



Serengeti, Ngorongoro, and Tarangire national parks safari – amazing 10 day private tour in Tanzania (September 2024)
My wife and I had the trip of a lifetime visiting the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, and Tarangire national parks in Tanzania (September 2024). Seeing wildebeests and zebras crossing the Mara River (and being eaten by crocs), cats living their best life (lions, leopards and cheetah), rhinos, elephants and water buffalo grazing, along with the countless other wildlife (so many cool birds species) were all highlights. Encountering animals just being animals, totally unafraid of humans, and doing their own thing is something to behold. The scale of the landscapes and animal life is unbelievable!Mercy at Eastern Sun Tours did a great job arranging all of the logistical details (working patiently through our several date changes), and our guide Richard was almost clairvoyant in his ability to find viewing opportunities of our favorite animals. Our lodges and tented camps were top notch, as were the meals they provided while out in the bush (a true feat in the wilds of the Tanzanian national parks).A couple of suggestions if you are considering a Serengeti, Ngorongoro, and Tarangire safari:- Fly to and from the Serengeti. The roads are super washer-board and dangerous in the southern Serengeti, and flying in and out is highly recommended! Also, flying into dirt airstrips in a small plane is fun!. We flew into northern Serengeti and spent a couple of days animal viewing before driving to the central Serengeti and spending another couple of days, before flying down to Ngorongoro. As luck would have it, we were able to see all of the “big 5” on one magic day in the central Serengeti. It's super rare to see rhino there (we saw a pair), and a credit the tracking ability of our guide Richard.- Avoid booking with a service that is web based and not “on the ground” in Tanzania. Arusha is the hub for local tour operators and guides, and as most people fly in/out of JRO airport, a tour operator based out of Arusha is better equipped to make arrangements. Having used Eastern Sun Tours, and working with Mercy, I can't say enough positive things about our experience. She's a pro who has been arranging tours for decades, and her attention to detail shows. The same can be said of our guide Richard. Seek them out, you will be happy you did. We ran into several people at our various lodges and tented camps that had arranged both private and group tours through .com sites (I won't name names), who didn't have the same animal encounters we had (thanks to Richard), and had logistical issues that we avoided (thanks to Mercy at Eastern Sun Tours), that I attribute to North American and European .com agents not being familiar with how things work “on the ground” in Tanzania.I'll leave you with a couple of my photos, and hope you have similar animal encounters should you decide to visit the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, and Tarangire national parks.Safe travels,Jake