5 Days Northern Tanzania Safari

Arusha

Almost all travellers visiting Tanzania’s northern parks travel through this town. It is a great place to stay for one or two days before setting off on safari. Arusha has beautiful views of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru and the lovely Arusha National Park, where the black-and-white colobus monkey can be seen.   

The best accommodation in Arusha:

Twiga Lodge

This lodge, situated just outside Arusha National Park, has a homely atmosphere. Twiga Lodge is built in a wonderful garden full of fruit trees, which attracts lots of monkeys and birds. The restaurant serves delicious fresh food. There a many nice places in the house where you can relax and enjoy the beautiful view of Mount Meru. The rooms are romantic decorated and comfortable.

Price range: $240 – € 260 pp (fullboard)

Ilboro safari Lodge

A simple but comfortable and clean lodge close to Arusha’s city centre. The lodge is located on the hills of Mount Meru, in the middle of Tanzania’s local life. It has a wonderful garden with large swimming pool. Each room has its own bathroom with shower and toilet. The restaurant offers tasty local and international food.

Price range: $70-$100 (incl breakfast)

Rivertrees Country Inn

Rivertrees Country Inn is a small-scale lodge between Arusha town and Kilimanjaro airport. Very charming and the setting is beautiful: in a big garden with swimming pool and views over Mount Kilimanjaro and Meru. The surrounding offers lots of options for walking, biking, horse-riding or to visit a coffee plantation. The service is good and the rooms are cosy and comfortable. The food is delicious with fresh herbs and vegetables from their own garden.

Price range: $96- $145 pp (incl breakfast)

Meru House Lekisilai

This very nice remote place is an oasis of peace and tranquillity. The service and food is very good, with attention to detail. Superb views of Mount Meru. The rooms are tastefully decorated; a mixture of Zanzibari style and modern hardwood furnishing. The food is fantastic and they even serve coffee grown on their own plantation.

Price range: $200 – $450 (incl breakfast)

Legendary Lodge

Set in the tropical gardens of a coffee farm, just outside Arusha, this luxury lodge features ten beautiful garden cottages and two family cottages. Decorated with African art and beautiful colonial-style furnishings. Each with an amazing view of Mount Meru from its own private veranda. Here you will find relaxing spa treatments, gourmet dining and first-class hospitality.

Prices: $410 – $580 (full board)

Feel free to mix and match the different accommodation styles to create your dream safari!

The northern safari circuit is bookended by Lake Victoria and Rubondo Island in the west and Mount Kilimanjaro in the east. To the north lies the Kenyan border with the Masai Mara and Amboseli reserves located just across the frontier. Tarangire National Park is regarded as the most southerly tourist attraction in this diverse and breathtaking safari region. Within a relatively compact geographical area, safari goers will have access to a multitude of other iconic parks and major tourist attractions, including the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Oldupai Gorge, Lake Natron, Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano, Mount Meru, Arusha National Park and Lake Manyara.

Highlights

First-and-foremost amongst a profusion of highlights on the northern safari circuit is the Serengeti National Park, encompassing 14,750 square kilometres and making up 50% of the wider Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, this is an iconic wildlife area. Sensational scenery dominated by expansive savannah grasslands and peppered with distinctive flattop acacias and balanites trees make this one of the most picturesque landscapes in all of Africa. Throw in 1.7 million wildebeest, 300,000 zebra and 400,000 gazelles and you have a wildlife spectacle second to none. Whether your budget stretches to incorporate a visit to the luxurious lodges within the exclusive Singita Grumeti concessions of the western corridor, or is limited to the budget offerings of Ikona Wildlife Management Area, the Serengeti and its surrounding reserves offer safari accommodations and experiences to suit most budgets.

Adjoining the south-east of the Serengeti National Park lies the exclusive Legendary Lodges concessions of Mwiba and southern Maswa that wrap around into the extensive Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Most visitors only ever see the Ngorongoro Crater, but if you have your own vehicle you have a unique opportunity to leave the safari hordes behind and explore the wider conservation area that is a mixed-use area for wildlife and Maasai pastoralists. Within this protected area, the vast Oldupai Gorge (originally misnamed Olduvai) is an archaeological site made famous by the Leakey family for being home to some of the continent’s most important hominid fossils. The Ngorongoro scenery is sensational and provided you visit outside of the peak safari season months (June – September) you will fall in love with this attractive crater packed full of habituated wildlife and mesmerizing scenery.

Mount Kilimanjaro is an anomaly. Located virtually on the equator, this 5,885 metre high conical, free-standing volcano seems so out of place with its snow-capped peak dwarfing the rift valley below. Whether you come to Tanzania to climb its legendary slopes to stand atop Uhuru Peak, or simply to gaze and photograph its majesty, as it presides over the plains and parks below, it would be wrong to come to Tanzania and not spend some time appreciating this grand old mountain that forms the roof of Africa.

The plentiful wildlife and giant elephant tuskers of Tarangire National Park, along with the seasonal appearance of upwards of a million flamingos that descend upon shallow Lake Manyara, round out the top five highlights for any safari to the northern circuit.

Practical Advice

Tourist infrastructure is considerably better developed across the northern region with a wide variety of accommodation options from rustic campsites and budget lodgings to boutique camps and exclusive safari lodges that are amongst the very finest in Africa. While many visitors opt to fly between camps to save time, there is an extensive and well-maintained road network that enables relatively easy movement overland, although during the heavy rains from March to May, you should expect bridges and river crossings on the minor roads to periodically become submerged and even collapse after heavy rainfall. Unpaved secondary roads also take a real beating over this period.

Safety is not a major concern in northern Tanzania. The biggest non-weather related challenges you are likely to encounter while travelling through northern Tanzania will be with roadblocks, petty police harassment and traffic fines. Diesel and petrol are both widely available outside of the protected areas, but it is worth stocking up on fuel and supplies in the bigger towns and cities of the region, such as Mwanza, Arusha and Moshi, whenever you are passing through.

When planning your safari to Kenya or Tanzania one of the very first things you will need to decide is how to move around the region. We’re taking a closer look at both fly-in and drive-in options and will consider the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Fly-in Safaris

Simply means being flown to each destination by light aircraft. There are several small airstrips within each national park that service different camps and lodges in that area. Often a flight will stop at many airstrips on route in order to take guests to where they need to be. Kenya and Tanzania have numerous aviation companies to choose from with excellent scheduled routes linking almost all the national parks you may want to visit. If you choose this option, you will be on a game package basis at the camp, meaning activities are included within the rate and the camp will organise their activities and use their own guides and vehicles. These activities will be shared with other guests, unless they pre-book and pay for a private vehicle.

Drive-in Safaris

Many of the best wildlife areas in Kenya and Tanzania happen to be relatively close to each other, making it possible to drive from one park to another in just a few hours. Driving allows you to see and experience more of the country, while offering time to develop a deeper connection with your guide, often resulting in a more tailored safari. If you choose to travel overland, you will arrive at each destination with your own private vehicle and guide and will be on full board basis at the camps, as all game drives will be done with your driver guide. Additional activities such as game walks, fly-camping, night drives, community visits and boating will be at an extra cost and usually need to be pre-booked.

THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN DECIDING BETWEEN A FLYING OR DRIVING SAFARI:

Is there a cost differential between the two options?

This will depend on the number of people travelling. The cost of the vehicle and guide is the same for one person as it is for seven people. Therefore, the more people you have in the car, the better value for money it becomes. Here at Asilia, we have both five-seater and seven-seater vehicles available and generally find that for groups of four to seven people it is more cost effective to drive rather than fly. Conversely, for smaller groups of one to three people it is usually cheaper to fly, even if the distances that need to be traveled are relatively short.

How many days do you have on safari?

If time is limited, then it is often best to fly to maximise your time on safari. On the other hand, if you have a couple of weeks to spend on safari, then you may choose to go at a slower pace by driving, making stops along the way and seeing more of the country outside the parks.

How much luggage can you bring?

Light aircrafts have a maximum baggage allowance of 15kgs (33lbs) per person – including hand luggage. Solid sided cases are also not permitted as bags need to be soft sided to fit into the hold. With your own vehicle you do not have the same strict limitations, of course depending on how many people are travelling with you.

Are you scared of flying?

If you are travelling to Africa, there is no escaping the fact that you are going to have to catch a plane to get there, however some people are more comfortable on international aircrafts than light aircrafts. The small aircrafts used in East Africa usually only sit between six to 12 passengers. Their size means that the slightest movement or bump can be felt, and the pilot and cockpit can easily be seen. All this, coupled with the remote — and often bumpy — bush airstrips can be enough to dissuade someone with a fear of flying, so it’s always worth letting your agent or safari consultant know if you’re afraid of flying before you book. For most people though, the experience of flying in a tiny plane is exhilarating and can really add to their overall experience.

Open- vs close-sided vehicles – do you have a strong preference? 

If you choose a drive-in safari, all of your game viewing will be done from a closed vehicle. If your clients choose a fly-in safari, it is likely their game viewing will be done from an open vehicle based at your accommodation (the exception is the Ngorongoro Conservation Area where all vehicles must be closed). The safari experience does differ slightly between open- and close-sided vehicles.

Consider a combination

As with many aspects for a safari, it’s worth mixing it up and offering a combination of flying and driving so you can experience the best of both. For example, in northern Tanzania, a great compromise is to drive between Arusha, Tarangire, Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro Crater with a private guide and vehicle, before flying into the Serengeti to continue your safari. This is essential if guests are travelling to the northern Serengeti because it is too far to drive from the Crater in a single day. You can also choose to drive one way and then fly back to save time, but please bear in mind that it’s not always the most cost-effective option because there is the cost of an ‘empty leg’, as the driver and vehicle will still need to return to Arusha, even if you don’t join them.

If this sounds confusing, don’t worry, our experienced team of sales consultants are always on hand to advise you about logistics. Enquire today!

To get to the Innternatioal Airport near Arusha you need to fly to Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA): CODE (IATA: JRO, ICAO: HTKJ) which is served daily by many airlines. The closest major cities to Kilimanjaro National Park are the city of Arusha and the town of Moshi. Depending on where you are traveling from, you can usually fly direct to Kilimanjaro Airport (JRO) via the Gulf (Qatar airlines, Emirates) or via Europe (KLM). Follow this link for flight option: Kilimanjaro Flight Options

Alternatively, you can fly into Tanzania’s capital, Dar-Es-Salaam (DAR), for a short internal flight to (JRO), or to Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International (NBO) airport for a connection to JRO (Kenya Airways, Precision Air).

One of the best way to find cheap flights to Kilimanjaro International Airport is by flying into Nairobi Kenya. It’s also possible to travel by road from Kenya after flying in there. There are numerous bus and shuttle options to take you to Moshi town or the city of Arusha , though the roads can be quite rough at times; you might consider this if you’re feeling adventurous, trying to save money and have sufficient time.

International Flights to Tanzania

If you want To get to Kilimanjaro you need to fly to Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO). The airport is situated south-west of Mount Kilimanjaro National Park. Below we have listed airlines that fly directly to Kilimanjaro airport (JRO).

• KLM: Direct flights from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro airport
• Condor Air : Direct flights from Frankfurt to Kilimanjaro airport
• Turkish Airlines: Direct flights from Istanbul to Kilimanjaro airport
• Kenya Airways: Direct flights from Nairobi to Kilimanjaro airport
• Precision Air: Direct flights from Nairobi to Kilimanjaro airport
• Qatar Airlines: Direct flights from Doha to Kilimanjaro airport
• Ethiopian Airlines: Direct flights from Addis Ababa to Kilimanjaro airport
• RwandAir: Direct flights from Kigali to Kilimanjaro airport

If you are unable find direct flights to Kilimanjaro airport, you can fly to Kilimanjaro airport via Dar Es Salaam or Nairobi (Kenya). Mount Kilimanjaro is much closer to Nairobi than it is from Dar Es Salaam. Nairobi receives a lot more air traffic than Kilimanjaro Airport, making it have competitive prices.

Best way to fly to Tanzania from us, Europe and UK

For Travellers in US, Europe and the UK, the easiest thing to do is to fly from a major local airport hub near your location to Amsterdam (most major airports in US, Europe and the UK have flights to Amsterdam), and then catch the KLM Airlines to JRO connecting flight.

Domestic flights within Tanzania and Kilimanjaro airport ( JRO )

The following airlines offer domestic flights within Tanzania region:

• Precision Air
• Fly540
• Regional Air
• Fast jet
• Zan Air
• Coastal Aviation
• Air Excel

Bus transfers from Nairobi

For a supplementary charge we can help you arrange private transportation or shuttle bus transfers to Moshi or Arusha from Nairobi, and vice versa.

Although the bus departs from Nairobi’s Park side Hotel, we arrange to fetch our clients from certain hotels in the Nairobi city center, at the Nairobi airport, and we do not charge extra for this service. In Arusha or Moshi town, pick up or drop off can be arranged to most hotels in the city center area.

Private transfers

It is possible to arrange private transfers to Arusha or Moshi from Nairobi, Dar Es Salaam or Mombasa and vice versa, at extra cost.

Yes, many safari operators offer customized itineraries based on your interests and preferences. You can work with your tour operator to create a unique itinerary that includes the national parks and game reserves you want to visit, as well as any specific activities or accommodations you prefer. Overall, a Tanzania safari is an unforgettable experience that offers the opportunity to see some of Africa’s most iconic wildlife in their natural habitats. With careful planning and preparation, visitors can have a safe and enjoyable safari adventure.

The daily schedule on a Tanzania safari can vary depending on the itinerary and specific activities planned, but generally, safaris involve early morning and late afternoon game drives to maximize wildlife viewing opportunities, with breaks during the day for meals and relaxation.

The best time to go on a Tanzania safari depends on the specific national parks and game reserves you want to visit. Generally, the dry season, from June to October, is the best time to see wildlife in many of Tanzania’s parks, including the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. However, the wet season, from November to May, can also offer unique wildlife viewing opportunities, such as the wildebeest migration.

Visitors to Tanzania should pack light, comfortable clothing that is suitable for the climate and activities, such as hiking boots, sunscreen, insect repellent, and a hat. Visitors should also bring a camera with a zoom lens, as well as any necessary medications and toiletries.

Tanzania safaris offer a range of accommodation options, from luxury lodges and tented camps to budget-friendly camping options. Visitors can choose the level of luxury that best suits their preferences and budget.