4 Days Ngorongoro & Serengeti Safari

Detailed Itinerary

Day 1 – Arusha/Moshi to Serengeti: Through the Highlands and Into the Wild

Start your safari early morning with a Serengeti Lion Safaris driver who picks you up  from the Kilimanjaro International Airport or your safari accommodation either in Moshi or Arusha. After the meet and greet, you are ready to embark on a drive that winds through ever-changing landscapes, coffee plantations, Maasai villages, the mossy Ngorongoro highlands. After driving for about three hours, you finally arrive at the Ngorongoro crater and make a stopover at the rim for your first glimpse of the crater (don’t worry, you’ll be down there soon enough).

Then proceed for a further transfer heading to the Serengeti. This is an exciting drive that presents various wildlife viewing opportunities and a kind of silence your soul yearns for.  But in the early evening, you finally arrive the Serengeti’s endless plains and finally,  you’re in lion country, bumping along dusty tracks while herds of zebra part like slow-moving waves.

You may watch giraffes nibble acacia, warthogs run with purpose, and the air smells like warm earth and possibility.

Upon arrival, you’ll enjoy a late afternoon game drive, just when the predators get playful. Your guide doesn’t chase drama—but somehow, you always seem to be in the right place at the right time.

Dinner is served by lantern light. Maybe it’s beef stew, maybe it’s lentils and rice—but it tastes better because you’re eating it in the Serengeti. Sleep comes easy.

Accommodation:
Camping: Seronera Campsite
Budget: Into Wild Africa
Standard: Serengeti Heritage Tented Camp
Luxury: Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge

Day 2 – Serengeti National Park Full day adventure

Wake up early morning and get ready for the days adventure immediately after your lovely breakfast. There’s something addictive about mornings in the Serengeti. It’s always quiet, golden, alive and full of Surprises.

After breakfast, you head out with your guide, scanning for movement in the long grass.  Watchout as lions lie low and hyenas skulk as they hunt the parks grazers. If you’re lucky, a cheetah will stretch, yawn, and rise like she’s on a runway.

You’ll have a short break to enjoy your packed breakfast under an acacia, stretch your legs, laugh about how close that elephant got.

After the relaxation, proceed for the mid morning and later afternoon game drive for further wilderness encounter. You could visit the hippo pool, or just let the day unfold the way nature intended: slowly and unpredictably. As the sun fades, the sky goes wild with color, and you realize this was never about checking boxes. It was about feeling something.

Accommodation:
Camping: Seronera Campsite
Budget: Into Wild Africa
Standard: Serengeti Heritage Tented Camp
Luxury: Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge

Day 3 – Serengeti to Karatu via Ngorongoro Crater: Eden Below

Today, you will spend the entire day experiencing the untamed and unrivalled Ngorongoro Crater. The descent feels dramatic—and it should. You’re driving into a prehistoric sanctuary, home to almost every major African species in one ridiculously scenic space.

Your guide knows this place like the back of their hand, so listen to his advice and look where he asks you to. You might see rhinos grazing near the lakeshore, lions sprawled beside the road, or elephants lumbering through the mist.

The high density of animals in the Ngorongoro crater caldera makes every visit and game drive here an incredible experience.

After hours of magnificent wildlife encounter at the crater, you’ll stop for a picnic lunch beside a hippo pool as you watch them swim like half-submerged boulders while you eat and by mid-afternoon, you exit the crater and drive for evening relaxation, dinner and overnight in Karatu, a small town nestled in green hills. Your lodge tonight is cozy, quiet, and a little closer to the town area—but your mind will still be in the crater.

Accommodation:
Camping: Panorama Campsite
Budget: Eileen’s Tree Inn
Standard: Country Lodge Karatu
Luxury: The Retreat at Ngorongoro

Day 4 – Mto wa Mbu Cultural Walk & Return to Arusha/Moshi

On your final day, you make one last stop in Mto wa Mbu—a vibrant, bustling village at the base of the Rift Valley escarpment. You’ll join a local guide for a short cultural walk.

There is much to do, taste banana beer. Visit a banana plantation. Learn how to cook ugali with a mama who’s been doing it longer than you’ve been alive.

The kids love it. You will too.

Then it’s the slow, scenic drive back to Arusha or Moshi. The vehicle is quieter than it was on day one. Everyone’s tired in that full, sun-warmed way. And as you roll back into town, you carry more than souvenirs. You carry stories. Real ones.