The Full Northern Circuit

We leave your hotel in Arusha around 8:30am for the two-hour drive to Tarangire National Park, then spend the rest of the day on game drives inside it. Tarangire has the largest elephant population of any park on this circuit, and its baobab-studded landscape is also home to zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, waterbuck, baboon, dwarf mongoose, impala, buffalo, antelope and fringe-eared oryx, with lion, cheetah and leopard among the predators. The swamps draw an equally rich collection of birdlife, from green wood hoopoes and lovebirds to herons, white-bellied go-away birds, giant kingfishers, the kori bustard and the ostrich, the heaviest of the flying birds.

After the full day's game drive it's about a 45-minute drive to Farm of Dreams Lodge for dinner and the night.

Today's drive takes us through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and on to the Serengeti, one of Africa's premier game parks and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's a long drive, but the acacia-spotted savannah keeps the wildlife coming the whole way: lion, wildebeest, hyena, elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, leopard, giraffe, impala, zebra and a wide range of birdlife. The Serengeti is Tanzania's oldest and most popular national park, and while it's best known for the annual wildebeest migration, it rewards visitors year round. Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Heritage Tented Camp.

A full day in the Serengeti, with drives timed for early morning and evening when the animals are most active. The plains here run to the horizon, and during the migration they fill with enormous herds of wildebeest and zebra moving together, alongside giraffe, antelope and gazelle. If we're lucky, we'll also spot some of the park's more elusive residents: lean cheetah, shy leopard, foraging hyena and the lion prides that give the Serengeti its reputation. Dinner and overnight again at Serengeti Heritage Tented Camp.

One more morning game drive in the Serengeti, then an early hot lunch before the drive toward the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. We arrive around 5pm at Ngorongoro Rhino Lodge for dinner and the night.

A full day inside the Ngorongoro Crater itself, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979 and famous for some of the best game viewing in Africa thanks to its permanent water supply. We descend 610 metres onto the crater floor, where there's a genuine chance of spotting the endangered black rhino alongside wildebeest, buffalo, zebra, eland, Grant's and Thomson's gazelle, giant tusked elephant, lion, leopard, cheetah, spotted hyena, jackal and wild dog. Over 500 bird species have been recorded within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Along the way there's the option to visit a Maasai village in the Ngorongoro Highlands, where you'll meet the elders, warriors, women and children and learn about the culture, beliefs and traditions of Tanzania's last nomadic tribe. In the evening we head back to Farm of Dreams Lodge for dinner and the night.

Our last game drive is Lake Manyara National Park, set against the base of the Rift Valley escarpment among giant fig trees, acacia woodland, mahogany trees and open grassy plains, the kind of landscape Ernest Hemingway once described as the loveliest he had seen in Africa. The grassy plains draw buffalo, wildebeest, giraffe, mongoose, dik dik and zebra, while the acacia woodland is home to Manyara's famous tree-climbing lions and resident tusked elephants. More than 400 bird species have been recorded here too, including the thousands of pink-hued flamingos and other large waterbirds such as pelicans and storks that gather along the lake shore.

We return to Arusha in the late afternoon for your final evening.