4 days 3 nights African Safari in Tanzania - Tarangeri, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater

Why Tanzania?

Africa is a huge continent and there are a lot of countries that offer a safari. First of all, I chose Tanzania because I can easily get a visa on arrival. For more info about visas, you can check my blog about Tanzania and Kenya. Kenya and Tanzania, Asante sana squash banana!

Second reason I chose Tanzania is because I read that in the month of February, most of the animals from Kenya have migrated/ will be migrating to Tanzania. So when planning your safari trip, make sure you also do your research about animal migration in the country. Remember that these animals are in the wild and you can't control how they behave or where they want to migrate. Before I went, I was expecting to see hundreds of thousands of wildebeest in Serengeti. I didn't see that much but I still saw hundreds of wildebeest and it was pretty amazing.

Third reason I chose Tanzania is because the movie Lion King was inspired by Serengeti. You should also know that Serengeti in Tanzania is connected to Masai Mara in Kenya. Serengeti alone is huge! It really felt like Lion King though. The sunrise view was exactly the same view as the opening scene of Lion King. Tanzania is full of scenic views. Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro crater,  Olduvai Gorge and Serengeti to name a few.

Another reason is because I was thinking of hiking Mt Kilimanjaro. I realized I was being too ambitious and I wasn't ready to climb a mt that high, so I decided to relax by the beaches of Zanzibar instead.

If like me, you decide to do your safari in Tanzania, you should get to Arusha town to start your safari. From there, you can find lots of safari guides.

Which company to trust?

I'm the kind of traveler who tries to do everything without a tour group/agency. However, this is impossible when doing a safari in Tanzania. I heard that you can do a safari on your own in South Africa. You just bring your own car and pay the entrance fee, but in Tanzania you have to do it with a safari tour company.

I went with Greg Adventures because it has mostly good reviews on Tripadvisor and the hostel I stayed at is connected with Greg Adventures. Click the link to learn more about Greg Adventures.

 http://www.gregadventures.com/

If you are wondering, I stayed at Villa Poa! My review for Villa Poa!

Just a few months ago, my safari guide (the guy who was working at Greg Adventures) opened his own safari business. He took good care of us and he is very passionate about taking care of the animals. He knew a lot of information about the animals and he easily answered most of our questions. If there was something he couldn't answer, he skimmed his book to find the answer. He was a very fun guide and he loves to sing too! click this link to learn more about David's safari

When choosing a safari guide, it depends on what you need. You can do a luxury safari and pay thousands of dollars for a few days of safari. You can even do a balloon safari, which costs 500USD (not sure how long). I did a budget safari that cost 200USD/day, so in total I paid 800USD. That includes 3 meals a day, a guide, a safari jeep, entrance fees, accomodation (tent, mattress, blanket, pillow) and bottled water. Remember to always haggle when in Africa!

More expensive might not equate to better experience. As far as seeing the animals, everybody in the

park will see almost the same animals, it doesn't matter how much you paid for the safari. The safari guides/drivers have a walkie talkie and they use it to ask other drivers about the location of the animals and whats happening at different areas of the park. Your safari experience will depend on how well you get along with your safari guide, how early you wake up to see the animals and also how well your safari guide deals with problems if problems arise. I was very lucky that I didn't encounter any problems, maybe Greg Adventures is good with preventing problems. We drove past people who had a flat tire and other sorts of problems. Unfortunately, you will never know how well your safari guide deals with problems until you actually encounter problems. 

I chose Greg Adventures because they answered my questions politely before I flew to Africa. Again, I believe that paying more doesn't mean a better experience. I met other tourists who paid a couple of dollars less and didn't encounter problems either. I recommend you read a lot of reviews before booking a safari guide. Greg Adventures had mostly good reviews but it has bad reviews too. This is Africa, be prepared for the worst and enjoy the adventure!

How many days is enough?

For the days I spent on a safari, I saw the Big Five and sooo much more. I saw the animals hunt, mate and sleep. I would've loved to book a longer safari but 4 days is all I can afford. It turned out to be perfect. I felt I saw everything I wanted to see and more. Watch the video above for a glimpse of the animals I saw. I didn't take a video the whole time so there are a lot of other animals I saw but aren't in the video. Some people from our group did a 5 day safari but they've had enough of the safari after 4 days, so they decided to spend the last day with the Bushmen instead of another day with the animals. They stayed and hunted with the Bushmen. I heard very good reviews about this but I didn't get to experience it. Maybe you can - let me know in the comments below if you've experienced living with the Bushmen in Africa.

What to bring: 

(safari tour includes 3 meals a day, accomodation -tent, mattress, blanket, pillow and bottled water) - NO NEED TO BRING THOSE MENTIONED ABOVE

mosquito repellent

sunscreen

outfit depends on what you want (you will spend most of the time sitting in the jeep, no hiking nor swimming involved) - i wore shorts, regular shoes and a tshirt

toiletries

camera, zoom lenses

power bank (although there is an outlet in the jeep)
binoculars

charger

money

The Big Five

They are called the Big Five because they are the five most difficult animals to hunt.

Itinerary:

Day 1 Arusha - Tarangeri

Day 2 Tarangeri - Serengeti

Day 3 Serengeti - Ngorongoro Crater

Day 4 Ngorongoro Crater - Arusha

Tarangeri

I started my safari in Tarangeri National Park. The park itself is beautiful! Aside from the animals, this park is known for the abundance of Baobab tree. Most of the Baobab trees in Tarangeri are over 1000 years old! This tree is also known as the "tree of life". Maybe this tree is the reason that this park is also so full of life. Compared to the other parks, this park has the biggest river. By the riverbank, you can see lots of different animals bathing and drinking water. It was amazing to see so many animals come together. Unfortunately my camera died at that time so I didn't get to take a picture of this amazing scene.

 On our very first day we already got to see a lioness enjoying her hunt. We only saw 1 lioness and 1 lion in this park so I assume there aren't too many predators here.

This park is also known for the abundance of baboons. We ate our lunch outside the park because baboons are known to steal your food in the park.

We slept outside the park in a tent-like room. I call it tent-like because it's an actual room with your own bathroom, but it's designed like a tent. It has electricity (lights, outlet for charging electronics) and an actual bed (not just a mattress). 

The campsite also has a store so you can buy things you need, alcohol and all that. Of course the store is expensive. 

Serengeti

 Serengeti isn't as forested as Tarangeri. This park is 14,750km² (5,700sq mi), so I only actually got to see a small part of this park. Nevertheless, I saw a lot of animals I didn't see on my first day. This is where I saw all the action. Serengeti National Park is known for the abundance of predators, you can guess what predators I saw in Serengeti. Check the video above for the answer. Aside from the animals on the video, I also saw jackals, wild dogs, vultures (fighting for an animal carcass), cheetahs and leopards.

This park has so many predators that our music while eating was the laughter of the hyenas and our lullaby was the lions roaring at each other. Thank God I was fast asleep and didn't hear the lions, otherwise I would've peed myself hahaha!

bones of a buffalo

And of course this was the best sunrise I've seen. It makes you want to sing the opening song of the Lion King.

Ngorongoro Crater

 The view on the way to Ngorongoro Crater was breathtaking! Vast lands covered with grazing animals. The animals added color to the green grass of the Ngorongoro conservation area. We also saw a lot of the Masai Villages. In fact, we even stopped at one village and went in to see how they live and interact with them. They did a welcoming song for us and gave us a very short tour in their village. It was a tourist trap. We also had to pay 20USD as "donation" and then they brought us to their school and asked for another donation (nobody gave anything for that). Our safari guide grew up in a Masai village so he kept pushing us to visit one, but I don't recommend doing this and please DON'T HESITATE TO SAY NO to this tourist trap. If you want to really experience the African tribe, you can try the Bushmen. The Bushmen are hunter-gatherers and they will teach you how to hunt using a bow and arrow. Listening to their click language is also something very interesting and unique to Africa.

Ngorongoro crater is where you will most likely see a rhino. There are only 35 black rhinos left in the whole of Tanzania so you might not even see one during your safari.

Within the Ngorongoro crater, the animals have everything they need the whole year round so they don't need to migrate. Because of this, you see a mixture of what you saw in Tarangeri and Serengeti. We also saw many different species of birds.

everybody is racing to see the rhino

Each park has something unique to offer, so plan your safari based on what you want to see. There are so many other national parks for safari tours and it gets very confusing when planning your trip, but I hope this blog helped you get a glimpse of the Tanzanian safari.

Please let me know what you think by writing a comment below.