Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar: the Masai Mara, the Serengeti and the beach

Arrive in Nairobi

Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to your hotel in Nairobi

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Nairobi
• Environ 45 min de route

Après-midi

If you land early, the afternoon is yours: the Nairobi National Museum and the Karen Blixen Museum are both an easy taxi ride, and the hotel can book one for you.

Soir

In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the thirteen days ahead: why we start early in the parks, how the window seats rotate, the 15 kg soft-bag limit on the small planes, and which documents to keep in your day bag for the flight into Tanzania. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner. Repack tonight into a soft bag, because tomorrow we fly to the Mara.

Compris

• Pick-up at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner

Fly to the Masai Mara

Wilson Airport in Nairobi to an airstrip in the Masai Mara, then a game drive to camp

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Masai Mara
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

After breakfast it is about half an hour across town to Wilson Airport, Nairobi's light-aircraft airport, for a scheduled flight of 45 minutes to an hour, sometimes with a stop at another airstrip, over the Great Rift Valley. At the airstrip our Kenyan driver-guides meet us with the 4x4s: at most six guests in each, every seat a window, with a pop-up roof for standing and photos. We game drive to camp, a tented camp in or close to the reserve, for three nights.

Après-midi

Lunch is at camp, then a rest through the heat of the day.

Soir

At about four we head out again as the light softens, over open grassland with lone acacias, looking for lions, elephants, topi and giraffe, and are back by dusk for dinner and the sounds of the night outside the tent.

Compris

• Flight from Wilson Airport, Nairobi, to the Masai Mara
• Game drive from the airstrip to camp
• Late-afternoon game drive in the Masai Mara National Reserve

A full day in the Mara

Full-day game drive in the Masai Mara National Reserve, with a picnic lunch

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Masai Mara

Matin

We leave at about 6:30 am with coffee in a flask and breakfast packed, because the first hours are when the cats are most active and the light is soft. The Masai Mara is the northern end of the same ecosystem as the Serengeti, about 1,500 square kilometres of grassland cut by the Mara and Talek rivers. From about July to October the wildebeest and zebra herds are usually here, and crossings of the Mara River are possible, though no one can say when or where the herds will cross. Your driver-guides share sightings by radio, and we wait at a crossing point only as long as the group wants. In the other months the Mara keeps its resident lions, elephants, buffalo, hippos, giraffes and cheetahs all year.

Soir

We picnic in the shade of a tree inside the reserve and return to camp in the late afternoon, with time for a shower before dinner. If you have booked the balloon, you lift off at dawn and join us after a bush breakfast.

Compris

• Full-day game drive in the Masai Mara National Reserve
• Picnic lunch in the reserve

Activités en option

• Hot-air balloon flight at dawn with a bush breakfast. Booked in advance.

Mara at dawn, a Maasai village in the afternoon

Dawn game drive, then a visit to a Maasai village near the reserve

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Masai Mara

Matin

One more early drive at first light, to a different corner of the reserve from yesterday, chosen by your driver-guides from what was seen the day before. We have coffee before we go and come back to camp at about ten for a late breakfast, then the middle of the day is free: rest in your tent, read on the deck, or watch the plains from camp.

Soir

In the middle of the afternoon we drive a short way out of the reserve to a Maasai village, an enkang of homes inside a thorn fence where families keep their cattle at night. Your hosts show you their houses, explain how cattle shape Maasai life, and talk about school, land and change. The visit fee goes to the community, and the beadwork is for sale without any pressure to buy. We are back for a sundowner looking out over the grassland, and an early night before tomorrow's flights into Tanzania.

Compris

• Dawn game drive in the Masai Mara National Reserve
• Maasai village visit with a local host
• Sundowner at camp

Fly out of the Mara to Kilimanjaro and Arusha

Masai Mara airstrip to Wilson Airport, across Nairobi to Jomo Kenyatta, flight to Kilimanjaro, then Arusha

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Arusha
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

A short game drive takes us to the airstrip for a mid-morning flight back to Wilson Airport.

Après-midi

A van takes us across Nairobi, about half an hour, to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, where we sit down to lunch before the flight of about an hour to Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO). On a clear afternoon Kilimanjaro shows from the plane. Your guide walks you through Tanzanian entry: passport, e-visa and yellow fever card in hand. Our Tanzanian driver-guides meet us with the 4x4s, and it is about an hour west to Arusha, at the foot of Mount Meru, 4,566 metres.

Soir

Dinner is at the hotel, and the evening is free to rest after a long day of travel.

Compris

• Flight from the Masai Mara to Wilson Airport, Nairobi
• Transfer from Wilson to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport
• Flight from Nairobi to Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO)
• Help through Tanzanian entry formalities
• Drive from JRO to Arusha

Tarangire, the park of elephants and baobabs

Arusha to Tarangire National Park by Makuyuni, then an afternoon game drive

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Tarangire
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

A slower morning after yesterday's flights: breakfast at the hotel and away at about 8:30. It is about two hours west on a good tarmac road through Maasai grazing land to Makuyuni, then south to the gate of Tarangire National Park. Tarangire is known for its baobab trees, some of them many centuries old, and for its elephants, which gather along the Tarangire River in the dry months from about June to October, when the river is the only water for miles.

Après-midi

We game drive to our camp for lunch and a rest through the heat. At about four we head out again along the river, where zebra, wildebeest, giraffe and buffalo come down to drink, and the sandy banks are cut into small cliffs. Lions and leopards are here too, though harder to see in the long grass.

Soir

Back by dusk for dinner, with the river below camp.

Compris

• Game drive from the gate to camp
• Late-afternoon game drive along the Tarangire River
• Tarangire National Park fees

Tarangire at dawn, up to the Ngorongoro rim

Dawn game drive in Tarangire, then via Mto wa Mbu and Karatu to the Ngorongoro Crater rim

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Ngorongoro
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

We leave camp at about 6:30 am for a dawn drive, when the elephants are moving to the river and the light on the baobabs is warm and low. Back to camp for a late breakfast and to load the bags, then we leave the park and drive north and west to Mto wa Mbu, a market town at the foot of the Rift Valley wall, about an hour and a half away.

Après-midi

We stop for lunch with local dishes, then climb the escarpment past Lake Manyara and through the farmland around Karatu, where coffee and wheat grow on the red soil. At the Lodoare gate we enter the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, and climb through forest to the crater rim at about 2,300 metres, arriving in the middle of the afternoon. The rest of the day is free.

Soir

The air is cool, so have a warm layer ready for the view into the crater at sunset.

Compris

• Dawn game drive in Tarangire National Park
• Lunch in Mto wa Mbu
• Ngorongoro Conservation Area fees

Ngorongoro Crater at gate opening, on to the Serengeti

Ngorongoro Crater floor, then Olduvai Gorge and Naabi Hill to Seronera in the central Serengeti

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Serengeti
• Environ 4 h de route

Matin

We leave the lodge in the dark with a packed breakfast and reach the descent road as the gate opens, around 6 am, so we drop to the crater floor in the morning mist among the first vehicles. Ngorongoro is a collapsed volcano about 600 metres deep, with some 260 square kilometres of grassland, swamp, forest and the soda lake Magadi on its floor. Lions, hyenas, buffalo, zebra and wildebeest live here all year, and it is your best chance of a black rhino, though they are few and often far off. Breakfast is at a picnic site on the floor; we climb out at about ten, as the crowds build. Then west to Olduvai Gorge, where a small museum tells how Mary Leakey found a hominin skull about 1.75 million years old in 1959.

Après-midi

Picnic lunch there, then on to the Serengeti's Naabi Hill gate and a game drive across the plains to camp near Seronera for two nights.

Compris

• Ngorongoro Crater game drive from gate opening, with the crater fee
• Picnic breakfast on the crater floor
• Olduvai Gorge museum
• Game drive from Naabi Hill to camp
• Serengeti National Park fees

A full day in the Serengeti

Dawn and full-day game drives in the Serengeti, planned by season

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Serengeti

Matin

We leave camp before sunrise, which near the equator comes at about half past six all year, with coffee in a flask and breakfast packed. The Serengeti covers some 14,750 square kilometres and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981. Around Seronera the river keeps water and shade through the dry months, so the area holds resident game all year: lions on the granite outcrops called kopjes, leopards in the sausage trees, cheetahs on the open grass. On departures from January to March we head south towards the calving plains near Ndutu, about two hours away; from July to October most herds are in the far north and the Mara, so we stay central and look for the predators. We picnic in the bush, stop at a hippo pool, and give the driver-guides time to wait at a good sighting. A sundowner on the drive back ends the last full day of the safari.

Compris

• Dawn game drive with packed breakfast
• Full-day game drive with picnic lunch
• Hippo pool stop
• Sundowner on the evening drive

Activités en option

• Hot-air balloon flight at dawn with a bush breakfast. Approximate; booked in advance.

Serengeti sunrise, then fly to Zanzibar

Dawn game drive in the Serengeti, flight from Seronera to Zanzibar, then Stone Town

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Stone Town
• Environ 18 min de route

Matin

One last drive at first light, then breakfast at camp and the bags into the 4x4s.

Après-midi

We game drive to the Seronera airstrip for a late-morning scheduled light-aircraft flight to Zanzibar, usually with a stop at Arusha or Lake Manyara, about three hours in all, with a packed lunch in hand. Say goodbye to the Tanzanian driver-guides at the airstrip; your See Sight Tours guide flies on with you. The plains give way to the Rift Valley, then the green coast and the turquoise water of the Zanzibar Channel. Our van meets us at Zanzibar's airport, a short drive from Stone Town, the old trading town on the island's west coast and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. We check into a hotel inside the old town in the middle of the afternoon.

Soir

The evening is free: walk to the Forodhani Gardens on the seafront, where food stalls grill seafood as the sun sets.

Compris

• Dawn game drive in the Serengeti
• Flight from Seronera to Zanzibar
• Transfer from Zanzibar airport to Stone Town

Stone Town on foot, a spice farm and the north coast

Stone Town walk, a spice farm in the island's interior, then north to Nungwi or Kendwa

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Nungwi
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Après-midi

Then we drive out of town to a spice farm in the green interior, where the farmer cuts open nutmeg, crushes cinnamon bark and shows how cloves, vanilla and pepper grow, and we eat lunch cooked with what we have just seen. In the afternoon it is about an hour north to the beaches at Nungwi or Kendwa, where the tide moves less than on the east coast and the sea is good for swimming most of the day.

Soir

The evening is yours on the sand.

Compris

• Guided Stone Town walk with a local guide
• Spice farm visit with lunch
• Transfer to the north coast

A free day on Zanzibar's north coast

Free day at Nungwi or Kendwa

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Nungwi

Soir

After nearly two weeks of early starts, this day is yours and nothing is scheduled until the farewell dinner. Swim, read under a palm, or walk the beach towards Nungwi village, where dhow builders still shape wooden boats on the sand by hand. If you want more, your guide can book a boat out to the reef around Mnemba Island to snorkel among the reef fish and, often, dolphins, or a sunset sail in a traditional dhow along the coast. Both are optional, priced up front and booked only if you ask. The north coast faces west, so the sun sets over the sea, and in the evening we gather on the beach for a farewell dinner together, with seafood and Swahili dishes, to share stories from the Mara to the reef. Bring reef-safe sunscreen and keep swimwear to the beach, out of respect for the villages along the shore.

Compris

• Farewell dinner on the beach

Activités en option

• Snorkelling trip to the reef at Mnemba Island. Booked the day before.
• Sunset dhow sail along the north coast. Booked the day before.

Leave from Zanzibar

Nungwi or Kendwa to Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (ZNZ)

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

A slow morning: breakfast with the sea in front of you and a last swim if you like. We time your transfer to your flight. Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (ZNZ) is about 65 km south of the north coast, roughly an hour and a half by road through villages and plantations, so we usually leave three hours or more before an international flight. Your guide sees the group off and checks each flight before saying goodbye. Zanzibar has direct flights to the Gulf, to Europe on some days, and to Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Addis Ababa, which connect onward to Canada and the United States; plan for at least one change. Book a flight leaving after about 1 pm if you want the morning on the beach; any time works, and the transfer is included whenever you go. If you want to stay on, we can book extra beach nights.

Compris

• Drop-off at Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (ZNZ)