Tanzania Classic - 7 Days

• Accommodation

  Set high above the lake, and below the escarpment, ‘glamping’ at Lake Manyara Tortilis Camp will provide you with a night to remember. Unlike many accommodations in this area, this unique camp is located actually inside the National Park, and it’s also perfectly placed for spectacular sunrises. Small and intimate, it is staffed by a team of warm and welcoming personnel, eager to ensure you enjoy your stay here. Wildlife roam freely amongst the tents, there’s an atmospheric ‘fireplace’ for you to take a drink, and the tents themselves will surprise you with their levels of comfort.

• Meal plan

  Breakfast is provided at The African Tulip. Lunch will be a nutritious and balanced meal, also provided by the camp for you to take out on safari. Your dinner will be a full, cooked meal created by the team at the Lake Manyara Tortilis Camp.

With Serengeti as our destination, and with your head full of magical memories of Manyara, we set off to the north and west, a 5-hour journey of around 222km, following the famous Rift Valley. On the journey, you will be enchanted by the colors of everyday Tanzanian life, the different faces of the tribesmen, their herds, the bustle of the transport, the vibrant roadside stalls and markets. Soon, however, the human habitation gives way to the Serengeti plains.

Here’s a National Park which will offer you a whole variety of wildlife surprises over the next few days, but perhaps today’s highlight – certainly for first-time visitors – will simply be the Serengeti terrain itself. The sheer vastness, as the plains roll away in front of you into eternity, will leave you with a sense of awe.

At last! Serengeti, the incomparable wonder of Tanzania, will be the stage for the natural animal theatrics which will be performed over the next few days. Your game drive here combines the known with the unknown, the certainty that you will be amazed with the uncertainty of exactly what you will see and when. Changing light, a changing cast of animal actors, ensuring that at every turn there is a new experience. Snap off some memorable photos, but don’t forget to simply take a deep breath and enjoy nature in its real-time, raw beauty.

Serengeti Tortilis Camp is superbly situated, a wilderness experience like no other. This is what some call ‘glamping,’ with a high degree of comfort in the heart of this famous National Park. The team here is totally dedicated to your enjoyment, providing the warmest of welcomes which might include a bit of singing and dancing: bring your sense of rhythm! You may not be alone here, as the wildlife like to roam freely amongst the tents. But don’t worry, our staff will keep you safe. Enjoy a drink at our outdoor ‘fireplace’ while listening to the calls of the wild.

Then, feast yourselves on a truly superb dinner and your driver-guide will discuss the plans for the next day’s itinerary in the Serengeti. Afterwards, review the photos that have captured the day’s highlights, before falling asleep to get ready for another day of adventure.

Today, we set off from our accommodation in the Central Serengeti. Wildlife is abundant: sometimes you may think it has come to find you, rather than the other way round. Today’s highlight is unknown, as the animals don’t publish their schedule (!) What we see also depends on the season, but this area is where bushland meets grassland, a favorite spot for big cats looking for prey. Cheetah, leopard and lions are all possibilities today.

After your day of thrilling game drives, your driver will return you safely for another relaxing night your Serengeti accommodation (see above). Drink, relax, dine and sleep, all out in the wilderness of the Serengeti. What could be better?

Breakfast is enjoyed at the Serengeti Tortilis Camp. Lunch will be a nutritious and balanced meal, also provided by the camp for you to take out on safari. Your dinner will be a delicious meal at the Serengeti Tortilis Camp.

After a morning game drive and lunch, this afternoon we will head south-east towards Ngorongoro, a distance of 145km which will take us around 3 ½ hours.

Today, we will get our first sight of the spectacular, incomparable Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera and the heart of the Conservation Area of the same name. But before that, we have another morning game drive in amazing Serengeti, marveling at its animal inhabitants. Another day of adventure, another day to enjoy the wildlife.

With its informative visitor centre, the Seronera area of Central Serengeti is the national park’s most popular area. And it is very popular with the wildlife, too. The Seronera river enjoys year-round waterflow, so there is always something of interest to observe. Several game drives can be undertaken here and might reveal lions in sizeable prides, hippo or herds of elephants – whose populations in the park have risen in recent times. Depending on other attractions, we may choose to call in at the Serengeti Visitor Centre, where there is an excellent explanation of the park’s eco-system and a chance to understand the history of conservation in this area. In particular, you will find out about the work of Bernhard Grzimek and the Frankfurt Zoological Society who had the foresighted vision of preserving the Serengeti’s eco-system. Even at the center, you may well find wildlife: populations of hyrax and mongoose, as well as many small bird species.

After lunch, we head south-east towards Ngorongoro. If it has not already struck you with its vastness, Serengeti’s ‘endless plains’ will make a deep impression on you as we take the long, straight road which passes Simba Kopjes (famous from ‘The Lion King’) to reach Naabi Hill Gate, close to the divide between Serengeti and Ngorongoro. Here you can gather information at the gate’s visitor center, clamber up the hill for superb views back over the plains, or look out for a colorful agama lizard among the rocks.

Our Ngorongoro Tortilis Camp is only a 20km drive from the crater itself (around 40 minutes), set beneath an atmospheric acacia ‘umbrella,’ located in dense, sloping woodland and adjacent to a traditional Maasai community. Some will call the set-up here ‘glamping’, and it certainly offers a great level of comfort, considering the wilderness location. The nearby Ol Mote and Makarot mountains give it an added dimension, but it is the warm welcome of the staff which is the highlight for many of the visitors here. You’ll enjoy the team’s singing and dancing, perhaps you will even be tempted to join in. You can relax, have a drink, sit in front of the campfire, and listen to the sounds of the noisy tree hyrax who live nearby. Then, enjoy dinner – and fall asleep, dreaming of the day’s highlights.

After our morning game drive in the crater and our lunch, we will set off in the afternoon through Lodware Gate for Tarangire National Park. Our journey will be around 199km with an estimated travel time of 4 ½ hours.

Even if you didn’t see a single animal, the Ngorongoro Crater would live in your memory forever. But, in fact, the enormous crater floor is simply bursting with life, over 250km2 of diverse environments – forest, lake, swamp – which are home to herds of wildebeest, zebra and buffalo as well as elephants, lions and many more. And a true highlight today would be the black rhino!

Our accommodation tonight will be at the Tarangire Tortilis Camp. Off the beaten track, and far from the park’s other camps and lodges, this is a great wilderness experience. The nearby Gursi swamplands ensure that warthog, zebra and other mammals are attracted to this area as they come to drink. After a long day, you can kick back, take a drink yourself and watch an unforgettable sunset.

Tarangire Tortilis is located around four magnificent specimen of the iconic baobab tree, which is characteristic of Tarangire National Park. Away from the noise of the busy park gates, this safari camp combines comfort with tranqullity, a sense of freedom and being at one with nature.

You can be assured that you will be warmly welcomed by an enthusiastic team, keen to turn your stay here into something rather special. You’ll enjoy dinner tonight at the camp.

After our morning game drive in Tarangire National Park and then lunch, we will have a 3-hour journey, covering the 175km back to Kilimanjaro International Airport.

The diverse landscapes of Tarangire, spread across nearly 3,000 km2, and the density and variety of wildlife they contain. And it is the wildlife – not us – which will decide what your highlight will be!

Tarangire is huge. As you stand at the park gate and look south, it stretches as far as the eye can see. Known as the ‘Elephant Playground,’ this phenomenal park contains huge herds of these mighty mammals. But Tarangire is also home to buffalo, lion, wildebeest, zebra and gazelle and the park can rival Serengeti for sheer animal densities. What might you see today? Perhaps a solitary male lion stretched out beneath a tree, perhaps a trio of male cheetah enjoying some lazy bonding-time in the sun. Maybe some graceful Grant’s gazelle or zebra bounding away from the road or a couple of giraffe munching happily from the choicest acacia branches. For Tarangire specialities, look out for kudu and oryx.

Here as in other parks, it pays not to ignore the small animals. It’s so easy to be mesmerized by the power and majesty of an elephant or the elegance of the giraffe. Ask your guide to find you an agama lizard, especially a male one who changes colour in front of you according to the temperature! Or a hyrax, known as pimpi, an insignificant-looking creature of around 30cm in length…who astonishingly is related to elephant!

Not many trees will pass you by without something of avian interest catching your eye. A memorable flash of colour might be a lilac-breasted roller or blue-eared starling. Ostrich are plentiful and it’s hard not to chuckle at the sighting of the well-named, studious-looking secretary bird as it awkwardly pads across the grasslands.

The park is also famous for its splendid baobab trees, rolling savannah and acacia woodland. It can be dusty – wear a scarf over your mouth – but this is a minor inconvenience for sighting wildlife in such abundance.

Please note that this Tanzania Classic – 7 Days tour ends at Kilimanjaro International Airport at 17.30 hours. Your departure can only take place today if you have pre-booked a domestic flight which leaves from Kilimanjaro International Airport at 19.40 hours or after, or an international flight which leaves at 21.00 hours or after. Otherwise, you will need to book an extra night’s accommodation (not included in the tour price) and take a flight the following day.

After your exhilarating time on safari, you may want to extend your Tanzanian holiday with time on Zanzibar’s wonderful beaches. Please contact us for details.