Days: 3 Starting Price: Contact for Pricing
Designed to give visitors a taste of Tanzania’s most incredible wildlife in three distinct areas, this compact 3-day trip is packed full of adventurous days and comfortable nights. Named after three of Tanzania’s most iconic trees—baobabs, acacia, and kigelia (“the sausage tree”)—that create habitats for the area’s incredible wildlife, this safari will allow you to see plenty of amazing plants, animals, and landscapes throughout Tarangire, Ngorongoro, and Lake Manyara.
Starting at Arusha, a bustling town at the base of Tanzania’s second-highest peak, Mt. Meru, you’ll embark on a two-hour drive to Tarangire National Park through the beautiful Tanzanian countryside. Upon arrival, you will be met with baobab trees, known as some of the biggest and longest living trees of Africa, with wildlife not far behind.
Around midday, you’ll stop at a lovely picnic site surrounded by beautiful natural landscapes to enjoy your lunch before embarking on another fantastic game drive through the park.
While it has other animals such as lions, leopards, cheetahs and dik-diks, Tarangire’s main attraction is its elephants, and with almost 3000 elephants in the park, you’re bound to find at least one per square kilometer. A paradise for elephant lovers, our expert guides will give you a first-hand—and often up-close—look at the beautiful lives of elephants.
After your final game drive, you’ll end your day with a drive to Karatu where you’ll enjoy dinner and spend the night at Eileen’s Tree Lodge, Marera Valley Lodge, or Jambo Lodge.
The next day starts as early as 6 am, providing you with the perfect opportunity to enjoy a morning game drive across the Ngorongoro Crater, spotting animals that come out to enjoy the cool weather conditions as rays of the rising sun sprawl across the golden grasslands.
After your morning game drive, you’ll stop at a beautiful little picnic spot in the heart of the park to enjoy your lunch and watch nearby wildlife. Afterwards, you’ll jump back in your vehicle and head back out to see more animals throughout the park.
Covering about 260 square km, the Ngorongoro Crater is home to over 20,000 animals and is often considered a small zoo because of its dense concentration of wildlife. Lions, cheetahs, elephants, hippos, buffaloes, gazelles, warthogs, wildebeests, zebras and many species of birds can be seen up close but the park’s biggest attraction is the elusive black rhino, which is particularly rare, even for the region.
Your day will come to a beautiful close with an evening drive back to Karatu where you eat dinner and stay the night at Eileen’s Tree Lodge, Marera Valley Lodge, or Jambo Lodge.
After breakfast, your safari will continue at Lake Manyara National Park, part of the Great Rift Valley. Home to a wide range of habitats, from soda lakes to dense woodlands and steep mountainsides, the park is teeming with wildlife, including one of its most popular attractions, the tree-climbing lions, which are exclusive to the park.
Around midday, you’ll stop to enjoy lunch and take in your surroundings before hopping back in the vehicle for another exciting game drive, including two other of the park’s biggest attractions: huge flocks of flamingos and some of the largest troops of baboons in the region. Other popular animals in this area include leopards, hyenas, jackals, mongooses, hippos, giraffes, buffaloes, zebras, wildebeests, warthogs, gazelles, monkeys and many species of aquatic birds.
At the end of the afternoon game drive, your final day will end with a two-hour journey back to Arusha, bringing your safari adventure to a close.