Northern Circuit · Seven Days
Seven days on the Northern Circuit
Tarangire, Lake Manyara, the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti — the four that earn the trip, paced so that the two you will remember get two nights each.
7
Days
6
Nights
4
Parks
Full
Board
I · Overview
The route, and why this shape
Four parks on one road out of Arusha. Nothing backtracked.
This is the route almost every first safari in Tanzania should take, and the reason is geography rather than fashion. Tarangire, Manyara, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti sit on one road running north-west out of Arusha, so nothing is backtracked and every transfer day is spent inside a park rather than beside it.
What separates a good version of this itinerary from a bad one is pacing, not parks. A seven-day circuit can be sold with six stops and a night in each, and it will look fuller on paper. It is a worse trip: you spend the week packing.
So this one stops at four and gives two nights to Tarangire, two to the Ngorongoro rim and two to Seronera. The single-night stops are removed rather than shortened. You will see less on the map and more in the field.
Length
7 days / 6 nights
Country
Tanzania
Start / end
Arusha → Arusha
Tour type
Private safari
Group size
Group size to confirm
Meal plan
Full board
Best months
June – October, and January – March
Activity level
Easy — vehicle-based
Vehicle
Vehicle specification to confirm
II · The days
Day by day, all seven
Every day opens. Two nights each in Tarangire, on the Ngorongoro rim and at Seronera.
Day
01
Arrival
Arusha, and the drive south
03°22′S 36°41′E
Dinner
Arusha, and the drive south
03°22′S 36°41′E
You are met at Kilimanjaro International and driven to Arusha, an hour west through coffee shambas and the foothills of Mount Meru. If your flight lands early there is time to eat properly and repack before the road south.
The drive to Tarangire runs down the Great North Road and then east onto the floor of the Rift. The landscape changes twice in ninety minutes — cultivated highland, then Maasai grazing country, then baobab. You will see your first giraffe from the tarmac.
Camp is reached in time to wash and sit down before dark. Nothing is scheduled for this evening on purpose; the first night of a safari is for sleeping.
Meals
Dinner
Travel
Drive time to confirm
Highlight
Tarangire gate by mid-afternoon
Meet at Kilimanjaro International
Rift Valley escarpment
No game drive today
Where you sleep
COMFORT
Lodge to confirm
★★★★☆
Tarangire, outside the park boundary
Tented, en-suite, full board, close enough to the gate for an early start without a pre-dawn drive.
LUXURY
Lodge to confirm
★★★★★
Tarangire, on the escarpment
Larger tents with a view down over the river valley, and a sundowner deck facing the elephant crossings.
Day
02
Tarangire
Elephants, baobabs, and the river
04°00′S 36°00′E
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
Elephants, baobabs, and the river
04°00′S 36°00′E
Tarangire in the dry season concentrates game along one river, and that is the whole reason to be here in these months. Elephant families come down to dig for water in the sand; between June and October the herds along the Tarangire River are the densest in the north.
The park is also the best baobab country on the circuit. They are not scenery — the trees are hollowed by elephants working the fibre for moisture, and the scars tell you how hard the last dry season was.
Look up as well as out. Tarangire holds more breeding bird species than any single habitat on earth, and the dry riverbed draws them into one place: yellow-collared lovebirds, hornbills, and the ashy starling that lives nowhere else.
Meals
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
Travel
Full day in the park
Highlight
The largest elephant population in northern Tanzania
Big elephant herds
Baobab country
Exceptional birding
Where you sleep
COMFORT
Lodge to confirm
★★★★☆
Tarangire, outside the park boundary
Second night at the same camp — no packing, no transfer, a full day in the park instead.
LUXURY
Lodge to confirm
★★★★★
Tarangire, on the escarpment
Second night. The advantage of staying put is the late return: you can sit out the last hour of light at the river.
Day
03
Transfer
Manyara, then up the Rift wall
03°30′S 35°50′E
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
Manyara, then up the Rift wall
03°30′S 35°50′E
Lake Manyara is small and completely unlike the parks either side of it. The road enters under closed groundwater forest fed by springs at the base of the escarpment — fig and mahogany, blue monkeys overhead, and troops of baboon on the track.
The forest opens onto floodplain and the soda lake. Flamingo numbers swing wildly with the water level, so this is not a promise; some months there are thousands, some months there are none. Hippo pools at the northern end are reliable.
In the afternoon the road climbs the Rift wall. The view back over the lake from the top is the one everybody stops for. You reach the Ngorongoro rim in time for the temperature to drop — it is high here, and it is cold at night.
Meals
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
Travel
Drive time to confirm
Highlight
Groundwater forest, then the crater rim by evening
Groundwater forest
Rift escarpment climb
Crater rim overnight
Where you sleep
COMFORT
Lodge to confirm
★★★★☆
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, rim
On the rim, which means a short descent in the morning rather than an hour’s drive before the gate opens. Bring a fleece.
LUXURY
Lodge to confirm
★★★★★
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, rim
Rim-facing rooms with the crater floor below the window, and fires lit in the evening.
Day
04
Ngorongoro
Down into the crater
03°10′S 35°35′E
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
Down into the crater
03°10′S 35°35′E
You descend six hundred metres onto the floor of a collapsed volcano twenty kilometres across. Because the walls are steep the animals largely stay, which is why the crater holds a density of game that nowhere else matches — roughly twenty-five thousand large animals inside 260 square kilometres.
It is the most reliable place in Tanzania to see black rhino, and one of the few where lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhino can be seen inside a single morning. The lions here are famously easy to find and famously inbred; the population has never recovered its diversity since the 1962 fly plague.
Vehicles must leave the floor by late afternoon, so this is a half-day by regulation rather than by choice. Lunch is taken at the hippo pool at Ngoitokitok, where the kites will take a sandwich out of your hand if you eat outside the vehicle.
Meals
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
Travel
600 m descent · half day on the floor
Highlight
Black rhino, and the highest predator density in Africa
Black rhino
Big Five in one drive
Six-hour limit on the floor
Where you sleep
COMFORT
Lodge to confirm
★★★★☆
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, rim
Second night on the rim before the run north to the Serengeti.
LUXURY
Lodge to confirm
★★★★★
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, rim
Second night, same rooms — the crater looks completely different on the second morning, and usually clearer.
Day
05
Transfer
Across the plains to the Serengeti
02°20′S 34°50′E
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
Across the plains to the Serengeti
02°20′S 34°50′E
The road out of the conservation area crosses the short-grass plains of the southern Serengeti ecosystem — treeless, volcanic, and between December and March the calving ground for the entire migration.
Olduvai Gorge is on the way and worth the stop. The sequence of beds cut into the gorge wall holds nearly two million years of hominin occupation, and the small museum on the rim puts the Laetoli footprints in front of you rather than in a textbook.
You enter the park at Naabi Hill, where the plains give way to the kopjes and acacia of the Seronera valley. The last two hours are a game drive whether or not anyone calls them one.
Meals
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
Travel
Drive time to confirm
Highlight
Olduvai Gorge, then the short-grass plains
Olduvai Gorge
Short-grass plains
Naabi Hill gate
Where you sleep
COMFORT
Lodge to confirm
★★★★☆
Central Serengeti, Seronera
Seronera is the year-round core of the park — permanent water, and the highest concentration of big cats in the Serengeti.
LUXURY
Lodge to confirm
★★★★★
Central Serengeti, Seronera
Fewer tents, further from the main track, and a private guide vehicle for the late drives.
Day
06
Serengeti
A full day in the Seronera valley
02°26′S 34°49′E
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
A full day in the Seronera valley
02°26′S 34°49′E
One full day, no transfer, no packing. This is the day the trip is built around and it is why the itinerary does not try to add a seventh park.
Seronera’s river holds water all year, and the fig and sausage trees along it are the most dependable leopard habitat in Tanzania. The granite kopjes standing out of the grass are lion furniture — shade, a vantage point, and safe ground for cubs.
Where the migration is on this day depends entirely on the month, and any operator who tells you otherwise in advance is guessing. What is reliable in the Seronera valley is resident game: lion, leopard, cheetah on the open ground, elephant, buffalo, hippo, and giraffe in the acacia.
Meals
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
Travel
Full day in the park
Highlight
Leopard in the riverine fig, lion on the kopjes
Leopard country
Kopje prides
No transfer today
Where you sleep
COMFORT
Lodge to confirm
★★★★☆
Central Serengeti, Seronera
Second night. The value of two nights here is the early morning — you are already inside the park when the cats are moving.
LUXURY
Lodge to confirm
★★★★★
Central Serengeti, Seronera
Second night, with the option of a dawn start and breakfast taken in the field.
Day
07
Departure
Serengeti to Arusha
03°22′S 36°41′E
Breakfast
Serengeti to Arusha
03°22′S 36°41′E
A last game drive on the way to the airstrip, which in practice is the best drive of the week — early, cold, and the light is low enough that everything is still out.
From Seronera the usual route home is the light aircraft hop to Arusha, which takes about an hour and gives you the plains from above. The road is possible but it is a long day and it wastes one.
You are dropped at your hotel in Arusha or straight at Kilimanjaro International. If you are continuing to Zanzibar, connections leave from both.
Meals
Breakfast
Travel
Flight or drive — to confirm
Highlight
Morning drive, then out
Morning game drive
Airstrip transfer
Onward to Zanzibar possible
Where you sleep
Departure day — no overnight
III · Rates
What it costs, by group size
A safari gets cheaper per person as the vehicle fills. Choose a tier to see the table.
Rates for this itinerary are still being set. Tell us your dates and group size and we will quote them, rather than show you a range.
| Group size | Rooms | Per person | Group total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 guest | 1 room | — | — |
| 2 guests | 1 room | — | — |
| 3 guests | 2 rooms | — | — |
| 4 guests | 2 rooms | — | — |
| 5 guests | 3 rooms | — | — |
| 6+ guests | 3 rooms | — | — |
Single supplement
—
Added when a guest does not share a room
Child, 3 – 11 years
—
Sharing with two adults
Peak season uplift
—
July – October, and the festive weeks
| Group size | Rooms | Per person | Group total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 guest | 1 room | — | — |
| 2 guests | 1 room | — | — |
| 3 guests | 2 rooms | — | — |
| 4 guests | 2 rooms | — | — |
| 5 guests | 3 rooms | — | — |
| 6+ guests | 3 rooms | — | — |
Single supplement
—
Added when a guest does not share a room
Child, 3 – 11 years
—
Sharing with two adults
Peak season uplift
—
July – October, and the festive weeks
All figures in US dollars, per person sharing unless stated. Valid Validity dates to confirm. Park fees, guiding, vehicle, accommodation and full board are included — see what is and is not covered below.
IV · Included
What is in the price, and what is not
Stated in full, both ways.
What is included
- All game drives in a private 4×4 with a roof hatch
- A professional guide throughout, English-speaking
- All accommodation as listed, full board
- All national park and conservation area fees
- Airport transfers, Kilimanjaro International
- Drinking water in the vehicle throughout
- Guide certification to confirm
- Emergency evacuation cover — to confirm
What is not
- International flights to and from Tanzania
- Tanzania visa — USD 50, or USD 100 for United States passports
- Travel insurance, which we ask every guest to hold
- Balloon flight over the Serengeti
- Drinks at the lodges, beyond what is listed
- Tips for your guide and lodge staff
- Personal spending and souvenirs
- Anything listed under optional extras below
V · Add-ons
Worth adding, if you have the days
Priced separately and arranged on request.
Seronera · at dawn
Balloon over the Serengeti
An hour over the plains at first light, landing to a breakfast set out in the grass. Weather-dependent and booked well ahead — balloons in the Serengeti sell out months before the high season.
Price to confirm
Ngorongoro or Manyara
A day with a Maasai family
Not a staged boma visit. A half day arranged through families we work with directly, on the understanding that the payment goes to the household rather than to an intermediary.
Price to confirm
Before day 1
A night in Arusha before you start
Most long-haul flights land in the evening. A night in Arusha means day 1 starts rested rather than at the end of twenty hours of travel, and it protects the trip if a bag goes missing.
Price to confirm
After day 7 · 3–5 nights
Zanzibar, afterwards
Flights leave Arusha and Kilimanjaro daily and take under two hours. The usual shape is three nights on the east coast or in Stone Town, added to the end rather than squeezed into the middle.
Price to confirm
VI · The ground
Where this itinerary takes you
Four parks, one ecosystem, along the floor and rim of the Great Rift Valley.
Tarangire National Park
2,850 square kilometres along a single permanent river. In the dry months the river concentrates the largest elephant population in northern Tanzania, and the park holds more breeding bird species than any other habitat of its size on earth.
Ngorongoro Crater
The largest intact volcanic caldera in the world, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Around 25,000 large animals live on 260 square kilometres of crater floor, including the most reliable black rhino in Tanzania.
Serengeti National Park
14,750 square kilometres of plain, kopje and riverine forest. The Seronera valley in the centre holds water year-round and carries resident lion, leopard and cheetah whether or not the migration is anywhere near.
The question everyone asks
Will you see the migration?
1.5M+
Wildebeest, zebra and gazelle, moving continuously
The herds do not arrive on a date. They follow rain, and rain in the Serengeti ecosystem is not punctual — so anyone who guarantees you a river crossing on a specific day is selling something they do not control.
What is predictable is roughly where. December to March the herds are calving on the short-grass plains in the south. May and June they move west and north. July to October they are in the north, and that is when the Mara River crossings happen. A seven-day circuit built around Seronera puts you close to them for most of the year, and this itinerary can be re-shaped toward wherever they are when you travel.
VII · Season
The best time to travel
Including the months we will tell you to avoid.
June to October is the long dry season and the most popular time to come. Water is scarce, so game concentrates at rivers and pools and becomes far easier to find. Grass is low, which matters more than people expect — you can see cats at a distance. The north of the Serengeti holds the migration through these months.
January to March is the second dry window and the calving season on the southern plains. Half a million wildebeest calves are born inside about three weeks, and the predator activity that follows is the most concentrated of the year. Fewer vehicles than July.
November brings the short rains. They are usually brief afternoon storms rather than washouts, the landscape turns green, and rates drop. It is an underrated month if you do not mind mud.
April and May are the long rains, and we will tell you honestly that this is not the time to do this particular route. Some tracks become difficult, some camps close, and the grass is high enough to hide a lion at thirty metres. If these are the only weeks you have, we would rather build you something different than sell you this.
VIII · Flights
Getting there and back
Fly into Kilimanjaro International. Arrive a day early if you can.
Fly into Kilimanjaro International (JRO). It is 45 minutes from Arusha and it is the airport this itinerary is built around. Nairobi and Dar es Salaam both work but both add a day.
Arrive the day before if you can. Long-haul flights into JRO tend to land in the evening, and starting a seven-day safari on no sleep costs you the first two days of it.
Coming home, the itinerary ends in Arusha on day 7. If you are flying out the same evening we will get you to JRO in time; if you are going on to Zanzibar, the flight leaves from either Arusha airport or JRO and takes under two hours.
Tanzania requires a visa for most passports — USD 50, or USD 100 for United States citizens, valid up to 90 days. Apply online in advance rather than on arrival.
IX · Other costs
What else you will spend
Visas, insurance, tips and drinks — set out so there is no surprise on the ground.
01
Visa and entry
USD 50 — USD 100 for US passports
Tanzania issues a tourist visa online (eVisa) or on arrival at Kilimanjaro. Applying in advance is faster and avoids the queue at immigration, which after an evening arrival can be long.
A yellow fever certificate is required only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is endemic. Coming directly from Europe or North America, it is not.
- USD 50 for most nationalities
- USD 100 for United States citizens, multiple entry
- Valid up to 90 days
- Passport must have six months' validity and two blank pages
02
Travel insurance
Typically USD 60 – 150 per trip
We ask every guest to travel insured. Medical cover and evacuation are the parts that matter here — the nearest hospital to the Serengeti is a flight away, not a drive.
Check that your policy covers safari activity and any add-on you have booked. Balloon flights are excluded by some insurers.
03
Tips
Usual range USD 10 – 25 per guest per day
Tipping is customary in Tanzania and it is genuinely optional. The figures below are what guests commonly give, not what is expected of you, and no one will treat you differently for giving less.
Guide tips are usually handled at the end of the trip; lodge staff tips go into a shared box at reception so that housekeeping and kitchen are included, not only the people you see.
- Guide: Suggested range to confirm
- Lodge staff, shared box: Suggested range to confirm
04
Drinks
USD 3 – 20 at the lodges
Drinking water in the vehicle is included throughout. Everything at the lodge bar is charged to your room unless your camp is explicitly all-inclusive, and most on this route are not.
- Soft drinks: USD 3 – 5
- Local beer: USD 4 – 6
- Wine and spirits: USD 7 – 20
05
Personal spending
Entirely up to you
Souvenirs, curio stalls, laundry at the lodges, and anything you forgot to pack. Cash in small US dollar notes is more useful than a card once you leave Arusha — some camps have no connection at all, and cards fail more often than they work.
Notes dated before 2009 are refused across Tanzania. Bring newer ones.
X · Why us
Why book this with us
01
Arusha-based, and Tanzanian-owned
We are not a booking agent forwarding you to an operator. The vehicles, the guides and the office are ours, in Arusha, which is why we can change a plan mid-trip when the animals do something unexpected.
02
Four parks, not six
This itinerary deliberately covers less ground than a seven-day circuit can. Two nights in the places worth two nights is the single biggest improvement you can make to a first safari.
03
One guide for the week
The same person from the airport to the airstrip. A guide who has watched you for three days knows whether you want the leopard or the light, and starts driving to it without being asked.
04
We will tell you not to come in April
There are weeks when this route is not worth doing, and we would rather move you or lose the booking than take money for a trip we know will disappoint.
XI · Questions
Frequently asked
What guests ask before booking this itinerary.
01
How much does a 7 day Tanzania safari cost?
The rate depends on your group size and which accommodation tier you choose, and it moves with the season. The table above sets out the per-person price for every group size from one to six. Our rates for this itinerary are to be confirmed — ask us and we will quote for your exact dates rather than give you a range.
02
Is seven days enough for a Tanzania safari?
Yes, for the northern circuit. Tarangire, Manyara, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti sit along one road, so a seven-day trip covers them without backtracking. What seven days is not enough for is adding the southern parks or the western chimpanzee reserves — those need their own trip.
03
When is the best time to do this itinerary?
June to October for concentrated dry-season game and the northern Serengeti river crossings, or January to March for the calving season and fewer vehicles. November is a good, quieter compromise. We do not recommend April or May for this route.
04
Will we see the Great Migration?
Probably, but where depends on the month, and no honest operator will promise a river crossing on a given day. The herds follow rain. Tell us your dates and we will tell you where they are likely to be and re-shape the route toward them.
05
Is this safari suitable for children?
It is a private safari, so it can be. The relevant limits are the long drive days and the minimum age some camps set. Tell us the ages and we will tell you plainly whether this route works or whether a shorter one would be better. Child rates are to be confirmed.
06
How much driving is there each day?
Three of the seven days are transfers and four are spent in the parks. Exact drive times for this itinerary are to be confirmed — we will give you a realistic figure rather than an optimistic one, because the difference between four hours and seven is the difference between a good day and a bad one.
07
Do I need vaccinations for Tanzania?
Yellow fever is required only if you are arriving from a country where it is endemic — not from Europe or North America. Beyond that, speak to a travel clinic six weeks before you fly. Malaria prophylaxis is normally advised for all of northern Tanzania.
08
Can I extend the trip to Zanzibar?
Yes, and it is the most common extension. Flights from Arusha and Kilimanjaro take under two hours and run daily. Three to five nights on the coast is the usual shape. Rates are to be confirmed.
09
Can the itinerary be changed?
Yes. This is a private safari and the route is a starting point, not a fixed departure. Adding a night, swapping a park, or rebuilding the whole week around where the migration actually is are all normal requests.
Seven days on the Northern Circuit
7
Days
6
Nights
4
Parks
Full
Board
Starts
Arusha, Tanzania
Ends
Arusha, Tanzania
Departures
Departure dates to confirm
Availability
Availability to confirm
From
Rate to confirm
Per person, sharing
100% Tailor-Made
Response within 24h
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