7 Days - The Ultimate Great Migration Safari

After landing at Kilimanjaro International Airport, guests are met by Serengeti Steppe Travels and transferred to Arusha. This first day is intentionally gentle, allowing time to recover from international travel.

Once checked in, the afternoon is free to relax in the garden or enjoy views of Mount Meru in the distance. In the evening, meet your driver-guide for a detailed safari briefing explaining migration behavior, seasonal herd locations, and how routes may be adjusted daily based on fresh sightings.

Dinner is served at the hotel before overnight rest ahead of the first full safari day.

After waking early, enjoy breakfast at the hotel before departing toward Tarangire. The drive crosses Maasai plains and rural farmland before entering a reserve famous for massive baobab trees and one of Tanzania’s largest elephant populations.

Morning and early-afternoon game drives follow seasonal rivers where wildlife concentrates. Expect herds of elephant, zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, giraffe, and numerous bird species. Lions are often found resting in shade along the riverbanks.

Lunch is taken picnic-style inside the park, after which exploration continues through open savanna and marshland areas.

Later in the afternoon, exit the park and drive to your lodge for hot showers, sunset views, dinner, and overnight.

Wake early for breakfast before beginning the long but scenic drive toward the Serengeti. The route climbs through the Ngorongoro Highlands and conservation areas, often passing Maasai villages and volcanic landscapes.

By midday, you enter the central Serengeti plains, one of Africa’s most productive wildlife ecosystems and a year-round stronghold for predators that follow migration herds through the seasons.

Lunch is taken en route before an afternoon game drive across sweeping grasslands dotted with granite kopjes. Lions, cheetahs, leopards, and hyenas are commonly encountered here.

Arrive at camp before dusk, enjoy dinner around the fire, and settle in for the night surrounded by the sounds of the bush.

After an early wake-up and breakfast, depart northward through changing ecosystems where woodland gives way to rolling plains and river corridors.

This day is designed specifically for migration tracking. The northern sector becomes crucial when herds gather near major rivers, forming dense columns that attract large predator populations and crocodiles waiting at crossing points.

Lunch is taken in the field while continuing to search for active herd movement, predator interactions, and riverbank activity.

Late in the afternoon, arrive at a strategically positioned tented camp close to migration routes, allowing quick access to wildlife at dawn the following morning. Dinner and overnight in the wilderness.

Rise before sunrise for a final northern plains game drive, when predators are most active and herds often move toward water.

After breakfast, begin the journey back toward the central plains, using a different route to cover fresh territory. This corridor is known for rocky outcrops favored by lions and expansive hunting grounds where cheetahs chase plains game.

Lunch is taken en route, followed by continued wildlife viewing through the afternoon.

Arrive back at camp in time for sunset drinks, dinner, and a relaxed evening preparing for the next day’s dramatic crater descent.

Wake early and depart after breakfast, heading toward the Ngorongoro highlands. Upon reaching the crater rim, descend 600 meters onto the floor of this collapsed volcanic caldera, often described as the densest wildlife habitat in Africa.

The morning game drive explores grasslands, swamps, and soda lakes where hippos wallow, elephants roam, and large lion prides patrol. This is also one of the best places in Tanzania to search for the endangered black rhino.

A picnic lunch is enjoyed beside a scenic lake before ascending the crater walls in the afternoon and continuing to a nearby lodge set in lush farmland.

Dinner and overnight in cooler highland air.

After breakfast, drive toward Lake Manyara for the final safari experience. This compact park offers a striking contrast to the open Serengeti plains, with dense groundwater forests, open floodplains, and an alkaline lake beneath the Rift Valley escarpment.

Morning game drives focus on elephant families moving through the forest, large baboon troops, and diverse birdlife including flamingos along the lakeshore. The park is also known for its elusive tree-climbing lions.

Lunch is taken after the game drive before continuing by road back to Arusha or onward to Kilimanjaro International Airport for international departures, marking the end of the Great Migration safari with Serengeti Steppe Travels.