This tour takes you to the most important highlights on safari in Tanzania: Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Lake Manyara National Park. where you have the chance of seeing all of Africa’s iconic animals on a short, compact safari. At the same time, you not only experience staying at a hotel, but at a tented camp, too, where you are really at one with the magnificent African nature. The tents have proper beds and en suite bathroom and toilet. This will be a highlight of your tour.
The tour rounds off with a beach holiday in the wonderful Zanzibar, where you can soak up the sun, bathe in the Indian Ocean’s warm, crystal clear waters, or simply lounge by the pool.
Today is departure day, where you will fly to Tanzania with connecting flights along the way.
You land at Kilimanjaro Airport, which is close to Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro. The conical Mount Kilimanjaro is 5,895 metres high and enjoys a stunning location on the plateau on the border between Tanzania and Kenya..
Your driver/guide is waiting for you at the airport. Ahead of you lies an exciting sightseeing tour covering more than 200 km, before you arrive at your Hotel. The tour takes you past the villages of Chini, Kisongo, Makuyuni, Mto Wa Mbu and Karatu.
If time allows, the afternoon can be spent relaxing at the hotel or visiting Karatu and the local market.
Please note: Today you drive to your Hotel in Karatu, where you will stay overnight. Here, you are just a short drive away from the Tarangire National Park tomorrow, giving you the maximum amount of time in the park.
After breakfast, you’ll check out of the hotel and drive across the hilly highlands of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area towards Serengeti National Park.
The route will take you into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, where the Maasai people’s red clothing is easy to spot in the landscape. The Maasai are nomadic, and their wealth consists of cattle and goats. Their villages are made up of a number of small, round huts arranged in a circle. The huts are built from branches, mud, and cow dung. Their design and size reflect the fact that, when the grass runs out in one area, the entire community can easily move to new pastures for their livestock. Today, however, most Maasai live in permanent villages, from where they take their cattle out to graze every morning and bring them home again each evening. Notice how many of the huts actually have solar panels on their grass roofs. Even the Maasai need to charge their mobile phones.
You’ll enter Serengeti National Park via the north-western access road at Nabi Hill Gate.
Serengeti is Tanzania’s oldest national park and covers more than 14,500 km². The seemingly endless plains are interspersed with small lakes and the occasional stream, while virtually all of Africa’s iconic animals can be found throughout the park: elephants, hippos, rhinos, giraffes, buffalo, wildebeest, zebras, lions, leopards, cheetahs, and ostriches, to name but a few. Serengeti holds the world record for wildlife and is also home to one of the world’s greatest natural wonders: the Great Migration, during which hundreds of thousands of wildebeest, zebras, and gazelles move from one part of the park to another, depending on the rainy season.
During your game drive, you’ll also make your way towards your accommodation in Serengeti, where you’ll stay for two nights.
The day starts with breakfast in the large communal tent, overlooking the majestic savannah. It is then time to head off on a full-day safari in Serengeti National Park. The objective is to capture photos of ‘The Big Five’: lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo. The savannah is the habitat of countless gnus, Thomson’s gazelles, Grant’s gazelles, impalas, topi-antelopes, elands and warthogs, as well as all kinds of birds including Bateleur eagles, secretary birds, Guinea fowl, European rollers and crowned cranes. You are also sure to see (and smell) hippopotamuses, which gather in what are known as ‘hippo-pools’ – small lakes that can contain up to 50 hippopotamuses.
After a full day’s safari on the Serengeti plain, including a picnic lunch, you will return to Serengeti Wild Camp towards evening. You can then enjoy a hearty dinner before retiring to your tent for a good night’s sleep under the starry African sky, accompanied by the sounds of the savannah.
Exciting, new safari experiences await you today.
From the Serengeti, you drive south-east in the direction of Ngorongoro. You arrive at the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in the morning and drive up the outside of the crater. The vegetation now changes significantly compared to the flat plains of the Serengeti. When you leave the Serengeti, the Masai appear – the women washing clothes in the waterholes, and the young boys driving their cattle across the grasslands.
From the top of the crater’s edge, the road winds 600 metres down on the inside of the extinct volcano to the 260 km² crater floor. Inside the lush crater are savannah, swamps, lakes, small rivers, acacia groves and a saltwater lake. The crater is home to 25,000–30,000 animals. Many people compare the experience on the crater floor to “a drive in Jurassic Park” because there are animals everywhere. There are several lion prides in the relatively small area, large buffalo herds, flamingos, and even the black rhino has found its way into the crater. The only animal you won’t see here is the giraffe, which has never moved from the Serengeti to the Ngorongoro Crater.
You eat the packed lunch you have brought with you at one of the selected places in the crater.
Late afternoon, you drive up the crater and back to the Hotel, where you will stay for the night. If you wish to treat yourself to an extra special experience, you might like to upgrade to Ngorongoro Wild Camp (surcharge applies).
You check out early from your hotel and then drive to Lake Manyara National Park. Extending over an area of 330 m2, this is one of Tanzania’s smallest national parks, of which the lake itself covers a good two-thirds, depending on the season.
It was here on the southern shore of the lake that Ernest Hemingway’s camp was situated in the mid-1930s, while he went hunting for the largest and most beautiful kudu in the nearby area, known today as Tarangire National Park.
Lake Manyara National Park was established in 1960 to preserve the region’s unique ecosystem, and in 1981, it became part of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB).
The area is part of the spectacular Great Rift Valley, which runs all the way through the African continent from the Middle East to Mozambique. Researchers believe that this rift system will at some point in the future cause the African continental plate to split into two separate continental plates and thus tear a large part of the African continent apart from the rest.
The national park, which is long and narrow, is bordered to the east by Lake Manyara itself, and to the west by the slopes of the Rift Valley, which are up to 600 metres high. In between are open grasslands, a jungle-like forest, mangroves, hot springs and swamps. The diversity is unrivalled, and it is impressive to see how drastically the landscape changes in a relatively small area. With the many different habitats comes a great variety of wildlife – although the animals can be difficult to spot amidst all the lushness.
The great biodiversity in the park also attracts many birds – more than 400 different bird species have been recorded here.
Lake Manyara itself is a soda lake, and the water level fluctuates a lot depending on whether it’s the rainy season or the dry season. Along the shore, you may be lucky enough to see large flocks of flamingos.
After this final nature experience, you’ll be driven to the airport, where you round off the safari with an excellent hot lunch in a genuine safari tent before flying on to the exotic island of Zanzibar.
The days in Zanzibar are yours to do as you please.
Located in the Indian Ocean, Zanzibar consists of the main islands of Unguja (unofficially known as Zanzibar) and Pemba, as well as myriad small islands.
When it comes to nature and culture, the island of Zanzibar is truly spoilt: white sandy beaches, azure sea and a stunning coral reef. The island’s climate is hot and sunny all year round, and its dramatic history features Arab sultans, Portuguese seafarers, slave trade and European explorers, all of which have left their mark on the island.
The capital, Stone Town, is probably one of East Africa’s most charming cities, packed with beautiful Arabic architecture, exciting shops and good restaurants serving all manner of seafood, fresh produce and delicious Swahili cuisine.
The day is at your leisure until departure for the airport. After check in you fly from Zanzibar homewards with possibly transfer en route, depending on the airline.
You will arrive at your chosen airport following an intense, fantastic safari experience and wonderful beach holiday in Zanzibar packed with memories to cherish for the rest of your life.
From £189 pp including flights
Children under 12 years from £89
Single room supplement from £99
If you love Marrakesh, you’ll love Stone Town too. Narrow, winding streets without pavements, constant swarms of children and adults, bicycles, donkeys and merchants peddling everything in small shops sitting right out into the road. At the square’s “barazas” (built-in benches) in the middle of the labyrinth, men sit and talk over cups of strong coffee while children play ball and a cat stretches lazily in the sun.
At first sight, the city looks quite ramshackle, but just take a look at the doors! The big, heavy, elaborately decorated wooden doors are in many ways synonymous with Zanzibar's biggest city.
There are markets and museums here, plenty of excursion opportunities and a vibrant waterfront. During the day, the waterfront is well-frequented by locals taking strolls, young men making trips from the quay as well as fishing and tourist boats both arriving and setting off. In the evening, there is a local market here.
Stone Town is in many ways practically an experience of the senses. Here you will find smells and sounds, flavours, colours, history and culture – Stone Town has it all. It is no mystery that the town is on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
Children under 12 years from £2219
Single room supplement from £249
Catriona is passionate about helping other people fulfill their travel dreams, as she knows how much travel has only improved her life for the better!
