Our longest set departure of Kenya and Tanzania, this program combines the important northern circuit of Kenya with the important northern circuit of Tanzania. The most important parks in each country are included, and the ending is adjusted by season to maximize your game viewing in the Serengeti. The safari attains great value by using good tourist lodges in almost all the parks with a couple special upgrades to boutique camps and lodges in the Mara and Arusha. The overall program is comprehensive in wilderness variety and scope, will get you the chance to see virtually every type of big animal found in East Africa, and will take you from place to place in excellent comfort.

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; ** Four local flights: Samburu to the Mara, the Mara to Nairobi, Nairobi to Kilimanjaro and the 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]

Today is spent exploring the great Aberdare National Park, Kenya's only highland rain forest national park. It's also one of the country's biggest. Most visitors to the park only see it from the very edges where the tree hotels are located, and you end at one this evening. But for the rest of the day you explore this vast wilderness starting at the thick forests around 7000' up to the beautiful water falls above 11000'. The game is concentrated in the forest, and you can expect to see elephant, buffalo, bushbuck and with luck, the prize of the park, the rare colobus monkey. You continue through the bamboo forests to the water falls for your picnic lunch, before descending to The Ark tree hotel for dinner and overnight. Tree hotels are built on stilts over natural water holes and salt licks. Flood lights come on at night which don't seem to bother the animals, and a never-ending parade of Africa unfolds.  [b-l-d]

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 north into the Kikuyu highlands. You'll have time to visit Kenya's most colorful open-air market at Karatina before arriving Aberdare Country Club in the Aberdare mountains for dinner and overnight.  [b- -d]

Leave the Aberdare after breakfast and continue north. First stop is the Equatorial Line, where you'll have a chance to place both feet in different hemispheres! Continue around the lush farmland of Mt. Kenya before plunging down into the Great Northern Frontier. This is semi-arid country, much like America's great southwest. Game view to Samburu Lodge for lunch. In the afternoon take a traditional game drive and expect lots of animals and some rarer game, too, like the world's most beautiful giraffe, the reticulated, and the Grevy's zebra. The birdlife is outstanding. Dinner and overnight at the lodge.  [b-l-d]

A second day exploring the beautiful Samburu National Park. The area reminds many of America's southwest. The otherwise expansive desert blooms at Samburu, because of the Ewaso Nyrio River, and this is what draws so much game to the area. Samburu is famous for its elephant, impala, zebra, gerenuk and oryx. Meals and overnight at Samburu Lodge.  [b-l-d]

After breakfast you'll be taken to the airstrip for the quick, magnificent flight into Kenya's finest park, the Maasai Mara. The flight skims the great glaciers of Mt. Kenya before flying over the flamingo-filled lakes of the Great Rift Valley. You'll arrive the game rich northwest salient of the Mara around noon and be met by a Landrover that will take you into historic Governor's Camp for lunch. In the afternoon you begin your game viewing over the rolling hills of this incredible wilderness. Meals and overnight in camp.  [b-l-d]

Three game drives are included from camp, today. Named after British colonial governors who took their holiday here, you'll experience outstanding service and be in the best area in the Mara for game viewing. In addition to the game drives, you can book a hot air balloon ride over the herds. And you can also fit in a village visit. Certainly as with most visitors to Kenya, you'll consider the Mara your favorite park! Meals and overnight at Governor's Camp.  [b-l-d]

After a final morning of game viewing in Kenya's great Mara, the afternoon is spent traveling into to Tanzania. You'll travel first to Nairobi's small Wilson airport for a noon arrival and quick immigration and customs formalities. You then continue on an international flight to Tanzania, arriving Kilimanjaro Airport for inbound customs and immigration, before meeting your new driver/guide and new Landrover that will now remain with you for the duration of your Tanzanian trip. Drive into Tanzania's most important town, Arusha, for an independent dinner and overnight at the elegant Arusha Coffee Lodge The lodge is built within a working coffee plantation and there will be time this afternoon for a guide to show you around.  [b- - ]

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 Ngorongoro Crater National Park. 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]

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 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]

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 Serengeti National Park 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]

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