3 days Serengeti & Crater — Three Days
Two parks in three days with a full day inside the crater at the end. The shortest trip that still gets you into the Serengeti.
Wildlife
Manyara, Serengeti & Crater — Camping
Manyara, one night in the Serengeti and the crater, camping the whole way. Four days is tight, and it is the cheapest route to all three.
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At a glance
- Destinations
- Lake Manyara · Serengeti · Ngorongoro
- Best for
- Wildlife safari
- Travel style
- Budget · Drive
- Activity level
- Easy — most of the day is spent in a vehicle or on a boat
- Best time to travel
- June to October generally suits this short camping route through Manyara, the Serengeti and the crater. January and February can offer greener scenery; heavier rain in April and May affects tracks and time spent outdoors at camp.
- Start and end
- Starts and ends in Arusha
Why this journey
- All three headline parks in four days
- Camping inside the parks rather than at the gates
- Lake Manyara on the way in, which most four-day routes skip
- Crater descent on the final morning
- The lowest-cost way to see the north
Day by day
The short camping loop, entered through Lake Manyara. It moves every day and the driving is real, but it reaches all three of the parks people come north for, and it does it at the lowest cost of anything on this page.
Day 1 — Arrival and Lake Manyara National Park
Arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport and transfer to Lake Manyara. A game drive follows, spotting elephants, giraffes and birds including flamingos. Camp at a designated site near the park with dinner and overnight under the stars.
Stay Jambo Campsite Meals Lunch & Dinner
Day 2 — Lake Manyara to Serengeti National Park
An early 6:00 a.m. breakfast precedes game drives en route to the Serengeti, with a stop at the Olduvai Gorge Museum. The Serengeti is the third largest and most famous park in Tanzania, known for endless plains, the wildebeest migration and predators including lions, hyenas, cheetahs and leopards, plus crocodiles, hippos, giraffes, antelope, buffalo and gazelle. Camp inside the Serengeti with wildlife stories around the campfire.
Stay Seronera Public Campsite Meals Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Day 3 — Serengeti to Ngorongoro Conservation Area
An early morning game drive in the Serengeti followed by brunch at camp. An optional afternoon stop at a Maasai boma precedes travel to the crater rim for dinner and overnight.
Stay Simba Public Campsite Meals Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Day 4 — Ngorongoro Crater tour to Arusha town
After early breakfast, a full-day crater game drive with a good chance of spotting the big five. Lunch at a picnic site near a hippo-filled lake and swamp. Afternoon return to Arusha with drop-off at the arranged location.
Meals Breakfast & Lunch
Stay and travel
Camping and simple lodges or park bandas, with a cook travelling with the group.
A 4×4 with a roof hatch and a window seat for everyone, driven by your guide throughout.
Camps fill, and roads change with the rains. Where something has to change we substitute at the same level and tell you before you travel, not after.
Included and excluded
What is included
- Every activity named in the day-by-day
- Accommodation as listed, or a similar alternative if a camp is full
- Meals as noted against each day
- Transfers between the agreed pick-up and drop-off points
- Park, reserve and conservation area fees
- An English-speaking Tanzanian driver-guide
- A 4×4 with a roof hatch, or the vehicle the route calls for
- Drinking water through the day
- Government taxes
- Boat safari and transfers
- TANAPA armed ranger where the park requires one
- Ngorongoro crater service fee
Not included
- International flights, airport taxes and visa fees
- Travel, medical and baggage insurance
- Personal spending — drinks, laundry, telephone
- Tips for your guide and crew
- Anything not listed as included
Practical information
- Visas, insurance and tipping
- A visa is arranged before travel or on arrival. Travel and medical insurance is a condition of booking. Tipping is customary and we will suggest a range rather than set one.
Related journeys
3 days 
4 days Tarangire, Serengeti & Crater — Camping
The same four-day camping loop entered through Tarangire instead of Manyara — baobabs and elephant herds on the first day rather than forest.
Wildlife
5 days Serengeti & Crater, from Zanzibar
Five days off the island and into the northern parks, flying both ways — Tarangire, the Serengeti and the crater, with no day lost to the coast road.
Wildlife
Every route here can be changed
Tell us what you would keep, what you would drop and how long you have. We will send back a version that is yours.