6 Days with 3 Days in the Serengeti6 Days Tanzania: Serengeti (3 days) & Ngorongoro Crater

Day 1: Arusha National Park

It all starts on the doorstep. Arusha National Park is the smallest park on this route, and it plays its own tune: mountain forest instead of savannah, colobus monkeys instead of lions, plus Mount Meru, Tanzania's second-highest mountain. On clear days you can even see Kilimanjaro in the distance, around 50 kilometres away. After this opening you settle into your first place to stay.

Day 2: Tarangire National Park

Covering around 2,850 square kilometres, Tarangire National Park is the second destination, and it has a clear centre: the river. All life revolves around it, from the elephants to the lions, who know that their prey has to come to the water sooner or later. For you, that means a game drive along the riverbank, a picnic in the park and, in the evening, your second night.

Day 3: Serengeti National Park

Travel day three is the longest single stretch: a good five hours from Tarangire to the central Serengeti. In return, the safari feeling begins on the way, as the Ngorongoro Highlands open up the view and, later, the first wildebeest stand by the roadside. Once you arrive, there's time in the afternoon for the first game drive. Then comes your first night in the middle of the grasslands.

Day 4: Serengeti National Park, second day

Tanzania's oldest national park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981, just under 15,000 square kilometres: the Serengeti has the big numbers, but the small moments are more convincing. A lioness who doesn't spare the vehicle a single glance. Giraffes moving along in slow motion. Today you have the whole day for this, out on game drives in the morning and the afternoon.

Day 5: Serengeti National Park, third day

Another Serengeti day, and that's not too much of a good thing: the longer you stay, the more the park shows you. If you travel around February, with luck you'll experience the calving season in the south of the ecosystem, when several thousand wildebeest calves are born every day and the predators are never far away. For the rest of the year: your guide reads the savannah, you keep your camera ready.

Day 6: Ngorongoro Crater

The Ngorongoro Crater strikes the final chord. From above, the crater looks like a green bowl; down below, it turns out to be a densely packed piece of savannah with its own lion prides, herds of buffalo and a few black rhinos. Around midday there's a picnic among wildebeest and zebras, then the vehicle climbs back up to the rim and the drive to Arusha City begins. Zanzibar is then reached by flight.