A collapsed volcano twenty kilometres across with twenty-five thousand animals living on the floor of it, walled in by a six-hundred-metre rim. It is the one place in East Africa where seeing all of the Big Five in a single morning is an ordinary outcome rather than a lucky one.
Every one of these is something we run here, not a stock list.
Prices are per person and include your vehicle, guide, park fees and accommodation. Every one of these can be changed — they are starting points.
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6 Days/5Nights.
11 Days Exploring Kenya and Tanzania
The Ngorongoro Crater is an extinct volcanic caldera located in the Eastern (Great) Rift Valley, northern Tanzania, about 75 miles (120 km) west of Arusha. Spanning 10 to 12 miles (16 to 19 km) in diameter, it covers an area of 102 square miles (264 square km). The densely forested rim of the crater stands 2,000 feet (610 meters) above its floor, reaching an elevation of 7,500 feet (2,286 meters). It is believed that Ngorongoro was formed approximately 2.5 million years ago when a large volcano erupted and its cone collapsed, creating the current expansive and intact caldera.
Most safaris here combine two or three of these.
Fourteen thousand square kilometres of plains, and the stage for the whole wildebeest migration — which is not an event but a year-round circuit the herds never stop walking. Where they are depends on the month, so the Serengeti rewards planning more than any other park in East Africa.
Tarangire has the baobabs and the elephants. In the dry season the river is the only water for miles and the herds concentrate on it — three and four hundred elephant in a day is not unusual, which beats anything the Serengeti offers. It is two hours from Arusha and usually the first stop on a northern circuit.
A narrow strip of forest, lake and floodplain under the Rift Valley escarpment, famous for lions that sleep in the acacia branches. It is small enough to see in half a day and sits directly on the road between Arusha and the Ngorongoro Crater, so it costs an itinerary almost nothing.
Where an East African safari ends. Zanzibar is an hour's flight from Arusha: white sand, warm water, and Stone Town, a thousand-year-old trading port of carved doors and narrow lanes that is a UNESCO World Heritage site in its own right. Three nights here changes what the whole trip felt like.
Tell us roughly when you can travel and how long you have. We will tell you honestly whether Ngorongoro Crater is the right call for those dates — and what it costs.
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