From March to June the migrating herds are spread around Central Serengeti in search of new grass and fresh water. A good way to experience this once in a lifetime event, is to travel away from the crowds into the Western Corridor of the Serengeti. And with a bit of chance, you might see the Grumeti River Crossing (not the same as the Mara Crossings in the North of the Serengeti that typically happen in August/September). This journey includes luxury accommodation options, where you will be pampered with unparalleled service, excellent food and wine and super safari guiding.
Arrive at JRO Kilimanjaro airport, collect your luggage and go through customs. You will be met by our driver for the transfer to the hotel in Arusha. Depending on your flight time, we can organize an additional excursion (city tour, coffee plantation tour, bike ride, Lake Duluti visit or a half day game viewing in Arusha national Park). Dinner is included at the lodge today. Enjoy the large gardens, and swimming pool, you can relax among lush vegetation, visit the neighboring coffee estate to prepare for your early wake up call tomorrow.
Includes & Excludes
Meals: Dinner included
Transport: Included
Day 2-3
Chem Chem Concession
Breakfast at the hotel and meet with your driver. You will have a private vehicle for the next few days...
Breakfast at the hotel and meet with your driver. You will have a private vehicle for the next few days while you visit Tarangire within the wonderful Chem Chem Concession. Surrender to a lifestyle with a slowed-down pace. Inviting for a true connection with the wildlife and nature surrounding you, inviting a type of tranquility that goes beyond the confines of a vehicle.
The transfer takes about 2.5 hours and you can settle at the lodge before the afternoon game activity. Chat to your guide and plans your days. At Chem Chem Lodge you’ll find yourself set between watering holes, savannah grasslands and a vast salt pan, where the immense sense of space is rivalled only by sublime privacy and sophisticated comforts.
Includes & Excludes
Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
Drinks: Local Brands included
Activities: Included
Transport: Included
Day 4
Ngorongoro Crater
After breakfast, you will be met by our safari guide who will look after you for the next few days....
After breakfast, you will be met by our safari guide who will look after you for the next few days. Drive through to Lake Manyara National park. Spend a few hours game viewing in the park and stop for a light picnic lunch. The park offers a wilderness experience in diverse habitats, from its Rift Valley soda lake to dense woodlands and steep mountainsides. The shores of the lake, encrusted with pink flamingo, attract more than 400 species of birds, depending on the season. Besides the large predators, you can see various herds of buffalo, while the Masai giraffes and impalas roam the lake shores and the forested valley slopes. Exit the park and continue to the Ngorongoro Crater Rim to your camp. Dinner is included at the camp and overnight. Meaning ‘circle’ in Maa, the language of the Maasai, Entamanu is the perfect name for this luxury camp on the Ngorongoro Crater edge.
Includes & Excludes
Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
Drinks: Local Brands included
Activities: Included
Transport: Included
Day 5
Ngorongoro Crater
Today is a very early wake up in order to travel down the Ngorongoro Crater and enjoy a couple of...
Today is a very early wake up in order to travel down the Ngorongoro Crater and enjoy a couple of hours of game viewing before the crowds arrive. The Ngorongoro Crater has many nicknames — Africa's "eighth wonder of the world" and "Africa's Eden," to name a few. But even without these lofty nicknames, the crater is a stunning a sight.
Formed 2.5 million years ago after an extinct volcano collapsed on itself, the caldera is largest of its kind in the world. You will have the best chance to view the Big Five, and enjoy a packed picnic style lunch before going back to camp.
Includes & Excludes
Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
Drinks: Local Brands included
Activities: Included
Transport: Included
Day 6-8
Serengeti Western Corridor
Today drive back to Manyara and say your good-byes to your safari guide before the flight to the Grumeti Airstrip....
Today drive back to Manyara and say your good-byes to your safari guide before the flight to the Grumeti Airstrip. Arrive at the airstrip and transfer to the lodge. Located in the remote western reaches of the Serengeti National Park, there are very few lodges in this pristine section of the park, allowing for an intimate and exclusive Serengeti safari experience. Twice-daily game drives from the lodge often encounter large lion prides and clans of hyena, big herds of resident plains game as well as the special black-and-white colobus monkeys, found nowhere else in the Serengeti.
During the month of March (end) and June, you can get the chance to view some splinter herds from the Great Migration that usually congregate in the western corridor before moving north. Depending on the season and amount of rain, these large masses of animals can be seen crossing the Grumeti River. Back at the lodge, spacious decks are perfect for enjoying sundowners overlooking the river and the lodge’s sparkling rim-flow swimming pool provides a view of the seasonal hippo pods below. The proximity to water draws a profusion of wildlife throughout the day and night.
Includes & Excludes
Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
Drinks: Local Brands included
Activities: Included
Transport: Included
Day 9
End Of Itinerary
Last morning in the bush, enjoy breakfast in camp and enjoy a meandering drive to the airstrip. Say your good...
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Day 9
End Of Itinerary
Last morning in the bush, enjoy breakfast in camp and enjoy a meandering drive to the airstrip. Say your good byes to your safari guide and take the schedule flight to JRO airport. Depending on your onward flight back home we can add a day room nearby, or spend time at leisure to check in. Alternatively we can extend your safari with a stay in Kenya's Mara Mara to continue with the game viewing, or combine with a South Tanzania park, or an extension to Rwanda for gorilla trekking.
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FAQs about Luxury Safari with migration in Grumeti
Safari lodges have guest rooms similar to a hotel with en-suite bathrooms. They are comfortably furnished with facilities normally associated with a hotel rooms, except your rooms are normally set in beautiful wilderness settings, with nature and wildlife around.
Tented lodges have rooms which are tents on a platform and with a roof and also have en-suite facilities with showers, flush toilets and hot water. Basically all the amenities of a hotel room, except canvas walls and roof.
The boutique lodges and camps can be very stylish and smart in terms of design and decor, often with very spacious rooms and even going so far in some cases as having plunge pools for each room.
Eco-camps and smaller tented camps have insect-proof tents with en-suite facilities including a safari shower and flush toilet. They give a more authentic safari experience but the tents are comfortably furnished with proper beds and you don’t need to bring your own sleeping bag! The emphasis is usually on having excellent guides and great wildlife viewing away from the crowds. Guests often eat together and people travelling alone usually say that they found the atmosphere friendly and enjoyed meeting other like-minded travellers around the campfire in the evening or at dinner.
The Adventure Camps are a budget option with guests bringing their own sleeping bags and towels. Accommodation is in small dome tented with a mattress on the floor. Each tent has its own nearby cubicle with a flush toilet, safari shower, and wash basin. The Adventure Camps are suitable only for those who don’t mind “real camping” and can put with some degree of “roughing it”. Apart from the accommodation in simple dome tents, the meals and the guiding are the same standards as the higher quality camps and game drives are in 4x4 safari vehicles. For those on a limited budget, the Adventure Camps are a good alternative to the big tourist lodges and minibus tours for those for whom the safari experience is more important than hotel accommodation.
A Grumeti safari is rewarding throughout the year. However, the best time to visit Grumeti Game Reserve is during the migration months of June and July - when massive herds of wildebeest arrive to cross the crocodile-infested Grumeti River on their way back to Kenya’s Masai Mara.
For many, the post-migration months of September and October are seen as the best time to visit the Grumeti Reserves - large herds of zebra and wildebeest remain in the area along with elephant, topi and Thomson’s gazelle. However, it's also easy to spot predators moving through the short grass.
August is the best time to see the wildebeest migration cross the Mara River. The crossings will continue through September - which is generally your last chance of seeing them cross the Mara River.
The best time to see the wildebeest migration is in August as the herds cross the Nile crocodile-infested Mara River, crossing an international border between Kenya and Tanzania.