Welcome in Africa! Welcome in Tanzania!
After arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport, our representative will transfer you to Ngare Sero Mountain Lodge which will take about 45 minutes.
A nice day to relax! A representative will visit you today to answer all your questions.
The lodge has a nice garden and swimming pool with sun beds. Have a walk around and maybe you will be greeted by the famous Colobus monkey.
Many other activities are organized by the lodge, but perhaps relaxing at the pool is also a very good way to start your holiday.
In the morning transfer to Arusha Airport for your flight to Seronera Airstrip in the Serengeti. Here your guide is waiting for you. From there you go game en route to Melia Serengeti Lodge. You will discuss daily your program with your guide.
The name Serengeti is derived from the Maasai word Siringiti: endless plains. When entering the Serengeti it becomes clear quite soon that this is a very fitting name. As far as the eye reaches you find the plains, only interrupted by an occasional tree, kopje (rock formation) or wildlife. During the Great Migration these planes are literally covered in animals, wildebeests and zebras, in search of grazing and water and participating in one of the largest annual movements of mammals on earth.
However, Serengeti National Park has more to offer than the Great Migration, large herds of buffels, numerous different kinds of antelopes like the topi, hartebeest, dikdik, thomson and grant gazelles and it is the best chance of spotting a lion, or more accurately: lions. The open plains form an ideal hunting ground for the fastest mammal on earth: the cheetah.
Wake up early in the morning and enjoy a delicious breakfast. Your driver is ready again to take you back inside the park in search for more wildlife! You can chose to take lunchboxes with you to have the full day in the park or go back to the camp for lunch and maybe relax a little.
The driver takes you on a search for the lions, leopard and cheetah. And what did you think of these large numbers of hippos in one of the pools in the park, or maybe the vervet moneys or baboons manage to charm you with their acrobatic tricks. Giraffes that elegantly move over the planes, high above everything and everyone, eating the leaves from the acacia trees without even bothering about the thorns, the gracious flights of the (not so gracious) vultures, hyenas trying to defend their prey from the lions. All in all a day full of unforgettable impressions!
At the end of the afternoon you return to Melia Serengeti Lodge for a sun downer and dinner!
Today you have to rise early! Your driver will take you to one of the most special places on this planet: The Ngorongoro Crater. The Crater is the largest intact caldera in the world, and before you descent in the crater you have a beautiful view from the crater rim.
The crater is a non-active volcano, to reach the crater floor you have to make quite a descent. In the Ngorongoro crater the diversity in animals and flora is immense. All the animals of the “Big Five” (elephant, black rhino, buffel, leopard and the lion) can be found in the crater. Today it is your chance to see the rare black rhino. In Lake Magadi, the alkaline lake in the crater, flamingos look for their food while hippos cool down in the sweet water pools after their grazing outing at night. In the Lerai Forest elephant with giant tusks pull leaves and branches from the trees while on the plains wildebeests, zebras and antelopes are grazing. Lions often look for the shade, sometimes even the shade of a car. The high numbers of animals and the imposing landscape with the crater walls make a day in the crater and overwhelming experience!
In the afternoon you will leave the park and drive to the town of Karatu. Your next overnight address will be Kitela Lodge.
It is a 1,5 hour drive to Tarangire National Park, on your way to the park you pass through the Maasai steppes, pass Maasai villages and see the Maasai herding their cattle.
Tarangire National Park is a not so famous park. However it has a lot to offer! With 550 different bird species, it is a birders paradise. Nowhere in East Africa will you find so many bird species in one area! The park is also well known for their big herds of elephants.
The landscape of Tarangire is very diverse, from the with Baobab studded plains to the always green marshes. Through the park meanders the Tarangire River, it did not only give the park its name, but is also the reason for the animals to stick in the area. In the dry season, when the river is often not more than a mud stream or even totally gone, the elephants dig holes in the riverbed, looking for underground streams. Also the other animals in the park enjoy a drink from these by elephants made waterholes. In the raining season the river can grow to a thundering river, depending on the amount of rain upstream. In Tarangire National Park you enjoy a pick nick lunch with lunchboxes carried from Ilboru.
At the end of the afternoon you will arrive at Sangaiwe Tented Lodge for dinner and overnight. This camp is located just 5 minutes outside the park borders. From the terrace at your tented room or from the swimming pool you will have a great view of Lake Burunge.
After breakfast we set off to Maasai Lodge, this will take about 3.5 to 4 hours.
Here your guide will say goodbye to you and the Lodge will take care of the transfer to the airport. You are staying here for 2 nights.
Maasai Lodge, in the middle of the Maasai Steppe, a special place where you immediately will come to rest. You are staying in the middle of the wilderness of the Maasai steppe in a Maasai round house with hand crafted furniture and with great view on the Kilimanjaro, Africa‘s highest mountain. Behind it and until the border of Kenya there is the savanna, home to the Maasai people. This is the right place to get to know them and their traditions and rituals, together with a slowing-down of your own lives’ pace. It‘s all about being together, traditions, stories and learn where you will meet up with the culture of the Maasai. On arrival you will discuss which activities you can do there or just relax and enjoy the area!
Extra activities (not included)
• Traditional Maasai festival (including the slaughtering of a goat)
• Visiting a Maasai Boma
• Trip to the village Tinga Tinga to visit the local Maasai women’s group
• Teaching you traditional crafts
• Day trip to Sinya, the nature reserve on the west side of the Kilimanjaro (must be pre booked)
• Hikes to the foot and/or peak of Mukuru and trip to the market of Ngarenanyuku
• Trips to Africa Amini Alama projects in Momella
Depending on your flight details, a driver from Maasai Lodge will transfer you to Kilimanjaro airport for your flight home.
Your holiday has come to an end. An unforgettable journey with long lasting memories that you share together.
In Kiswahili we say Kwa Heri (goodbye) and Karibuni Tena (welcome again).
