Private 2-Day Tarangire and Ngorongoro Crater Safari from Arusha

Tarangire National Park: a full private day

Tarangire is about two hours south-west of Arusha and covers roughly 2,850 square kilometres along the Tarangire River, the only year-round water for miles. In the dry season from June to October elephant families gather here in some of the largest numbers in Tanzania, walking in long lines to the river past baobab trees that can be a thousand years old. Zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, buffalo and warthog share the grassland, with lions near the river and cheetahs on the open plains.

On a private Tarangire safari you decide how the day runs: linger an hour with a herd at the water, head for the Silale swamp in the afternoon for buffalo and birds, or ask the guide to look for leopards in the sausage trees. Lunch is a picnic at a site in the park. Sightings are never guaranteed, but a full day in Tarangire in the dry season is as close to a sure thing as a safari gets.

Ngorongoro Crater: a morning on the crater floor

The Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest intact volcanic caldera, about 19 kilometres wide, with a 260-square-kilometre floor some 600 metres below the rim. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979 and lies in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, where Maasai herders live alongside the wildlife. Because animals rarely leave the crater, the floor holds a dense resident population: lions, elephants with huge tusks, buffalo, hyena clans, hippos in the Gorigor swamp, flamingos on Lake Magadi in season and a small, closely guarded group of black rhino.

You descend the rim road at first light, when the floor is misty and the predators still active, and spend about five to six hours on the circuit through open grassland, the Lerai forest and the lake shore, with a picnic lunch by the hippo pool. Is the Ngorongoro Crater worth visiting in just one morning? Yes: the crater is compact, and a private vehicle lets you spend the time where the sightings are.

The camp near the crater rim

The night is spent at a campsite on or near the Ngorongoro rim at around 2,300 metres, where the air is cool and clear and the stars are extraordinary. Your tent with a sleeping mattress is set up for you, dinner and breakfast are prepared by our team and all meals, soft drinks and water are included. Facilities are shared and simple, which is part of the camping experience; let us know if you would prefer a lodge upgrade and we will advise.

Temperatures on the rim can fall to about 5°C at night even in the hot months, so a warm jacket, fleece and socks are essential. Elephants and buffalo sometimes walk through the rim campsites at night, which is why our team briefs you on simple safety rules before dark. The camp is the base for an early descent into the crater the next morning, before most day visitors arrive.

The private safari experience

Everything on this safari is for your party alone: the 4x4 with its pop-up roof, the English-speaking driver-guide and the timing of each day. That means you leave Arusha at 07:30 rather than waiting for other guests, stop whenever a photo calls for it, stay as long as you like at a sighting and ask all the questions you want. Families with children travel at their own rhythm, and couples get the quiet of a vehicle with no strangers.

A private safari from Arusha also makes it easy to adjust details: a dietary request for the camp meals, an earlier start on day two, or a drop-off at Kilimanjaro International Airport instead of your hotel if you are flying out. Tell us what you have in mind when you book and our team confirms what is possible. Children aged 15 and under are welcome and the vehicle seats up to six guests.

The route from Arusha and the Ngorongoro highlands

Day one runs south-west from Arusha across the Maasai steppe on a good tarmac road, about two hours to the Tarangire gate. In the late afternoon you leave the park and drive north-west through Makuyuni and up the Great Rift Valley escarpment past Lake Manyara, then through the farming town of Karatu and into the misty forest of the Ngorongoro highlands, reaching the rim in the early evening. The crater viewpoint on the way is a highlight in itself.

On day two, after the morning in the crater, the return to Arusha takes about three and a half hours, arriving in the late afternoon. How to get to the Ngorongoro Crater from Arusha in two days is a common question, and this itinerary answers it: Tarangire on the way out, the crater at dawn, and no long stretches of empty driving. The total distance over the two days is about 450 kilometres.