle of the calving season. Birders will also really have their hands full with cataloguing the hundreds of species that can be found in the acacia thickets along the shores of Lake Ndutu. If you’d like to stay out in the park all day, we can even bring a packed lunch and enjoy our meal at an especially scenic spot in the bush. When you’ve had your fill of the sights and sounds of the wilderness for today, we’ll return to Ndutu Bush Camp to spend the evening around the campfire, swapping stories with fellow travelers and learning more about Maasai culture.

No safari in northern Tanzania would be complete without the chance to visit the wide-open plains at the heart of the Serengeti National Park. The central Serengeti is famous in worldwide conservation circles as the home to many important research studies: groundbreaking discoveries about lions, hyenas, and cheetahs were made in this part of Tanzania. And you’ll make a few discoveries of your own as we explore the Seronera region of the Serengeti: you’ll discover leopards prowling along river gorges, giraffes browsing amongst the tallest trees on the savanna, and pools where dozens upon dozens of hippos submerge themselves to beat the heat. After making the most of this full-day safari in the Serengeti, we’ll enjoy luxury lodging at the Tanzania Bush Camp. You’ll feel right at home in classic safari tents with panoramic views of the plains.

We’ve already seen many of the highlights of an authentic Tanzanian safari, but there’s one more destination you won’t want to miss. Ngorongoro Crater is a naturally formed volcanic caldera, where huge populations of East Africa’s most iconic game species live and breed. As we descend into the crater, you’ll be gobsmacked by the far-reaching views of green savanna, scattered lakes, and—of course—massive herds of herbivores. When we reach the crater floor, we’ll scour the fertile plains to search for lions, hyenas, elephants, and even rhinos. All told, this is one of the most classic safari spots in the entirety of Tanzania. After spending the day photographing the animals which call Ngorongoro home, we’ll return to Marera Valley Lodge in Karatu for another night’s rest.

After all of the sights you’ve seen and the miles you’ve traveled, we hope that your classic Tanzanian safari has exceeded your every expectation. An East African safari is truly an experience like no other, and we trust that your time in this special part of the world has been nothing short of transformative. Today, we’ll make the short drive from Karatu back to Arusha and the Kilimanjaro International Airport in plenty of time for your outgoing flight. Thank you for choosing Chalema Tanzania Safaris!