Highlights of Tanzania: Tarangire, Serengeti & Ngorongoro

This morning you leave Arusha and drive south-west to Tarangire National Park, arriving in time for lunch before an afternoon game drive. Tarangire is one of the most atmospheric parks in Africa, a rolling landscape of golden grassland studded with ancient, swollen baobab trees and threaded by the Tarangire River, which draws wildlife from far around in the dry season. You set out among the giant baobabs in search of the park's famous elephant herds, some of the largest in Tanzania, watching great families feed, dig for water in the riverbed and shelter beneath the enormous trees. You also look for lion, leopard, buffalo, giraffe, zebra and the tall fringe-eared oryx, amid an extraordinary richness of birdlife. As the golden light softens over the baobabs and herds, the scene is unforgettable. Rest well at your Tarangire camp.

After a final morning in Tarangire, you journey to Lake Manyara National Park, a compact jewel set at the foot of the dramatic Great Rift Valley escarpment, arriving for lunch and an afternoon game drive. Manyara packs remarkable variety into a small area, from lush groundwater forest fed by springs to open floodplain and a shimmering alkaline lake. You enter through cool, tangled forest alive with baboons, blue monkeys and elephants, then emerge onto the floodplain where the lake shallows may be fringed with great flocks of pink flamingos and pelicans. You keep watch for Manyara's unusual tree-climbing lions, which drape themselves along the acacia branches, and for giraffe, hippo, buffalo and an extraordinary wealth of birdlife, all beneath the towering Rift Valley wall. As the day ends, you settle into your lodge. Rest well beside beautiful Lake Manyara.

This morning you begin the scenic journey to the Serengeti, climbing the Rift Valley escarpment and crossing the highlands past the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, with sweeping views, before descending onto the endless plains of the Serengeti National Park. This vast ocean of golden grassland, dotted with flat-topped acacias and dramatic granite kopjes, is one of the most famous wildlife areas on earth. You arrive in time to begin game viewing as you make your way to camp, the plains stretching to the horizon and alive with wildlife, from herds of zebra and gazelle to the lions, cheetahs and leopards that hunt them. Your expert guide reads the savannah brilliantly, seeking out big cats resting in the shade or scanning the grass from a kopje. As the sun sets over the immense plains, the sense of space is extraordinary. Rest well in the heart of the Serengeti.

Today is a full day exploring the legendary Serengeti, which offers some of the finest big-cat viewing on earth. You set out at dawn, when the plains are cool and the predators are active, seeking out lion prides resting after the night's hunt, cheetahs scanning the grasslands from a termite mound, and elusive leopard draped in the riverine trees along the rivers. In season, the plains fill with the vast herds of the Great Migration, wildebeest and zebra moving in their tens of thousands, and you may witness dramatic river crossings or great columns of animals crossing the plains. You also see elephant, buffalo, giraffe, hippo and immense herds of plains game, guided by an expert who brings the ecosystem to life. You may picnic in the bush and drive until the golden evening light floods the savannah. Rest well beneath the vast Serengeti sky.

This morning you enjoy a final game drive in the Serengeti, perhaps visiting a rocky kopje where lions like to rest, before beginning the journey east towards the Ngorongoro highlands. On the way you may stop at Olduvai Gorge, the celebrated site where the Leakeys uncovered some of the earliest known human remains, earning it the name Cradle of Mankind, with its small museum overlooking the gorge. You climb into the cool, green highlands of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, where Maasai graze their cattle alongside the wildlife, and arrive at your lodge perched on the crater rim, with breathtaking views down into the vast caldera far below. As the afternoon light plays across the crater floor, the anticipation of tomorrow's descent builds. This evening, enjoy the cool highland air and the extraordinary panorama. Rest well on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater.

Today you descend into the Ngorongoro Crater, the world's largest intact volcanic caldera and one of the great wonders of Africa. After breakfast you wind down the steep road onto the crater floor, entering a vast natural amphitheatre some twenty kilometres across, its walls rising six hundred metres all around. Within this bowl lives one of the densest concentrations of wildlife in Africa, and you may see all of the Big Five in a single day, with an excellent chance of the endangered black rhino grazing the open grassland. You watch great lion prides, elephants with enormous tusks, buffalo, hippos wallowing in the pools, flamingos on the soda lake and countless plains game, all cradled beneath the towering rim. You picnic on the crater floor amid the wildlife before climbing back to the rim. As the day ends, savour this extraordinary place. Rest well above the crater.

After a final look into the Ngorongoro Crater, you begin the scenic drive back through the highlands and Rift Valley towards Arusha, perhaps visiting a Maasai village along the way to meet families and learn about their timeless pastoral culture, or stopping for last souvenirs in Arusha. You arrive in time for your onward international departure from Kilimanjaro International Airport (a light-aircraft flight can be arranged to save time). You leave having experienced the very best of Tanzania, the baobabs and elephants of Tarangire, the tree-climbing lions and flamingos of Lake Manyara, the endless big-cat plains of the Serengeti and, in season, the Great Migration, and the Big Five wildlife of the Ngorongoro Crater. The images stay vivid long after you land, the elephants beneath the baobabs, the lions in the acacias, and the vast crater teeming with life. Tanzania offers spectacular wildlife and beauty in abundance, and you depart already dreaming of a return.