Kenya - Tanzania Safaris: EAST AFRICA EXPLORER

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ITINERARY AT A GLANCE

ITINERARY DETAILS

Day 1 Nairobi
Arrival at Jomo Kenyatta Airport, met and assisted by a tour representative. Transfer to your hotel. Rest of the day at leisure. Overnight at Hotel Inter-continental Nairobi ( BB)

Day 2 Masai Mara National G.R
After breakfast, drive to the Masai Mara National Reserve offering wonderful scenery and plenty of game. It is perhaps the only region left in Kenya where the visitor may see animals in the same super-abundance as existed a century ago. Arrive for lunch at your lodge. Afternoon game drive until sunset. Meals and overnight at Mara Sopa Lodge (LDBB)

Day 3 Masai Mara National G.R
{Early morning optional balloon ride with champagne -style breakfast }
Morning and afternoon game drives. Meals and overnight at Mara Sopa Lodge ( LDBB )

Day 4 Lake Nakuru National Park / Lake Naivasha
Breakfast, then drive to Lake Naivasha with its commanding setting at the foot of the Rift Valley Escarpment. Lake Naivasha is also an important horticultural area of Kenya. Arrive for lunch at your lodge. Afternoon drive to Lake Nakuru National Park famous as the home to thousands of lesser and greater flamingo. This park also provides sanctuary for Rothschild giraffe, rhino and leopard. Afternoon game drive then drive back to your lodge. Meals and overnight at Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge ( LDBB )

Day 5 Amboseli National Park
After breakfast, drive to Amboseli National Park lying below the most famous symbol of Africa, Mt Kilimanjaro. Arrive for lunch at your lodge. Afternoon game drive until sunset. Meals and overnight at Amboseli Sopa Lodge (L-DBB)

Day 6 Amboseli National Park
Morning and afternoon game drives. Meals and overnight at Amboseli Sopa Lodge ( L-DBB )

Day 7 Ngorongoro Conservation Area
After breakfast, drive to the border town of Namanga where you will clear customs and immigration formalities. Proceed in Tanzanian vehicles to Arusha for lunch. Afternoon proceed to the Ngorongoro Crater, the largest intact caldera in the world with abundant wildlife permanently resident on the crater floor. Rest of the day at leisure. Dinner and overnight at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge ( L-DBB )

Day 8 Ngorongoro Conservation Area
After breakfast, depart for half day tour of the crater floor. Return to your lodge for lunch. Afternoon at leisure. Meals and overnight at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge (L-DBB)

Day 9 Serengeti National Park
After breakfast, drive 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. En route visit the Olduvai Gorge site of archeological findings , where traces of pre-historic man dating back to 3.5 million years ago have been discovered. Arrive for lunch at your lodge. Afternoon game drive until sunset. Meals and overnight at Serengeti Sopa Lodge ( LDBB )

Day 10 Serengeti National Park
All day spent in the Serengeti with morning and afternoon game drives. Meals and overnight at Serengeti Sopa Lodge (LDBB )

Day 11 Tarangire
Breakfast at your lodge , then drive from to the 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. Lunch en route at Lake Manyara Serena Lodge. Afternoon game drive en route to the lodge. Dinner and overnight at Tarangire Sopa Lodge (L-DBB )

Day 12 Nairobi
Early morning game drive, breakfast at your lodge then drive to Arusha for lunch. Afternoon transfer to Nairobi via the border town of Namanga where you will clear customs and immigration formalities. Proceed in Kenyan vehicles to Nairobi, Kenya's colourful capital city. You will be dropped at your hotel to refresh and change before being transferred to the famous Carnivore Restaurant for farewell dinner. Overnight at Hotel Inter-continental Nairobi ( L-D-BB)

Day 13 Departure
Day is spent at leisure in Nairobi. Later transfer from your hotel to Jomo Kenyatta Airport for your departure flight back home. A tour representative will re-confirm your onward flight, and assist you at check-in.

ACCOMMODATION INFORMATION

Hotel Inter-continental Nairobi
The popular Inter-continental is an ideal business cum leisure hotel offering high international standards of service and accommodation that are the hallmark of all Inter-continental hotels worldwide. Overlooking the city, the Nairobi Uhuru Gardens and the Kenyan Parliament, it is only 10 minutes walk minutes from the city centre and 20 minutes from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. The hotel offers tastefully decorated rooms, excellent restaurants, conference and meeting rooms, shops, swimming pool, casino and a host of other facilities.

Mara Sopa Lodge
The Masai Mara is one of the most famous game viewing areas in Africa. Large herds of game, including the amazing Great Migration of wildebeest and zebra, are still found here. Masai Mara Sopa Lodge is set in the Oloolaimutia Valley and blends perfectly with the surrounding hillside landscape. The lodge is located 206 km south of the Equator on the eastern boundary of the Masai Mara Game Reserve in southwestern Kenya, 2km from the Oloolaimutia Gate. The accent here is on the indigenous Masai people and the fabulous wealth of wildlife, birdlife and natural flora. Luxuriously appointed bedrooms, a refreshing swimming pool, a boutique and gift shop, wildlife films and CNN all ensure that your stay will be blissfully comfortable.

The lodge has 77 rooms, 12 suites and 1 Presidential suite, all of which are 'rondavel' style and have en-suite bathroom facilities which provide shaving sockets and hairdryers. Every room and suite has a private, elevated verandah with splendid views across the valley. Here guests can relax, sunbathe and watch resident birds and wildlife. Mini-bars are also available in each room. Like all pools at other Sopa lodges, the free-form swimming pool here too has a stunning location, overlooking the Oloolaimutia Valley.

Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge
Set on 200 acres of Lake Naivasha's southern shoreline in Africa's Great Rift Valley, the resort blends in perfectly with its natural surroundings. Being one of Kenya's most upmarket destinations, it is the ideal base from which to explore the surrounding countryside and nearby National Parks and wildlife sanctuaries. Double storied cottages offer extremely spacious rooms with en suite bathrooms and either balconies or solariums. Spacious rooms with ensuite bathroom, private lounge and balcony. Each room boasts two queen-size beds with mosquito nets on all windows. Facilities include: swimming pool, children's pool, nature walks, fitness centre, Telephone, Hairdryers, 3 Bars and babysitting facilities. Minimum temperatures of 11 degrees Celsius and maximums of 32 degrees. The short rains fall between November and December and the long rains between April and May.

Amboseli Sopa Lodge
Located at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, the lodge is set in expansive and mature wooded gardens that face Africa's highest mountain. Built within the area of 190 acres of Masai country, it is an ideal holiday base from which to enjoy numerous pursuits. Spacious cottage style rooms with en suite bathrooms and verandas. All rooms have mosquito nets on windows. Facilities Available: Swimming Pool, Children's Pool, Mountain Climbs, Masai Dancing, Board Games, Hairdryers, 3 Bars, Conference Facilities and Babysitting facilities are also available.

Special groups can enjoy private lunches at our shaded, outdoor bar-b-cue or starlit dinners beside the swimming pool. Minimum temperatures of 11 degrees Celsius and maximums of 32 degrees. The short rains fall between November and December and the long rains between April and May.

Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge
Sopa means welcome in the Masai language and is representative of the warm welcome you will receive at the Sopa lodges. Ngorongoro Sopa is spread out along the uppermost rim of the Ngorongoro World Heritage Site, an ancient extinct volcano that contains the largest permanent concentration of game in Africa. Ngorongoro Sopa offers breathtaking views of the crater floor far below. A sparkling swimming pool refreshes those returning from game drives. The rooms are cool and comfortable.

Opened in 1992, the lodge can accommodate 190 guests in 92 suites, each enjoying wall-to-wall carpeting, central heating, a private lounge with a mini bar, a bedroom with two queen size beds and ample room for a third, an en-suite bathroom with shaver sockets and a hair dryer, and a private solarium which offers stunning views of the crater floor below and the sun setting over the western horizon.

The lodge has direct-dial satellite telephone facilities as well as satellite television and wildlife-video-film options. A number of lodge electrical generating systems provide 240 volts, 50 cycles 24 hours a day. The water supply comes from nearby springs but guests are provided a complimentary bottle of mineral water for drinking. Children of all ages are welcome and special meals at convenient times can be arranged together with a non-professional baby-minder. A swimming pool is situated on the very edge of the crater itself and the cool water is bracing, even invigorating, at any time of year. The pool is also a super area to unwind and relax while enjoying the views of the crater floor below or the stunning sunsets.

Serengeti Sopa Lodge
The Serengeti Sopa lodge is located in the Nyarboro Hills in the south west of the Serengeti National Park and is the only tourism development in this section of the Park. Year round water and the acacia woodland in this area create an ideal environment for the wide variety of wildlife seen in the immediate vicinity of the lodge. Looking out over the seemingly endless Serengeti plains, this hill side lodge is a tranquil oasis set in thousands of square kilometers of Serengeti National Park. The Serengeti Plains are host to a dramatic annual migration of hundreds of thousands of wildebeest, zebra and antelope. This is one of the great spectacles of the natural world.

From December to May the migration gathers in the immediate vicinity of the lodge and provides an unforgettable spectacle, as predators hunt close by. The migration can also be viewed in a more spectacular fashion - on optional hot-air balloon ride across the plains of the Serengeti. Take-off is at dawn and the flight lasts for an hour before a sumptuous champagne breakfast wherever you land. This is followed by a game drive back to the lodge, arriving in time for lunch. As the sun sets over the plains, you may enjoy sundowner cocktails by the pool, and in the evening, after a 4-course dinner, traditional dancers entertain the guests.

Opened in 1992, the lodge can accommodate 170 guests in 79 suites, each enjoying wall-to-wall carpeting, a private lounge with a mini bar, a bedroom with two queen size beds and ample room for a third guest, an en-suite bathroom with shaver sockets and a hair dryer, and a private verandah which offers stunning views over the plains. The lodge has direct-dial satellite telephone facilities as well as satellite television and wildlife-video-film options.

The sopa pools are renowned for their size and location and this one in the Serengeti is no exception. The double size pool offers a refreshing interlude between game drives as well as wonderful views over the rolling plains of the Serengeti.

Tarangire Sopa Lodge
Tarangire is now known as the best national park on the northern circuit for elephant and Tarangire Sopa is ideally placed for visitors to this lovely park where beautiful stately baobab trees pepper the landscape and give the park its nickname of "Baobab Forest". Tarangire Sopa welcomes travelers to its vast marble-floored reception area with cold flannels and iced juice. In the pretty gardens a large circular pool with a central island, a pool bar and elegant wooden loungers demonstrates the lodge's commitment to comfort. Delicious barbecue lunches are often served here. A broad verandah wraps itself around the lodge and gives prime viewing for the waterhole below which is filled during the dry season (June-Oct) and becomes a magnet to wildlife.

The rooms at the lodge are comfortable and arranged in groups of four, in African-style buildings, within the grounds. Large sliding doors open to a private balcony. However, the pool, games room, hospitality lounge with complimentary newspapers and, above all, the stunning scenery and wildlife of the Park, will ensure that your days are satisfyingly full.