Arusha
You can be here in August for about €1,999, 4 days, 1 stop.
Why now
Good time in August: 23°C days, peak fares.
The dry months bring the best game viewing and dusty roads; the short rains in late year are still workable, the long rains flood tracks and close some camps. The wildebeest crossings in the northern Serengeti and the calving in the south each fall in a different season, so decide which you want before picking dates.
Best months here: February, September, October. August is not one of them — the label above measures the month against a fixed bar, not against the rest of the year here. Daytime highs, sea temperature and rainy days from three years of Open-Meteo reanalysis; a rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, which is the WMO threshold and not the same as "it drizzled".
The place
Arusha is a safari town in the shadow of Mount Meru: outfitters, coffee farms, a clock tower and a stream of Land Cruisers heading west to Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. It is a base rather than a destination, and it suits people who have booked the parks properly and want a day to recover from the flight before the long drives start.
What you can do
- 01Descend into Ngorongoro Crater at dawn for rhino, lions and elephants inside the caldera.
- 02Spend three nights in the Serengeti, moving with the migration rather than staying at one lodge.
- 03Walk with a ranger in Arusha National Park, then canoe on the Momella lakes.
- 04Tour a coffee farm on Meru's slopes and taste the roast in Arusha's cafés.
- 05Visit Tarangire in the dry season for elephant herds and baobabs, two hours from Arusha.
Where to stay · neighbourhoods
Sleep at a lodge near Usa River or on the Meru slopes for the first night, then move to Karatu and the parks; for the Serengeti, mobile camps that follow the herds beat fixed lodges.
Unusual things
- ◦The Cultural Heritage centre's art collection, a spiral building on the Dodoma road with Makonde carvings and Tingatinga paintings.
- ◦Lake Natron below Ol Doinyo Lengai, a soda lake with flamingos and a waterfall walk; a long, rough drive.
- ◦Empakaai Crater, a forested caldera near Ngorongoro walked down with a ranger to a flamingo lake.
Day trips
Flight options
Routes come from OpenFlights (historical) and a 2026 route reference compiled from public timetables. Durations are the published schedule where we have it, otherwise a block-time model fitted on measured nonstop flights. Verify schedules with the airline before booking.
Entry requirements · IT passport
Source: passport-index-data, March 2026 (coarse indicator), covering 258 of our 268 destinations for each of 199 passports. Always confirm with the destination's official site.
Airports
Distances are centre to airport derived · nonstop counts are our route reference for 2026, not every flight that exists.
Local transport
- Airport to city
- Taxi/lodge transfer, 60 min, ~€40
- Car needed?
- Recommended for most of what is worth seeing
- Getting around
- Kilimanjaro airport is 45 minutes from Arusha; a safari operator's vehicle and driver-guide is the norm, with bush flights from Arusha's small airport into the Serengeti to avoid the eight-hour drive back.
- Clock
- 2 hours ahead of Lisbon (Africa/Dar_es_Salaam) derived
- Daylight
- 12 hours of daylight in August · sunrise 06:38, sunset 18:38 derived
- Currency
- TZS
Good to know
Malaria prophylaxis is advised below 1,800 metres, and Kilimanjaro climbs need at least seven days on the mountain; the five-day routes have much higher failure rates.
Alternatives at a similar price
Whole trip per person for 4 days from Lisbon in August, then the flight time; estimates, like the total above.
Namibia
Chicago
San Francisco
Toronto
Mauritius
Fiji