Your driver-guide collects you from your hotel in Arusha or Moshi after breakfast and talks you through the plan. Start with a game drive in Tarangire National Park, famous for its elephant herds and giant baobab trees, then continue to Karatu. Arrive with time to settle in, rest and get ready for the Serengeti.

Overnight A luxury lodge in Karatu · Meals Lunch and dinner

An early start for the highlight of the trip. Climb through the Ngorongoro Highlands and pass Oldupai Gorge, famous for early human fossils, then drop onto the open Serengeti plains with game viewing all the way to Moyo Camp Hembe, Central Serengeti. Picnic lunch on the road. You may well spot your first lions, zebra and wildebeest before you arrive.

Overnight Moyo Camp Hembe, Central Serengeti · Meals Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Rise before dawn for your included hot air balloon flight over the plains, about an hour in the air as the sun comes up, followed by a bush breakfast. Then a game drive. A full day in the Seronera Valley, the big cat heartland of the Serengeti. Follow the Seronera River for lions, leopards resting in the acacias and cheetahs on the open plains, with hippos at Retina Hippo Pool. Early start, picnic lunch in the bush and a slow return as the light turns golden.

Overnight Moyo Camp Hembe, Central Serengeti · Meals Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Explore the granite kopjes, where lions like to rest on the warm rocks and the plains around them are good for cheetah, serval and the smaller predators. Your guide reads the tracks and the radio chatter to decide where to spend the best hours.

Overnight Moyo Camp Hembe, Central Serengeti · Meals Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Head south-east towards Naabi Hill and the Moru Kopjes, a quieter corner known for lions, ancient rock paintings and, with luck, black rhino. A good day for open grassland and big skies.

Overnight Moyo Camp Hembe, Central Serengeti · Meals Breakfast, lunch and dinner

A flexible day to follow the herds. Your guide checks with other guides and rangers where the wildebeest, zebra and their predators are right now, and plans the route from there. Sundowner on the plains if time allows.

Overnight Moyo Camp Hembe, Central Serengeti · Meals Breakfast, lunch and dinner

A slow day for photographers: out at first light when the cats are most active, a long rest through the midday heat, and out again for the soft golden hour.

Overnight Moyo Camp Hembe, Central Serengeti · Meals Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Return to the places that gave you the best sightings, or try new tracks the guide has been saving. This is the day to chase any animal still on your wish list.

Overnight Moyo Camp Hembe, Central Serengeti · Meals Breakfast, lunch and dinner

A last morning game drive in the Serengeti, then climb out through the Ngorongoro Highlands. Descend about 600 metres onto the crater floor for a half-day game drive: lions, elephants, hippos, buffalo and one of the best chances in Tanzania to see black rhino. Picnic lunch by the hippo pool, then up to a luxury lodge in Karatu for the night.

Overnight A luxury lodge in Karatu · Meals Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Slow breakfast, then an optional Maasai or coffee-farm visit in Karatu, arranged on request. Drive back to Arusha or Moshi (about 3 to 4 hours), arriving in the afternoon for drop-off at your hotel or Kilimanjaro Airport.

Meals Breakfast and lunch