8 DAYS TANZANIA CLASSIC IN 4 STAR

Day notes

Your host will be on hand when you arrive at the airport and will take you to the your hotel. Nestled at the foot of the wooded slopes of Mount Meru, Lake Duluti Serena hotel stands amid coffee plantations on the shores of tranquil Lake Duluti. Designed to echo the traditional style of the colonial coffee farm, which originally stood on this site, the prroperty offers a range of tastefully presented cottage-styled rooms set amid extensive landscaped grounds. If you choose, take a minute to enjoy a cup of freshly brewed Tanzanian Coffee or tea whilst you relax and unwind after your flight. If you’re ready for sleep, you’ll immediately relax in your well appointed room, with its fine linens. In the morning you’ll be refreshed and ready to go. Who says a safari has to be rustic?

Day notes

In the morning you will meet your private guide for the drive to Tarangire after lunch. Think of your guide as your own regional expert, knowledgeable in the local flora and fauna, and especially, the local roads. The Tarangire National Park is a dry-season refuge for a variety of game. Migratory animals like elephants, wildebeests, zebras, gazelles and buffalo gather at the Tarangire River in impressive numbers and as always, the predators follow. Also, the variety of species makes the park a bird-watchers paradise.

Day notes

After breakfast you proceed for a game drive through the Tarangire National Park. With an area of 525 sq. miles, Tarangire provides endless opportunities to observe its abundance of wildlife including buffalos, elephants, lions and a vast number of antelopes. After lunch, you will transfer to the Ngorongoro Crater Conservancy Area. The Ngorongoro Crater was formed millions of years ago by the collapse of a long extinct volcano. The resulting 100 square mile depression, surrounded by a 2000 foot volcanic rim, contains water and forage necessary to support most of the familiar African wildlife. Don’t be surprised to see Maasai herders and their livestock, especially on the crater rim; the Conservation Area protects both wildlife and Maasai.

We will spend the second day on the crater floor viewing game; as many as 30,000 animals populate the crater. Lions, cheetahs, and jackals prey upon large herds of zebra, wildebeest, and antelope. The lake on the floor of the crater supports wading hippos and a myriad of birdlife. Elephants are rare within the crater, though lone, non-breeding bulls roam the region, their great tusks reaching out before them. Arrange to visit a local Maasai village and see how this proud, resourceful people live in harmony with the animals.

Day notes

After breakfast head for the seemingly endless plains of the Serengeti that open up across the horizon. These grasslands draw all manner of African game to graze - zebras, migrating wildebeests, antelope – and these animals in turn attract all manner of predators – lions, cheetahs, hyenas – that follow the great herds as they roam in search of water. We are pulled here as well, to witnesses the entire spectacle; the interconnection of land and wildlife, of predator and prey, to experience the circle of life, staged on the wide horizon.

Except for a late summer and fall visit to the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya, the migrating wildebeest spend most of the year traversing the Serengeti. Depending on the time of year, the hundreds of thousands wildebeests accompanied by zebras and gazelles, follow the rain in search of fresh forage. A second day at Serengeti National Park puts most visitors on the track of the herd. Begin your day with an early optional morning balloon safari to see this wild world from a whole new perspective, followed by a sumptuous champagne bush breakfast. Or take an early morning game drive before a breakfast feast at the lodge.

Day notes

Today we travel to Lake Manyara, an amazing wildlife sanctuary famous for its tree climbing lions and dramatic views. It is located in a depressed valley where the red and brown cliffs of the western wall of Great Rift Valley seem to rise up out of the lake itself. Springs rising from the base of the escarpment provide a welcome water supply. While the lions may be shy (visitors who spot them are lucky indeed), Manyara includes a variety of habitats, home to a variety of big game and a rich assortment of birdlife.

Day notes

All good things must come to an end. And this week will have ended all too soon. Reluctantly we peel away from Lake Manyara and begin the mental and emotion transition back to reality: getting back to business, back to work, back home, reacquainting yourself with that other world that now seems so far away... but not just yet. After breakfast take the opportunity to say 'kwaheri' to Tanzania as you drive to the airport for the trip home.