8 Days Ngorongoro Highlands Trekking & Ultimate Walking Safari

You will be welcomed by a representative at the Kilimanjaro International Airport and transferred to the lovely Gran Melia Hotel in Arusha. Enjoy the stunning garden or relax with the full spa treatment.

Accommodation: Gran Melia Arusha | Meal plan: Bed and breakfast.

After breakfast, drive to Ngorongoro Crater floor for a full day game drive. You will have lunch at the Hippo Pool picnic site. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area covers an area of 8,300 km, with a deep volcanic crater at its center, the largest unbroken caldera in the world.

The crater is about 300 km2 in area, 600 meters deep and 20 km wide. The rim of the crater is an astounding 2,286 meters above sea level. The floor contains a small soda lake and it is estimated that around 30,000 animals live in the crater, making it the most intensive safari wildlife viewing-area on earth.

By late afternoon your group will ascend to the Ngorongoro Crater Rim for dinner and overnight.

Accommodation: Ngorongoro Highlands Lodge | Meal plan: Full board

After breakfast, depart to Nainokanoka Village (50 km from the Simba Campsite) where you will walk up to Olmoti Crater and view the Munge River waterfalls and the small, but beautiful crater . It is the source of Munge River which drains into the Ngorongoro Crater and is a 45-60-minute walk from the camp.

After, you will continue on to your camp at Nainokanoka Village, where you will get a chance to meet the local people and even try out traditional beading or goat herding.

Accommodation: Nainokanoka Special Campsite. | Meal Plan: Full board

Empakaai Crater to Nayobi Village (4-5 hours walking). It’s worth getting up very early to see the beautiful panoramic sunrise above the lake at the floor of Empakaai Crater. After breakfast and loading the donkeys, we start our 7 km  trek on the rim of the crater, heading for Nayobi Village. Here we re-fill our water bottles and have lunch.

You will have a chance to visit some of the families that live in this village and learn about their traditional way of life. This is the only tribe permitted to reside within Ngorongoro Conservation Area, because of the sustainable way the live with wildlife such as zebras, wildebeests and lions.

Continue trek to our Special Campsite under the acacia trees.

Accommodation: Special Campsite | Meal plan: Full board

Nayobi Village to Lake Natron (3-4 hours walking). After breakfast, trek through yet another we beautiful landscape while walking down to the floor of the Rift Valley. From here, we will be able to see Lake Natron, the mighty Ol Doinyo Lengai mountain and the vast Serengeti plains.

As this area is very hot, a safari car will meet you at this location and drive you to your accommodations where you can refresh and even take a swim in the pool.

We recommend an evening drive to the nearby acacia grove where guests are likely to see giraffes feasting on the tasty leaves.

Accommodation: Maasai Giraffee Eco Lodge | Meal plan: Full board

A full day to explore the area of Lake Natron. This is one of the most interesting lakes in the world. A shallow soda lake with deadly waters: few fish can survive in this high-alkaline lake that has notoriously hot temperatures (sometimes reaching as high as 140F (60 C!).

You will not be able to swim in it, but a visit to the Lake Natron shoreline will be an adventure: it is home to an estimated 2.5 flamingos, who use its warm, toxic waters as nesting ground for their eggs, since there are virtually no predators who venture here.

Year-round the shore is covered in tens of thousands of stunning pink flamingos, who enjoy a special algae that grows here.

You may also visit the Hominid Footprints, featured on Discovery Channel and National Geographic. These unique prints are believed to be human footprints and cow hooves that could date back as far as 15,000 years! The prints are the only one of their kind found in Africa and suggest that somehow ancient humans moved through hot lava after an eruption of Mount Ol Doinyo Lengai.

There is also a walk to a refreshing waterfall in a deep gorge, Maasai village visit and the chance to climb Mount Ol Doinyo  – Tanzania’s only active volcano.

You will see the wide but shallow soda lake  and a white carpet of soda and salt crystals cracked in to a polygonal patchwork, hike to a waterfall in a deep gorge, and visit a Maasai village. If you are up to the challenge and a very strenuous climb, you can opt for a climb to Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano.

Accommodation: Maasai Giraffe Eco Lodge | Meal plan: Full board