Observe birds & wildlife in their natural surroundings is the main focus of our tours, and the itineraries are designed to provide the best opportunities to encounter Birds and mammals.
Trip highlights This safari will give you opportunity to observe birds & wildlife in their natural surroundings is the main focus of our tours, and the itineraries are designed to provide the best opportunities to encounter Birds and mammals. We also strive to understand a bit of the bigger picture, such as how birds & wildlife go about their daily lives, and integrate into the environment. The quality of your experience is our number one priority and above all, our field experience is what makes us unique.
Before starting your tour get prepared with a pair of binoculars, a field guide, and a hat. Maybe a little notebook to carry in your pocket. For the Field guides of Birds of East Africa we recommend the following: “Field guide to the Birds of East Africa” or “Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania
Day 1: Arrival Day. Arrival Arusha and transfer to Impala Hotel for your dinner and overnight.BB
Day 2: Arusha National park The day begins with pre Breakfast birding around the Lodge grounds, sighting fire finches, variable sunbirds, Bulbuls and the other commoner species then back to the lodge for breakfast. After break fast, you will drive to Arusha National park for birding and game viewing. While in the park, you will make a visit to the various crater lakes in the park, catching up with the Maccoa ducks, Egyptian Geese, Hottentots teals, Comb ducks and many unusual waders. The forest surrounding Ngurudoto crater may reward us with Trogons, orange bellied Parrots, Silvery cheeked hornbills and the hurtlurb`s Turaco… you should be encountering your first Mammals here which should include Elephants, Bush Bucks, Hippos and Buffaloes. Return to your Hotel for Dinner and overnight at Impala Hotel. FB
Day 3: Arusha - Manyara After a morning breakfast, with your lunch box drive to the plains North of Arusha town, where you will have the opportunity to walk in the plains while birding for a number of dry country species, and then drive to Lake Manyara, at Migunga forest Tented Camp in the late afternoon. We will then spend the rest of the evening at leisure. Dinner and overnight at Lake Manyara Wildlife Lodge. FB
Day 4: Manyara After Breakfast, drive into Lake Manyara National Park with picnic Lunch. Lake Manyara National Park, has a rich eco- system composed of an under ground water forest, Open savannah and of course the lake it self, all being an excellent habitat for both Big game and birds. We will spend the entire day exploring the park. While in the park we may chance out on the large herds of Elephants, Buffaloes and other plain game. Birds are profuse; including the blue napped mouse birds and many European migrants will be soaring up in the sky. Return to our overnight stop for Dinner and Overnight at Lake Manyara Wildlife Lodge. FB
Day 5: Manyara After Breakfast you will have a further opportunity exploring the jungles of Lake Manyara National Park. You will use this opportunity to catch up with the much “dodgy” stuff that we will have missed out the previous day. The entire day is spent in Lake Manyara National park. Return for dinner and overnight at Lake Manyara Wildlife Lodge. FB
Day 6: Manyara – Ngorongoro After a leisurely Breakfast, we will have an option of drive down the lake shore for any possibility of waders that we might have missed all through the couple of days in the park, after which we will head to Ngorongoro. Listed by Unesco as a world heritage site, the incomparable Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest "caldera". A caldera is the broad, crater-like basin of a volcano formed by the collapse of the central cone. Dominated by cliffs standing some 600 meters high and presenting a sheer drop down to a wide open space of some 264 square km, the crater is one of the most amazing sights seen anywhere.
The Crater is home to 25,000 larger mammals, almost half of them zebra and wildebeest. There are also gazelles, buffalo, eland, hartebeest and wart hog. Such vast numbers attract predators a plenty, mainly lion and hyena but also cheetah and leopard. More than 100 species of birds not found in the Serengeti have been spotted here. Countless flamingos form a pink blanket over the soda lakes. Gazing on the sight below you will be amazed at the wildlife when you actually make your way to the crater floor today - it is like no where else in the world!
Late evening ascend the crater for your dinner and Overnight at Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge.FB
Day 7: Ngorongoro - Tarangire After Breakfast, we will checkout at the lodge and drive to Tarangire park. This park is an excellent site for both Birds and Mammals, the highlights of the day is searching for the Tanzanian endemics here that will include the Rufous Tailed weaver and Ashy Sterling as well as Tarangire specialties which include the Yellow colored Love Bird.
The Mammal list here include huge herds of Elephants and Buffalos as well as a number of plain game and where luck counts we should encounter Leopard, Cheetah and a Lion pride. Tarangire National Park boasts magnificent herds of wildlife. The park gets its name from the river that threads its way through the length of the reserve. It is famous for its dense wildlife population. After the excitement in the park, we will drive to our selected accommodation for Dinner and overnight at Tarangire Sopa Lodge FB
Day 8: Tarangire We will spend another day exploring the different natural habitats of Tarangire expecting to have a completely individual day; as usual each day in the bush is different so we will always expect something in action. We may opt to break the day into halves, having the warm or hot hours back to our tented or just spend the entire day in the park. After an evening exploration of the Park, we will return for dinner and overnight at the Tarangire Sopa Lodge. FB
Day 9: Tarangire – Arusha - Home After breakfast, we will drive again in the park, combing-out a number of game and bird sites in the park and after Lunch we will drive back to Arusha and straight to Kilimanjaro Airport for our outbound flight home.
Note: - This Tour can be modified to add an extra two nights or more on the Serengeti plains.
- If there will be need to overnight in Arusha so as to catch up with flights the next day, accommodation arrangements shall be made and clients will pay for the extra.
Price: USD 1,706 per person – Camping accommodation. USD 2,819 per person – Lodge accommodation.
Please note: The price above is valid up to June 2013 for July up to December 2013 price is subject to change.
Price Includes: - Accommodation as stipulated in the Itinerary including service charges and taxes - Airport transfers - Sightseeing as specified in itinerary - Transport on safari in a 4WD vehicle with an open roof - All parks entrance fees - Water 1.5 Lts per day per person - Service of English Speaking driver guide
Price Excludes: - International flights - Tips to the driver guide - Thing of personal nature - Sleeping bag if camping - And all not mentioned in the tour itinerary
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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.
