10-Day The Grand Northern Circuit
OVERVIEW
DON’T JUST CROSS TANZANIA. LIVE IN IT.
Ten days changes the rhythm completely.
Instead of racing between northern Tanzania’s headline destinations, this journey gives each landscape enough time to become more than a name on the itinerary.
Walk into the journey gently from Arusha, spend time among Tarangire’s elephants, explore the forests and lakeshore habitats of Manyara, descend into Ngorongoro Crater and then give the Serengeti the time it deserves.
Your private Wildpack guide stays with you throughout, while carefully selected lodges and tented camps keep you comfortable without separating you from the landscapes you’ve travelled so far to experience.
This is northern Tanzania with room to breathe.
DAY 01 / ARUSHA - LAND. SETTLE. LOOK FORWARD.
Welcome to Tanzania.
A Wildpack representative will meet you on arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport and transfer you to your lodge in Arusha.
No game drives. No long road. No pressure to immediately start collecting experiences.
Today is simply about arriving.
Settle into your lodge, recover from the journey and meet your safari guide for a relaxed briefing on the days ahead.
OVERNIGHT
Midrange Lodge, Arusha
MEALS
Dinner, depending on arrival time
DAY 02 / TARANGIRE - ENTER ELEPHANT COUNTRY.
After breakfast, leave Arusha behind and travel toward Tarangire National Park.
The enormous baobabs are usually the first clue that you’ve arrived somewhere different.
Spend the day exploring woodland, river valleys and open plains in search of Tarangire’s famous elephants alongside giraffes, zebra, wildebeest, buffalo and antelope.
Predators including lions and leopards share the same landscape, while the park’s varied habitats support remarkable birdlife.
Continue exploring until late afternoon before heading to your lodge or tented camp.
OVERNIGHT
Midrange Lodge / Tented Camp, Tarangire
MEALS
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
DAY 03 / TARANGIRE - STAY WITH THE GIANTS.
Most shorter safaris leave Tarangire after one game drive.
We’re staying.
Head out early to explore a different area of the park while temperatures are cooler and wildlife is active.
Follow the Tarangire River, investigate quieter tracks and spend longer with the elephant families that make this landscape so memorable.
With nowhere else to reach today, your guide can respond entirely to what is happening around you.
Return to camp for lunch or take a picnic into the park and keep exploring.
OVERNIGHT
Midrange Lodge / Tented Camp, Tarangire
MEALS
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
DAY 04 / LAKE MANYARA - FROM BAOBABS TO FOREST.
After breakfast, travel toward Lake Manyara beneath the dramatic wall of the Great Rift Valley.
Manyara changes the scenery immediately.
Groundwater forest surrounds the entrance before opening toward acacia woodland, grasslands and the lakeshore.
Look for elephants moving through dense vegetation, large troops of baboons, giraffes, buffalo, zebra and an impressive variety of birds around the lake and wetlands.
After your game drive, continue toward Karatu and settle into your lodge in the cooler highlands.
OVERNIGHT
Midrange Lodge, Karatu
MEALS
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
DAY 05 / NGORONGORO - DOWN INTO AN ANCIENT WORLD.
Rise early and travel toward the Ngorongoro Crater rim.
Then go down.
Descend roughly 600 metres to the floor of this immense volcanic caldera, where grasslands, woodland and wetlands support an exceptional concentration of wildlife.
Spend the day searching for lions, buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, hippos and hyenas. Keep watch across the open areas for the endangered black rhino.
Enjoy a picnic lunch inside the crater before continuing your game drive.
Later, climb back into the highlands.
OVERNIGHT
Midrange Lodge, Ngorongoro / Karatu Area
MEALS
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
DAY 06 / SERENGETI - WATCH THE WORLD OPEN UP.
Leave the highlands and travel west toward the Serengeti.
The landscape gradually stretches.
Trees thin out. Grasslands widen. The horizon moves farther away.
Then you’re in it.
Spend the afternoon game driving toward your tented camp, searching for lions, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, hyenas and the grazing herds scattered across the plains.
Depending on the season, parts of the Great Migration may also be moving through the wider ecosystem.
Reach camp as evening falls.
OVERNIGHT
Midrange Tented Camp, Serengeti
MEALS
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
DAY 07 / SERENGETI - FOLLOW THE TRACKS. FORGET THE CLOCK.
Wake early and head onto the plains.
Today has no destination beyond whatever looks interesting.
Your guide will use tracks, animal behaviour and current wildlife activity to shape the day’s route.
Explore rocky kopjes where lions often rest, riverine woodland favoured by leopards and open grasslands where cheetahs use visibility to their advantage.
Enjoy lunch in the bush or return to camp for a midday break.
Then keep going.
The Serengeti is particularly good at ruining carefully made schedules.
We consider that a feature.
OVERNIGHT
Midrange Tented Camp, Serengeti
MEALS
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
DAY 08 / SERENGETI - GO DEEPER INTO THE PLAINS.
Depending on the season and wildlife activity, your guide may concentrate on a different area of the park or follow reports of interesting predator activity.
During migration periods, the movement of wildebeest and zebra may influence the day’s direction.
Outside those periods, resident wildlife remains exceptional throughout much of the Serengeti.
The point today isn’t to see everything.
It’s to have enough time when something worth seeing happens.
OVERNIGHT
Midrange Tented Camp, Serengeti
MEALS
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
DAY 09 / SERENGETI - ONE MORE SERENGETI MORNING.
By now, early mornings in the Serengeti have developed their own rhythm.
Coffee. Cool air. Engine on. Plains ahead.
Spend your final full day exploring without urgency.
You can also add an optional hot-air balloon safari, rising over the plains around sunrise before returning to the ground for breakfast.
Otherwise, stay with your guide and see what the final full day delivers.
Return to camp for dinner and your last night in the Serengeti.
OVERNIGHT
Midrange Tented Camp, Serengeti
MEALS
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
DAY 10 / SERENGETI → ARUSHA - LEAVE THE ROAD TO THE SKY.
Enjoy breakfast and, depending on your flight time, a final short game drive before transferring to a nearby airstrip.
Board a scheduled bush flight to Arusha, trading several hours of road for one final perspective on Tanzania from above.
On arrival, you’ll be met for your onward transfer to Arusha, Kilimanjaro International Airport or your next destination.
Ten days ago, Tanzania was somewhere on a map.
It probably feels rather different now.
MEALS
Breakfast
END POINT
Arusha / Kilimanjaro International Airport
$3,850
MAKE THIS JOURNEY YOURS
Safari Includes
- All Park Fees
- All transportation
- Professional private safari guide
- Roundtrip airport transfer
- Private 4×4 safari vehicle with pop-up roof
- Accommodation as specified in the itinerary
- Government taxes and VAT
Safari Excludes
- International flights
- Additional accommodation before and at the end of the tour
- Tips
- Personal items
- Government imposed increase of taxes and/or park fees
- Some Meals