Combines a safari visiting the prime 'Big Five' areas of Northern Tanzania and then participate in a rewarding experience by joining the Community Volunteer Project
Overview: This tour gives you the chance to visit the 'Big Five' areas of Tanzania and then join the Community Volunteer Project experiencing life of children, whose lives have been dramatically impacted by poverty, unemployment and HIV/AIDS
The itinerary starts with Lake Manyara, Serengeti, and Ngorongoro and then Arusha National Park and it will ends with Volunteering in the community projects.
Day 1: Arrival Arrive at Kilimanjaro Airport (Tanzania), meet and greet, and then transferred to your Hotel for dinner and overnight. Meals: Half Board Accommodation: Impala hotel.
Day 2: Arusha to Lake Manyara Park – 130 km / 2 hrs After your breakfast at 08.30 drive from Arusha with your packed lunch to Manyara park for game viewing. At 1300 hrs take your lunch in the park picnic area, evening drive to your lodge/ campsite for Dinner and overnight at Manyara. Meals: Meals: Full Board Accommodation: Lake Manyara Hotel or Similar //Budget Camping (Twiga Campsite)
About Manyara National Park: A major attraction of the Lake Manyara National Park is the tree - climbing lions. Unfortunately there is no guarantee that you will spot them. However, there are other things to see - elephants, hippos, zebras, impalas, buffalos, baboons, plains animals as well as huge variety of birdlife, both resident and migratory.
At certain times of the year, Lake Manyara is home to thousands of flamingos (attracted by the Lake itself), which form a shimmering pink zone around the lake shore. Other birds found here include ostriches, egrets, herons, pelicans and storks. Also seen are African spoonbills, various species of ibises, ducks and the rare pygmy geese. The most noticeable of the landscape within this park are the very impressive baobab trees with their huge trunks.
Day 3: Lake Manyara National Park - Serengeti National Park 190 km / 3.5 – 4 hrs After breakfast at 0800hrs drive from Lake Manyara National Park with your packed lunch and game en-route to the great Serengeti Plains via Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Late afternoon drive to your lodge for the dinner and overnight. Meals: Full Board Accommodation: Serengeti Sopa Lodge or Similar // Budget Camping (Pimbi Campsite)
About Serengeti: Endless Plains of Nature's Wonders: The Serengeti National Park, covering 14763 square kilometers is one of the world\'s largest wildlife sanctuaries. One of the most breathtaking events in the animal kingdom, the migration of thousands of wildebeest takes place here every year. The Serengeti, 320 kilometers from Arusha, was gazetted in 1951. It was accepted by the World Heritage Convention as a World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve in 1981.
Day 4: Serengeti National Park After breakfast leave with your packed lunch for game drive on the Serengeti Park acacia Savannah in the central to the east region. Around 12.30pm and 13.00pm break for your picnic lunch; thereafter proceed with tour afternoon game drive. In mid January to February, much to mid April, 95% of females of wildebeest mate to a total of 60000 then 8 to 8.5 months later those females that conceived give birth on the same southern plains after a long travel. Evening drive to your lodge for dinner and overnight. Meals: Full Board Accommodation: Serengeti Sopa Lodge or Similar // Budget Camping (Pimbi Campsite)
Day 5: Serengeti – Ngorongoro/Olduvai After breakfast with your packed lunch drive and game enroute to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It is your option whether you pass by Olduvai Gorge a historical site whereby the early man lived and With extra cost, you can also pass by the Maasai boma if you are interested in the real African life tradition and culture. Meals: Full Board Accommodation: Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge or Similar //Budget Camping (Simba Campsite)
Day 6: Ngorongoro Crater After breakfast drive to Ngororngoro Conservation Area with your lunch box, descend into the crater floor for full day game viewing. The crater is rich in wildlife and the day will be filled with sights and sounds of the wild echoing within the crater walls.
Your packed lunch will be served on the crater floor at the picnic site near Lerai forest or hippo pool. Many crater visitors want to see rare species, “the Black rhinoceros’, this is the right time, because during the dry season is very hard to see them as they are afraid of sun burn. Late afternoon ascend the crater and then drive to Arusha for your dinner and overnight Meals: Full Board Accommodation: Impala hotel
Day 7: Arusha National Park In the morning drive to Arusha national park for game viewing. At 12:30 break for Lunch and there after continued with game viewing, late evening return to your lodge for for your dinner and overnight.
Days 8-17: Community Volunteer Project Volunteer and experience life of children, whose lives have been dramatically impacted by poverty, unemployment and HIV/AIDS. Volunteer in a local orphanage and HIV/ AIDS centre working hand in hand with Teachers, doctors and nurses and in an orphanage with time spent interacting with the children and providing assistance where needed. Activities may include teaching, giving medical care and education to the children capacity Building organizing and participating in numerous training for staff, peer education in issue related to orphans, street children and HIV/AIDs
Accommodation During the Volunteering period, a volunteer stays with the host family/Organization. Accommodation will be provided throughout the scheme using hostels, or staying with local people. Facilities are basic; there will be latrine and private washing facilities. Electricity and piped water.
Food All meals are provided, meals mainly consists of rice, bean, beef, chicken, vegetables, fruits and a good breakfast.
Transport When necessary public transport will be provided during the volunteering period. The cost for airport transfers on your arrival and on the last day is not included in the package price, but we can arrange at an extra cost of US $60 per vehicle per transfer.
Working Schedule General daily schedule is 8:00am to 4:00pm with lunch at noon Evening; team meeting and free time
Monday through Friday: Work projects
Saturday and Sunday: Free time for personal or organized team pursuits.
Day 18 Departure (B) After morning break fast transferred to the Air port for your flight back home.
PRICE (Minimum 2PAX):
Option 1; USD $2,406 – Budget camping accommodation on wildlife safari and hostel accommodation during Community volunteer project
Option 2; USD $3,145 - Lodge accommodation on wildlife safari and hostel accommodation during Community volunteer project
Price Above Includes: - All parks entrance fees - All airport transfers - Transport on 4WD vehicle with a pop-up roof during wildlife safari - Accommodation and meals as indicated in the itinerary above - Crater fees and camping fees - Mineral water 1.5lt per person per day on wildlife safari - Service of professional English Speaking Driver Guide - Activities as per itinerary above
Price Above Does not Include: - International flights to/from Tanzania - Hot and cold drinks - Tips to the driver guide and cook (if camping safari) - Passports and Visas - All items of personal nature/use - And all not mentioned on the plan
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This is a fantastic tour and a "must do" for any first time visitor to Dar, as I was.
It helps you understand more about the people who live in Dar and makes what can seem like a complex and intimidating place, accessible, friendly and understandable.
My customized 13-day trip in Tanzania was absolutely amazing!
From breathtaking Ngorongoro hiking to a taste of Kilimanjaro and local village visits, it was truly a life-changing experience.
My driver and tour manager went out of their way to accommodate my whims and made sure that my stay in Tanzania was a pleasant one. Unfortunately I fractured my ankle during one of the hikes I took, but I was taken to the hospital immediately, and taken a great care of.
I would definitely recommend this operator to anyone who's looking for a tour that's much more than just game drives.'
We went on a two day walking – canoeing trip in Arusha National Park. The tour operator also made hotel arrangements for the first three days we were in Arusha.
They stayed in contact for 11 months via email. The person I was in contact with Elifasi and our guide, Apolo Kihwil, meet us at the airport took us to our hotel. On our rest day we visited a school at our request and not part of the paid itinerary this was on their time.
Our guide Apolo was the best we had on our entire trip. He was informative, friendly and had a great sense of humor, we were rewarded with a dream trip my favorite giraffe and several at a time the last bunch we counted eleven, baboons, wart hogs, black and white monkeys, hundreds of thousand of lesser and greater flamingos on big Momella Lake he provide delicious lunches and was infinitely patient while we took photographs.
I would not hesitate to use them on my next trip to Tanzania and would request Apolo as our guide.
We had a most wonderful holiday in Kenya and Tanzania.
They looked after us very well and we were very satisfied with their service. The service provided value for money. The only comment we would make is that the email from them gave us the impression that we would be staying in a lodge but when we arrived we were in a tent. We were satisfied with the tented accomodation, however it could have been made clearer in the original email that it was tented accomodation.
The staff were very kind and helpful.
Tour Operators Reply:
Thank you for the client's feedback and contructive comment/suggestion. We are glad that they were very satisfied with the service we provided to them, despite their impression that they would be staying in a lodge instead of tent.
As per the first enquiry which the clients sent into our company, she stated that she will prefer to stay in Camping “Accommodation Preference: Camping” and the price given to them was based on Camping accommodation, and these was stated in the itinerary that “Dinner and overnight at the camp”
However, there was typing error at the end of the itinerary which indicates Lodge accommodation instead of Camping accommodation.
We will try our level best to make sure that this mistake will not happen again.
After having a wonderful safari in southern Africa organised through your webiste, we decided to return again to Tanzania after 45 years.
We booked a 19 day safari to visit six game parks...Selous, Mikumi, Lake Manyara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro, and Tarangari.
Our guide/driver, Hurumu, met us at the Dar airport and drove us to a hotel for our day of jet lag recovery. We drove to Selous first. We're not strangers to East Africa, having first arrived in 1963. By far, Hurumu is the best guide that we've ever had. He was extremely knowledgeable of wildlife, has great game eyes, a good conversationalist, and was very caring for all our needs. He understood our physical age limitations (74) but was not at all solicitous. Cool water was always available. Hurumu had the ability to always get the Toyota into position for the best photograph.
We made our initial contact the operator in 2009. Elifasi, in the office, worked with me to create the itinerary. He also was most helpful. While at Selous we requested an itinerary change. Elifasi made the changes without a problem.
The entire safari was most enjoyable and problem free.
The best of Kenya & Tanzania and they made that experience a reality. They were always on time, concerned about our well being and would without any reservations recommend them! The scenery and game viewing were all memorable and expectations met. Organizing the tour was also without any hassle
I went solo, a 50 something white woman, and me and _______ (I forget his name), rode around for 5 hours. It was a unbelievable experience.
He was a wonderful guide, I called him the "Mayor" because everybody knew him! He was so popular everywhere we went that I felt completely comfortable, safe, and like an invited family friend.
He showed me 3 or 4 neighborhoods, I met coffee makers, chapati breakfast cooks (had breakfast there with a Masaai family who stopped by!), a traditional herbalist (where I learned the treatment for meconium aspiration, I'm a perinatal pathologist!), herbal pharmacist (where I saw that fenugreek seed is used to facilitate delivery with prolonged labor), local market, fabric seller, and had a delicious lunch at an outside Swahili restaurant. I played with kids, talked with everyone, and really got a great sense of the community.
My guide also is very active in local projects and inspired me to help with a bridge rebuilding project he is spear heading. The bicycle riding was easy and really the only way to get around in these neighborhoods. It was by far the best experience I had in Dar, and one of the best I have had in my many travels in East Africa!
We could not have asked for abetter way to end our incredible adventures in Tanzania. We saw everything and did everything we could have ever imagined. From the big game watching in the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, and Lake Manyara, to ascending the highly active volcano next to Lake Natron, it was all so unbelievably incredible. A total dream come true!
Our guide Huruma had he most expansive breadth of knowledge of the natural environment, he was a pleasure to talk to. He was also extremely flexible with us as lans often changed for various reasons, but ALWAYS for the better. Huruma made us feel safe and comfortable the whole time. Alex our cook as wonderful as well making sure we had the best quality meals possiblemade from the freshest ingredients.
Choosing a safari operator is tough, but I will just say that I will always recommend these guys. They are very professional and will do everything to make sure you have the best trip possible. Thanks again for our lifetime memories. We will be back, so you will hear from us again.
Thanks Elfasi for all your time, flexibility and support in orchestrating this dream trip.
