Tour Highlights:
Fulfill your lifelong dream on this safari extraordinaire, experiencing thousands of big game animals on the savannahs of Africa. For those wishing an unforgettable fortnight of game drives in Kenya's legendary game preserves--Samburu, Masai Mara and Amboseli, and in Tanzania's famous national parks--Ngorongoro and the Serengeti, this is the ultimate adventure package.
Stay in some of the most deluxe lodges and tented camps that East Africa has to offer Sweetwaters private Chimpanzee Sanctuary. Visit Giraffe Manor and Karen Blixen's home outside Nairobi. Bush flights from Samburu to Nairobi and the Masai Mara to Nairobi. Visit Olduvai Gorge. Enjoy your farewell dinner at the Carnivore Restaurant in Nairobi. Visit a Masai village in the Mara and take a night game drive while at Masai Mara to search for nocturnal animals
Note:
We do not place groups together. This way you are ensured the full attention of our guide, but with the added knowledge of our guides’ experiences. It also means that we can start the tour on the day you prefer.
Day 1: Arrive, Nairobi
Arrive Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Meet at the airport and transfer to Nairobi Serena Hotel for overnight
Meals: Breakfast
Day 2: Sweetwaters Tented Camp
Begin your adventure on the drive to Sweetwaters, a private game reserve, to stay in luxury tents that transport you back to the colonial days of East Africa. During game viewing at Sweetwaters look for elephant, giraffe, eland, waterbuck, gazelle and lion. Visit the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, established with the Jane Goodall Institute, where orphaned chimps are raised. Join the night game drive in search of nocturnal species. Overnight at Sweetwaters Tented Camp
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 3: Samburu Game Reserve
Drive north of the Equator to the Samburu Game Reserve, where the climate is semi-desert. Spend the next days exploring and game viewing the dramatic red plains, bush, and palm-fringed rivers of Samburu. Your lodge is nestled in the acacia grove along the Uaso Nyiro River. At sunset and from the viewing veranda, watch for huge crocodiles along the riverbank. Overnight at Samburu Serena Safari Lodge or similar
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 4: Samburu Game Reserve
Keep your camera ready! Samburu is known for uncommon and seldom-seen species such as the beautiful thin-striped Grevy's zebra, reticulated giraffe, blue-necked Somali ostrich, Beisa oryx, and the long-necked gerenuk antelope that nibbles on tree leaves. You will have morning and afternoon game drives in Samburu Game Reserve. Overnight at Samburu Serena Safari Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Days 5: Amboseli National Park
After the early morning Samburu game drive, catch your "bush" flight back to Nairobi. Then drive to Amboseli National Park, known for its natural beauty and the snow-capped Mt. Kilimanjaro rising to the southeast. It is also famous for big game, notably its large elephant population, but also lion and cheetah. Overnight at Amboseli Serena Lodge or similar.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Days 6: Amboseli National Park
There are morning and afternoon game drives, with leisure time at midday when the animals are least active. Amboseli has stands of thorny yellow-barked acacia trees that giraffe love. Be on the lookout for baboon, waterbuck and, if fortunate, the elusive leopard. The beautiful yellow weaverbird and brilliantly colored Superb Starling are normally around the Amboseli Serena Lodge. Overnight at Amboseli Serena Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 7: Ngorongoro Highlands
Cross the Tanzanian border to Arusha. After lunch at a the Impala Hotel, continue to Ngorongoro Crater, an extinct collapsed volcano rising to 7,500 feet at the outside rim, with the inside floor 2,000 feet below. Ngorongoro's floor extends 102 square miles and has a lake in the center. It is a wildlife sanctuary, protected from the surrounding savannah. Overnight at Ngorongoro Serena Lodge or Ngorongoro Farm House Lodge
Meals: Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 8: Ngorongoro Crater/Olduvai Gorge/Serengeti
Enjoy a game viewing drive down to the crater's floor. The "Big Five" are here: lion, elephant, rhino, leopard and buffalo, plus wildebeest, Thomson's gazelle, zebra and reedbuck. Then visit Olduvai Gorge where Mary Leakey discovered the skull considered to be a 1.7 million-years-old human. Continue to the famous Serengeti with its endless tree-spotted plains, where millions of hoofed animals graze. Overnight at Kirawira Safari Camp
Meals: Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 9: Serengeti National Park
Game drives include different tracks in the vast Serengeti. Search for predators-lion, leopard, jackal and cheetah. Topi, hardebeest and even the beautiful kudu graze among the antelope, zebra and gnu (wildebeest) herds. Huge crocs and hippo thrive in the park's rivers, and eagles soar overhead. An incredible sight, the annual migration of between the Serengeti of Tanzania and the Masai Mara of Kenya can fill the horizon with the plains herds. Overnight at Kirawira Safari Camp
Meals: Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 10: Masai Mara, Kenya
Cross back into Kenya to the Masai Mara National Park, best-known of the country's parks and boarded by the Great Rift Valley escarpment. The game drive is continuous today, through savannah grasslands where plains game (zebra, impala, Cape buffalo and topi) grazes. Stay two nights at a lodge designed in traditional Maasai motif and overlooking a water hole where wildlife congregates. Overnight at Mara Serena Lodge or similar
Meals: Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 11: Masai Mara/Night game drive
An optional early morning hot-air balloon ride is available (advance reservations recommended). Morning and afternoon game drives are included through the Mara's riverine woods, dense shrub and open savannah. There is a wide variety of wildlife, including rhino, warthogs, giraffe, buffalo and wonderful birdlife. Visit a Maasai village, the proud native tribe of cattle-herders. Extend the game drive into the evening, to search for seldom-seen nocturnal animals such a porcupines, bush babies and civet cats. Overnight at Mara Serena Lodge or similar
Meals: Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 12: Nairobi
Enjoy a final game-viewing drive before returning to Nairobi. Dinner and overnight at Nairobi Serena Hotel.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Day 13: Karen Blixen's home/Nairobi departure
In the Ngong Hills, visit the home of Out of Africa author, Karen Blixen. Continue to Giraffe Manor, dedicated to Africa's tallest animal (the Rothschild giraffe) to see these graceful animals up close. Return to Nairobi with time to pick up souvenirs. Lunch at Carnivore Restaurant. Afterward, transfer to the airport for your return flight.
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
Price Includes:
- Accommodations and meals as indicated, including bottled water
- Guaranteed window seat and access to photographic roof hatch in specially-equipped custom built four-wheel-drive safari, driven by accomplished driver-guides
- Sightseeing and game viewing as shown
- Arrival and departure transfers
- All gratuities, except to safari driver-guide
Price Excludes:
- International flights
- Soft and alcoholic drinks
- Items of personal nature/use
- And all not mentioned in the itinerary above
