Tanzania, Serengeti Safari

We have been planning world-class safaris in Tanzania for nearly twenty years. We are intimately familiar with Mount Kilimanjaro and the national parks of Tanzania’s Northern Circuit and the Great Rift Valley. As with our Mount Kilimanjaro climbs, all of our itineraries are specialized, small group adventures led by professional guides and drives, with high-quality meals and lodgings and safe, well-maintained safari vehicles.

A typical day will include a game drive in either the morning or the late evening, and another during the day. We vary the schedule depending on when animals in the area will be most active. Many become more active in the cool hours of dawn and dusk, when they are less visible to their prey. We eat breakfasts and dinners in lodges or our luxury mobile camps in the parks themselves. We usually bring a lunch basket for to eat while on safari. You can expect to be able to purchase snacks and beverages in small towns along the way. These are generally not available inside the game parks. If you become weary of driving, you can always take a break from viewing wildlife and relax instead at our safari lodges, many of which offer cocktail bars, beautiful gardens and swimming pools where you can enjoy the beautiful African sunrises and sunsets.

Our safaris include national park entrance fees, skilled guides and drivers, ground transportation in fully equipped 4×4 safari vehicles with pop-up-tops for game viewing, double sharing accommodations in wildlife lodges and/ or luxury mobile tent camps, and all scheduled meals. Individual lodgings are available for an additional fee for those travelling alone or who are unable to be paired. Additional expenses may include entrance fees to the Olduvai Gorge and Maasai village tours, balloon rides, walking safaris, and other supplemental activities, as well as bottled beverages and alcohol and non-scheduled meals.

A great variety! On every safari, we hope to see Africa’s Big Five: the bush elephant, black rhinoceros, cape buffalo, lion and the most elusive of these, the leopard. The Northern Circuit is also home to hippos, white rhinoceros, cheetahs, hyenas, jackals and wild dogs, and of course, great herds of migratory herbivores, including zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, hartebeest, Grants Gazelle, Thomson Gazelle, antelopes, dik diks, gerenuk, elands and kudus. Many of these take part in the Great Migration. We often see flamingoes, ostriches, crowned cranes and other birds from the hundreds of species that live in Tanzania, as well as warthogs, crocodiles, baboons, blue monkeys and colobus monkeys.

When it comes to viewing the Great Migration, different months offer different opportunities. Late January and February are the best times to see wildebeest calving on the plains of the Serengeti. More dramatic migratory scenes often begin in June, during the dry season when the animals are fording rivers on their journey toward the Maasai Mara. These dry months, from late June to October, are usually thought to offer the best overall wildlife viewing because the vegetation is drier and less dense and animals congregate at waterholes. During the wet season on Serengeti, from November through May, the parks become beautifully lush and green with fewer tourists. No matter what season you choose, you can rest assured that you will see plenty of wildlife and enjoy a stunning safari. Most guests schedule their trips during the dry season, when trekking conditions on Kilimanjaro are at their best.