This tour includes 8 days of an authentic expedition crossing Kenya and Tanzania’s iconic Maasai Mara, Serengeti, and Ngorongoro. This tour starts in Nairobi and ends in Arusha and can be tailor-made. Depending on the Great Migration location, we can concentrate the tour in the Mara or the Serengeti.

Day 1: Masai Mara National Reserve

You’ll have an early morning drive to Masai Mara National Reserve. It holds on as one of the few places left on earth where wildlife still lives comparatively undisturbed, in the numbers that once roamed the plains and forests of Africa. As the northern tip of the vast Serengeti ecosystem, the Mara hosts the spectacular seasonal migration of many thousands of wildebeest, zebras, and attendant predators. You’ll arrive in time for lunch, followed by an afternoon game drive. Dinner and your overnight stay will be at the campsite or lodge.

Day 2-3: Masai Mara National Park

After breakfast, we will have a full day game drive with a packed lunch provided. The reserve is well known for its black-manned lion as well as its abundant resident wildlife. It is also one of the few places where it’s possible to see the Big Five during a morning game drive. Many of the cheetahs are so tame that they seek shelter from the hot sun under one’s vehicle, and several even climb onto the roof to get a better view of prospective prey.

For the bird enthusiast, almost 500 species have been recorded: among these are 16 species of eagle, many hawks and falcons, 6 species of vultures, 8 species of storks, 4 of bustard (including the Kori bustard, the world’s heaviest flying bird), and 9 species of sunbirds. Dinner and your overnight stay will be at the campsite or lodge.

Day 4: From Masai Mara to Serengeti

You’ll have a morning game drive in Masai Mara. We will initiate the day with an early morning game drive in Masai Mara while driving out of the national reserve. After border formalities, drive to the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. On the way, there’s an option to stop at the famous Olduvai Gorge, where Dr Louis and Mary Leakey made their discovery of the first man that walked the earth. After attending a short lecture describing the archaeological digs and geology of the gorge, you’ll have time to visit the small museum. It will be a long day of driving, but the game drives in and out of the parks can be surprisingly incredible. Dinner and your overnight stay will be at the campsite or lodge.

Days 5-6: Serengeti National Park

You’ll have two full days in the Serengeti with a flexible schedule and unlimited mileage. As you crest the hillside, spread out before you, as far as the eye can see, is the vast Serengeti. Serengeti means “endless plains” in Kiswahili. This 6,900 square miles (18,000 sq km) park is inhabited by more than 2 million large animals, including more than a million wildebeest, hundreds of thousands of plains zebras, and Thomson’s gazelles. Large predators, including lions, cheetahs, and hyenas, are drawn to the area by this abundance of prey, which migrates throughout the park. Many smaller animals like rock hyrax, bat-eared fox, mongoose, honey badger, jackal, monkey, baboon, and African hare also inhabit the area, along with nearly 500 species of birds. In the afternoon, you’ll have a game drive en route to the campsite. Dinner and your overnight stay will be at a public campsite or private tented camp/lodge.

Day 7: Serengeti National Park to Ngorongoro

On this day, we suggest you wake up very early in order to do an early morning game drive (when the animals are more active) and see one of the best sunrises you’ll ever witness. After the game drive, we’ll return to the camp for a rewarding brunch, and then we’ll proceed to Ngorongoro, the 8th Wonder of the Natural World. The crater spreads for 102 sq miles and has 2,000 ft high walls, making it virtually Noah’s ark and inhabited by almost every species of wildlife that is indigenous to East Africa. It’s one of the very rare locations in the whole continent where you can witness the black rhino. The crater has a river, several swamps, a soda lake with a great concentration of flamingos, a forest, and open plains. It’s also famous for its elephants, which are the largest in the world and have huge tusks. Ngorongoro Crater is truly a Wonder of the Natural World. You will reach Ngorongoro in time for a sundowner. Possibility to upgrade your accommodation level.

Day 8: Ngorongoro Crater

We will start the day very early and descend into the crater floor for an incredible morning of wildlife viewing in one of the most stunning places on earth. After the game drive, there will be time for a picnic lunch near the beautiful hippo lake. After lunch, we will have time for a short game drive and then ascend the crater and exit Ngorongoro Conservation Area towards Arusha. We expect to be back in Arusha by around 5:00 pm. However, we are flexible in case there is a flight to catch or another situation.