This 8-day Serengeti migration safari covers the best of northern Tanzania with at least two nights in every place: two in Tarangire, two on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater and three in the Serengeti. It is private from start to finish, planned with Dexter Kariuki and guided on the ground by a licensed Tanzanian partner guide he has worked with for years.
The route builds as it goes. Tarangire is baobab country, where elephant herds gather along the river in the dry season. The Ngorongoro Crater drops you 600 metres onto the floor of a collapsed volcano, a self-contained world of lion, buffalo and one of northern Tanzania’s best chances of black rhino. Then the Serengeti opens out, endless and golden.
Where you stay in the Serengeti depends on the month. From around December to March the herds calve on the southern plains; from June they move west and north, reaching the Mara River crossings from about July to October. Dexter and his partner place your camp where the action is.
Your partner guide meets you at Kilimanjaro airport and you drive west to Tarangire, the land opening up as the road leaves the mountain behind. Arrive in time for a first drive among ancient baobabs and the elephants that gather beneath them.
A full day following the Tarangire River, where in the dry months the herds come down in their hundreds. Lion rest in the shade of the sausage trees, and the birdlife is extraordinary.
Climb through the green highlands to the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. Your lodge looks straight down into the caldera; watch the light change across it as the sun sets.
Descend at first light, ahead of the crowds, onto the crater floor: lion on the grassland, buffalo and zebra by the thousand, flamingo on the soda lake and, if luck is with you, a black rhino moving through the grass.
Drive down off the highlands and into the Serengeti, the horizon stretching away in every direction. Your guide heads for the region where the herds are that month.
Two full days in the Serengeti, shaped around the season: calving and predators on the southern plains, river crossings in the west or north, or the resident lions and leopards of the central kopjes. Long drives, picnic lunches, and nothing scheduled but the wildlife.
A last morning drive, then a light-aircraft flight from the Serengeti to Arusha or Kilimanjaro for your onward connection.
11 days Tarangire, the Ngorongoro Crater and three nights in the Serengeti, then a light aircraft to Zanzibar for spice-scented Stone Town and three days on white sand. Northern Tanzania's classic safari-and-beach pairing.
9 days The great migration from both sides of the border: the Masai Mara with Dexter, then the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater with his trusted Tanzanian partner. One trip, one point of contact, two countries.
Tell Dexter your dates. He'll tell you honestly which part of the Serengeti to be in, and plan the rest around it.
It's in Nairobi Dexter replies usually within a day