This is an excellent, value-packed safari that combines both Kenya and Tanzania's biggest and most famous game parks. Start at the legendary Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi and then head out to Kenya's big and famous southern parks, Tsavo and Amboseli. From there you enter Tanzania to join up with our "Serengeti Shall not Die" safari.

The Tanzanian northern circuit features the three great parks of Manyara, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. A special feature of this trip is the private visit you'll enjoy to Ng'iresi Village outside Arusha. Together the two-country, five-park itinerary will provide you with an incredible range of scenery and wildlife.

The prices include: ** Guaranteed window seats in specially outfitted Safari Landrovers with pop-top roofs ensuring sun protection; ** Meals as detailed in brackets following each day's description below; ** One local flight: Serengeti to Arusha; ** All park entrance fees, VAT and other government taxes; ** Comprehensive pre-trip material with discount coupons for travel gear and equipment. Additional expenses not included: - Meals not included; - All beverages; - Requisite visas and other travel preparations like inoculations; - Tipping.

Contact EWT for the best international air fares and for recommendations on how to use your frequent flyer miles.

You will be personally met and privately transferred to Nairobi's legendary Norfolk Hotel, whenever you arrive. If you arrive in the morning, sightseeing can be arranged in the afternoon to some of the suburban attractions including Giraffe Manor and the Karen Blixen homestead.  [no meals]

This morning you'll enjoy a guided walking tour of Nairobi. Starting at Parliament, you'll learn of the country's rich history and current politics. Continue past the Kenyatta Memorial and Square of Churches to the famous Thorntree Cafe for tea. Here you'll have an opportunity to see the recreated colonial bar used at the turn of the last century. From there you continue to the impressive National Museum where Ahmed, the world's largest elephant, has been preserved, together with many other newly refurbished exhibits. At the end of the tour you'll be at the new museum deli, where you can enjoy lunch and take in the neighboring shops, before the afternoon drive south of the city into Tsavo National Park. Game view through the park this afternoon to Kilaguni Lodge for dinner and overnight.  [b- -d]

Dawn game drive in the park searching for the overnight kills. Tsavo is Kenya's largest, and it was the first park. The landscapes satisfy the most demanding imaginations of what Africa should be: a mosaic of scrubland and bush that extends all the way to the great horizon with Mt. Kilimanjaro. It is packed with game, especially elephant. Return for a full breakfast, and then relax in the lodge or opt to go out for an additional visit to Mzima Springs, the famous inland lake fed by crystal clear springs running off Mt. Kilimanjaro. After lunch back at the lodge you enjoy a final afternoon game drive. Return to the lodge to enjoy sundowners before dinner on the veranda that overlooks a water hole often surrounded by game. Dinner and overnight at Kilaguni Lodge.  [b-l-d]

The morning is spent on an interesting drive through rural Kenyan countryside into Amboseli National Park. You'll pass through a number of villages and get a glimpse of contemporary daily life. The road you take places you as close as anyone can get (who isn't a climber) to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro! Weather permitting, expect some exceptional photographs. Arrive Amboseli Serena Lodge for lunch, followed by an afternoon game drive. Amboseli may be the most famous park in Africa, located as it is directly beneath Mt. Kilimanjaro. The innumerable photographs taken of big game directly under the mountain all come from here! Return to the lodge for dinner and overnight.  [b-l-d]

A full day to explore Amboseli. The park is actually an immense, dry soda lake, with central swamps that attract so many animals. This is where so much important elephant research has been conducted and you're certain to see large numbers of elephant eating placidly, submerged to their waists in Amboseli's rich swamp grass. You're likely to see the cats as well, both lions and cheetah. But what you may consider most memorable about Amboseli is its scenery, unmatched below Africa's tallest snow-capped mountain. Meals and overnight at Amboseli Serena Lodge.  [b-l-d]

After breakfast you drive from Kenya into Tanzania. At the border post of Namanga, you'll bid goodbye to your Kenyan vehicles and driver/gudes and meet your new Tanzanian driver/guides and vehicles. You continue the short distance into Arusha town, northern Tanzania's largest and most important. Enjoy lunch at a popular local restaurant before continuing just outside the city to the elegant Arusha Coffee Lodge. The afternoon is free at this luxurious property which sits in the midst of a working coffee plantation. If you wish, reception will organize a tour of the coffee plantations for you. Dinner and overnight at the lodge.  [b-l-d]

After an early breakfast, this morning you'll get a special glimpse into modern-day Tanzanian village life. Traditional villages are, today, difficult to come by. Practically all Tanzanians are in an exciting time of traditional from traditional ways of living to modern ones. This morning outside Arusha you'll be personally guided through Ng'iresi Village, a "suburb" of Arusha where many of the citizens now commute into town for work while others continue to work in the fields. The proud citizens want to show off their community, and you'll be taken on a walk through the paths and fields and see how things are changing, and how they might not as well. There may be opportunities to meet the village witch doctor! The little tour ends in a modest home where a traditional lunch of rice and beans will be given to you. This afternoon you spend driving to Lake Manyara over the Maasai plains and into the Great Rift Valley. This is one of the most beautiful drives on safari. At the end of the day you'll arrive Manyara Serena Lodge for dinner and overnight.  [b-l-d]

Dawn game drive in Lake Manyara National Park. This is when the light is best for photography and the animals most active. The park is an UNESCO biosphere and one of the most scenic on the circuit. Game view through thick, magical forests onto savanna grasslands, and finally to the great lake shore itself. You'll see a huge variety of animals from giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, warthog and much more. Enjoy a picnic breakfast overlooking the scene that was the opening for the movie, Out of Africa. Return to Serena Lodge for lunch, and in the afternoon continue on the spectacular drive through the Ngorongoro rain forest onto Ngorongoro Crater. Continue around the rim to Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge for dinner and overnight.  [b-l-d]

Dawn game drive in the crater. You'll make the quick descent through a glen of rare Lehai Acacia, Africa's "bonzaii" acacia. Once on the floor you'll understand why this is so often referred to as "Africa's Garden of Eden". At times there are 20,000 animals on the 100 sq. mile caldera floor, the highest density of lion in Africa, hundreds of hyaena and jackal, and large numbers of plains game. The central soda lake is often filled with flamingo. Enjoy your picnic breakfast beside a lake usually frequented by hippo. Return to the lodge for a later lunch, and in the afternoon you can return to the crater floor for a second drive, or relax at the lodge as well as visit a nearby Maasai village. Dinner and overnight at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge.  [b-l-d]

After breakfast retrace your route around the crater rim over the lip of the crater into the great Serengeti. First sop is Olduvai Gorge where so many precious finds of early man were found. There will be time to visit the museum after a short lecture by the curator. Afterwards, your game viewing begins immediately as head out over the great plains. Depending upon the season of your first, you may stop at Shifting Sands and the Gol Kopjes. Along the way you'll enjoy a picnic lunch with undoubtedly an expansive view of Africa set before you! By the end of the day you've arrived Ndutu Lodge in the great southwest lakes region for dinner and overnight.  [b-l-d]

Your final two days in the Serengeti will be scheduled depending upon the season you're traveling as we try to get you in proximity to the great herds. The Serengeti's Great Migration is a hallmark of this ecosystem, but very weather dependent. More than a million animals move in pretty concentrated masses among more than 7,000 sq. miles. You'll likely spend tonight at either Serengeti Sopa Lodge in the beautiful central west kopjes area, or at Migration Camp in the north. On your journey to one of these areas from Ndutu, today, you may have the opportunity of visiting several sacred Maasai sites, of climbing Naabi Hill, and of enjoying the Serengeti Visitors' Center. Whatever you do and wherever you travel in this immense wilderness, you won't be able to avoid outstanding game viewing, because the Serengeti is the greatest wilderness park on earth!  [b-l-d]

After breakfast you game view to the nearest Serengeti airstrip for the morning flight back to Arusha town, which is scheduled to arrive around noon. You'll be met by a new vehicle and driver who will take you shopping and for a meal at a popular local restaurant. Afterwards, you'll be returned to Kilimanjaro Airport where you'll have a private room at KIA Lodge which is located adjacent the airport. Later this evening the lodge will shuttle you to the airport for the overnight departures to Europe.  [b-l- ]

END OF EWT SERVICES

On you last day exploring this magnificent wilderness you'll see abundant game, on the plains, in the woodlands and kopjes, and possibly near the great rivers like the Grumeti. The [Serengeti] is a vast place. Many safaris link themselves to a certain lodge and spend only a few hours outside it searching for game, but we're dedicated to finding you the optimum game viewing, the greatest collection of animals on earth! Your driver will have the most current information, and he may suggest you go out all day. And then, again, you might not have to, as large numbers of animals may be found right outside your doorstep! You could spend a month in the Serengeti and not see it all. But we're convinced after this brief introduction, you'll understand as well as Bernard Gzmik why the "Serengeti Shall not Die!"  [b-l-d]