Activities
Balloon Safari
Duration:
5 Days 6 Nights
Best Time to Visit:
All Year Round
Trip Level:
Moderate
Overview
See Africa’s beauty from high up! Balloon Safari is a very exciting experience. You’ll go up in a balloon and see a great view of the park and all the animals. Serengeti is one of the places where you can do this. The best time to go is in the morning when the sky is beautiful. You’ll be really high up in the balloon and can see 360 degrees around you. You might see animals like wildebeests, zebras, gazelles, and antelopes. The balloon can hold up to 16 people, but it’s very popular, so you should book early. If you want to try Balloon Safari, just tell us and we’ll add it to your tour.
Itinerary
Day 1: Arusha – Lake Manyara
Your guide will pick you from your hotel and drive you to Lake Manyara National Park for a full day game drive in the park with a picnic lunch. At the backdrop is the wall of the Great Rift Valley, before which lies the groundwater forest, areas of open grassland near the lake foreshore, and the Soda Lake. You’ll enjoy a picnic lunch in this area, which consists of open grassy areas, hot springs, dense woodlands and steep mountainsides. Lake Manyara National Park is a birding paradise that has more than 350 species of bird. The park is also famed for its unique and elusive tree-climbing lions. After your great exploration in Lake Manyara, in the evening you will be taken to the lodge for dinner and overnight.
Day 2: Serengeti
After breakfast, we’ll depart for Serengeti National Park with a picnic lunch and game drive en-route. In the evening, check in to the luxury camp for dinner and overnight.
A million wildebeest… each one driven by the same ancient rhythm, fulfilling its instinctive role in the inescapable cycle of life: a frenzied three-week bout of territorial conquests and mating; survival of the fittest as 40km (25 mile) long columns plunge through crocodile-infested waters on the annual exodus north; replenishing the species in a brief population explosion that produces more than 8,000 calves daily before the 1,000 km (600 mile) pilgrimage begins again.
Day 3 Serengeti
After breakfast, we will take your packed lunch for a full day game drives in the wilderness tracking the Great migration trails. By evening, we’ll be back at the camp for campfire, dinner and overnight.
A thorough explanation about this great world event that Tanzania is proud of will be provided. And in the evening as the sun goes down, Tanzania’s oldest and most popular national park, also a world heritage site and recently proclaimed a 7th world wonder, the Serengeti is famed for its annual migration, when some six million hooves pound the open plains, as more than 200,000 zebra and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelles join the wildebeest’s trek for fresh grazing.
Day 3: Serengeti National Park
Full day Serengeti National Park game drive including following the wildebeest migration driving to North Serengeti where we expect to see the crossing of wildebeest and zebras.
Day 4: Serengeti - Ngorongoro
Early morning, experience the hot air balloon safari. Back to the camp after for your breakfast and to be followed by a morning game drive at Serengeti National Park with a picnic lunch. Late in the afternoon, we’ll drive to Ngorongoro and check in to your accommodation.
The only living things which look as if they really belonged to it are the Wild Animals. Between the animals and Africa, there is an understanding that the human beings have not yet earned ..." Laurens van der Post, Venture to the Interior 1963.
Today, the Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and the Maasai Mara Game Reserve across the border in Kenya, protect the greatest and most varied collection of terrestrial wildlife on earth, and one of the last great migratory systems still intact.
Day 5: Ngorongoro
Today, we will start with a morning game drive (with a picnic lunch) inside the Ngorongoro Crater. In the evening, drive to the Camp for dinner and overnight.
As very few animals migrate in and out of the crater with its 2000 ft. high walls, you can expect to see lions, elephants, zebras, hippos, flamingos, jackals, rhinos, antelopes, many birds and other species. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is an extensive highland area along the eastern arm of the Rift Valley, with the world-renowned Ngorongoro Crater as its focal point. It is not a national park in the strict sense of the word, but the NCA was established to conserve wildlife and other natural resources. It also safeguards the interests of indigenous people and promotes tourism. Thus, guests on safari have the unique experience of seeing Maasai herdsmen whose cattle graze side by side with the tremendous variety of wildlife found in the area.
Day 6: Back to Arusha
After breakfast, we’ll depart and start driving back to Arusha for the lunch at the lodge and in the evening, we’ll transport you to the airport for your flight back home.
Inclusion
- All Accommodation as per itinerary
- All meals
- All transfers
- All activities indicated in the itinerary
- All park fees + 18% VAT
- All Transport on Safari in 4 x 4 open-roof Land Cruisers
- An English-speaking professional safari guide
- Mineral water
Exclusion
- Accommodation in Arusha
- Any extra changes requested by you
- Drinks at the camps or lodges
- International flights
- Local flights
- Travel Insurance
- Olduvai gorge fees ($37 per person)
- Laundry Service
- Post night accommodation in your arrival
- Tips
- Visa