Elewana Sky Safari - Tanzania

Arrive Kilimanjaro Airport.

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, voted one of the Top 5 Hotels in Africa 2020 by Travel + Leisure, where the stresses of travel will lift as soon as you’re shown your elegant suite, tucked into this leafy and aromatic working plantation.

On the edge of Arusha, in the foothills of Mount Meru, the elegant Elewana Arusha Coffee Lodge is the ideal place to shake off the stresses of travel and sink into holiday mode. Its handsome suites are scattered amid a working coffee plantation – a leafy sanctuary of serenity. Here, you can relax in your room’s decadent four-poster, by your real log fire, or on your private veranda overlooking the aromatic Arabica bushes.

After you’ve savored a brew with breakfast, take a private tree-to-cup tour around the grounds, to find out how they make it so good. As well as producing coffee, the lodge is home to Shanga, a wonderful social enterprise that employs people with disabilities to create quality handmade products – watch the artisans at work, sewing, painting, weaving, and glass-blowing, and perhaps pick up a souvenir or two.

There’s time for a lovely lunch on the lawn before we whisk you off on your SkySafari flight to Tarangire, Tanzania’s unexpectedly awesome national park. Often overlooked for the north’s better-known parks, 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.

The action starts immediately: you’ll be scouting for game on the drive from the airstrip to Elewana Tarangire Treetops. Elephants are a particular specialty – more than 3,000 (one of the largest populations in East Africa) roam here.

The lodge itself is like something from a fairytale: its scatter of suites teeters amongst the branches of the baobab and marula trees; each has a huge balcony, looking either to the sunrise, the sunset, or over the camp’s waterhole. Tear yourself away for dinner, though – a candle-lit feast served in a Masai boma, surrounded by acacia trees. 

With its prime location in a private conservancy on the edge of Tarangire National Park, Elewana Tarangire Treetops offers the best of both. The park’s wealth of wildlife – from big cats to huge elephant herds – is right on the doorstep. But the lodge being just outside the national park means a greater variety of experiences is possible, from spine-tingling night drives to eye-opening bush walks with Masai guides. The lodge itself is like something from a fairytale, with rooms raised on platforms up amid the ancient baobabs and marula trees. Each one is delightfully designed, with natural materials and a modern-Africana vibe, and each has an expansive balcony, looking out across the canopy. The spacious lounge and dining room are built around a mighty baobab, with a busy waterhole just below – relax with a drink or two to watch the wild comings and goings without having to move an inch.

Treetops is tucked into a private conservancy adjoining the national park

The lodge has been pivotal in driving the development of community-owned wildlife conservancies, which has seen more wildlife being preserved and more local people benefitting. It also means it can offer the best of both worlds: guests here have easy access to Tarangire’s animal-dense pastures, but being in the conservancy means a greater variety of activities is allowed.

Start the day traditionally, with a glorious game drive in custom-designed jeeps, looking for a whole host of species – from zebra, buffalo, eland and kudu to lion, leopard and hyena. Then, after lunch back at camp, walk out 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. You can also visit a Masai village to find out more about the custodians of this land.

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. A delicious dinner will follow, though you might want to squeeze in another adventure: night drives (permitted within the conservancy) are a chance to see the after-dark shift, from prickly porcupines to elusive leopards.

Enjoy breakfast among the baobabs before packing a picnic and heading off for the airstrip – a wild ride that once again doubles as a game drive. With Treetops’ keen-eyed guides you might glimpse the park’s wild dogs (this is a great place for sightings), a tiny pancake tortoise, or even Tarangire’s tree-climbing lions.

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-style 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. Then soak in your Victorian bathtub, cozy up by your suite’s open fire, enjoy a delicious dinner, maybe have a game of billiards and retire for the night.

The Manor at Ngorongoro combines a dash of opulence with easy access to the ‘eighth wonder of the world’. Set amid glorious gardens and lush coffee fields in the Tanzanian highlands, it oozes old-world glamour: think polished-wood floors and antique furnishings, fine dining, billiards and cigars. Each of its elegant Cape Dutch-style cottages has a private deck, sitting room, open fire and enormous Victorian bath, which will be ready-filled with bubbles, awaiting your return from the day’s adventure. It’s the sort of place you could spend days, taking high tea on the lawn, indulging in the spa, or exploring the hills on horseback. But you’ll want to delve into nearby Ngorongoro Crater too. With our special permission to host bush lunches in a private area, away from the crowds,  you can picnic in exclusive style without missing a wildlife-packed minute.

According to Ernest Hemingway, Lake Manyara is the ‘loveliest in Africa’.

It’s certainly varied, attracting an astounding mix of life, from bushbuck and blue monkeys in the forests to tree-climbing lions in the acacia woods; from cheetah stalking antelopes on the grasslands to hippos wallowing in the mud. Most dazzling, though, is the flamboyance of flamingos – hundreds of the blushing birds flock here, along with more than 400 other avian species. Join a game drive after breakfast and stay until lunch, so you can picnic by the water’s edge.

Back at The Manor, the afternoon is all yours. Take a dip in the pool, book a treatment in the spa or join a guided walk around the coffee estate. Or you could head out on horseback, to get a different perspective on these verdant highlands, finishing with a Sundowner, of course. Top the day off with dinner in the elegant dining room, always a culinary delight.

Your alarm will ring at the crack of dawn today – but you won’t mind a bit.

It’s well worth the early breakfast when you’re about to head into the ‘eighth wonder of the world’. Measuring over 20km wide and 600m deep, Ngorongoro Crater is a natural volcanic amphitheater, a geological marvel, a festival of wildlife. Its acacia thickets, riverine forest and glittering lakes throng with around 30,000 animals: one of the highest densities of wildlife in Africa. Safaris here can be overwhelming, in the very best way.

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 travelers about what you’ve seen on this once-in-a-lifetime day.

Enjoy your last lavish Manor breakfast …before we whisk you off for your SkySafari flight to another African icon: Serengeti National Park. 

Simply, it’s huge.

An endless-seeming swathe of short-grass plains, braided with life-giving streams, speckled with rocky kopjes, riffled by occasional hills, rich in Masai culture, absolutely teeming with life. And while you can revel in the bigger picture, it’s also the place to embrace the individual moments: the will-they-won’t-they tension of a lion pack on the hunt; the shock of a crocodile bursting from the river; the white-knuckle charge of an angry bull elephant; the dazzle of the sun subsiding into plains with no end.

We’ll deliver you to your lodge in time for lunch, though the exact lodge depends in part on the season. We might introduce you 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.

Alternatively, we’ll take you to the sophisticated stilted tents of Elewana Serengeti Migration Camp, further north. This peaceful part of the park sees few other visitors; you’ll feel you’ve arrived in your own private wilderness. The variety of wildlife here is remarkable, the drama intense – especially when the Great Migration passes through the camp is perfectly placed for watching the herds run the gauntlet of the Mara River. 

Either way, your first afternoon’s game drive will be a wildlife revelation.

Low-impact, high style – that’s Elewana Serengeti Pioneer Camp. Sitting atop a rocky outcrop, gazing across the infinite plains of the south-central Serengeti, this classy retreat blends seamlessly into its surroundings. Tents, tucked into the bush, have a romantic 1930s vibe but with all mod-cons, from steaming-hot solar-heated showers to personal attendants. Better, they have unfettered access to the wilderness on the doorstep: to Moru Kopjes, a site sacred to the Maasai and home to ancient rock art; to Lake Magadi, a soda lake that attracts a blushing flamboyance of flamingos; and the sweeping grasslands where come January-March, some 400,000 wildebeest calves are born, attracting huge numbers of predators. The wildlife-watching here is spectacular, and the camp’s specially permitted hill-top picnic site is the icing on the cake. 

Game drives in the Serengeti are always a surprise.

You never quite know how the drama might play out. Most dramatic of all is to witness the pinnacle of the Great Migration when more than a million animals cross the northern rivers. The Serengeti Migration Camp sits on their route, so you barely need to travel at all to catch a life-or-death crossing. Also nearby are hippo-filled pools – you can hear their grunts and chortles from camp.

To maximize your wild time, we’ll dish up a delicious lunch on the go, while, come nightfall, dinner will be served out under the stars, to a backing track of the sounds of the bush.

Another early breakfast before another action-packed day – a whole day, with lunch in the bush, so you don’t waste a minute.

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…

Your drive to the airstrip gives you a final chance to soak up the sights, smells, sounds, and sensations of the Serengeti. Just one more elegant giraffe, one more elephant charge. Once airborne, keep your eyes out the window, to see the Serengeti slide out of view and, perhaps, Kilimanjaro peeping through the clouds.

There’s no need to hang around at the airport – depending on your outbound flight details, we’ll deliver you back to Arusha Coffee Lodge’s oasis of calm so you can relax in a day room amid the birds and the beans before we take you back to Kilimanjaro Airport for your flight home, head, heart and soul full of African magic.