7-Day Tanzania Private Luxury Safari: Fly-In Serengeti Route

Our driver-guide greets you outside the terminal doors at Kilimanjaro International Airport and assists with your bags. We transfer you 55 kilometers (34 miles) west along the smooth tarmac highway to your boutique coffee lodge in Arusha, which takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

You can spend the rest of your day resting in your private cottage among the coffee trees or enjoying a warm dinner (D) prepared by the estate chefs. This quiet arrival evening allows you to sleep well and prepare for your morning bush flight into the Serengeti.

Following an early breakfast, we drive you to Arusha Airport for your 8:00 AM scheduled bush flight aboard a Cessna Grand Caravan. You fly low over the Great Rift Valley wall and Lake Manyara, touching down at the Seronera airstrip inside the central Serengeti after 50 minutes in the air.

Your private safari guide meets you on the runway, loads your luggage into your customized Land Cruiser, and opens the roof hatch for a morning game drive. We track along the Seronera River valley where leopards often rest on large sausage tree branches and elephants feed in tall grass.

By late afternoon, we check you into your luxury canvas camp where camp hosts deliver hot water for your shower and serve a three-course dinner by the fire.

• Flight and drive transit: 50-minute bush flight plus 45 kilometers (28 miles) of afternoon game tracking
• Habitat and wildlife: Open grasslands and river woodlands home to lions, leopards, impalas, and hippos
• Camp and dining: Breakfast (B), Picnic Lunch (L), Dinner (D) at a high-end central Serengeti tented camp

We set out at 6:30 AM on your 7-day Tanzania luxury safari tour to track active predators across the central savanna while the morning air remains cool. Prides of lions often hunt along the edges of the Seronera drainage during these early hours before resting on flat-topped granite rock hills.

We stop at a quiet picnic site at midday, serving your hot boxed lunches while watching herds of zebras feed along the grassy plains. In the afternoon, we search the Makoma and Retina pools where large pods of hippos stay submerged to escape the heat.

Today involves 80 to 110 kilometers (50 to 68 miles) of tracking across flat grasslands and rocky kopjes over roughly 7 flexible hours. Sightings commonly feature lions, cheetahs, hyenas, and topi, with all meals (B, L, D) served at your central luxury tented camp.

After a hot breakfast, we head south from Seronera toward the open plains of Ndutu, situated on the border between the southern Serengeti and Ngorongoro. This region features nutrient-rich volcanic soils and shallow soda lakes that draw vast numbers of grazing mammals and predators.

Our guide maneuvers the vehicle across the open terrain to track cheetahs hunting in short grass and lion prides resting under umbrella thorn trees. We stop along the shoreline of Lake Ndutu where flamingos wade in mineral-rich waters.

By 5:00 PM, we reach your luxury seasonal tented camp, where your en-suite tent features hot shower water and private veranda chairs.

Transit covers 90 kilometers (56 miles) over 3.5 hours on gravel and sand tracks through acacia woodland and open plains. You will encounter cheetahs, giraffes, wildebeest, and bat-eared foxes, with full-board dining (B, L, D) at your luxury Ndutu camp.

We start at dawn with a final game drive through the Ndutu marshes where caracals, servals, and hyenas remain active in the cool light. After a bush breakfast under an acacia tree, we pack your bags and journey eastward toward the Ngorongoro Conservation Area highlands.

We ascend the forested outer wall of the crater to check you into your luxury stone lodge perched right on the caldera rim by 3:30 PM. You can sip warm tea on your private deck while watching mist rise from the crater floor 600 meters below.

• Travel route: 95 kilometers (59 miles) on rough volcanic soil and mountain gravel roads in roughly 3 hours
• Landscape: Semi-arid alkaline plains climbing into lush afro-montane highland forests
• Common sightings: Grant's gazelles, ostriches, jackals, baboons, and highland birds
• Stays and meals: Breakfast (B), Picnic Lunch (L), Dinner (D) at a premier crater rim lodge

We descend the steep crater road at 6:00 AM to explore the world's largest intact volcanic caldera before midday heat slows animal movements. We track across the open floor to search for rare black rhinos, large elephant bulls with long tusks, and pride lions near the Lerai forest.

By 11:30 AM, we ascend the crater wall and drive southeast down through the farming village of Mto wa Mbu toward Tarangire National Park. We check you into your luxury safari lodge set inside Tarangire for an evening drink by the fire and a three-course dinner.

Today covers 155 kilometers (96 miles) taking approximately 4 hours on gravel switchbacks and paved roads. Terrain shifts from a volcanic caldera basin to baobab woodland, offering sightings of black rhinos, hippos, and elephants, complete with breakfast (B), a scenic crater lunch (L), and dinner (D).

We spend our morning exploring the Tarangire River circuit where hundreds of elephants gather to drink, bathe, and feed on riverside palms. We also watch for lions and leopards that frequently rest in the forks of giant baobab trees.

After lunch at the lodge, we drive out through the park gates and travel northeast on the smooth paved A104 highway back to Arusha or directly to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your evening flight home.

• Distance and transit: 140 kilometers (87 miles) taking 2.5 hours on paved roads after a 3-hour morning game drive
• Animals and terrain: Baobab hills and river floodplains populated by elephants, zebras, giraffes, and waterbucks
• Meals: Breakfast (B) and Lunch (L)