Touching down in the shadow of the continent’s highest mountain is quite the arrival: welcome to Africa. We’ll fast-track you through Kilimanjaro Airport to Elewana Arusha Coffee Lodge, where the stresses of travel will lift as soon as you’re shown your elegant suite, tucked into this leafy and aromatic working plantation. Enjoy a Shanga cultural experience depending on arrival time.
Shanga cutural experience (if time allows)
After breakfast, you are whisked off on your SkySafari flight to Tarangire. Tarangire bursts with great game – especially in the dry season, when animals flock to its perennial river – but sees few other tourists. That means safaris crammed full of wildlife, but blissfully crowd-free.
There is a full-day game drive through Tarangire National Park with private picnic lunch in the bush. You’ll be scouting for game on the drive from the airstrip to Elewana Tarangire Treetops. Elephants are a particular speciality – more than 3,000 (one of the largest populations in East Africa) roam here.
After a late afternoon arrival to Elewana Tarangire Treetops, it is time for sundowners and then a traditional Maasai boma dinner at the camp.
Full day game drive through Tarangire National Park
Sundowners and a traditional Maasai boma dinner
Start the day with a bush walk with a Masai guide. There’s nothing more electrifying than exploring the bush on foot, getting up-close to the flowers, insects, and animal tracks you might miss from a vehicle. After enjoying breakfast in the bush, you can also visit a Masai village to find out more about the custodians of this land.
Take a glorious afternoon game drive in custom-designed jeeps, looking for a whole host of species – from zebra, buffalo, eland and kudu to lion, leopard and hyena. As the afternoon cools, there’s only one thing to be done: sit on Sunset Hill, Sundowner in hand, the classic way to toast a day on safari. Enjoy a night drive (permitted within the conservancy) and a chance to see the after-dark shift, from prickly porcupines to elusive leopards. A delicious dinner will follow.
Shared morning and afternoon safari activities
Enjoy a game drive en route to the airstrip. You'll be whisked off on your flight to the Serengeti and delivered to your lodge in time for lunch, though the exact lodge depends in part on the season. You will experience a game drive en-route to camp where you will be introduced to the bygone-luxe tents of Elewana Serengeti Pioneer Camp, perched on a kopje in the south of the park. As well as being renowned for its immense wildebeest herds, the area is rich in prehistoric paintings while nearby Lake Magadi is popular with flamingos. It is time for your afternoon game drive followed by dinner at camp.
Shared morning game drive en-route to airstrip
Shared afternoon game drive
Exploring from Elewana Serengeti Pioneer might mean witnessing the replenishing of the Serengeti’s mighty herds: each year, 400,000 wildebeest calves are born in the park’s south, a staggering number, which draws many predators…
Indeed, big cats are a particular pleasure around the Pioneer camp. Lions love to sun-bask on the rocks of Moru Kopje (where Masai paintings can also be seen). Also, the camp supports the Serengeti Cheetah Project, and talks by experts will introduce you to the local cats, and help you identify them when you’re scanning the plains.
After a full, fabulous day, it’s time to raise a final Sundowner to the Serengeti, as the light softens, the earth cools, the horizon glows. Enjoy dinner back at camp, then sit out and listen one last time: to the eerie call of the nightjar and the whoop of a hyena, to the hippos’ belly guffaw and the lion’s nerve-trembling roar…
Shared full day game drives in the Serengeti
Game drive transfer back to Kuro airstrip. It’s a scenic flight to Manyara airstrip, and a lovely drive through the highlands to reach the epitome of elegance that is The Manor. Quite possibly the most enviable address on the safari circuit, this handful of Cape Dutch-styled cottages sits within the lush gardens of a working coffee farm, near the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater. You’ll arrive in time for high tea, taken with views over the rippling forest, while your butler sorts the luggage. Activities include horse riding, a coffee tour, and a massage treatment. Then soak in your Victorian bathtub, cosy up by your suite’s open fire, enjoy a delicious dinner, maybe have a game of billiards and retire for the night.
Shared morning game drive en-route to airstrip
Shared afternoon safari activities
Spend a full day in Ngorongoro – our expert guides will introduce you to its vast cast of characters: lions, elephants and buffalo, cheetah and serval cats, hyena, jackal and black rhino. Plus The Manor has special permission to host beautiful bush lunches in a private part of the crater, away from the crowds. You can picnic in exclusive style without missing a wildlife-packed minute.
Sundowners and dinner back at The Manor will be abuzz, as you exchange stories with your fellow travellers about what you’ve seen on this once-in-a-lifetime day.
Shared full day Ngorongoro crater tour
After breakfast at camp, you will be transferred back to the local airstrip for your flight back to Arusha Airport. Your SkySafari Representative will welcome you upon arrival and you will be chauffeured to Elewana Arusha Coffee Lodge where a day room will be available and lunch will be served. Then you will be transferred to Kilimanjaro Airport for your outbound flight.
