WALKING TIME: 4-6 HOURS

You will leave your hotel in Arusha or Moshi early in the morning and drive to the Momella gate in Arusha National Park. From Moshi, it takes about 3 hours to drive, and from Arusha, it takes about 1 hour. At the gate, you’ll get your trekking permits, meet your porters, guide, cook, and game ranger, and then start climbing. You will go through open grassland, which is a good place to see buffalo, warthogs, and other animals that eat grass.

You will cross the Ngare Nanyuki River and keep going up through a mountain forest. You might see a lot of different birds and black and white colobus monkeys there. You’ll finally get to Miriakamba Hut, where you’ll spend the night.

WALKING TIME: 3-5 HOURS

The second day of climbing is short but hard. To get to the halfway point of Elephant Ridge, you will start early in the morning and climb steeply through a lush mountain forest full of birds. You can see the crater from there. After 3 to 5 hours of climbing, you’ll reach Saddle Hut, where you’ll have lunch.

In the afternoon, you’ll go hiking again to Little Meru (3794 m), where you can see great views before the sun goes down. Then you’ll go back to Saddle Hut to stay there for the night. It’s best to go to bed early so you can get enough rest for hiking the next day.

WALKING TIME: 10-12 HOURS

Between 1 and 2 at night, you’ll start to go up. The path to Rhino Point (3850 m) is very steep, and from there it is a very narrow ridge to the top. You will reach the top of Mount Meru, called Socialist Peak, at sunrise.

There are beautiful views, and you can see Mount Kilimanjaro not far away. After taking pictures at the top, you’ll go back down to the Saddle hut.

Note that it may not be possible to cross the ridge between Rhino Point and the summit when it is icy or windy. Your guide will tell you if the weather isn’t good enough to keep going.

WALKING TIME: 2-5 HOURS

Around 8:00 in the morning, you will leave and go down to Momella gate. You can go the long way or the short way down. On the longer way down, your chances of seeing wildlife and the ash cone are very good. When you get to the gate, you should give tips to your porters, guide, cook, and game ranger. After that, your ride back to Moshi will be there to pick you up.

You’ll drive from Serengeti National Park to the Ngorongoro Crater after breakfast.

When you first look at Ngorongoro Crater, it looks like a world that has been left behind. The steep volcanic walls hide a pristine wilderness with wide savannahs, patches of acacia woodland, and lakes and swamps that sparkle in the sun. Two to three million years ago, a big volcano blew up and fell in on itself, making the Crater.

The drive down into the Crater is an adventure in itself, and as soon as you reach the floor of the Crater, you are surrounded by wildebeest, zebra, gazelle, and more than 500 different kinds of birds. The endangered black rhino can sometimes be seen in the open grasslands near the Crater. This is your best chance of seeing one.

After spending the whole afternoon in the Crater, you’ll go back to your lodging in Mto wa mbu for dinner and the night.

Accommodation

Budget Camping: Migombani Campsite

We take a short drive to Tarangire National Park after breakfast. Tarangire is known for its large herds of elephants. It has a variety of landscapes, from seasonal swamps to savanna, and the Tarangire River flows through it. From the open top of our safari truck, we hope to see zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, elephant, and giraffe, among other animals. There’s a chance that we’ll get to see Simba stalking his prey or leopards watching from the trees while they chill out. After lunch in the park, our Tanzania safari tour will be over. Depending on your plans, our driver will be ready to take you to the airport for your flight to Zanzibar or back home.