5 Days Serengeti Hot Air Balloon Safari in Tanzania with Kilipeak Adventure is a fantastic safari once-in-a-lifetime experience, particularly suitable for a bird’s eye-view game viewing experience on your AfricanMecca wildlife tour in northern Tanzania. Hot air balloon rides leave from three sites in this prime national park. In Central Serengeti, wildlife gathers year-round in the Seronera River Valley where there is permanent water. The Great Migration passes through May and June. The Western Serengeti includes the Grumeti River, a scene of theatrical crossings during the Great Migration in June and July, when hundreds of thousands of gnu, brave the giant Nile crocodiles, and many perish while others detour to avoid the perilous river. In South Serengeti plains, the wildebeests assemble from December onwards, to calve in February, producing 8000 newborns every day on a three-week marathon, a sight not to be missed on your personalized nature travel in Serengeti. The plains of the Serengeti are particularly suited to balloon flights which are particularly convenient, letting you get aerially closer and distinctly accessible to the action than you could be by a game-viewing safari vehicle Serengeti balloon safari is a fantastic once in a lifetime experience, particularly suitable for a bird’s eye-view game viewing experience on your wildlife tour in northern Tanzania.
Day 1: Arrival In Tanzania:
Arrive anytime at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO). We will arrange a private transfer from the Airport to Arusha at the African Tulip hotel, where the rest of the day is at leisure.
We stay at the African Tulip hotel, which is beautifully located on the slope of Mount. Meru is a perfect place to prepare for your adventure.
We will gather in the evening at the hotel for a pre-safari briefing and an equipment check.
Dinner and overnight at African Tulip Hotel: Bed, Dinner, and Breakfast included.
Day 2: Serengeti National Park:
We head towards the Serengeti National Park. En route, there is an opportunity to visit Olduvai Gorge. It is within this steep-sided ravine that Louis and Mary Leakey made some of the world’s most important archaeological discoveries in the 1950s. Here is a small museum we are able to see evidence of our ancestors that have been dated back 2.5 million years. After lunch, we drive into the Serengeti itself and the rest of the afternoon is spent game viewing in the vast plains that are broken only by stands of acacia trees and the occasional kopje. In December, January and February we will normally meet the migration with large herds of wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle. There are always plenty of resident animals, such as giraffes, buffalo, and elephants, and many large predators such as lions, cheetah, and leopards. We return to our special tented camp for the balloon safari briefing.
Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Kirimu Luxury Camp: Full board.
DAY 3: Serengeti Balloon Ride and Game Drive In The Park:
Early morning pick up from your Tented camp to Balloon Safari is probably the most beautiful balloon flight in the world and the ultimate Safari Experience which makes you enjoy the most beautiful migration of wildebeests through the endless plain of Serengeti.
5:00 am, Serengeti Balloon Safaris will collect you from your central Serengeti lodge or camp, and transfer you by Landrover to our launch site near Masai Kopjes. Here you will meet your pilot, receive a briefing, and watch the inflation of your balloon.
At dawn we take off, rising as the sun rises and float in whichever direction the winds of the morning take us.
Your pilot can precisely control the altitude of your balloon: sometimes flying at treetop height, sometimes lower, offering a unique perspective and great photographic opportunities of the wildlife below. After breakfast, you are taken to the rendezvous point to meet with your driver guide and continue with your full-day game drives.
Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Kirimu Luxury Camp: Full board.
Day 4: En-Route Game Drive Serengeti to Ngorongoro Crater:
We start the day with an early morning game drive before heading to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Ngorongoro is a special place in that it is a Conservation Area, not a National Park; this means that the whole area is managed by both the animals and the local Masai people who graze their cattle alongside the indigenous wildlife. During the drive-in Ngorongoro, we have a chance to glimpse something of the Maasai way of life. Finally, we descend into the crater. The crater walls provide a natural sanctuary for the animals, which means there is plenty to see: lions, elephants, buffalo, rhinos, and leopards (if you are lucky). The only animal you won’t see here is a giraffe, whose long legs are unable to cope with the steeps sides of the crater. In the late afternoon, we travel back to our special tented camp.
Dinner and overnight at Eileen’s Tree Inn Lodge: Full board.
Day 5: Game drive in Lake Manyara National Park.
We depart from your tented lodge and proceed to Lake Manyara National Park. Although small in size, this park is one of the most diverse reserves in the country. Lake Manyara covers two-thirds of the park. At the backdrop is the wall of the Great Rift Valley, before which lies the groundwater forest, areas of open grassland near the lake foreshore, and the Soda Lake. We enjoy a picnic lunch in this area, which consists of open grassy areas, hot springs, dense woodlands, and steep mountainsides. Lake Manyara National Park is a birding paradise that has more than 350 species of bird. The park is also famed for its unique and elusive tree.
After lunch, we drive to Arusha for accommodation or to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your flight back home.
5 Days Serengeti Game Drives and Hot Air Baloon Safari Includes:
• Our northern circuit as per sample itinerary
• Hotel/camp accommodation for safari
• Animal tours according to your itinerary preferences
• Private 4 wheel drive vehicle with a roof hatch
• Professional safari and tour guide/driver
• All Serengeti/Ngorongoro Crater national park fees
• All meals on the safari
• All game viewing activities specified
• Balloon ride
• Tanzania VAT on tourism activities and park fees
• Ngorongoro Conservation area vehicle permit increase
• Airport transfers & hotel accommodation before/after the safari
5 Days Serengeti Game Drives and Hot Air Baloon Safari Excludes:
• drinks and mineral water
• Laundry
• Items of personal nature and anything not mentioned above
• International and local airfares
• Entry visas
• Travel insurance
• Tips and gratuities.
Please note all prices are subject to change if Tanzania National Park entry fees or Tanzania Government Tax and/or VAT rates change.
