15-Day Mara River Crossing & Big Cats Photo Safari 2027

Our team meets you at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) once you've cleared customs and drives you to The Scenery Residence in Arusha. The afternoon is for shaking off the flight: sit out on your balcony as the sun drops behind the mountains, or have a swim in the pool. Dinner is a relaxed meal of fresh local fusion cooking from the house chef, and it's included. Get to bed early. Tomorrow starts with breakfast and a light aircraft flight into the bush.

After an early breakfast you board a light aircraft in Arusha for the bush flight to the Northern Serengeti, which is included in your safari. From the air you watch the farmed highlands give way to open golden plains. Your guide meets you at the airstrip and the game drive starts straight away, on the way to Savannah Mara River Tented Camp, your base for the next four nights. In the afternoon you head to the banks of the Mara River for a first look, cameras ready. All meals are included.

This is why the camp is where it is. You spend the morning parked by the Mara River, cameras ready, while wildebeest mass on the banks in their thousands, waiting for one of them to jump. When they go, they go fast, into the current and past the crocodiles. Some days that happens early. Some days it doesn't happen at all, and you wait. Between attempts your guide keeps watch on the predators nearby. Back at camp, the evening is spent around the bonfire going through the day's best shots. All meals are included.

Another dawn at the river. Each day here has a different feel. Sometimes the herds hesitate for hours before they cross; other times they surge across at first light. Your guide knows the vantage points and positions you where crocodiles and predators often lie in wait, so you're set up for the moment rather than chasing it. In the quieter stretches there's still plenty to watch, with hippos grunting in the pools and vultures circling overhead. All meals are included, and you spend the night at Savannah Mara River Tented Camp.

Your last full day along the Mara. By now you'll know how the herds behave on the banks, and you may have seen a crossing or two, with the losses that sometimes come with them. Today your guide may take you to other crossing points along the river, or you can switch focus to the predators that follow the migration. Lions, leopards and hyenas are never far from this much prey. It's your fourth and final night at Savannah Mara River Tented Camp, with all meals included.

Today you head south to the Seronera Valley in the Central Serengeti. The north is about the herds on the move. Seronera is about the resident predators, which makes it big cat territory. You check into Enkirari Wilderness Camp for three nights, then start scanning the kopjes, the rocky outcrops, for lions, and the sausage trees for leopards resting along the branches. Cheetahs hunt on the open plains here too, and if you've always wanted to see one at full speed, this is a good place to try. All meals are included.

Today is about the apex predators. The Seronera area has some of the highest predator densities in Africa, and early morning gives you the best chance of hunting activity, perhaps a cheetah in full sprint. Your guide works the kopjes for lion prides and checks the sausage trees for leopards. If you've booked the optional sunrise balloon flight, this is the morning set aside for it, floating over the Serengeti at dawn. The early light here is excellent for photography. All meals are included at Enkirari Wilderness Camp.

Your last day in big cat country. The dawn light suits the golden-maned Serengeti lions, so the day starts early. Your guide makes one last sweep of the best leopard territory and checks the plains where cheetahs are known to hunt. Lunch is a picnic with views across the open plains. Then it's back to Enkirari Wilderness Camp for a third and final night, with all meals included. Tomorrow you leave the Serengeti for the Ngorongoro highlands, so it's worth backing up your cards tonight.

Today you move to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the EWA Private Mobile Camp, your base for three nights. It's a small camp with a more off-grid feel than the larger lodges on the crater rim. The highland air is noticeably cooler, so keep a fleece handy. In the afternoon you take a short walk along the crater rim to get a sense of the scale of what's waiting below tomorrow. Dinner is a bush dinner in camp under the stars, and all meals are included.

Today you descend to the floor of Ngorongoro Crater. The crater walls keep much of the wildlife in, and the density of animals is high. Old tusker elephants and big lion prides are a good chance, and if you're lucky, the rare black rhino. It's one of the few places where all of the Big Five can turn up in a single day, though none of them can be promised. Lunch is a picnic on the crater floor, and you keep exploring through the afternoon before heading back to camp. All meals are included.

A second morning on the crater floor lets you go after anything you missed, maybe a better rhino sighting or a lion hunt in progress. The low morning light gives you very different photographs from yesterday's. Lunch is at a viewpoint on the crater rim, and then you're back at camp with time to rest and sort through your images. It's your last night at the EWA Private Mobile Camp, with all meals included. Tomorrow you head down from the highlands to Tarangire.

Today you drive down from the highlands, past coffee plantations and Maasai villages, to Tarangire National Park. The Serengeti is about the scale of the plains. Tarangire is about giants. Old, gnarled baobab trees dominate the landscape, and the park has one of the highest elephant concentrations in Tanzania, with big herds drawn to the Tarangire River. You settle into Kati Kati Tarangire Camp for the last three nights, then head out on your first evening drive among the baobabs. All meals are included.

A full day on Tarangire's wildlife. You track elephant herds along the river and look for the park's own tree-climbing lions. The birdlife is good here too, with rollers and raptors adding colour against the red dust. As the afternoon light turns golden, your guide positions the vehicle for the classic Tarangire shot: elephants silhouetted against the ancient baobabs. All meals are included, with the night at Kati Kati Tarangire Camp.

Your last full day on safari. It starts with a dawn drive, when the animals are most active, and ends with a final evening drive as the light drops behind the baobabs. If you're still after that silhouette of an elephant herd against a baobab at sunset, this is the evening to get it. Dinner in camp tonight is a celebration, a chance to share favourite photos from the trip with your guide and group. All meals are included, and it's a last night at Kati Kati Tarangire Camp.

After one last bush breakfast you drive back toward Arusha and on to Kia Lodge, about three minutes from Kilimanjaro International Airport. We've booked a day room for you there, so you can take a hot shower, repack your camera gear and go through your photos one more time before your evening flight. Then it's the short transfer to the airport. Breakfast is included today. Tell us your flight time when you book and we'll plan the drive around it. Kwaheri, until we meet again on safari.