7-day Great Migration safari

A migration trip is a planning problem: being in the right part of the Serengeti in the right month. This one works north across the park, two nights in the centre and two in the far north within reach of the Mara River, and flies you home from the northern airstrip rather than spending a day driving back.

• Four nights in the Serengeti, staged central then north
• A full day on the Mara River crossing points
• The Ngorongoro Crater floor at dawn, with black rhino
• Tarangire elephants and Lake Manyara flamingos
• A flight home from Kogatende instead of a day in the vehicle

Day by day

The itinerary

1. 1

   Day 1

   Arusha to Tarangire National Park

   Leave Arusha after breakfast for the two-hour drive to Tarangire, past villages and farmland. The park is known for its elephant herds and its baobabs, and the river keeps wildlife close by year round. The first game drive brings giraffe, zebra, buffalo and a long list of birds. Picnic lunch, then more of the park before camp.

   Overnight Tarangire area lodge or camp

2. 2

   Day 2

   Tarangire to Lake Manyara and the crater rim

   An early breakfast and the short drive to Lake Manyara, a compact park you can see properly in half a day. Groundwater forest with baboons, blue monkeys and a great many birds, grassland with elephant and buffalo, and flamingos out on the soda lake. In the afternoon the road climbs the escarpment into the Ngorongoro highlands to the rim.

   Overnight Ngorongoro rim lodge

3. 3

   Day 3

   The Ngorongoro Crater, then the central Serengeti

   Descend at first light, ahead of the day-trip traffic, for a morning on the crater floor: lion, elephant, black rhino, buffalo and big grazing herds in one bowl. Climb out before lunch and take the road west across the conservation area onto the plains. It is a long day, and the transfer doubles as a game drive the whole way.

   Overnight Central Serengeti camp

4. 4

   Day 4

   A full day in the central Serengeti

   A full day around Seronera, where the resident prides live and the river line holds leopard. Out early while the cats are still working, back through the middle of the day, out again in the afternoon. This is the morning to add a balloon flight if you want one, and a good day to find what the herds are doing further north.

   Overnight Central Serengeti camp

5. 5

   Day 5

   North to the Mara River country

   A half day on the road north, game driving as you go, with the country changing from open plain to the rolling hills and river lines of the far north. You reach camp in the early afternoon with time for a first drive along the Mara, which is where your guide starts working out where the herds are sitting.

   Overnight Northern Serengeti camp

6. 6

   Day 6

   A full day on the Mara River

   The day this trip is built around. The herds mass on the bank and cross with crocodiles waiting below and predators patrolling the banks. Your guide positions the vehicle at a crossing point and then you wait, because that is what this day is. Nobody can promise a crossing, and any operator who does is guessing.

   Overnight Northern Serengeti camp

7. 7

   Day 7

   A last morning, then the flight to Arusha

   An early breakfast and a final game drive along the river while the light is still low. Late morning your guide drops you at Kogatende airstrip for the scheduled flight back to Arusha, which takes a couple of hours off the map and saves you a full day in the vehicle. It usually lands in time for an onward flight the same day, and we check yours against the schedule before we book.

   Overnight Trip ends in Arusha

Yours, not ours

Make it yours

This is the version we start from. Here is what usually changes. Tell us which one and we will work it through with you.

• How many days Add a night in the Serengeti, or drop one and go straight for the crater.
• The camps Simple and comfortable, mid-range lodges, or canvas with a view and a bath.
• Add-ons A balloon at first light, a walking safari, an afternoon in a village.
• Pace for children Later starts, shorter drives, and a pool at the end of the day.
• Zanzibar extension Three or four nights on the coast once the last game drive is done.

Parks on this trip

Worth adding

Optional, priced separately, and easy to slot in when we build your itinerary.

• Balloon safari over the Serengeti

  An hour above the plains at dawn, then a bush breakfast where you land.

• Maasai village visit

  An afternoon in a boma, with someone who can actually translate.

Questions about this kind of trip