Year-round Budget Safari Bliss: Exploring Tanzania’s Northern Circuit

Activities & Highlights

1. Tarangire National Park – Elephant herds, baobab trees, diverse birdlife

2. Serengeti National Park – Big cats, Great Migration (seasonal), endless plains

3. Ngorongoro Crater – UNESCO site, Big Five, remarkable wildlife concentration

Book This Itinerary

6 Days Northern Circuit Budget Safari

An adventurous budget-friendly journey through Tanzania’s most iconic wildlife destinations.
This safari combines the elephant paradise of Tarangire, the endless Serengeti plains, and the wildlife-rich Ngorongoro Crater.

Trip Summary

Day 1: Arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport – Transfer to lodge in Arusha
Day 2: Game drive in Tarangire National Park – Overnight in Karatu
Day 3–4: Serengeti National Park – Full-day game drives – Overnights in Serengeti
Day 5: Ngorongoro Crater full-day game drive – Overnight in Karatu
Day 6: Return to Arusha – Transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport – Departure

Overview
Itinerary
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Cost Includes

Year-round Budget Safari Bliss: Exploring Tanzania’s Northern Circuit

This 6 day safari is a perfect introduction to the Northern Circuit in Tanzania. You will have your own private vehicle and safari guide from Arusha, visiting the Tarangire, the Ngorongoro Crater, the Central Serengeti plains, and Lake Manyara National Park.
You will have the opportunity for amazing wildlife viewing and photographic sessions. Experience great value with this budget-friendly accommodation option.

Day 1-Arusha-Tarangire National Park

You will need to arrive at Kilimanjaro airport in the morning to start the safari, we can assist you with a pre-night in Arusha if required.
You are met at the airport by your guide and transport in a private safari vehicle with an open top, ideal for game viewing. Your safari begins with a drive to Tarangire National Park, well known for its huge herds of elephant and buffalo, as well as lion, cheetah and leopard.
Your driver/guide is an experienced wildlife expert whose knowledge and ability to spot the animals and birds will astound you. Enjoy a game drive in Tarangire Park and drive through to the lodge on time for dinner and night.

Day 2 – Karatu-Ngorongoro Crater-Karatu

After breakfast, drive to the Ngorongoro crater, where you will enjoy a picnic lunch on the crater floor at one of the picnic sites. The Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest intact caldera (collapsed volcano). Over 30,000 animals live within this enormous natural bowl, the most densely packed concentration of wildlife in Africa. You should see wildebeest, elephants, lions, dik-dik, and warthog, while on the lakeside, there are pelicans, ibis, and flamingos. Later in the afternoon, you exit the crater and drive to Karatu and the lodge for dinner and night.

Day 3- Karatu-Ngorongoro-Serengeti National Park

After breakfast we drive through the plains near Olduvai Gorge, where Professor Louis Leakey discovered some of the earliest evidence of human existence in the 1950s to reach the Serengeti National Park,
Today a packed lunch will be enjoyed en-route and drive through the Serengeti to reach the central area and your camp on time for dinner and night.

Day 4- Full Day Game Drive Serengeti National Park

The Masai word Serengeti means ‘endless plains’, a perfect description of this magnificent area of over 6,000 square miles. The variety of wildlife in the Serengeti is endless, and on your game drive today you have a chance to spot the ‘Big Five’ (lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and rhino).
If you are lucky, and depending on the seasonal movement of the herds you will also get a chance to see huge herds of zebra and wildebeest (typically in the central area from March to June and November).
Return to camp for dinner and night.

Day 5- Serengeti-Ngorongoro-Karatu

After breakfast, we return to Karatu through the Serengeti plains unto Lake Manyara in the Great Rift Valley.
A packed lunch is enjoyed en-route and there is some time to experience a game drive in Lake Manyara National Park, in search of the famous tree climbing lions, but also flamingoes and quite a few monkeys.
You arrive at the lodge on time for dinner and night.

Day 6 – End Of Itinerary

Breakfast at the lodge and return to Arusha where the safari ends in town or at the airport, depending on your onward arrangement.
You can extend your trip with a few days in Zanzibar, chat to us for the possible extensions and prices.