7 Days Masai Mara-serengeti-ngorongoro Crater & Lake Manyara

This will be a day of unlimited game drives – safari as much or as little as you please. Just discuss with your driver/guide how you would like to plan your day. The choice is always yours.But to get the most out of your Masai Mara experience we suggest an early rise to see the soft morning sun light up the park and its many creatures. You’ll enjoy making your first sightings of the day whether it be gazelle, zebra, or a lion on the hunt.

We’ll journey down to the Mara River for a picnic lunch and see the hippos and crocs in their natural habitat. This is the site of the Great Migration (July – October) and you’ll be treated to the spectacle here of thousands of wildebeests, zebra, and gazelle crossing into the park from the neighboring Serengeti.It is an awesome display of raw nature in play – the grazers… and the predators who await them.

You may want to view this migration and the park from a different perspective – high above it all. Take our optional hot air balloon safari over the Masai Mara. You’ll rise at dawn as the park comes alive, floating gently over the rolling hills and savannahs. An unforgettable experience.Toward the evening, we’ll be treated to another glowing sunset as we make our way back to our accommodation for a relaxing dinner.

Once again, we’ve designed a full day of safari going so you can appreciate this vast and active reserve.We’ll go for morning and afternoon game drives… but again, you can also carve out time for rest and relaxation at your accommodation.

The Serengeti abounds with a dazzling array of wildlife – we’ll be looking for lions, cheetahs, zebra, gazelle, eland, impala, hippos, and warthog, amongst others. But you can’t miss the massive herds of innumerable wildebeests populating this great wild space.We’ll certainly have stories and sightings of the day to discuss this evening over dinner at our Serengeti safari lodge or tented camp.

Another very full day awaits us as we take our final game drive through the Serengeti, exiting the park on our way to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.But before we get there, we’ll make a stop at Oldupai Gorge, the world-famous site of early man’s preserved antiquities. This is the spot where thousands of fossilized remnants of tools and other artifacts were discovered. A brilliant record of our evolution from millions of years ago.

Next on our journey of awesome wonders… we’ll look down upon the great expanse of the Ngorongoro Crater, the largest intact volcanic caldera on the planet. This is a world unto itself, of richly concentrated big game and every manner of wildlife and birds.

Hang on as we descend the steep crater walls in our 4 x 4, coming to a unique ecosystem of lions, leopards, elephants, rare black rhinos, great herds of zebras, and even hippos and pink flamingoes!Cut off from the rest of Africa, the wildlife thrives on the expansive crater floor. This will be our field of exploration today, discovering every sort of wildlife in this blue/green world.

We’ve brought along a picnic lunch and will stop by Ngoitoktok Springs to eat, relax and enjoy the company of hippos, and water birds, including the bright flamingoes that accent the shoreline.Thus, we’ll spend the rest of the day, searching out lions, elephants, buffalo, antelope, zebra, and more.As the sun begins to wane, we’ll head back up the crater’s wall in time to catch a brilliant blazing sunrise at the rim – one of Africa’s signature moments.

Let’s get up early because an astonishing sunrise awaits us back at the crater’s rim!Then, we’re off to Lake Manyara National Park. The park presents us with a change of venue and a change of pace. This is a small but very charming reserve – the deep blue lake presents a canvas for the contrast of bright pink flamingoes carpeting its shores. Yet another magnificent moment on your African safari.

Now look overhead and you might find yourself staring up at a lion, resting above in the branches! Lake Manyara Park is famous for its unusual tree-climbing lions. As noted, the park is a special spot to relax and enjoy the beauty, variety, and colors of nature.Dinner will be served at our Lake Manyara lodge or tented camp.

It’s our final day on safari and we’ll take one last game drive around the park to soak up its unique charms and see more of those tree-climbing lions… not to mention the carpet of pink flamingoes.We’ll also look for gazelle, giraffe, impala, hippo, and baboon.

Then we’re off to Arusha, where you can choose to be dropped off at your hotel or nearby Kilimanjaro airport.You can also head back to Kenya and its capital of Nairobi where we will bring you to your hotel, the international airport, or other location of your choice.

From the great fields and big cats of the Masai Mara and Serengeti to the world of wonder down in the Ngorongoro Crater to the lovely sightings at Lake Manyara, this has been a non-stop tour of everything an African safari can be. We hope you loved every minute of it! We loved showing you our special world. From all of us at Africa Kenya Safaris we thank you for your patronage.