17-Days Luxury Tanzania Safari

Arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport near Moshi in the evening where you will be met by Africa Joy Tours staff and transported to the beautiful Lake Duluti Serena Lodge situated on the lower slopes of Mount Meru in Arusha, Tanzania, a 45-minute drive away. (Note: Lake Duluti Serena Lodge will be our “base camp” – we will be here at the beginning, Day 6, and on the last day, so feel at home and leave your luggage here as necessary. Also note: all meals (FB = Full Board) are included beginning with breakfast tomorrow).

After breakfast we will take a 2-mile (3-hour) nature walk around Lake Duluti – This is an optional (but recommended) excursion and the cost to enter the nearby Duluti Forest Reserve is $12 per person.  Lake Duluti is a crater lake in the shadows of Mt. Meru and is a paradise for birds and reptiles. The Wameru tribe of the area named it Duluti. The water in the lake comes mainly from seasonal rainfall/groundwater. The crater is a subsidiary vent to Mount Meru (4566m) that towers over the lake. The depth of the lake is unconfirmed, but locals estimate it to be around 700m deep. The water from the lake is used in the surrounding areas and rumor has it that the city of Arusha is planning to utilize the water from the lake to supply the whole city.

Lake Duluti is about 1100m across and covers an area of 63ha. The walls of the crater – up to 200m high – are mostly covered in a thick forest. These thick forests are home to a variety of animals as they provide a suitable environment for hunting and nesting. In fact, on a recent visit to the crater, we were rewarded with a sighting of an eastern green mamba. Over 130 bird species have been recorded here including herons, eagles, cormorants, egrets, and kingfishers. Monitor lizards, some of which can be as big as 2m, may be seen basking on old broken trees or even swimming in the lake! After the hike, you will return to the lodge for a hot lunch and a full briefing about your upcoming 17-day Luxury Safari in Tanzania. Also, during the late afternoon/early evening, one might be lucky enough to see Mt. Kilimanjaro come into view – the tallest in Africa and tallest free-standing Mountain in the world. Dinner/overnight at Lake Duluti Serena Lodge.

After a good breakfast, we will drive through Arusha town (the safari capital of Tanzania) to the New Life Band School to visit this privately run (funded by donations) coed High School/boarding school. This will be your first opportunity to donate any school items you may have brought with you after our visit we will drive to the Cultural Heritage Center where you will have a hot lunch.  After lunch, you will have time to shop for Tanzanite etc. and/or tour the art gallery.  We’ll get some tips on bartering and shopping in East Africa. Return to Lake Duluti Serena Lodge for dinner and overnight.  Note: The New Life Band has visited the U.S. including Palm Desert a number of times raising funds for the building of this High school.

After an early breakfast, we will depart for Mkomazi National Park. We will eat our boxed lunch at the park gate (watch out for monkeys!), passing Mt. Kilimanjaro along the way. After lunch, we’ll “pop the tops” of our Landcruisers and take our very first “game drive” through Mkomazi on our way to our private mobile tent camp located inside the National Park. Note: Mkomazi was recently upgraded to “National Park” status and you will be some of the first tourists to visit this off-the-beaten-track Park where the wildlife is still “wild”.  They have both Black Rhino and African Wild Dog breeding programs behind-the-scenes.

Full-day game drive in Mkomazi National Park with picnic lunch along the way.  Dinner and overnight at a private mobile tent camp.  Note: Mkomazi is the southern extension of the Tsavo National Park ecosystem in Kenya and is one of the places where Kurt worked in the summer of 1993 with the Royal Geographic Society after his Peace Corps years in Tanzania (1989-90).

After breakfast, we’ll take the backroad to Dindira Dam to look for wildlife and then stop at Ibaya Camp before exiting the Park around lunchtime. We’ll probably eat our box lunch at the Zange Gate before proceeding back to Arusha and the Lake Duluti Serena Lodge for dinner and overnight.  Note: the chance to repack and leave luggage at the hotel to pick up at the end of the trip.

After an early breakfast, we will drive to nearby Arusha National Park for a wildlife drive and picnic lunch. Chance to see the beautiful Black and White Colobus Monkey, elephants, hornbills, flamingos, and other mammals/birds of the montane forest, Arusha is a breathtaking park (often bypassed by tourists in a hurry to get to Serengeti) that includes the alkaline Momella Lakes, the Ngurdoto Crater, and 14,000-feet Mt. Meru looming overhead. In the afternoon we will proceed to Tarangire National Park and check in before dinner to our Maasai-run eco-lodge, situated just outside Tarangire National Park.  Elephants sometimes roam through camp and rub their behinds on the side of your permanent tent! Overnight at Tarangire Roika Tented Camp (our first swimming pool).

The day starts with an early breakfast and then a morning game drive in Tarangire National Park where you will see all kinds of big games including close looks at elephants!  We’ll have a hot lunch at the Tarangire Safari Lodge which overlooks a waterhole that can be filled with wildlife. We’ll continue our game drive in the afternoon enjoying the riverine forest along the Tarangire River with Baobab trees, herds of elephants, lions, and occasional leopards sleeping in the trees. In the late afternoon, we will return to the lodge for dinner.  Overnight at Tarangire Roika Tented Camp. Note: Tarangire is another one of those Parks that tourists hurry past on their way to Serengeti.  This is a big mistake that we won’t make on this 17 Day Luxury Safari in Tanzania.

After breakfast, we’ll take the backroad (through the village!) to Lake Manyara National Park, home to lions that occasionally climb trees! Although small in size, this Park is one of the most diverse in the country. Lake Manyara covers two-thirds of the park. The backdrop is the wall of the Great Rift Valley.  Below lies the groundwater forest, areas of open grassland near the lake foreshore, and Soda Lake itself with a pH of 9.5. We will enjoy a picnic lunch near the hot spring.  Lake Manyara National Park is a birding paradise that is home to more than 350 bird species. It is also the site of Ian Douglas-Hamilton’s landmark elephant study.  Dinner and overnight at the Lake Manyara Serena Lodge.  Note: the lodge is perched on the edge of the Rift Valley escarpment overlooking Lake Manyara.  A spectacular setting including an infinity swimming pool!

After an early breakfast, we will leave the lodge and drive to Ngorongoro Conservation Area for a day in the crater!  We will venture down the steep grade to the crater floor, a fantastic safari experience in this extraordinary ecosystem, viewing high concentrations of zebra, gazelle, impala, wildebeest, hyenas, lion, occasional cheetah and rhino, and many other animals that are all bound by the crater walls. We’ll enjoy a picnic lunch somewhere inside the 11-mile diameter crater (watch out for Yellow-billed Kites that will swoop down after your sandwich). After lunch, we will continue with our wildlife drive inside the crater before heading up the ascent road in the late afternoon to the lodge on the rim in time for dinner. Overnight at the Ngorongoro Serena Lodge.

Our first stop after breakfast/departure will be an optional visit to a local Maasai village or “Manyatta”. This is a unique experience that should not be missed. The cost is $20 cash (per person) payable to the chief upon arrival.  There is a tiny school inside the village with about 9 very young students. After leaving the Maasai village we will proceed to the famous Olduvai (actually “Oldupai”) Gorge where the Zinjanthropus skull (“Nutcracker Man”) was discovered by Mary Leakey in 1959. Olduvai Gorge is an archaeological site located in the eastern Serengeti Plains and is considered to be the original “cradle of mankind”. The gorge is a very steep-sided ravine roughly 30 miles long and 295 ft. deep. Exposed deposits show rich fossil fauna, many hominids remains and items belonging to the one of the oldest stone tool technologies, called Olduwan. The age of the objects recovered range from 15,000 to 2.1 million years ago. We will eat our picnic lunch at the gorge overlook/museum and hope to arrange a special behind-the-scenes walk into the actual gorge to see the “Zinj site” and Mary Leakey’s Camp.  After our exploration of Oldupai we will drive to Ndutu area for dinner and overnight at Ndutu Safari Lodge – where some of the great Serengeti wildlife filmmakers based themselves (Hugo van Lawick and Dame Jane Goodall for example)

Today you will start very early in the morning for a pre-breakfast game drive (depart 6 am) around Ndutu Lake and Lake Masek looking for big cats (lions, cheetahs, etc.), wildebeest, zebras, impala, and much more. Return to the lodge for breakfast and packing up. We’ll take a box lunch with us and enjoy this along the way as we cross the Serengeti Plains in search of wildlife all afternoon. Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Simba Tented Camp situated just outside the park boundary. Performances by the Simba Dance Troupe will add to the experience of spectacular Serengeti sunsets and sunrises from our permanent tents. At night listen to the trumpeting of elephants, the laughing of hyenas, the braying of zebras, and the roars of the camp’s namesake (simba = lion).

A safari in Tanzania is not complete without a full day (or four full days!) of game viewing in the Serengeti National Park. We may do a sunrise game drive before breakfast or we may eat first then venture out to the Seronera area of the park where many of the “day tourists” gather. This is the best area to find leopards in the trees and maybe elephant, buffalo, lions and hippos along the way. Going out early has its advantages: at day break one has the chance of sighting the nocturnal species returning and also seeing the diurnal species waking up to a new day. We’ll take a box lunch with us and we’ll have the freedom to explore this wildlife rich area. You’ll see the main Park Visitor Center as well.  Later in the afternoon we will drive back to the Serengeti Simba Tented Camp for dinner and overnight. A special night game drive after dinner is included. This is where one may see some very interesting critters like: chameleon, genet, civet, Bat-eared Fox, Steinbok, Spring Hare, and more!

The Western Corridor in June is where one has the best chance to witness the magnificent natural phenomenon that is the ‘Great Migration’ where more than one and a half million wildebeests accompanied by hundreds of thousands of gazelles and zebras journey toward Kenya to the North.  Along the way they must brave the crocodile-infested Grumeti and Mara rivers in search of greener pastures and water. We hope to find lots of wildebeest and other wildlife today as we journey toward our next lodge. We may stop at a hippo pool and have our picnic lunch along the river. Dinner and overnight at Mbalageti Safari Lodge (pool).

This is balloon safari day for those who signed up – we will depart the lodge very early to get to the launch site by sunrise. From the balloon you may spot the wildebeest migration, a colobus monkey in the trees, buffalo, zebra, giraffe or even a Serval!  After breakfast in the bush, we will all proceed to Lake Victoria (the largest lake in Africa and second largest in the world). We will see what life is like in a lakeshore village, tour a primary school and take a 1.5hour canoe ride on the lake, learning from the local fisherman. (Cost is $35 per person to support the community). We will have a picnic lunch near the Lake before returning to Mbalageti Safari Lodge for dinner and overnight.  It will be a long and exciting day!

After breakfast and an early start, we leave the Serengeti and make our way to Neptune Ngorongoro Luxury Lodge, (a fairly long drive) eating our box lunch in a nice spot somewhere along the way. We should arrive in time for afternoon tea. You might have time to take a stroll through the working coffee plantation or the huge organic garden. You can opt to relax on a sundeck lounger by the swimming pool or sample the Mvua African Rain Spa with treatments and massage, to calm the mind and rejuvenate your body after the exertions on your adventures. Dinner and overnight at Neptune Ngorongoro Luxury lodge

After an English breakfast at Neptune, we will have time for a short nature/bird walk at Gibbs Farm before making our way back to Arusha. We will eat our box lunch along the way adjacent to the Snake Park (optional, $10 per person). We should arrive at the Lake Duluti Serena Lodge in the mid-afternoon for packing and organizing before our evening flights out of Kilimanjaro International Airport. Dayrooms/showers will be available for our use.  Dinner is on your own tonight (the plane will serve dinner too).  If you are flying direct to the USA, you should arrive home the next day, Wednesday, June 18th.