7-Day Mara River Crossing Serengeti Migration Mid-Range Lodge Safari

You'll be met on arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport or Arusha Airport and transferred to your hotel in Arusha town. The rest of the day is free to rest after your flight, with your driver-guide briefing you on the week ahead.

After breakfast, you'll drive south-west into Tarangire National Park, home to more elephants than anywhere else in Tanzania, with herds of 50 to 100 gathering along the Tarangire River among the park's scattered baobabs.

You'll spend the day on a game drive through the park before continuing to your mid-range lodge for the night, roughly a 1–2 hour drive away.

After breakfast, you'll drive up onto the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, crossing the crater highlands before descending onto the vast open plains of the Serengeti. You'll enter Central Serengeti in the afternoon with a game drive en route to your lodge.

You'll spend the night at a mid-range lodge inside Central Serengeti National Park, the first of three consecutive nights spent inside the park itself.

A full day is dedicated to the Mara River crossings, with your driver-guide following the latest herd movement reports to put you in the best position at the river. Depending on the time of year, you may watch wildebeest and zebra gather at the banks and cross, or see mass grazing on the open plains and the predators that follow the herds — lion, cheetah and hyena among them.

You'll return to your lodge inside the Serengeti for another night, with a packed lunch enjoyed out on the plains.

You'll enjoy a final morning game drive on the Serengeti plains before beginning the drive back east towards the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, keeping the migration herds in view for as long as the route allows.

You'll spend your third and final night at your lodge inside Serengeti National Park, positioned to give you an early start into the Ngorongoro Crater the next morning.

An early start takes you down into the Ngorongoro Crater — a collapsed volcano 600 metres deep and 260km² wide, home to more than 30,000 animals. Expect the highest density of lions in Africa, resident black rhino, large bull elephants and flamingos gathered at the soda lake on the crater floor.

After a picnic lunch on the crater floor, you'll climb back up to the rim and drive back to Arusha, arriving in the evening for your final night at your Arusha lodge.

After breakfast, you'll be transferred to Kilimanjaro International Airport or Arusha Airport in time for your onward flight, marking the end of your 7-day migration safari.