Kenya & Tanzania - Wild… (trip)

Kenya & Tanzania - Wild Kingdoms

  • Jomo Kenyatta AIrport, Nairobi, Kenya
  • Culture & Nature
Kenya, Tanzania, Africa

from $2,995* per person12 DaysYear-round
Boutique accommodations Exertion level: 4
Operator: Cultural Explorations 24 people max
This is our grand introduction to East Africa, to the classic safaris of literature and legend. You'll begin in Nairobi and make your way first to Lake Nakuru and then to the famed Masai Mara where you'll track the Big Five with your Masai guides. Then it's across the border into Tanzania to the vast grasslands of the Serengeti (in Masai "the place where the land moves on for ever"). There's spectacular game viewing here and you'll spend a leisurely three days tracking and photographing. At Ngorongoro Crater, you can expect to find elephants, hippos and lions and possibly spot the rare black rhino. We'll delve into the Great Rift Valley and the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro to round out the breathtaking sights on this safari.

You will travel in a seven passenger pop-top safari vehicle with your private safari leader. With this smaller vehicle and small numbers, everyone has a window seat and your driver can detour quickly to get to sightings and places larger vehicles can't reach. You'll be off on game drives every day in the parks and moving from one park to the other. Accommodations are in lodges chosen for location and incredible views. You can choose to travel during the period of the great wildebeest migrations but, as one of our recent travellers who was with us in the "low season" told us, "I can't imagine there could be any more animals than this!"

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Locations visited/nearby

Kenya, Tanzania, Africa

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1 testimonial about the provider, Cultural Explorations:

  • Reviewer: K r located in Ont, Canada
    It was the best vacation I have ever had

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Special information

  • This is a custom departure, meaning this trip is offered on dates that you arrange privately with the provider. Additionally, you need to form your own private group for this trip. The itinerary and price here is just a sample. Contact the provider for detailed pricing, minimum group size, and scheduling information. For most providers, the larger the group you are traveling with, the lower the per-person cost will be.
  • May accommodate certain types of disabilities. Contact the operator for more information.

Itinerary

Day 1:     Arrive in Nairobi
Jambo! You'll be met upon arrival at the airport in Nairobi and taken to your hotel.
Overnight: Nairobi

Day 2:     Nairobi-Lake Nakuru
Your safari begins at Lake Nakuru, one of the alkaline Rift Valley lakes, famous as the seasonal home of thousand of flamingos. It is also a refuge for endangered rhinos, and you can usually (hopefully) spot two of the five surviving rhino species in the world. In addition, the park is home to a large number of mammals, including carnivores such as lions and leopards. You will take in the sweeping views from Baboon Rocks and look for waterbucks and warthogs along the way.
Overnight: Lake Nakuru
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 3:     Lake Nakuru-Masai Mara
This morning you will travel overland to your lodge in Masai Mara, looking for game en route. Blessed with a permanent water supply, the Mara has a permanent population of plains game and the Big Five (elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard and rhino) are quite commonly spotted.
Overnight: Masai Mara
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 4:     Masai Mara
Masai Mara is the quintessential African landscape, offering breathtaking views and an extraordinary density of wildlife. The reserve, gazetted in 1961, consists of 320 square kilometers of open plains, woodlands and rivertine forest, abounding with zebra, giraffe, gazelle, topi, birdlife, elephant, buffalo and the big cats. The Mara and Talek rivers are teeming with hippos and crocodiles. Masai Mara is the natural extension of the Serengeti plains in Tanzania, and each year the two parks host the world's greatest natural spectacle as more than one million wildebeest migrate with the rains. At the Mara River they mass together before plunging forward through the waters, fighting against swift currents and waiting crocodiles. The herbivores are followed by the predators, including lions, cheetahs and leopards, as well as hyenas and jackals.
Overnight: Masai Mara
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 5:     Masai Mara-Serengeti
After breakfast, you pack up and leave your lodge with a picnic lunch for the long drive to your lodge in the Serengeti. You will cross the border of Isebania and Serari, where you will clear customs, and then enter Serengeti National Park via Ndabaka.
Overnight: Serengeti
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 6:     Serengeti
The world-famous Serengeti National Park contains the greatest and most spectacular concentration of game found anywhere in the world. Apart from being the largest national park in East Africa, the Serengeti is home to one of the spectacular natural phenomenon of the wildebeest migration.

Between December and April the wildebeest begin to move onto the short grass plains of the southern Serengeti and Ngorongoro Conservation Area, where up to 300,000 calves are born in January and February each year. Packs of hyenas can be seen skirting the edges of groups of wildebeest, waiting to prey on any weak or young victims. Up to 30 per cent are lost in the first two months from predators. After the rains, the wildebeest migrate, commonly from May to the end of July, north and west towards the permanent water of the Grumeti River. By August they have reached the plains of the Masai Mara, where they graze until it is time to continue the cycle of migration, returning southward again to the Serengeti.
Overnight: Serengeti
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 7:     Serengeti-Ngorongoro
You'll continue exploring the Serengeti en route to Ngorongoro. Ngorongoro Crater has been called the eighth wonder of the natural world and was designated a World Heritage Site and a Biosphere Reserve. The crater itself represents only about 3% of the entire Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which covers 8,280 square kilometres. The region contains at least seven extinct volcanoes and has probably one of the most varied terrains in East Africa. The crater is a very picturesque setting for viewing and photographing wildlife and, as the animals are familiar with vehicles, you can get very close to them, providing excellent photo opportunities. All the usual grassland-dwelling animals live in the crater: wildebeest, zebra, gazelles, eland, hartebeest, buffalo and warthogs. There are also predators, including bat-eared foxes, jackals, hyenas and lions. The rhino population here is carefully protected, and they are quite commonly seen.
Overnight: Ngorongoro
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 8:     Ngorongoro-Lake Manyara
This morning you will descend 2200 feet into the crater, often referred to as Africa's "garden of Eden" for its high concentration of permanent residents. Twelve miles wide, the crater has its own soda lake, which attracts a variety of animal and bird life, particularly flamingos. Exiting the crater, you will make our way to Lake Manyara.
Overnight: Lake Manyara
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 9:     Lake Manyara
Lake Manyara National Park is noted for its elephant populations, tree-climbing lions, baboons and warthogs. The park is arguably the best for viewing elephants up close, and has an excellent bird life, including masses of flamingos. It is situated between the dramatic Rift Valley escarpment and the lake and there is an abundance of animals within only 200 square kilometres (two thirds of which is lake), as they are attracted by the permanent water in the lake and small rivers. The surrounding forest is jungle-like with giant trees and snaking lianas. You will spend the day taking game drives in the national park.
Overnight: Lake Manyara
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 10:     Lake Manyara-Arusha-Amboseli
After breakfast, you will drive with a picnic lunch to the city of Arusha, from there proceeding to the border of Namanga Manyara, where you will clear customs and enter Kenya. You will continue to Amboseli National Park, an area of wide, dry plains, lush swamplands and endless horizons.
Overnight: Amboseli
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 11:     Amboseli
You will take morning and afternoon game drives in Amboseli. Although it covers only 392 square kilometers, Amboseli supports a wide range of mammals and is renowned for its elephant populations, which include some impressively tusked bulls. Cheetahs are also frequently sighted in Amboseli's areas of acacia forest. The park offers the most striking views of Africa's highest mountain, Mt Kilimanjaro, which lies just across the border in Tanzania. This area is also home to many Masai communities.
Overnight: Amboseli
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 12:     Amboseli-Nairobi-Departure
You will take one last game drive and return to the lodge for lunch before driving to Nairobi airport for your international flight.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

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