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Kenya Most Romantic | Photographers Paradise - Kenya
Photographers Paradise - Tanzania | Tanzania Most Romantic | Wildest Most Remote Places

An African Safari is an unforgettable travel experience, it touches something deep within us and it is an experience that will never be forgotten. A trip to Tanzania is both intriguing and exciting, created by the fascinating balance between the wildlife, the landscapes and its people.

RATES 2008:
LOW SEASON : 7858.00 per person twin share, and 1147.00 per person single supp
HIGH SEASON : 8477.00 per person twin share, and 1457.00 per person single supp

(closed april 1-may 31 08 )

Please check for seasonality.

ITINERARY DETAILS

Day 1 Arusha
Upon arrival at Jomo Kenyatta International airport you will be met by a Vintage Africa Representative who will meet and assist you before your transfer to your town hotel situated in the shadow of Mount Meru, the second highest mountain in Tanzania. It is an attractive town that is both a center for agriculture and the main safari base to the northern parks. Arrive for check-in at your hotel with rest of the day at leisure with Overnight at Arusha Hotel BB.

Day 2 Tarangire National Park
Breakfast, check out and drive from Arusha to Tarangire National Park, named after the Tarangire River, which rises in Tanzania's central highland. The river lures thousands of plains game to its banks. Game drive enroute to your camp to arrive early intime for check-in followed by lunch, after lunch relax before proceeding for a late afternoon game drive returning early before sunset intime for dinner and Overnight at Tarangire River Camp LDBB.

Day 3 Tarangire National Park
Today spend full day in Tarangire National Park with morning and afternoon game drives with all meals being served at your camp with all meals at your camp with Overnight at Tarangire River Camp LDBB.

Day 4 Tarangire National Park
Today spend full day in Tarangire National Park with morning and afternoon game drives with all meals being served at your camp with all meals at your camp with Overnight at Tarangire River Camp LDBB.

Day 5 Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Breakfast, check out and drive from Tarangire to the Ngorongoro Crater, the largest intact caldera in the world. Its enduring charm stems from its overwhelming physical beauty and the abundance of wildlife permanently resident on the crater floor. Arrive at your lodge located at the rim of the crater floor and spend the afternoon at leisure where you will spend the afternoon overlooking the crater floor from your lodge balcony with Dinner and Overnight at Ngorongoro Serena Lodge LDBB.

Day 6 Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Today have an early breakfast at your lodge and descend the crater floor for a half-day crater tour to return early for lunch at your lodge. Afternoon spend at leisure with Dinner and Overnight at Ngorongoro Serena Lodge LDBB.

Day 7 Serengeti National Park
Breakfast at your lodge check out and drive from Ngorongoro Crater via Olduvai gorge site of archeological findings, where traces of pre-historic man dating back to 3.5 million years ago have been discovered. Proceed to the Serengeti National Park, undoubtedly the most famous wildlife sanctuary in the world, unequalled for its natural beauty and the greatest concentration of plains game anywhere. Arrive intime for lunch at your camp in Northern Serengeti. After lunch relax before proceeding on a late afternoon game drive to return to your lodge before sunset intime for your dinner and Overnight at Sayari Camp LDBB.

Day 8 Serengeti National Park
Today spend full day in Serengeti with picnic lunch boxes and enjoy a full day game drive in Serengeti National Park to return early for dinner and Overnight at Sayari Camp LDBB.

Day 9 Serengeti National Park
Today spend full day in Serengeti with picnic lunch boxes and enjoy a full day game drive in Serengeti National Park to return early for dinner and Overnight at Sayari Camp LDBB.

Day 10 Serengeti National Park
Today spend full day in Serengeti with picnic lunch boxes and enjoy a full day game drive in Serengeti National Park to return early for dinner and Overnight at Sayari Camp LDBB.

Day 11 Arusha
Breakfast, check out and transferred to the airport for your scheduled flight to Arusha departing at 1015hrs. On arrival at Arusha airport at 1245hrs you will be met by a Grumeti Expenditions Representative who will meet and assist you before your transfer to your town hotel for check-in with meals on own arrangements with Overnight at Arusha Hotel BB.

Day 12 Ruaha National Park
Breakfast, check out and transferred to Arusha airport for your scheduled flight to Ruaha departing at 0900hrs. On arrival at 1130hrs you will be met by lodge vehicle and transferred to your lodge for check-in followed by lunch. Afternoon game activities with Dinner and Overnight at Mwagusi Safari Camp LDBB.

Day 13 Ruaha National Park
Game activities + Meals with Overnight at Mwagusi Safari Camp LDBB.

Day 14 Ruaha National Park
Game activities + Meals with Overnight at Mwagusi Safari Camp LDBB.

Day 15 Departure
Breakfast, morning game activities before transfer to the airstrip for your onward scheduled flight to Dar Es Salaam departing at 1145hrs. On arrival at 1400hrs you will connect to your onward departure flight. A Grumeti Expenditions Representative will reconfirm your flights.

The Package Includes:

2Nights Arusha Hotel
3Nights Tarangire River Camp
2Nights Ngorongoro Serena Lodge
4Nights Sayari North Camp (Includes: Full board Accommodation, All drinks (except champagne, cellar wines, premium brand spirits) and Laundry)
3Nights Mwangusi Camp Package (Includes: Fullboard accommodation, 2 game drives per day in open 4x4, limited laundry, tea, coffee, filtered water, park fees & airstrip Trsf)
Arrival and departure airport transfers
All meals as specified in the Itinerary
All game drives as per itinerary
All park entrance fees as per itinerary
Transport in lodge shared 4x4 in Mwangusi Camp
Transport in 4 x 4 Grumeti Safari vehicle on safari except Mwangusi
Services of a qualified English Speaking Driver Guide
1 Litre bottle of mineral water per person per day while on a road safari in a VINTAGE AFRICA vehicle

The Package Excludes:

All International Flights + Taxes
Visas
Travel & Personal accident insurance
Tips & personal expenses such as telephone calls...etc.
Excursions not detailed in above program

Included flights:

Scheduled flight Kongatende - Arusha on day 11
Scheduled flight Arusha - Ruaha on day 12
Scheduled flights Ruaha - Dar Es Salaam on day 15

Added Value:

Vintage Africa Gift Pack
Complimenmtary 188 pages Vintage Africa Safari Guide covering the whole of East Africa
Complimentatry Vintage Africa Safari Pouch with a pen
Complimentary Vintage Africa Hat

Optional services:

 USD 25.00 Per person Flying Doctor Rescue & Evacuation Service (Subject to change and vendor terms & conditions).

NB: FLIGHT COST IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE.

ACCOMMODATION INFORMATION

Arusha Hotel

Located Right at clock tower, in the center of Arusha town, with a total of 65 rooms, 2 suites, 6 deluxe rooms en-suite bathroom, With each room having:

· tea and coffee making facilities
· satellite television with a selection of channels
· hair dryer
· electronic safe
· international direct dial phones
· data port for Internet access
· 24 hours room service
· smoking and non-smoking rooms available

Facilities

· bar/café
· restaurant
· swimming pool
· 3 acres of lush tropical gardens
· ballroom
· conference rooms
· meetings and banqueting facilities
· access to nearby gym
· business center with secretarial services
· car parking
· curio shop
· baby sitting and airport shuttle services at minimal charge

Tarangire River Camp

Tarangire River Camp, close to the old Baobab, that dominates the dry riverbed is holding 10 luxury safari tents within 25,00 hectares concession area set aside for conservation by the local maasai community of Minjingu, which borders Tarangire National Park in its north west limit, only 3,5 kms from the main gate, including in the land the stream of the river of its name.

The camp can accommodate only 20 guest in intimate exclusivity in a walk-through safari tents with en suite bathrooms. Each tent is furnished with wardrobe, luggage rack, dressing table, colourful rags and traditional safari chairs.  Shaded by a giant baobab tree the magnificent tarangire River camp main building is an elegant elevated thatch and timber structure comprising of a main lounge, wildlife reference library, dining and cocktail bar. With stunning views of the Maasai plains the forsted area of the park and in clear days even the distant Mount Meru and Kilimanjaro. An impressive landscape of old monumental baobab trees and acacias gives the visitor an amazing natural welcome to an area extraordinary rich in wildlife, standing out the big herds of elephants that are common withn the whole tarangire ecosystem.

Ngorongoro Serena Lodge

Ngorongoro Serena Lodge is perched on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater with exquisite views of the crater, one of the wonders of the natural world. Your first sighting of the crater will simply take your breath away.

The lodge is built of local stone and blends harmoniously into its surroundings. From here you will descend the wall of the crater for a most amazing game drive inside the crater. Glorious sunrises and sunsets, roaring log fires and excellent food all form part of the renowned Serena experience.

Sayari Camp

The name Serengeti stems from the Maasai word "Siring" referring to "endless plains", and that's really what it is. The Serengeti National Park is vast, stretching from the endless grass plains in the South to the woodlands in the north up to the Kenyan border. The size of the Park - circa 15,000 square kilometers - covers circa half of Belgium and the Serengeti eco-system as a whole is virtually the same size as Belgium.

Sayari camp is a seasonal camp that follows the migration. It is located in Piaya, in the southern plains from January to April, moves to the Mara river area (north-western Serengeti) for June to September and is based in Soit Sambu in the north-eastern part of the Serengeti from October to mid January (the camp is closed during April and May, the season of the long rains). The locations of the camp are all located near the border of the national park (Mara just inside the park and Piaya and Soit Sambu just outside the park), to allow for the superior combination of top wildlife viewing and walking safaris and interaction with local cultures (e.g., Masaai) just outside the park.

Sayari Camp is an intimate seasonal tented camp of 8 guest tents. Sayari is Kiswahili for universe/planet, capturing the vast plains and endless skies in which the camp is immersed.

Guest tents
Guest tents are very originally designed, spacious and are equipped with fully en-suite bathroom facilities. Each tent has its own spacious private verandah with a very comfortable couch and chairs, overlooking the vast Serengeti that is spread out before you. Inside the tent, very comfortable king-size beds with beautiful cloth and contemporary furniture give the tent a very stylish yet homely feel. Lighting in the tent can be made both atmospheric and at reading strength. The spacious bathroom has a shower, double sinks and a ceramic flush toilet that is environmentally friendly.

Common facilities
Central to the camp are two stylish common tents. When the camp is occupied by multiple small groups, one tent will serve as a dining tent and the other one as a lounge, where drinks are served and safari stories are shared. When a somewhat larger group (e.g., 8 people) visits in the camp, one of the common tents can be made the exclusive lounging/dining tent for that group. The other tent will then be set up as a lounging/dining tent for the other guests of Sayari Camp. 

The lounge tent welcomes you to completely relax, sipping on your drink while looking out over the Serengeti, reading a book or discussing the adventures of the day. A sea of cushions, a wide range of quality drinks & snacks and a wealth of books on nature & wildlife in the area make this a place where you can easily loose track of time. Dining is intimate in the dining area, but can also be enjoyed privately under the millions of stars in the Serengeti sky. Either way, our amicable staff will prepare you a meal you wouldn't dream possible in the middle of the camp's remote wilderness locations. At night, be overwhelmed by the many stars.

Mwagusi Safari Camp

The Ruaha National Park is of particular interest in that animals from both East Africa and Southern Africa may be found here - for example you may see hunting dog, roan antelope, sable antelope, lesser kudu and Grant's gazelle. The variety is amazing and there are also large herds of elephant, buffalo and predators aplenty. It is one of the wildest, most remote and relatively little visited Tanzanian parks and offers about five thousand square miles of wilderness.

Mwagusi Safari Camp looks out over the dry bed of a sand river where animals come to dig for water. The large main "banda" has a grass thatched  roof supported by a wooden sub-structure. Half-walls allow views of the sand river and serve to support a collection of objects found in the Park. Buffalo horns, delicate snail shells and the beautiful shapes of weathered wood lie side-by-side with local carvings and hand-woven basketry. A long table flanked by safari chairs runs the length of the central portion. At either end are comfortable seating areas with big sofas and a barwhich has a surprisingly wide selection of drinks.

In the mornings guests often ask to be woken with tea or coffee in their private tent, shaded by a thatched roof and overlooking the sand river. A short guided walk before breakfast is a good way to see some of the amazing variety of birds. Breakfast features tropical fruits and juices, mouth-watering, freshly-baked cinnamon bread and eggs from the nearest village. Dinner is almost always cooked and eaten under the stars, after drinks and good conversation around the crackling campfire.

Your first game drive takes you out into the amazing variety of habitat. Miombo woodland, acacia tortilis, rough hilly terrain, grassy plains, stunning granite ridges and the sand river bed. The guides are extremely knowledgeable and may offer English, Latin and local names for fauna and flora. During the dry season the buffalo come to drink twice daily at the waterholes in the seasonal rivers where lions lie in wait. From here you may be lucky enough to observe the natural interaction of predator and prey. Mwagusi promises a special and truly memorable African wilderness safari for both the first-timer and the seasoned safari enthusiast.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area
In the Great Rift Valley, that great schism in the earth's crust, lies the wonderful Ngorongoro Crater, one of the wonders of the natural world. It is an extinct volcano that collapsed in on itself around 25 million years ago thus forming a vast superbowl where the largest permanent concentration of African game is on display.

The central bowl, the caldera, has sides roughly 1,950 feet high and a flattish centre with a diameter of about ten miles. The views from the top of the crater wall are absolutely breathtaking. The crater walls are forested but four wheel drive vehicles will take you down into this primeval paradise of woodland, lake, river, swamp and plain that shelters around 20,000 animals. Many of these are the large grazing animals such as wildebeest, buffalo, gazelle and zebra who depend on the open grasslands in the crater. These attract the attendant predators, the black-maned lion, the leopard and hyena. The elephant found within the caldera tend to be the lone males who have left the herds in the forested crater rim.

When the water stocks are low elsewhere the animals within this micro-world turn to the swamps for fresh water and food. Elephants feed on the giant sedges and hippo wallow in the pools. The Fever Tree forests shelter monkeys, bushbuck and waterbuck and the few black rhino that have taken refuge here. A soda lake, fed by the Munge river attracts water birds, including flamingos and is a favourite place for predators to make their kill. Wildly beautiful as it is, it is not surprising that Ngorongoro Crater has been called a Garden of Eden.

The conservation area also encompasses several other volcanos, one of which, Oldonyo Lengai, is still live. You may struggle to the top, if you wish, to gaze into its open and sulphurous maw but many prefer to admire from afar. One of the most fascinating attractions in the area is the Olduvai Gorge, where an old river has carved away the rock to expose layer upon layer of volcanic soil. This is where Dr Louis and Mary Leakey found the remains of hominids "Nutcracker Man" and "Toolmaking Man". The "Cradle of Mankind" now has a visitor centre where you may hear a short lecture on the the work of the Leakeys and their successors and a small museum where you may see some of their finds, including a giant giraffe - it is hard to believe that they were once even taller!

Serengeti National Park
George Adamson, co-raiser of Elsa the lioness, and husband of "Born Free" author Joy Adamson, visited the Serengeti in the early sixties and describes the experience in "Pride and Joy", his autobiography. At this time he considered it probably the greatest of all game reserves in Africa and one man was mainly responsible - Bernhardt Grzimek, Director of Frankfurt Zoo. The Serengeti had suffered terribly from over-zealous hunting in the 1930's and from large-scale killing of game during the war. Grzimek applied himself to the tensions between Maasai need for grazing and the indigenous wildlife. He and his son carried out a massive survey, using planes to quantify the game, and identifying and logging the plantlife. He used his best-seller "Serengeti Shall Not Die" to raise funds and publicise the exercise. Thanks to the Grzimeks, and to John Owen who established a renowned scientific research establishment there, the Serengeti still has an amazing concentration of wildlife.
 

The 14,763 square kilometres of the Serengeti are probably most famous for being the southern end of the Great Migration. Every year over 1.5 million animals, mostly wildebeest but also zebra and Thompson's gazelle, follow their instincts and move through the western corridor on their 1000 kilometre journey to the fresh grazing of the Masai Mara. Predators pick off the weak, the laggardly and the young and crocodiles feast as the vast herd crosses the rivers but they continue their trek, as they have done since time immemorial. This is one of the earth's great sights - but it is by no means all the Serengeti has to offer.

The vast, flat central plains, made fertile by the ashes of the none volcanos of the Ngongoro highlands, are places of huge skies, of shimmering heat hazes, yet also of delicate wild flowers blooming after the rains. The savannah, sprinkled with Acacia Tortilis, has majestic termite mounds and rock formations called kopjes which make great vantage points for predators. The lion are abundant, the leopard are plentiful (yet still secretive) and black rhino and cheetah both breed here. There are more than 500 species of bird and, interestingly, 100 sub-species of dung beetle - a sign of a varied animal population! Ndutu, in the south, has small lakes where you may see hippo and water birds. Perhaps one of the best ways to see the Serengeti is a hot air balloon ride when, in the cool of the early morning, you may admire the grandeur, the vastness and the stunning landscape. page 100 of g. adamson - serengeti shall not die - Bernhardt Grzimek, Director of Frankfurt zoo.

Ruaha National Park
 Bounded by the Ruaha river the Ruaha National Park is the second largest in the country. Its 10,300 square kilometres of plateau, kopjes and wooded hills lies in the central region of Tanzania. The Ruaha is particularly fascinating to those interested in natural history because this is the only protected area where the flora and fauna of eastern and southern Africa overlap. Animals are nowhere else seen in these combinations -both roan antelope and sable antelope, greater kudu and lesser kudu and this is the furthest south that you will find the Grant's gazelle. There are about 8,000 elephant, the largest population of any national park in East Africa. The intriguing wild dog, once hunted almost to extinction partly because of its perceived cruelty to its prey, still runs in packs here. 

The terrain in the Ruaha is nothing if not varied: acacia tortilis woodland; grassy plains; miombo woodland; stunning granite ridges; and the lifeblood of the park, the great Ruaha river. As in most areas of such variety the birding is excellent. During the dry season, from May to December, the buffalo come to drink twice a day at the waterholes in the dry beds of the seasonal rivers where lions lie in wait for them. These sand rivers, tributaries of or even the Ruaha itself, are the gathering place for wildlife. Troops of baboons play along the river bank, elephants dig for water, lizards bask on the rocky outcrops, gazelle leap away at any imagined sound. This is the wilderness experience par excellence.

Luggage:
PLEASE be reminded that the luggage allowance on our schedule flights is strictly 15KGS PER PERSON and that SOFT BAGS are highly recommended, if not essential.  In light aircraft the baggage area and weight allowance is limited. Hard Samsonite type suitcases do not fit into the cargo compartment easily, if at all. Due to limited space available for storage in safari vehicles, we strongly recommend use soft duffle bags rather than hard suitcases.

Contact Cindi at Africa Discovery to reserve your spot!

For more information
Contact:
Africa Discovery
@
1-800-886-7321 • phone: (415) 444-5100 • fax: (415) 444-5560
or
Request Information