Where you can go

Six landscapes, one Tanzania.

The Northern Circuit, from the foothills of Mount Meru through the Rift Valley wall and out across the endless plains. Each destination is its own world, we’ll help you choose which order to meet them in.

  • Arusha
  • Lake Manyara
  • Tarangire
  • Ngorongoro
  • Central Serengeti
  • Serengeti
The Ngorongoro crater floor seen from the forested rim at first light, the soda lake pale in the distance

The Northern Circuit

Where we operate.

Four steps from the globe to the ground: where Tanzania sits, what it borders, how the country is shaped, and the corner of it we drive.

Tanzania Equator EgyptNigeriaEthiopiaKenyaD.R. CongoZambiaMozambiqueSouth AfricaMadagascarIndian OceanAtlantic Ocean Tanzania The Northern Circuit Dar es Salaam Dodoma Arusha Mwanza Lake Victoria Lake Tanganyika Lake Nyasa Indian Ocean Kilimanjaro 5,895 m Mt Meru JRO Lake Victoria K E N Y A 1 Arusha 2 Lake Manyara 3 Tarangire 4 Ngorongoro 5 Central Serengeti 6 Serengeti
  1. Globe
  2. Africa
  3. Tanzania
  4. Circuit

  1. Step 01 · On the globe

    East Africa, on the Indian Ocean.

    Tanzania sits on the east coast of Africa, entirely below the equator, facing the Indian Ocean. Most travellers reach it on one flight from Europe or the Gulf.

  2. Step 02 · In Africa

    Eight neighbours, two records.

    It borders eight countries, from Kenya in the north to Mozambique in the south, and holds both the highest mountain in Africa and the largest of its lakes.

  3. Step 03 · The country

    945,000 square kilometres.

    Dar es Salaam on the coast, Dodoma the capital inland, Lake Victoria in the north-west and Lake Tanganyika down the western edge. The safari country is the dotted corner in the north.

  4. Step 04 · The Northern Circuit

    Six destinations, one corner.

    Six destinations within a four-hour drive of our office in Usa-River. Tap a pin to open that destination.

A note on the route

Most travellers fly into Arusha, then move west and south, Lake Manyara, Tarangire, Ngorongoro, and into the Serengeti. The exact order, pacing, and time at each is yours to shape. We don’t sell fixed packages; every itinerary we craft is built around what you came to see.

The six

Each one its own world.

  1. Journey’s start

    Arusha

    The safari capital between two peaks.

    Set between Mount Meru and Kilimanjaro, this is where every Northern Circuit journey begins, and often where it quietly ends.

    Explore Arusha
    Arusha from the air, the town threaded through green hills at the foot of Mount Meru

  2. Rift Valley wall

    Lake Manyara

    A mirror at the foot of the escarpment.

    Flamingos, tree-climbing lions, and more than three hundred bird species along a compact, water-fed park you can circle in an afternoon.

    Explore Manyara
    A blue monkey in Lake Manyara’s groundwater forest

  3. Baobab country

    Tarangire

    The park of two giants.

    Baobabs and elephants, in numbers found nowhere else on the Northern Circuit, especially through the long dry months.

    Explore Tarangire
    Two great-tusked bulls in Tarangire

  4. The crater descent

    Ngorongoro Crater

    A world contained in a caldera.

    A 260 km² volcanic bowl holding the densest concentration of big game in Africa, black rhino among them.

    Explore Ngorongoro
    Black rhino on the Ngorongoro crater floor

  5. Seronera Valley

    Central Serengeti

    Big cats every week of the year.

    The Seronera Valley, resident lions and leopards, and reliable big-cat action in any season, migration or not.

    Explore Central
    A leopard resting in an acacia in the central Serengeti

  6. The endless plains

    Serengeti

    The migration’s grandest theatre.

    The endless plain, the Great Migration, river crossings, and the largest lion population in Africa.

    Explore Serengeti
    Migration herds across the Serengeti plains

Tell us where you want to go. We’ll build the rest.

Plan Your Safari

Ready to write your Tanzanian story?