8 Days Tanzania Camping Safari Overview
Kiwoito Africa Safaris offers the 8 Days Tanzania Camping Safari, including Lake Natron, Lake Manyara, Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire National Park. During your safari, you will stay in budget camping sites (most of the campsites are inside the National Parks except Lake Manyara and Tarangire).
This 8-day Tanzania camping safari is the best way to experience the unparalleled beauty of Tanzania’s diverse landscapes and wildlife with an overnight stay at a campsite. This safari offers an immersive journey through Tanzania’s natural wonders, starting from Arusha to Tarangire National Park, then to the world-renowned Serengeti, where the Great Migration takes place, followed by Ngorongoro Crater, where the Big Five thrive, and finally to Lake Manyara. With carefully selected campsites, expert guides, and sustainable travel practices, this safari promises exhilarating game drives and an intimate connection with the wild. Travelers will experience a range of ecosystems and leave with profound memories and appreciation for Tanzania’s natural heritage.
Itinerary for 8 days camping safari in Tanzania:
Day 1: Arrival in Arusha Tanzania
Your Kiwoito Africa Safaris guide will be waiting for you at Kilimanjaro or Arusha Airport (or pick you up from your accommodation in Arusha) and drive you to Lake Manyara National Park. If time allows, we can visit Mto Wa Mbu (optional at extra cost), where you can spend an hour or two wandering around this busy town. You’ll learn more about the life of the Masaai and the 100 or so other cultural groups living in this area (some in traditional huts). We’ll visit plantations and local craftsmen, taste banana beer in an authentic bar, and amble past the many market stalls with local produce. Lunch is served by a cheerful Tanzanian “mamma” who will delight you with tasty local dishes.
Day 2: Lake Manyara National Park
Before breakfast, we’ll plan a game drive in the calm early morning long before visitors enter the park. And with some luck, you will experience a beautiful sunrise over the lake with abundant flamingoes and hopefully spot lions nearby. After breakfast, it’s time to relax a bit. After the midday heat, we will take another game drive on a different route. Most animals go down to the river for a much-needed drink at this time of day. The famous Manyara lions could be spotted in the trees! Alternatively, in consultation with your guide, you can do an optional excursion (at additional costs): a night game drive, guided walks, or the Tree-Top walkway.
Dinner and your overnight stay will be at Endabash Public Campsite.
Day 3: Lake Manyara to Serengeti National Park
Today, we will start with an early breakfast, take our lunchboxes, and leave for Serengeti National Park via the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. This spectacular area offers panoramic views over the crater hundreds of meters below. Today is also an adventurous safari day, as a large part of this route is straight across the center of the Serengeti National Park, the area of the Seronera River.
Day 4: Serengeti National Park
Enjoy a full safari day in Serengeti! Driving along the shores of the Seronera and Mara Rivers, try to find unforgettable moments and catch a glimpse of how wild animals live and survive. Wildebeest crossing the river, a hunting cheetah, lion, or any other predator, or the magnificent view of the silhouette of a giraffe at the horizon. You will have a chance to see Nile crocodiles (sometimes more than 6 meters long), waiting for animals to come drinking or crossing and ambush them. You will enjoy areas unknown to the greater public and are perfect for an experience off the beaten path. Today, our route follows the presence and migration of the animals on the plains.
Dinner and your overnight stay are at Seronera Public Campsite.
Day 5: Serengeti National Park to Ngorongoro
We will depart early in the morning and begin an unforgettable morning drive in the Serengeti. At sunrise, while the bush is awakening and still peaceful, the carnivores are out in hunting mode, and we are on their trail to be observers of another natural spectacle once again. At midday, we’ll return to the campsite, enjoy brunch, and leave for our next campsite on the edge of the Ngorongoro crater.
Optional: A visit to a Maasai Boma, where you will experience how semi-nomadic communities continue to live according to their age-old traditions.
Day 6: Ngorongoro Conservation Area to Tarangire
After breakfast, depart for a game drive in the famous Ngorongoro Crater. We will wind our way down into the caldera, with the most breathtaking views along the way. With your guide’s years of experience and his ‘eagle eyes,’ we might even encounter a rhino. The chance of seeing an active pride of lions at close quarters is high on the list of possibilities. At the Hippo Pool, you will enjoy all the sights and sounds of the ‘laughing’ hippos enjoying a wallow in the cool water and a mud bath. You’ll return for a hot lunch at the campsite, after which we will depart to Tarangire National Park.
Day 7: Tarangire National Park
You’ll be driving in the park, observing elephants, sometimes very close to the campsite near the (dry bedding of the) river. Drive to Larmaku Swamp, a large swamp where you can find elephants and other animals, cooling down in the water and sheltering from the sun in the shadow of the acacia trees. Regarding encountering wildlife, we can not guarantee anything, but the chance you will see large herds of elephants in this park is 99.9%.
Dinner and your accommodation will be at Tarangire Public Campsite.
Depending on your itinerary, we will drive you to a lodge in Arusha, Arusha Airport (for domestic flights, e.g., to Zanzibar), or to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your return flight home.
Distance: 120 km
Time/road condition: Approximately 3 hours to a lodge or the airport in Arusha, about 4 hours (160 km) to Kilimanjaro International Airport, Marking the end of your 8 Days at Tanzania Camping Safari