11-Day Enchanting Trip Experience

Your driver-guide meets you at Kilimanjaro International Airport, or any other arrival point, welcomes you to Tanzania and transfers you safely and comfortably to your hotel in Arusha, where you can recover from the journey before a briefing on the safari ahead.

Enjoy the tranquil grounds and, on clear days, the dazzling view of Mount Meru's rugged peaks. Savour every moment, with dinner and your first night at the hotel.

After breakfast at around 08:00, your guide drives you to Arusha National Park, a small, magnificent 'pocket park' packed with attractions. Visit the magical fig tree arch, explore the savannas and the alkaline Momella Lakes, and take in panoramic views of Mount Meru, Tanzania's second-highest mountain and a dormant volcano.

Birds are everywhere, and black-and-white colobus monkeys lounge in the trees with their long white tails dangling from the branches. After a picnic lunch, a short game drive takes you on to your lodge in Tarangire National Park for dinner and the night.

After breakfast at around 08:00, you game drive through Tarangire National Park, a magnificent 2,850-square-kilometre park about 120 km south-west of Arusha. It is famous for its game viewing in the dry months, when most of its animals gather along the Tarangire River, which winds for about 120 km through the park before emptying into Lake Burunge.

With luck you may come across a small pack of rare Cape hunting dogs patrolling the bush, elusive kudu in the thickets and shy eland watching from a distance. After a picnic lunch, a short game drive leads you on to your lodge in the small town of Karatu for dinner and the night.

After breakfast at around 08:00, you drive into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and descend to the magnificent crater floor. With water all year round it supports a remarkable range of wildlife: big-tusked elephants, dark-maned lions in their prime, huge buffalo herds, dazzles of plains zebra and wildebeest, and the Maasai ostrich, Africa's largest and fastest flightless bird, among many others.

Savour the panoramic views and varied habitats of this great natural sanctuary over a picnic lunch, then take a short game drive out to your lodge in Karatu for dinner and the night.

After breakfast at around 08:00, you set off for the Serengeti by way of Olduvai Gorge, the 'Cradle of Mankind'. There is ample time to explore the Kigeni (barchan) Shifting Sands, a magnetic black volcanic dune about 9 metres high and 100 metres long that creeps westwards by about 17 metres a year, and then Olduvai Gorge and its museum, one of the world's most important archaeological sites, with evidence of early humans and other creatures that lived here millions of years ago.

Continue to a Maasai boma and immerse yourself in genuine African culture, mingling with the Maa-speaking people, before heading into the Serengeti with a picnic lunch and game drives on the way to your camp in the heart of the park for dinner and the night.

Spend a full day game driving along the park's dusty tracks, uncovering the hidden treasures behind every bush. Predators may be seen chasing, catching or feeding, or simply lying lazily in the shade.

With a picnic lunch out in the bush, you can follow the action wherever it leads before returning to your camp in the heart of the Serengeti for dinner and the night.

A third night in the park allows another unhurried day of exploration. Set out early, when the cats are most active, and let your guide follow the latest sightings across the grasslands and kopjes.

After a picnic lunch on the plains, spend the afternoon on a final Serengeti game drive before dinner and your last night at your camp.

After breakfast at around 08:00, your guide drives you from the Serengeti to Lake Natron. Lake Natron is a vast soda lake of around 1,040 square kilometres, some 57 km long and 22 km wide, known for its harsh, caustic waters and as the place where more than 75% of the world's lesser flamingos are born.

On the way you may glimpse Ol Doinyo Lengai, the Maasai 'Mountain of God', looming in the distance. It is the only active volcano known to produce natrocarbonatite lava, and its ash makes the surrounding grasses especially nutritious, drawing grazing animals and nursing mothers to the area.

Enjoy a hot lunch when you arrive at camp and relax for a while, then head out on a short evening game drive before dinner and the night at your tented camp.

Very early in the morning you set out on a thrilling four-hour trek on Ol Doinyo Lengai, the 'Mountain of God', with breakfast served as a picnic along the way.

After descending to camp for lunch, you take a walk to a nearby waterfall. Dinner and the night are at your tented camp.

After breakfast at around 08:00, you drive to Lake Manyara National Park, tucked at the base of the Rift Valley escarpment. It is famed for its rare tree-climbing lions, its evergreen groundwater forest, some of Africa's largest recorded troops of olive baboons and a long, high canopy walkway, with permanent springs flowing from the foot of the escarpment, fed by water from the Ngorongoro highlands seeping through the porous rock.

Birdlife is rich, with thousands of pink flamingos feeding in the shallows of 'Africa's loveliest lake', an ideal spot for bird lovers. After a picnic lunch and a short game drive, continue to your lodge in Karatu for dinner and your final night.

After a hearty breakfast, and depending on your flight time, your guide drives you comfortably from Karatu to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your international flight home.

This marks the end of your enchanting journey through northern Tanzania. From all of us at Gip Adventure, thank you for travelling with us.