About This Journey
There are no gorillas in Tanzania. The country has chimpanzees at Gombe and Mahale and some of the best savanna on earth, but the mountain gorilla lives only in the Virunga volcanoes and Bwindi, across on the Uganda–Rwanda–DRC borders. Anyone selling you a Tanzanian gorilla trek is selling you a flight to Uganda without mentioning it.
We would rather just tell you, and then build the trip properly. Eleven days here open with a full gorilla trek in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, then cross to Tanzania's northern circuit — Tarangire's baobabs and elephant herds, three nights deep in the Serengeti, and a morning on the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater.
The two halves are genuinely different safaris rather than more of the same. One is a wet, steep forest and a single hour that people talk about for years; the other is open plains, enormous skies and animals in numbers that do not quite look real. Private guiding in both countries, and the gorilla permit is bought and confirmed before you travel.
Trip Highlights
- A full hour with a habituated mountain gorilla family in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
- Three nights in the Serengeti — enough to actually find the migration rather than drive past where it was
- The floor of the Ngorongoro Crater, one of the few places on earth to see black rhino alongside the rest of the Big Five
- Tarangire's ancient baobabs and its dry-season elephant concentrations
- Tree-climbing lions and flamingo flocks at Lake Manyara
- Optional dawn hot-air balloon flight over the Serengeti plains
Day by Day
Arrive at Entebbe on Lake Victoria and transfer the ten minutes to your hotel. Most international arrivals land late, so the first night is deliberately easy.
Your guide briefs you over dinner on the trek, the flights, and what to leave behind — you will be moving between two countries with luggage limits on the light aircraft.
- LuxuryProtea Hotel by Marriott Entebbe · Lake Victoria Serena Golf Resort · Hotel No.5 Entebbe
- Mid-rangeBest Western Premier Garden Hotel · Boma Hotel Entebbe · 2 Friends Beach Hotel
- BudgetAirport Guest House · ViaVia Entebbe · Elementis Guesthouse
- Meals
- Dinner
A scheduled light aircraft takes you south-west to Kihihi or Kisoro, whichever serves your permitted sector, in a little over an hour. The drive is possible but takes most of a day, and on a trip with this much ground to cover the flight is the right call.
Arrive at the forest edge by late morning. The afternoon is yours — a community walk, a short waterfall trail, or a chair with a view of the canopy.
- LuxuryBuhoma Lodge · Bwindi Lodge · Mahogany Springs Lodge
- Mid-rangeEngagi Lodge · Buhoma Haven Lodge · Gorilla Forest Camp
- BudgetBuhoma Community Rest Camp · Trekkers Tavern Cottages · Bwindi Backpackers Lodge
- Meals
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Briefing at sector headquarters at first light, then into the forest with rangers and a group of no more than eight, following trackers who located the family at dawn.
The trek is unpredictable by nature — one hour or most of the day, on steep ground, through vegetation that earns the park its name. Hire a porter. When you reach the family the clock starts: one hour, at close range, with a silverback that is entirely unbothered by you.
Back down by afternoon. This is the day the rest of the trip is built around, and we do not schedule anything else against it.
- LuxuryBuhoma Lodge · Bwindi Lodge · Mahogany Springs Lodge
- Mid-rangeEngagi Lodge · Buhoma Haven Lodge · Gorilla Forest Camp
- BudgetBuhoma Community Rest Camp · Trekkers Tavern Cottages · Bwindi Backpackers Lodge
- Meals
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Fly back to Entebbe and connect east to Kilimanjaro International, routing through Nairobi. It is a travel day rather than a safari day, but it replaces what would otherwise be two full days on the road and a border post.
Your Tanzanian guide meets you at Kilimanjaro and drives the last stretch to Arusha, in the coffee country beneath Mount Meru.
- LuxuryArusha Coffee Lodge
- Mid-rangeArusha Planet Lodge
- BudgetThe Outpost Lodge
- Meals
- Breakfast, Dinner
Head south-west into Tarangire, a park of baobabs and river valley that gets a fraction of the Serengeti's visitors and, in the dry months, holds elephant concentrations that rival anywhere in Africa.
Game drives follow the Tarangire River, where the animals concentrate once the seasonal pans dry out — elephant, buffalo, giraffe, and the lion prides that live off them.
- LuxuryTarangire Treetops
- Mid-rangeTarangire Safari Lodge
- BudgetTarangire Simba Lodge
- Meals
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Climb through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, stopping at the crater rim viewpoint, and continue across the Naabi Hill gate into the Serengeti proper.
The name means 'endless plains' in Maa, and there is no moment where that stops being the obvious description. An afternoon game drive on the way to camp.
- LuxurySerengeti Serena Safari Lodge · Lake Ndutu Tented Lodge
- Mid-rangeSerengeti Sopa Lodge · Mbalageti Lodge · Serengeti Kati Kati Tented Camp
- BudgetSerengeti Mawe Camp · Serengeti Bush Camp
- Meals
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
A full day following the herds. Where they are depends entirely on the month: the southern short-grass plains around Ndutu from December to March for calving, the western corridor mid-year, the north and the Mara River from roughly July to October.
We position your camp for the season rather than booking one address and hoping. Lion, cheetah and hyena shadow the herds wherever they are.
- LuxurySerengeti Serena Safari Lodge · Lake Ndutu Tented Lodge
- Mid-rangeSerengeti Sopa Lodge · Mbalageti Lodge · Serengeti Kati Kati Tented Camp
- BudgetSerengeti Mawe Camp · Serengeti Bush Camp
- Meals
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
The third Serengeti day is the one most itineraries cut, and the one that most often delivers. It gives you a second attempt at a river crossing, a leopard in a sausage tree, or a kill — none of which perform on request.
Optional: a dawn hot-air balloon flight over the plains, landing to a bush breakfast, at a supplement.
- LuxurySerengeti Serena Safari Lodge · Lake Ndutu Tented Lodge
- Mid-rangeSerengeti Sopa Lodge · Mbalageti Lodge · Serengeti Kati Kati Tented Camp
- BudgetSerengeti Mawe Camp · Serengeti Bush Camp
- Meals
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Game drive south out of the park, with a stop at Olduvai Gorge, where the Leakeys' excavations rewrote the human origin story.
Your lodge stands on the crater rim. Arrive in time for the view down into the caldera before the evening cloud closes over it.
- LuxuryNgorongoro Crater Lodge · Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge
- Mid-rangeNgorongoro Sopa Lodge
- BudgetRhino Lodge
- Meals
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Descend at dawn onto the crater floor — six hundred metres down into a caldera holding roughly twenty-five thousand large animals in a bowl twenty kilometres across, including the black rhino that make this one of the few places to complete the Big Five in a morning.
Climb back out for lunch, then continue to Lake Manyara: groundwater forest, big troops of baboon, enormous flocks of flamingo when the water is right, and the lions that have taken to lying in the acacias.
- LuxuryLake Manyara Tree Lodge · Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge
- Mid-rangeMarera Valley Lodge
- BudgetKaratu Simba Lodge
- Meals
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
A last morning game drive along the lakeshore before the drive back to Kilimanjaro International for your onward flight.
Zanzibar is a short hop from here and is the obvious extension — we are happy to add it, along with a beach stay on the east coast.
- Meals
- Breakfast
What's Included
Included
- 10 nights' accommodation at your chosen tier, with all meals as indicated
- Uganda gorilla trekking permit, bought and confirmed before you travel
- Scheduled light-aircraft flights Entebbe–Bwindi–Entebbe
- Scheduled flights Entebbe–Nairobi–Kilimanjaro
- Private driver-guide and 4×4 pop-up-roof safari vehicle in each country
- All national park, reserve, crater and conservation fees in Uganda and Tanzania
- Ngorongoro Crater floor descent fee
- All airport transfers and bottled drinking water in the vehicle
Not Included
- International airfares to Entebbe and out of Kilimanjaro
- Uganda and Tanzania visas
- Travel and medical insurance, including emergency evacuation cover
- Porter on the gorilla trek (recommended) and trekking-pole hire
- Hot-air balloon safari over the Serengeti and other optional activities
- Alcoholic drinks and items of a personal nature
- Tips and gratuities for guides, rangers, trackers and lodge staff
Accommodation
Protea Hotel by Marriott Entebbe
Buhoma Lodge
Arusha Coffee Lodge
Tarangire Treetops
Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge
Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge
Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge
Ready to Plan This Safari?
Every trip we run is private and tailored around you — your dates, your pace, your budget. Tell us what you have in mind and one of our safari planners will craft it into a detailed, costed proposal.
Quoted per person sharing. Season matters more on this itinerary than most — Serengeti camp rates move sharply with the migration, and the Uganda gorilla permit is a fixed cost inside the price. Talk to us about dates before you fix flights.
