Your trip starts with an early morning pickup from your hotel in Arusha or Moshi. You'll meet your guide and the rest of the group, then set off for Tarangire National Park. Tarangire is known for its old baobab trees and tall termite mounds, and it's one of the best parks in the country for wildlife. The plains here hold some of the biggest elephant herds you'll see anywhere in Tanzania, along with lions, giraffes, zebras, warthogs, buffalo and the bright yellow-collared lovebird. You'll spend the full day on a game drive with a packed lunch out in the park, then head off in the late afternoon to Mto wa Mbu, where you'll settle into camp, share a hot dinner around the table and get some rest before the days ahead.

After breakfast at camp, you'll hit the road for the Serengeti — Tanzania's oldest national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On the way you'll pass the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, winding through the highlands before the land opens out onto the plains. You'll reach the Serengeti in time for an afternoon game drive, with grassland running to the horizon in every direction. This is Great Migration country, where lions, cheetahs, leopards and huge herds of wildebeest and zebra all share the same plains. As the sun goes down, you'll head to Seronera Campsite for dinner and a night under the stars.

You'll be up early for a morning game drive in the central Serengeti — the best time of day to find predators on the move. Your guide knows how to read the landscape, following tracks and bird calls to find lions on the hunt, cheetahs at full speed and elephants making their way through the bush. After a packed lunch out on the plains, you'll say goodbye to the Serengeti and start the drive up to the Ngorongoro Highlands, climbing through cool forests and past highland villages. You'll reach Simba Campsite on the crater rim as evening sets in — dinner in the cool highland air, with the crater waiting for you in the morning.

Today is the one most people remember — a full day down inside the Ngorongoro Crater. As you drop into this ancient collapsed volcano, you'll find a whole world of its own, home to around 25,000 animals. The steep crater walls keep the wildlife in, which means some of the most reliable game viewing you'll find anywhere in Africa. This is one of the best places to see all of the Big Five, including the black rhino — one of the last healthy populations left. You'll have a picnic lunch on the crater floor, with zebra, wildebeest, hippos and hyenas nearby and flamingos gathered along the soda lake. In the late afternoon you'll climb back out and drive down to Mto wa Mbu for dinner and a night at camp.

After breakfast you'll head to Lake Manyara National Park for your last game drive — a good way to round off the trip. It's one of Tanzania's smaller parks, but there's a lot packed into it. More than 400 bird species live here, including flamingos that line the lake shore in pink. Manyara is also known for its tree-climbing lions, something you won't see in many other places, along with big herds of buffalo, elephant, giraffe, impala and hippos. After a picnic lunch and a last afternoon in the bush, you'll make the drive back to Arusha, where the safari comes to an end. If you need it, we can arrange a transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport or Arusha Airport — just let us know.