Itinerary Advice - Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire NP

You can manage to see most of Tarangire in one day - but you will need to depart your accommodation at Manyara fairly early (say 7.00 am). It will be a long day and you may need to arrive back at Manyara after dark (not normally a recommended practice). The big plus with Tarangire is ELEPHANTS - this NP has around 1 elephant per square km (or around 3000 elephants).

If you can fit in Ngorongoro (in June/July it will be lush & green - can make it difficult to see the lions) I would say go for it. It is unique - there really is nothing like it anywhere else in Africa. About the only large wildlife you will not see are giraffe and you will see them in Manyara and on the Serengeti. BTW are you intending to fly from Manyara/Serengeti direct to Dar es Salaam or via Arusha? (from the above it looks like direct - which will save you some time).

Hi Mike - plan is to fly from the Serengeti directly to Dar es Salaam!

Hi Tumaini,

Thanks so much for this insight - greatly appreciated and helpful!

So a few questions I have on the above:
- I read on several posts on TripAdvisor that if I want to visit Tarangire NP and Ngorongoro Crater, it was closer to fly to the Manyara Strip (they made it sound like it was an hour or so away) vs. Arusha which they all said was about 3 hours away. Can you clarify which would be better?
- I saw on the Tarangire Safari Lodge website that the 50% deposit is non-refundable - can you recommend other lodging in the area? I'd rather pay closer to the stay date in case something comes up and we have to change accommodations.
- For the crater lodging, they have the park fee's listed (pasted below) but then they say that they do not act as a travel agent in arranging these tours, but will be happy to put guests in touch with suitable operators - is this normal for most lodges? And are the fee's below average / normal or are they higher?

Park and Crater fees are not included in the rates and are payable directly to the NCAA.
Park Fees: 70.80 USD per person per night - new rate as of July 1, 2016 including VAT
Crater Fees: 300 USD per vehicle - new rate as of July 1, 2016 including VAT

Thank you!!
David

We did a similar trip in 2014. We stopped for lunch at the tarangire safari lodge and really regretted not staying there. It's a truly beautiful spot with a great pool.
We flew into Arusha and then did Manyara, Tarangire, Serengeti and Ngoron goro all with the same tour company and driver. It was all well put together and we didn't feel there was too much un necessary driving. Why don't you continue with the same company from the Serengeti?

Also someone said grass would be high. We went mid July and it was already pretty dry and not high. Great sighting. All parks are great and I really recommend doing them all because each one is different
Arusha Arrival 1 night
Tarangire Walking safari 1 night
Tarangire 1 night
Lake Manyara 1 night
Ngorongor crater Visit early morning 1 night
Serengeti Seronera Valley 1 Night
Serengeti Grumetti river area 1 night
Serengeti Northern serengetti 1 night
Retour Arusha 1 Nuit

Hey Scotthms - do you remember the tour company you used?

Yes we used Leopard tours. They are one of the biggest tour companies in Arusha you see there vehicles everywhere. And they were really good. Really professional. The driver we had was extremely knowledgeable and new hundreds of names of animals and birds in both English and french!
Make sure to stay in a tented camp - best experience. When you can here a lion roaring in the distancec

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