Arusha, Tanzania · Licensed Tour Operator
Great Migration Explorer
Travel with the wildebeest herds through the Serengeti, then descend into Ngorongoro Crater for one of the most wildlife-rich days on Earth.
Trip overview
This is the safari our guests talk about for years. We follow the Great Migration as it moves through the Serengeti, stay in camps close to the action, and end with a full day inside Ngorongoro Crater. Every morning is different, and your guide will chase the best sightings with you.
Day-by-day itinerary
- Day 1: Arrive Kilimanjaro — Arusha
Your guide will be waiting at Kilimanjaro Airport with a cold towel and drinking water, then drive you through coffee and banana shambas to a quiet garden lodge in Arusha. After you've settled in, we'll sit down for a relaxed trip briefing over dinner — daily rhythm, what to wear, camera tips, and exactly where the migration is right now. Your guide will also show you the vehicle: charging points, fridge, binoculars and the pop-up roof you'll be using for the next week.
- Accommodation:
- Garden lodge in Arusha
- Meals:
- Dinner
- Travel:
- 45 km / about 1 hour
- Day 2: Lake Manyara National Park
We drop down the Rift Valley escarpment into Lake Manyara, a thin green strip squeezed between the valley wall and a shimmering soda lake. This morning we explore the groundwater forest, where blue monkeys move through ancient fig trees and baboon troops number in the hundreds. Later we drive the open floodplains for buffalo, giraffe and the famous tree-climbing lions that lounge in acacias. We'll picnic beside the lake with flamingo, pelican and hippo for company, then climb up to Karatu in the late afternoon.
- Accommodation:
- Coffee-estate lodge, Karatu
- Meals:
- Breakfast, lunch, dinner
- Travel:
- 160 km / about 2.5 hours plus game driving
- Day 3: Into the Central Serengeti
A spectacular travel day over the Ngorongoro highlands and onto the short-grass plains of the Serengeti. We stop at the crater viewpoint for photographs, and if you're curious about human origins we can visit Olduvai Gorge. After entering through Naabi Hill Gate, we game-drive our way to camp — this is where many guests spot their first cheetah or lion. Arrive in time for sundowners and a hot bucket shower under the stars.
- Accommodation:
- Tented camp, central Serengeti
- Meals:
- Breakfast, lunch, dinner
- Travel:
- 230 km / about 5 hours with stops
- Day 4: Seronera Valley — big cat country
A full day in the Seronera river valley, the most reliable predator habitat in the whole ecosystem. We leave camp before dawn with a packed breakfast, because the early hours are when lions are still active and cheetahs hunt in the cool. The rest of the morning is spent along the river looking for leopard in sausage trees and on kopjes. After a midday break in the shade, we search for hyena dens, serval and big buffalo herds, finishing with sundowners on a granite kopje.
- Accommodation:
- Tented camp, central Serengeti
- Meals:
- Breakfast, lunch, dinner
- Travel:
- Full-day game driving
- Day 5: Following the herds
Today we move with the migration — your guide has been checking reports from camps and pilots to place you where the action is. From December to March we head to Ndutu's southern plains for calving and predator drama; from April to June the western corridor and Grumeti river come alive; and from July to October the northern Serengeti offers Mara river crossings. It's a long drive, but the landscape changes constantly, and we arrive at a mobile camp set right among the herds.
- Accommodation:
- Mobile migration camp
- Meals:
- Breakfast, lunch, dinner
- Travel:
- 120–250 km depending on herd position
- Day 6: Migration day — crossings or calving
A whole day devoted to the herds: waiting quietly at a crossing point, or sitting among thousands of wildebeest and their newborn calves. If you like, start with a sunrise hot-air balloon flight followed by a champagne bush breakfast. Then we settle in for the real theatre — river crossings that can take hours to build, lion ambushes, crocodiles striking, and hyena moving in afterwards. We bring a picnic lunch so we never have to tear ourselves away, and end the day around the campfire with the sound of wildebeest all around.
- Accommodation:
- Mobile migration camp
- Meals:
- Breakfast, lunch, dinner
- Travel:
- Full-day game driving
- Day 7: Ngorongoro Crater
An early game drive out of the Serengeti, then we descend 600 metres into Ngorongoro Crater, the largest intact volcanic caldera on Earth. The descent through the mist is unforgettable. On the floor we'll explore Lerai fever-tree forest for big-tusked elephant bulls, Gorigor swamp for hippo, and the open Munge plains for black rhino — your best chance in Tanzania. We'll have a picnic lunch beside Ngoitokitok Springs before climbing back to a lodge on the rim.
- Accommodation:
- Crater-rim lodge, Ngorongoro
- Meals:
- Breakfast, lunch, dinner
- Travel:
- 145 km plus a half-day crater game drive
- Day 8: Return to Arusha and departure
A slow final morning before the highland drive back to Arusha and your onward flight. You can take an early rim walk with a ranger, or visit a Maasai boma along the way. We'll stop at Mto wa Mbu market for any last souvenirs, then give you a day room in Arusha to shower and repack before your guide drives you to Kilimanjaro Airport.
- Accommodation:
- Departure
- Meals:
- Breakfast, lunch
- Travel:
- 190 km / about 3.5 hours
