If you’ve imagined a Serengeti & Masai Mara Safari, you’ve probably pictured golden grasslands and lines of animals moving in a hush that feels older than anything you’ve known. What you can’t prepare for is how it feels to be there—to look across the plains and realize that the stories you’ve heard don’t begin to cover it.
You’ll begin in Tanzania, pausing in Tarangire’s baobab-dotted wilderness, exploring the Ngorongoro Crater, and crossing the Serengeti in all its scale. Then you’ll slip across the border into Kenya’s Masai Mara, a place that seems to stretch out forever. You’ll finish in Lake Nakuru, famous for its birdlife and quiet shores, before the road finally carries you to Nairobi.
Every day is different. Some are quiet, some feel impossibly full. Either way, you’ll leave with the sense that something has shifted inside you, in ways you may not be able to name right away.
It’s a route designed to feel spacious—enough time to watch, to sit still, and to absorb it all as you enjoy the best of both Serengeti and Masai Mara.
Upon your arrival in Kilimanjaro International Airport, your expert driver guide shall meet you at arrivals, holding a sign with your name. Somehow, that small gesture steadies everything.
Immediately, you begin a transfer to your lodge which you may consider an introduction to Tanzania in miniature—children walking to school, motorbikes carrying improbable loads, goats grazing along the verges. If the weather cooperates, you’ll see Mount Meru standing behind the town, steady and green.
At your lodge, you can unpack or simply sit and let the journey settle into you. Some people feel an urge to explore immediately, others are content to watch the sky change color.
Accommodation
Ilboru Safari Lodge
Outpost Lodge
Arusha Serena Hotel
Arusha Coffee Lodge
After breakfast, you drive toward Tarangire National Park. The land opens gradually, the villages thinning into wide spaces that feel like they’ve been waiting a long time.
Tarangire feels anchored. The baobabs stand like monuments, and the elephants gather in slow-moving clusters around the riverbeds. You might see giraffes browsing quietly or a lion sprawled in the shade, half-hidden by grass.
Lunch is taken at a picnic spot. It’s the kind of meal that tastes better than you expect, maybe because everything around you is alive and in motion.
By late afternoon, you leave the park and arrive at your lodge, the light already sliding into gold.
Accommodation
Migombani Public Campsite
Manyara Safari Camp
Marera Valley Lodge
Gibbs Farm
Morning comes early. You drive up toward Ngorongoro’s rim, the air cooling as you climb.
Standing at the edge, it’s hard to believe how complete it looks. A whole world contained in that vast bowl of green and grey.
Descending feels like crossing into something older. The crater floor holds everything—herds of buffalo, elephants moving like memories, hippos sunk in the pools. You might catch sight of a black rhino in the distance, a shape you’re not entirely sure you saw.
Lunch is near the hippo pool. The breeze carries the smell of grass and water.
Later, you climb back out and drive to Karatu, a softer landscape of farms and trees.
Accommodation
Simba A Campsite
Eileen’s Trees Inn
Acacia Farm Lodge
The Manor at Ngorongoro
Today you head toward the Serengeti. The road passes Olduvai Gorge, a place some travelers find deeply moving, though others feel ready to keep going.
By midday, the plains open in all directions. Even if you think you’ve pictured them, the real thing feels bigger and quieter.
Your guide stops when something stirs in the grass—a pride of lions perhaps, or a cheetah perched on a mound, watching.
You arrive at camp in time to watch the last light drain from the horizon.
Accommodation
Seronera Public Campsite
Serengeti Heritage Tented Camp
Kati Kati Tented Camp
Melia Serengeti Lodge
Dawn comes early. You set out before breakfast or bring it along, depending on what the day promises.
This is when the Serengeti feels most alive. Predators move in the cooler hours. You might sit in the vehicle for half an hour, watching a lion pride doing almost nothing at all, and somehow it feels like the most important thing you could be doing.
Lunch is taken under a tree, the plains stretching out in every direction.
Evening returns you to camp, dust on your clothes, and a quiet you’ll carry with you.
Accommodation
Seronera Public Campsite
Serengeti Heritage Tented Camp
Kati Kati Tented Camp
Melia Serengeti Lodge
After breakfast, you begin the journey north. The border crossing is simple but feels significant.
The land doesn’t change much at first, but slowly the patterns of trees and rivers shift. By afternoon, you enter the Masai Mara, familiar and unfamiliar all at once.
You reach your camp in time for dinner, the sky heavy with stars you almost forget to look at.
Accommodation
Enchoro Wildlife Camp
Mara Sopa Lodge
Basecamp Masai Mara
Neptune Mara Rianta Luxury Camp
You spend the day exploring the Mara. If the migration is moving through, the herds might seem to fill every gap. If not, the grass still holds its own quiet wonders—cheetahs watching from low ridges, elephants crossing in deliberate lines.
Lunch is taken out in the bush. It’s the kind of day you can’t really compress into a story.
By evening, you return to camp, already thinking how you’ll miss it.
Accommodation
Enchoro Wildlife Camp
Mara Sopa Lodge
Basecamp Masai Mara
Neptune Mara Rianta Luxury Camp
After breakfast, you drive out of the Mara, the land rising and falling in slow waves.
By afternoon, you arrive at Lake Nakuru. The water shimmers with birds—pelicans, sometimes flamingos, their colors shifting in the wind.
You settle into your lodge, the day’s miles softening into quiet.
Accommodation
Lake Nakuru Lodge
Sarova Lion Hill Lodge
Flamingo Hill Tented Camp
Mbweha Safari Camp
Morning brings a game drive along the lakeshore. You might see rhinos grazing close to the track, buffalo standing in the shallows.
Lunch is back at your lodge or in the bush. The afternoon can be as unhurried as you like.
Evening feels like a pause before the last day.
Accommodation
Lake Nakuru Lodge
Sarova Lion Hill Lodge
Flamingo Hill Tented Camp
Mbweha Safari Camp
Today, you will wake up late and enjoy your last breakfast before embarking on a transfer drive to Nairobi. The city feels fast after so many days of quiet, but part of you will probably still be somewhere in the grass.
Step into the heart of Africa. Witness Tanzania’s wild wonders up close. Your soul-stirring safari begins here.
Address: 7th Floor, Market Street, Arusha – Tanzania
Phone: +255 767-837-026
Email: book@ngorongorocratersafaris.com
