Welcome in Africa! Welcome in Tanzania!
After arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport, our representative will transfer you to Arusha.
It is a 1 firm hour drive from the airport.
In the morning pick up at the lodge and from there transfer to the village Ilkiding’a just around 15 minutes drive. It is a village at the foot of Mount Meru. The tour is starting at Eliakimu’s house and from there you walk to Sembeo’s household where several traditionally built, round houses gives you an idea of how families are living together. The view of the Ngarenaro valley and Leleto hill is beautiful. The craftsmen will show you how knifes are made. From here you walk through a small coffee plantation and enter the open fields where potatoes, cabbages, maize, beans and other crops are cultivated. In Ilkisongo you will enjoy the view overlooking Arusha
Around 14.00 pm you will be served a traditional lunch. After lunch there is the possibility to visit a local market in town.
Your Safari starts! Your private driver with private safari vehicle is waiting for you! The driver is well educated and has a lot of knowledge about the country, animals and nature and even more, he is very passionate about it. He will show you the beauty of his country the coming days! He will discuss with you the day to day programme.
The safari vehicle has 6 or 8 window seats, including the driver’s one. If you are inside the parks the rooftop will go up so you can see the animals close by. Inside the vehicle you can charge your phone or batteries.
After breakfast it is time to visit the next park on your programme: Lake Manyara National Park.
You drive there via a beautiful route. Situated at the foot of the Great Rift Valley Escarpment, you see the Lake already on your drive towards the park.
Lake Manyara National Park is famous for its tree climbing lions, the large (migrating) flamingo population, and the different monkeys (sykes, colobus, vervet monkeys and olive baboons can be found in the forest area). Buffels roll in the mud of the alkaline Lake Manyara, a good treatment against ticks and other insects in their fur, while giraffes walk past the lake. Elephants walk seemingly effortless up and down the Great Rift Valley Escarpment and pelicans land in the lake, again a picture not easy to forget! The charm of Lake Manyara is that although it is small it is diverse and surprising!
In the afternoon you proceed to Rhotia Valley Tented Lodge bordering the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
This lodge is owned by a Dutch doctors couple. After their retirement Joris and Marise leased two hills. One the one hill they started an orphanage, on the other hill the lodge. The lodge is financing the orphanage. By staying at the lodge all quests contribute the children’s home automatically.
If you would like, you can go to the nearby Children’s Home before dinner. The Children’s Home is financed with the proceedings from the lodge. You can play a game of soccer with the children or help them with their homework. A nice added value to your holiday!
Rhotia Valley has a nice swimming pool with sun beds. They have their own vegetable garden. It can be chilly at night time as the lodge is located on high altitude. With hot water bottles in the beds and charcoal burning in the restaurant it is a great place to enjoy!
After breakfast you will start descending into the plains. Today is one big game drive, wherever you drive, you can encounter animals. And in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area you get a fantastic chance to have a look at how the Maasai live, when passing their “boma’s” (villages) or when watching them herd their cattle in the vast Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
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 buffalo, 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.
At the end of the afternoon you will arrive the central part of the Serengeti called Seronera. Your next overnight accommodation is Thorntree Camp. This tented camp very nice and comfortable tents! Because of the nearby presence of water there is game around all year long. There are only 10 en-suite safari tents. From the camp you will have a beautiful view of Banagi Hill and the Serengeti Plains.
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 Thorn Tree Camp 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 Marera Valley Lodge.
It is a 1 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.
Depending on your flight details, a driver 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).
