Arusha → Central Serengeti:

After breakfast, you’ll transfer to Arusha Airport for the flight into Central Serengeti. This flight is part of the design of the journey. Instead of spending hours getting there by road, you land at Seronera with most of the day still ahead of you. Your guide will be waiting at the airstrip. From there, the safari begins immediately. Central Serengeti is a landscape of open grassland, river systems, woodland and rocky kopjes. It is also strong big-cat country. Lions may be resting around the kopjes or moving through the grass. Leopards often use the riverine trees and woodland. Cheetahs prefer the more open country where they can watch the plains. But your guide won’t simply drive from one known spot to another. They’ll pay attention to tracks, fresh information, animal behaviour and what is happening that day. Lunch will be served in the bush before you continue through the afternoon. As temperatures begin to fall, wildlife often becomes more active again. Stay out while the light softens over the plains, then return to the lodge. Overnight Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti, Meals Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Central Serengeti:

Today there is nowhere else you need to be. That matters. You’ll start early, while the air is still cool and predators may still be moving after the night. Your guide may begin with fresh tracks. An alarm call from impala may change the direction. A leopard seen yesterday may have moved. A lion pride may have brought down prey overnight. That uncertainty is part of what makes the day interesting. If something is worth staying with, you stay. If the area becomes crowded, your guide can move elsewhere. If the bush is quiet, you keep reading it. Optional hot-air balloon safari If you’d like to see the Serengeti from above, an early-morning balloon safari can be arranged. You’ll float over the plains around sunrise before landing for breakfast and rejoining your guide. Or stay on the ground. Both ways of starting the day have their own rhythm. Later, stop for lunch and continue through the afternoon, looking for elephants, buffalo, giraffes, hippos, hyenas and the predators that make Central Serengeti such rewarding country. Towards sunset, there’s time for a drink somewhere quiet before returning to the lodge. Today isn’t about covering ground. It’s about having enough time to notice what is happening. Overnight Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti Meals Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Serengeti → Ngorongoro Crater:

You’ll leave early, but the safari doesn’t stop when you check out. The drive out of Serengeti remains a game drive, giving you one more morning to see what the plains are doing. Then the landscape begins to change. You’ll climb towards the Ngorongoro highlands and eventually reach the crater rim. Below you lies an entirely different wildlife environment. The descent takes you roughly 600 metres down to the crater floor. Here, grassland, woodland, freshwater pools and Lake Magadi sit within the walls of the caldera. You may see buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, hippos, hyenas, elephants and lions. Ngorongoro is also one of the areas where black rhino may sometimes be seen, although no sighting is guaranteed. You’ll have lunch inside the crater and continue exploring through the afternoon. Then you’ll climb back towards the highlands for the night. Overnight Ngorongoro Lodge Meliá Meals Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Ngorongoro → Arusha → Kilimanjaro International Airport :

There’s no early game drive today. Have breakfast and enjoy the last quiet part of the journey before beginning the drive back towards Arusha. The road takes you from the cooler highlands into the busier landscapes around town. In Arusha, you’ll stop for lunch at Arusha Coffee Lodge. Afterwards, visit Shanga, where artisans with disabilities make glassware, textiles, jewellery and other pieces using recycled materials. It is a different side of Tanzania from the one you’ve seen in the parks. And it’s a good place to finish. From there, your driver will take you to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your onward flight. If you’d rather keep travelling, this is also an easy point to connect onwards to Zanzibar. The safari ends here. The memories don’t.