5 Days Ultimate Camping Safari
This 5-day camping safari covers the same route as our 5-Day Tanzania Lodge Safari, with two full nights inside the Serengeti, the extra time that makes the biggest difference to predator sightings on the Northern Circuit. The route starts with a day in Tarangire National Park, spends two nights camping inside the Serengeti around the Seronera Valley, then loops back through the Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara on the return to Arusha.
Camping for two nights inside the Serengeti, falling asleep and waking up to the sounds of the bush, is one of the most memorable parts of this itinerary. If comfort matters more than budget, our 5-Day Tanzania Lodge Safari covers the identical route with lodge accommodation. Travelers with only 4 days should look at our 4-Day Tanzania Camping Safari, which covers Tarangire, the Serengeti and Ngorongoro with one fewer Serengeti night.
Details
- Two full nights camping inside the Serengeti, around the predator-rich Seronera Valley
- Tarangire's large elephant herds and ancient baobab woodlands
- Full crater floor game drive at Ngorongoro, with strong black rhino sighting chances
- Lake Manyara's tree-climbing lions, flamingos and groundwater forest on the return leg
- Budget-friendly format, same parks and game drives as our lodge safari at a lower price
- Dome tent with proper camp bed at public campsites, all meals cooked by our safari crew
Morning pick-up from your hotel in Arusha or Moshi for the drive to Tarangire National Park, famous for large elephant herds, ancient baobab trees and a high concentration of wildlife along the Tarangire River. You'll enjoy a full game drive with a picnic lunch inside the park, then continue in the afternoon to your accommodation for dinner and overnight.
After breakfast, you drive west through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, pausing at the crater rim viewpoint for your first sight of the caldera floor, then descend onto the Serengeti plains via Naabi Hill Gate. The drive itself is part of the game viewing, with giraffe and zebra often visible along the access road. You'll reach the Seronera area by mid-afternoon for your first Serengeti game drive before dinner and overnight inside the park.
A full day dedicated to game drives in the Serengeti, with a picnic lunch out on the plains. The Seronera Valley has the highest leopard density in East Africa and a resident lion population that your guide tracks daily, alongside elephant, buffalo, giraffe and (seasonally) the wildebeest migration. Morning and afternoon drives explore different parts of the central Serengeti, with your guide adjusting the route based on recent sightings.
An early morning game drive, the best window for predator activity as lions return from overnight hunts, before you exit the park at Naabi Hill and retrace the route through the highlands toward Ngorongoro. You arrive at a lodge in the Karatu area or near the crater rim in the afternoon, with time to relax before dinner ahead of the next morning's crater descent.
Early breakfast, then descend into the Ngorongoro Crater for a game drive across its 260 km² floor of grassland, marsh and acacia forest, home to lion, elephant, buffalo and hippo, with one of Tanzania's most reliable black rhino populations. After a picnic lunch near the hippo pool, you ascend the rim road and continue toward Arusha, with a stop at Lake Manyara National Park en route for a shorter game drive among its tree-climbing lions, flamingos and groundwater forest, before the final drive to Arusha or Moshi, or transfer to the airport as arranged.
