Two full days in the Serengeti with the crater to finish
Six days is where a northern safari stops feeling rushed.
You get a full day in the Serengeti with two nights around it. The Ngorongoro Crater gets a day of its own instead of being a stop on the way home. And Olduvai Gorge sits on the road between them.
The drive west from Arusha climbs onto the crater highlands, then drops down through Olduvai onto the plains. An hour at the gorge museum costs you almost no time, and it tells you about two million years of history in the landscape you are about to spend two days in.
The Serengeti day is unhurried. You go out at first light, come back for the middle of the day when the animals rest, and go out again in the late afternoon. That rhythm is the real difference between this trip and the four-day one. You spend the day watching animals instead of driving between them.
The crater comes near the end, and you get a full descent, not a rushed one. Vehicles are allowed six hours on the crater floor, and the gate at the descent road opens at half past six. So you start early, and you get the crater at its quietest.
Two nights on the crater rim and two in the Serengeti also mean less driving than the distances suggest, because you are not packing up every morning.
You are met at Kilimanjaro International and driven to Arusha. It takes about an hour on tarmac, through sisal and coffee country, with Mount Meru ahead of you. Most international flights land in the evening, so this is a travel day, not a safari day. The aim is to arrive rested, not to see anything. If you land early enough, there is time in the morning for the Cultural Heritage Centre or the Arusha markets. You will have a briefing with your guide before you leave: the route, the timings, what to pack in the vehicle and what to leave at the hotel. Use it to say what you actually want from the trip. These are private trips, and the days are shaped around that.
The big westward drive, broken by two things worth stopping for. The road climbs the escarpment and runs through Karatu to the Ngorongoro rim, where you get the first view down into the crater. You aren't descending today, but stop for the view from the rim road anyway. Beyond it the road crosses the conservation area and drops toward Olduvai Gorge, where an hour at the museum on the rim gives you two million years of context for the plains you're about to spend two days in. The gorge sits directly on the route so it costs almost nothing in time. From Olduvai the country opens out completely and the last hours into the central Serengeti are a game drive.
A full day in the Serengeti with no driving to do beyond the game drives themselves, which is the difference between this itinerary and the four-day one. Out before sunrise for the first hour of light, back through the middle of the day, out again in the late afternoon. The Seronera area is the focus. It has permanent water in the river valley, the highest density of big cats in the park, and enough variety in the terrain, river line, open plain and granite kopjes, that a day here doesn't feel repetitive. Ask for the kopjes. They hold hyrax and agama lizards, they're often used by lion as a lookout, and they photograph better in the late afternoon than anything else in the park.
A morning game drive in the Serengeti before you leave, which is often the best drive of the trip because the animals have had the night and you've had three days of learning where to look. Then the drive back east across the plains and up into the highlands. The climb onto the crater rim in the afternoon is a proper change of climate. You go from hot, dry, open grassland to cool montane forest with cloud coming over the rim, sometimes within twenty minutes. Rim accommodation sits at around 2,300 metres and it's genuinely cold at night, all year, which surprises people who have spent the week in the heat. The view down onto the floor at sunset is why you sleep up here and not in Karatu.
The crater day, and it starts early. The descent gate opens at six-thirty and being near the front of the queue is the difference between having a lion pride to yourself and sharing it with a dozen vehicles. The western descent road drops you onto the floor in about twenty minutes. Then come six hours in a 260-square-kilometre bowl with some of the highest game density in Africa. Wildebeest and zebra on the open grass, buffalo in numbers, elephant bulls in the Lerai forest, lion that barely lift their heads as you pass, and black rhino out on the swamp side, usually at a distance. Lunch is at the picnic site by the hippo pool, and you're back on the rim in the early afternoon.
Six days is the length most first-time visitors should be looking at. It gives the Serengeti a full day with two nights around it, treats the Ngorongoro Crater as its own day, not a stop on the drive home, and includes Olduvai Gorge on the road between them without costing a day to do it.
The practical effect of the extra nights is that you unpack less. On a four-day route you're in a different bed almost every night. Here you have two nights in the Serengeti and two on the crater rim, which takes a surprising amount of friction out of the week.
It suits couples, first safaris, and anyone who wants the two headline destinations done properly instead of three or four done at speed. It is also the shortest itinerary here that's genuinely comfortable for older travellers, because the long driving days are fewer.
It falls short on the migration. One full Serengeti day means you see the region you're based in, and if the herds are in the far north during your dates you won't reach them. If you are coming for the migration, look at the eight- or nine-day routes, or plan on flying a leg.
This itinerary works in every month, which isn't true of every route on the northern circuit. The central Serengeti holds resident game year-round and the crater population doesn't move at all, so neither of the two main destinations depends on the migration being in a particular place.
June to October is the dry season: short grass, animals tied to permanent water, excellent visibility, and the highest vehicle numbers of the year. It is the easiest game viewing and the busiest.
December to March is green, the light is better, and the migration is on the southern plains. This route doesn't reach them, but the drive out across the plains in February often runs through the edge of the herds. Camps are cheaper than in the high season.
April and May are the long rains. Prices fall sharply, the parks are close to empty, and the landscape is extraordinary. The trade-off is real: afternoon storms are routine and some camps close.
November is a real sweet spot, with short rains, thinning crowds, green country and animals on the move. It's consistently the most under-booked good month of the year.
Northern-circuit roads are a mix of good tarmac and corrugated murram, and the corrugation is the part nobody warns you about. Inside the parks the tracks are graded dirt that shakes hard at anything above walking pace, and a transfer day between parks can involve three or four hours of it.
This matters for three groups of people. If you have a back or neck problem, say so when you enquire: it changes the sensible daily distance and it may change which itinerary makes sense. If you get motion sick, the front seat and an open hatch help far more than tablets. And if you're travelling with young children, the driving is usually the thing they find hardest, not the animals.
Everything is done in a private vehicle with a pop-up roof, which means the day is yours. If you want to sit with one lion pride for an hour, you sit with it. If you want to be back at camp by eleven and out again at four, you do that. The itinerary sets the route, not the clock.
Distances on the northern circuit look small on a map and take much longer than the kilometres suggest. Arusha to the central Serengeti is a full day of driving, not an afternoon.
For your safety and the wildlife's, driver-guides may not exceed 50kph inside the parks, and 25kph on the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater.
Off-road driving isn't permitted except in specified areas. Your guide will tell you where those are.
Night driving isn't allowed in the parks between 7pm and 6am, except where night game drives are specifically allowed. Lake Manyara is the main one on this circuit.
Extra excursions and activities not listed in the itinerary can usually be added, but need to be arranged with us in advance, not at the gate.
It is illegal to own or carry government trophies, meaning wildlife parts and products, without a permit from the Tanzania Wildlife Division. If you've bought trophies in another country, carry the import licence and receipt with you.
Drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles may not be flown in the game parks, for photography, filming or any other purpose, at any size.
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