Your Shammah Wonders Safaris representative meets you on arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) with a name board and transfers you to your overnight lodge in Arusha. The 45-minute drive through the Arusha outskirts and into the highland landscape near Usa River gives your first real sense of the environment — red volcanic soil, roadside stands selling avocados and mangoes, the distant outline of Kilimanjaro on clear evenings. At the lodge, your guide reviews the itinerary over dinner and answers every question you have about what the next three days will bring.
Accommodation: Arusha Planet Lodge
Meals included: Dinner
Approximate driving time: 1.5 hours from JRO to lodge in Arusha
An early breakfast precedes departure towards Tarangire National Park — two hours southwest of Arusha through the Maasai plains. As the acacia landscape opens and the park gate comes into view, your guide explains what makes Tarangire one of the most reliable game-viewing parks in Tanzania: the Tarangire River, the only permanent water source for hundreds of kilometers in the dry season, acts as a magnetic gathering point for every animal in the region.
Morning game drives follow the river corridor south through the park's most productive wildlife zones — past swamp areas thick with wading birds and buffalo, across open savannah where giraffe browse the flat-topped acacia canopy, and deep into the baobab woodland where elephant families move in unhurried procession between waterholes. Lions are seen frequently in Tarangire, particularly in the riverine woodland, and leopards patrol the rocky outcrops above the river bends.
A picnic lunch in the park is followed by an afternoon game drive that takes advantage of the golden afternoon light on the landscape and the increased activity levels among predators as the heat eases. Exit the park at sunset and transfer to your overnight lodge near Lake Manyara, ready for tomorrow's very different experience.
Accommodation: Manyara Safari lodge.
Meals included: Breakfast, picnic lunch, dinner
Driving time: 2 hours Arusha to Tarangire National Park
A morning game drive in Lake Manyara National Park begins with the park's extraordinary groundwater forest — a dense canopy of mahogany, fig, and fever trees fed by underground springs emerging at the base of the Rift Valley escarpment. The forest opens to reveal the alkaline lake below, its shallow shores supporting one of Africa's largest concentrations of lesser flamingos. The afternoon is spent searching the lakeshore woodland for Manyara's most famous phenomenon — the tree-climbing lions — and exploring the open floodplains where elephant herds gather as the heat of the day builds. After a full day game drive to Karatu for a Dinner & Overnight.
Accommodation: Country Lodge
Meals included: Breakfast, picnic lunch, dinner
Approximate drive time: 1 hour from Lake Manyara to Karatu Country lodge
The final morning begins with the iconic descent into the Ngorongoro Crater — a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the world's largest intact volcanic caldera, hosting the highest density of predators in Africa. A full morning game drive covers the crater floor: the hippo pool, the black rhino territory in the southwest, the lion prides on the open grassland, and the flamingo-lined shores of Lake Magadi. After a picnic lunch inside the crater, ascend the rim and transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport for departure.
Meals included: Breakfast, picnic lunch
Approximate driving time: 4 to 5 hours hours crater to JRO Airport
Accommodation: None.
- Meals & accommodation
- Snacks & soft drinks
- Transfer fee
- 4x4 Land cruiser with pop up roof
- Government taxes & VAT
- All National Park conservation, park entry, camping, activity or - concession fees as applicable
- English speaking driver
- 1 first aid kit per vehicle - In vehicle sanitizer, charging ports (Type G socket)
- International flights
- Alcohol
- Laundry & shopping expenses
- Optional activities expenses
- Extra excursion not listed in itinerary
