Day 1 - Arusha National Park
Upon arrival at the Kilimanjaro International Airport you will be met by your guide and transferred to the Arumeru River Lodge for the night. This evening you may relax and enjoy the luxury accommodations which include a terrace restaurant, spectacular views of the mountains Meru and Kilimanjaro, tropical gardens, and a large solar-heated swimming pool. Overnight Arumeru Lodge (D)
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Day 2 - Arusha National Park
After breakfast you will depart for Arusha National Park. Here you will travel though a montane forest full of curious monkeys, peer down upon buffalo and warthogs in the Ngudoto Crater, watch flamingoes skim the surface of the Momela Lakes, and gaze upon herds of grazing zebra. You’ll also have opportunity to see lumbering giraffes, waterbucks tossing their horns, and dik-diks scurrying around the rolling grassy hills on their spindly legs. With a clear sky you’ll also have magnificent views of Meru and Kilimanjaro. You’ll have a picnic lunch during your safari and return to the lodge for dinner. Overnight Arumeru Lodge (BLD)
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Day 3 - Tarangire National Park
After breakfast you will depart with packed lunchboxes and head to Tarangire National Park. Here you will find herds of up to 300 elephants, migratory wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, hartebeest, and elands. Thirsty animals wander hundreds of parched kilometres knowing that they will find water here. It’s an amazing concentration of wildlife - and a smorgasbord for predators. Tarangire’s pythons climb trees, as do its lions and leopards. Lion packs stalk through the park, their golden fur blending in against the dried out grasses. Leopards and their cubs stealthily prowl at night. It’s also the one place in Tanzania where dry-country antelope such as the fringe-eared oryx and long-necked gerenuk are regularly observed. After a full day of adventure, you will head to the Kikoti Safari camp, where you can relax, have dinner, and enjoy the comfortable ambiance of the camp. Nighttime lamps are lit providing a warm glow, and you can sit around the bonfire and trade stories of your day’s adventure. While sleeping safely in your elevated tent, you can listen to the sounds and voices of the nocturnal world. Overnight Kikoti Safari Camp (BLD)
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Day 4 - Tarangire National Park
Today you will return to Tarangire Park, taking morning and afternoon safari drives for sightings of more exciting wildlife. In addition to a tremendous variety of mammals, Tarangire boasts amazing birding with over 550 different bird varieties, and the most breeding species in one habitat anywhere in the world. You may be able to see bustards, ostrich, hornbills, and the formidable Secretary Birds, who pluck pythons out of trees and kick their prey to death with armored talons. Smaller varieties include woodpeckers, Superb Starlings, Yellow-collared Lovebirds and Weaver birds. Meals will be eaten at the camp, and you can relax and socialize around the fire or in the lounge this evening. Overnight Kikoti Safari Camp (BLD)
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Day 5 - Ngorongoro Crater
Today after breakfast you will travel to the Ngorongoro Crater, stopping en route at the Iraqw village for a taste of the local life. The Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest
intact caldera, forming a spectacular bowl of about 265 sq km with sides up to 600 m deep. Overnight Ngorongoro Farm House (BLD)
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Day 6 - Ngorongoro Crater
You will depart in the morning with lunch boxes for a full day crater tour. A permanent population of more than 30,000 animals inhabit the crater, making this one of the few places in Africa where guests stand a great chance of seeing the entire Big Five in the course of a single game drive. You can expect to see zebra, wildebeest, hippos, hyenas, and lions. You might also see leopards, cheetahs, and jackals, as well as several water birds including Avocets, Plovers, and Blackwinged Stilts. Later you will return to the lodge for dinner and leisure. Overnight Ngorongoro Farm House (BLD)
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Day 7 - Serengeti National Park
This morning after breakfast you’ll depart for Serengeti National Park, taking boxed lunches and stopping for a tour at Olduvai Gorge, a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley of the eastern Serengeti Plains. This gorge is an important prehistoric site, referred to as “the Cradle of Mankind”, because it is the site where the earliest human remains have been recovered, dating back 2 million years. You’ll have opportunity to spot animals en route before arriving in the evening for dinner and overnight at Oltepesi Camp, a Hemingway-style mobile tent camp. The rustic style of the camp lends an extra sense of adventure to sleeping in the Serengeti, with a calm chorus of nightime animal sounds.
Overnight Oltepesi Camp (BLD)
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Day 8 - Serengeti National Park
Today you’ll take morning and afternoon game drives in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania’s oldest and most popular national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Serengeti is famed for its annual migration, but provides superb safari observation all year long. In addition to the herds and packs of anticipated mammals and predators, there will ample opportunity to observe wildlife you may havenever even heard of. Later you will have dinner and spend the evening back at the camp. Overnight Oltepesi Camp (BLD)
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Day 9 - Farewell!
After breakfast you will transfer to the airstrip for a scheduled flight back to Arusha. You will be met on arrival and transferred to a dayroom and lunch at Arumeru River Lodge, with some time for shopping in Arusha before being transferred to the airport for your flight home. (BL)
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