5 day Tanzania flying safari starts and ends in Arusha. This luxury safari in Tanzania goes to 3 northern Tanzania parks. The Tanzania flying safari goes to Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Lake Manyara National Parks.

About the 5 Day Tanzania Flying Safari

The 5 day Tanzania flying safari can also begin at Kilimanjaro Airport. This will depend on your arrival time. If you arrive late in the afternoon then a night in Arusha will be a must.

On the 5 day Tanzania flying safari, you will have 2 nights in Serengeti. This is the rolling savannah grassland plains dotted with riverine forest. There are also Acacia woodlands in this park that lies in the north of Tanzania.

This is the home to the great wildebeest migration. The 5 day Tanzania flying safari then drive to the south-east. This will be to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The crater is one of the most amazing sights of the world.

You will finish you 5 day Tanzania flying safari by touring Lake Manyara National Park. This is a shallow salt water lake in Tanzania. It is said to be the “loveliest lake in Africa’.

Highlights of the 5 Day Tanzania Flying Safari

The highlights of this African luxury safari in Tanzania include:

• the Big 5 game tracking
• Big cat
• Great landscape
• Wildebeest migration
• Ngorongoro Crater
• Tree climbing lions

There are many more amazing features on the 5 day Tanania flying safari as outlined below:

5 Day Tanzania Flying Safari Itinerary

Day 1: ARUSHA – SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK

Our Tanzania safari rep will meet you at 0900hrs. You will be briefed on the 5 day Tanzania flying safari. This will be followed by a transfer to Arusha Airport. You will be in time for the 1130hrs flight to Serengeti National Park.

You will arrive at the Seronera Airstrip at 1330hrs. Our driver guide will be at hand to welcome you to Serengeti. Enjoy a short game drive to your Serengeti safari lodge. You will be there in time for lunch. After a short rest, you will embark on an afternoon game drive.

The Seronera region is rich in plains wildlife. Here you have great chances to see the lions, cheetahs and the elusive leopards on the Tanzania flying safari. Plain grazers like the antelopes, wildebeest and zebras among others can’t be missed. Herds of elephants and buffaloes also dot these plains. Return to Serengeti Serena Lodge in time for dinner and overnight.

Day 2: SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK

Your 5 day Tanzania flying safari starts with breakfast. With picnic lunch boxes embark on a full day game drive. You will explore the endless Serengeti plains. The drive takes you to the almost treeless grassland of the south. This is the most emblematic scenery of the park.

Here on the Tanzania flying safari you find zebra, gazelle, impala, hartebeest, topi, buffalo and waterbuck. They normally occur in huge numbers during the wet season. You also have Kopjes around this region.

They are great observation posts for predators and mostly lions. The rocks are as a refuge for hyrax and pythons. Drive back to Serengeti Serena Lodge in time for dinner and overnight.

Day 3: SERENGETI – NGORONGORO CRATER NATIONAL PARK

You will enjoy your breakfast at Serengeti Serena Lodge as you start your Tanzania flying safari. This will be followed by departure with game drive from Serengeti. The drive heads south-east to Ngorongoro Crater National Park. You will go via historically rich Ol Duvai Gorge.

After a stop at the museum and lunch proceed to Ngorongoro. The crater is one of the most amazing sights of the world. It is like no other and the only caldera with a multitude of wildlife.

The evening will be spent at the crater rim enjoying some nature walk. Your dinner and overnight will be at the Ngorongoro Crater Serena Lodge.

Day 4: NGORONGORO – LAKE MANYARA NATIONAL PARK

Start your Tanzania flying safari day with an early breakfast. You will check out of the lodge with picnic lunch boxes. Descend into the Ngorongoro Crater for 3 hours crater tour. Ngorongoro Crater is world heritage site.

Ngorongoro crater is the world’s largest caldera. Alongside are cliffs standing some 600 meters high. They present a sheer drop down to a wide open space. This is the floor of the crater, about 246 square km. Here you may see everything from elephant to lion on Tanzania flying safari.

If you’re lucky you may see the near-extinct black rhino and elusive leopard. What is not here is the long necked Giraffe.  You will enjoy your lunch at the hippo point before exiting.

Your drive heads to Lake Manyara National Park. Enjoy a short game drive on arrival. Here you have great chances of seeing the tree climbing lions. Later check in for dinner and overnight at Lake Manyara Serena Lodge.

Day 5: LAKE MANYARA – ARUSHA

You will wake up to your early breakfast. Check out of the lodge and embark on a game drive. Lake Manyara is a shallow salty water lake in Tanzania. Lake Manyara covers 89 square miles (231 km2) of the park.  This is nearly 70% of Lake Manyara National Park.

The lake is famous for a good number of baboons and birdlife. It is also home to herbivores such as hippos, impalas, elephants and wildebeests. You will also get buffalo, warthogs, and giraffes here. Giant fig trees and mahogany can be seen in the groundwater forest. This is the area immediately around the park gates.

It is here that tree climbing lions can be seen. The trees act as a spotting zone for the lions. They also make for a good shade when it is hot. You will later proceed to Arusha after a picnic lunch. Drop off will be at your luxury hotel in Arusha or Kilimanjaro International Airport.

End of 5 Day Tanzania Flying Safari

5 day Tanzania Flying Safari Costs:

What is included in the 5 day Tanzania Flying Safari cost?

• Accommodation as per the itinerary
• Flight as per the safari itinerary
• Transport in a 4 X 4 Safari vehicle with pop up roof
• Meals on full board basis while on Tanzania Safari
• All park entrance fee
• All Government tax

5 day Tanzania Luxury Safari cost excludes:

• Visa
• Items of personal use
• Deviation from the above program
• Drinks and beverages
• Tips and porterage

What to Carry on the 5 day Tanzania Luxury Safari

• Sun glasses
• Light and some few heavy clothing
• Sun screen
• Insect repellant
• Hat
• Comfortable shoes

Other Tanzania safari Tours

• Affordable Safari in Tanzania to lake Manyara Ngorongoro and Serengeti
• Best Budget Safari in Tanzania to Ngorongoro and Serengeti
• Best camping Trip in Tanzania including Ngorongoro National Park
• Tanzania Flying Safari to lake Manyara Ngorongoro and Serengeti

Tanzania Flying Safari Destinations

Serengeti National Park

Serengeti National Park was one of the first sites listed as a World Heritage Site when United Nations delegates met in Stockholm in 1981. Already by the late 1950s, the area had been recognized as a unique ecosystem. It has provided us with many insights into how the natural world functions and showing us how dynamic ecosystems really are.

Today, most visitors on Tanzania flying safari come here with one aim alone: to witness millions of wildebeest, zebras, gazelles and elands. This is as they are on a mass trek to quench their thirst for water and eat fresh grass.

During this great cyclical movement, these ungulates move around the ecosystem in a seasonal pattern, defined by rainfall and grass nutrients. These large herds of animals on the move can’t be witnessed anywhere else.

Whereas other famous wildlife parks are fenced, the Serengeti is protected, but unfenced. This gives animals enough space to make their return journey, one that they’ve been doing for millions of years.

What to See in Serengeti

The Serengeti National Park is known around the world for its amazing biodiversity and abundant wildlife. The park is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. To protect the eco-system in the park further, it has also been designated as a Category II protected area by IUCN.

Each year over 1.5 million wildebeest, 300,000 gazelles and 200,000 zebras migrate in different sections of the park and then to the Masai Maara National Reserve. This phenomenon is described as one of the 10 natural wonders of the world and attracts thousands of tourists to the park each year.

The Serengeti is also home to other grazers like the topi, hippos, warthogs, hartebeest, waterbucks, giraffes, impala, eland, bushbucks, klipspringer, lesser kudus, roan antelopes, dik dik and Oryx. Although the migrating grazers are a key attraction, it is the big 5 (Lions, Leopards, Elephants, Rhinos and Buffaloes) that bring tourists to the park throughout the year.

The Serengeti is home to the largest population of lions in Africa – over 2,500 individuals. The cats thrive in the park mainly because of an abundance of prey. About 1,000 leopards call the park home while 5,000 elephants can be sighted in the park. Less than 50 black rhinos roam the Serengeti plains and this is because of uncontrolled poaching which occurred during the 1970’s and 80’s. Whereas rhinos are few, the Serengeti has over 53,000 buffaloes roaming the park.

Apart from the already mentioned herbivores and big 5, the Serengeti is also home to cheetahs, hyenas, serval cats, jackals, wild dogs, otters, honey badgers, mongoose and the African golden wolf. There are also hyraxes, ground pangolin, crested porcupine, cape hare, bat-eared fox, aardwolf and aardvark. The primates in the park include baboons, vervet monkeys, black and white colobus monkeys.

Birds and Reptiles

What about birds and reptiles? When it comes to reptiles, the Serengeti is home to the serrated hinged terrapin, rainbow agama, puff adder, Nile monitor, Nile crocodile, leopard tortoise, chameleons, black-necked spitting cobra, black mamba and African python.

Over 500 species of birds call the Serengeti National Park home and these include yellow-billed stork, vultures, southern ground hornbill, secretary birds, oxpeckers, Masai ostrich, martial eagles, marabou storks, lovebirds, lesser flamingo, kori bustards, helmeted Guinea fowls, Grey-breasted spur fowl and crowned cranes just to mention a few.

Most of these creatures can be seen if you select the Tanzania flying safari.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site found in the Republic of Tanzania. It was established in 1959 covering vast expanses of craters, gorges, forests, lakes, rivers, streams, savannah grasslands and woodlands. The stunning combination of landscape and wildlife rivals those in neighboring Serengeti and the Maasai Mara National Reserve.

The famous award winning movie “Out of Africa” was partly filmed in Ngorongoro. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is made up of the famous Ngorongoro crater (from which it gets its name), Olduvai Gorge and the remote crater highlands.

The Ngorongoro Crater is often referred to as ‘the Garden of Eden’ because it is a true paradise for animals. The crater is important for global biodiversity because it contains threatened species and high concentration of animals. It is the largest unfilled volcanic caldera in the world.

The crater was formed about 3 million years ago when a large volcano (about 19,000 feet) exploded and collapsed on itself. The massive explosion left behind a floor covering an area of 260 square kilometers and 2,000 feet deep. The crater consists of water bodies like Lake Magadi and the Ngoitokitok Spring.

The water bodies provide water for wildlife throughout the year but the Maasai herdsmen also use them to supply water for their animals – especially during the dry months of the year.

What to See in Ngorongoro

Ngorongoro Crater is one of the most likely areas where your Tanzania flying safari may see the endangered Black Rhino. There is a small population is thriving in this idyllic and protected environment. It is currently one of the few areas where they continue to breed in the wild. Your chances of encountering leopard here are also good, and fabulous black-maned lions.  Many flamingos are also attracted to the soda waters of Lake Magadi.

Approximately 25,000 large animals, mostly ungulates, live in the crater. Large animals in the crater include the black rhinoceros, the local population of which declined from about 108 in 1964-66 to between 11-14 in 1995.

The African buffalo or Cape buffalo and the hippopotamus can also be seen here on your Tanzania flying safari. There also are many other ungulates: the blue wildebeest, Grant’s zebra, the common eland and Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelles.

Waterbucks occur mainly near Lerai Forest. There are no topis, oribis, or crocodiles. Impala are absent because the open woodland they prefer does not exist. Giraffe also are absent, possibly because of a lack of browse species. Tanzanian cheetah, East African wild dog, and African leopard are rarely seen.

Although thought of as “a natural enclosure” for a very wide variety of wildlife, 20 percent or more of the wildebeest and half the zebra populations vacate the crater in the wet season. Buffalo and eland do the opposite. Their highest numbers are during the rains.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) has a healthy resident population of most species of wildlife. The Ndutu Lake area to in the west of the NCA has particularly strong cheetah and lion populations. Common in the NCA are hartebeest, spotted hyenas, and jackals. The population of African wild dog in the NCA may have declined recently. Your Tanzania flying safari may come across servals which occur widely on the plains to the west of the Ngorongoro Crater .

Lake Manyara National Park

Located on the way to Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti, Lake Manyara National Park is worth a stop in its own right. Its ground water forests, bush plains, baobab strewn cliffs, and algae-streaked hot springs offer incredible ecological variety in a small area, rich in wildlife and incredible numbers of birds.

The alkaline soda of Lake Manyara is home to an incredible array of bird life that thrives on its brackish waters. Pink flamingo stoop and graze by the thousands colourful specks against the grey minerals of the lake shore. Yellow-billed storks swoop and corkscrew on thermal winds rising up from the escarpment, and herons flap their wings against the sun-drenched sky. Even reluctant bird-watchers will find something to watch and marvel at within the national park.

Lake Manyara’s famous tree-climbing lions are another reason to pay a visit to this park. The only kind of their species in the world, they make the ancient mahogany and elegant acacias their home during the rainy season, and are a well-known but rather rare feature of the northern park. In addition to the lions, the national park is also home to the largest concentration of baboons anywhere in the world — a fact that accounts for interesting game viewing of large families of the primates.

Stretching for 50km along the base of the rusty-gold 600-metre high Rift Valley escarpment, Lake Manyara is a scenic gem, with a setting extolled by Ernest Hemingway as “the loveliest I had seen in Africa”. The compact game-viewing circuit through Manyara offers a virtual microcosm of the Tanzanian safari experience.

From the entrance gate, your Tanzania flying safari winds through an expanse of lush jungle-like groundwater forest where hundred-strong baboon troops lounge nonchalantly along the roadside; the blue monkeys scamper nimbly between the ancient mahogany trees; dainty bushbuck tread warily through the shadows, and the outsized forest hornbills honk cacophonously in the high canopy.

What to See in Lake Manyara

Rich in game and one of Tanzania’s smaller wilderness enclaves, Lake Manyara National Park is a magnificent terrain. Together with your ranger you are going to explore the diverse habitats of the park. Covering two thirds of the park with liquid depths is the beautiful Lake Manyara giving the park good reliable water supply all year round. This makes that the animals here are in prime condition and wildlife viewing becomes very exciting.

Your Tanzania flying safari will stop for a while on the lakeshore to admire the different bird species and look for pink flamingo. The rest of the Manyara ecosystem consists of mountainside, marshlands, woodlands, grassy areas and hot springs.

Your Tanzania flying safari will drive mainly through acacia woodlands, grassy floodplains and tall forest in search of wildlife; including the famous tree-climbing lions and large family herds of elephant! Do not forget to particularly pay attention to the stunning and varied scenery of this park during your game drives. When your lucky you might even spot the famous tree climbing lions!