Daily Departures  

All of Kenya and Tanzania's principal game viewing areas are included on this high-end safari which features boutique lodges and safari camps. No crowds, exceptional service and remarkably luxurious accommodations. Many of the camps are run by owner/managers who have a vested personal interest in your vacation.

Because of the seasonal nature of the Serengeti Great Migration we are unable to specify the camp that will be used, as it will be chosen to put you in proximity to the game. There are currently around 20 upmarket, outstanding "semi-mobile" camps in the Serengeti to choose from, all of which provide modern conveniences in remote locations.

This safari evinces a change occurring in the traditional East African "photography safari". With access to the best game viewing areas now assured for thousands of people, the challenge becomes how to retain the magic of being exclusive, how to enjoy that game viewing experience ... alone. This safari accomplishes this not easy feat, by using the most exclusive, boutique camps and lodges in intimate areas that still retain the best game viewing places in the world.

The prices include: ** Meals as detailed in brackets following each day's description below; ** Five local flights: Nairobi to Samburu, Samburu to the Mara, the Mara to Nairobi, Nairobi to Kilimanjaro & 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.

Whenever you arrive you'll be personally met and privately transferred to the Norfolk Hotel. If you arrive early, you can arrange optional sightseeing of a wide range of city attractions including the Blixen homestead museum and Giraffe Manor.  [no meals]

This morning you fly into Kenya's Great Northern Frontier into Samburu national park, where you'll be met and taken into a private reserve in Laikipia. You'll spend two days in what is essentially a bush spa, an incredibly luxurious boutique safari camp called Sasaab Camp located on the Ewaso Nyiro River. The terrain reminds many of America's southwest. Activities begin immediately after lunch. Game drives in the area and into nearby Samburu National Park are included, and this will introduce you to some of the rarest and most beautiful game in Africa. Dinner and overnight in camp.  [b-l-d]

In addition to traditional game drives, game walks, night drives, camel excursions and treks with local Samburu people are all included. This inclusive, remote camp is composed of only a half dozen giant Moroccan tents covering Grand Hotel hotel rooms, with staff ready to cater to your every need. All drinks and activities are included, together with gourmet meals. It's often hard for guests to realize how remote they are, with the pageantry of service. Meals and overnight at Sasaab Camp.  [b-l-d]

This morning you fly from the northern frontier into Kenya's best park, the Maasai Mara. Transfer to Olonana Camp in the south central of the park. This boutique safari camp is located far from the Mara crowds on beautiful rolling grassland plains. After lunch you begin your game viewing. Many rivers, including the largest, the Mara, wind through the terrain cutting through green valleys and leaving clumps of dense forests that team with monkeys and exotic birds. And of course the famous black-maned lion is rarely missed, as the density of lion in the Mara is the greatest in Africa. Dinner and overnight in camp.  [b-l-d]

Three game drives are included daily from camp: a dawn game drive that returns for a fabulous breakfast, then a shorter mid-morning drive before lunch, and finally the afternoon drive following lunch. You can also optionally book the Mara's famous hot-air balloon rides. Expect to see an enormous range of wildlife, including most of the cats and large numbers of hyaena, buffalo and endless herds of gazelle. Meals and overnight at Olonana Camp.  [b-l-d]

After a final morning of game viewing you fly to Tanzania via Nairobi, arriving Kilimanjaro airport in the early afternoon. Here you'll meet a private English-speaking driver/guide, in a private specially outfitted safari vehicle that will remain with you for the duration of your safari. Near the airport is Arusha National Park, the big game wilderness which surrounds Africa's 5th highest mountain, Meru. You'll take a short game drive through the park this afternoon to your boutique safari lodge, Hatari Lodge for dinner and overnight.  [b- -d]

Arusha National Park is a beautiful little park that locals call "Giraffic Park" because of its large number of giraffe. You'll particularly enjoy the game drive around the Momela Lakes, which are often filled with flamingo. But compared to the game viewing you've already had and will have elsewhere, the park's big game is rather limited and the main attraction you have here is the chance for some really wonderful short duration trekking. Accompanied by an armed ranger, you can design walks of less than an hour to four hours, through some of the most beautiful highland rain forest in the world. You have good chances to find the rare colobus monkey and hear the penetrating calls of exotic birds like the Turaco. You can also optionally book canoe trips on the Momela Lakes. Meals and overnight at Hatari Lodge.  [b-l-d]

Today you leave the highlands and drive into the Great Rift Valley. This is a day's journey broken with a lunch and shopping stop in Arusha town, Tanzania's most important northern city. There will be time to check emails, visit an ATM and enjoy a local meal. In the afternoon you drive over the Maasai plains into the rift, and then climb the dramatic Manyara escarpment where all of Africa seems to come into view. Continue a short distance further into the farming community of Karatu for dinner and overnight at Gibb's Farm.  [b-l-d]

Many guests at Gibb's Farm compare it to staying at a villa in Tuscany. The views from the lounge area over the lush valleys just beneath Ngorongoro Crater are among the most memorable on safari. Today, you have a number of options. You can spend as much of the day as you like in nearby Lake Manyara National Park, famous for its lions-in-the-tree. If you like, take a picnic breakfast for an early morning drive, or a picnic lunch for a more casual mid-day drive. You can also enjoy any of a number of guided activities arranged at the farm, including a bird walk, or a trek to caves frequented by elephant, visit a nearby school and village, or even consult a Maasai medicine man on herbal remedies available in the area to a wide range of chronic diseases. Whatever you choose to do, it's certain that your day at Gibb's will be a highlight. Meals and overnight at the farm.  [b-l-d]

After breakfast you take the very short drive to Ngorongoro Crater. About 20 minutes from the farm is the entry to the huge Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It's then a short 7-mile and dramatic drive up the rim of this giant crater through highland rain forest. You'll stop at the view point at the end of the drive to marvel at this incredible wonder. Arrive Crater Lodge for lunch. This afternoon enjoy one of the spa treatments available at the lodge at optional cost, or hike in the nearby Endulen Hills with a Maasai guide. Dinner and overnight at the lodge.  [b-l-d]

Dawn descent into the incomparable Ngorongoro Crater National Park, probably Tanzania's most spectacular wilderness. Once the world's highest structure, the great Ngorongoro volcano blew its stack nearly three million years ago, and the resulting geological wonder includes a 102 sq. mile caldera that is now Africa's Garden of Eden. An average of 20,000 animals live on the crater floor, a collection and variety of wildlife found nowhere else on earth. Together with the stunning scenery of the towering crater rim and mountains like Makarot in the near distance, it is as much a scenic wonder as it is a diverse game park. Enjoy a picnic breakfast at a lake where hippo usually watch you eating, and then ascend the crater for a later lunch. The remainder of the afternoon is free, and once again you can avail yourself of this special lodge's services or hike some more in the wondrous hills nearby. Meals and overnight at Crater Lodge.  [b-l-d]

Ngorongoro is the furthest southern boundary of the great, protected wilderness that stretches north to Kenya's Maasai Mara. Today you begin your northwards exploration of this amazing land. Every turn on the road reveals another breath-taking landscape. You travel along the crater rim past Maasai villages and finally over the last of the Ngorongoro mountains onto the Serengeti. At the very beginning of the plains is the famous Olduvai Gorge, created in part by the turbulence of Ngorongoro's prehistoric eruptions. Time to explore its fascinating museum and hear a short lecture as you overlook the still active excavation sites. Then you will enter the most famous African wilderness on earth, the Serengeti. You'll game view across these endless plains, passing sacred Maasai sites like the Shifting Sands and the Gol Mountains. At the end of the day you will arrive the quaint and much loved Ndutu Lodge in the southwest lakes area of the park. This is the only lodge in this unique area of the Serengeti, and it positions us perfectly to be able to choose the right Serengeti camp for you, tomorrow. Dinner and overnight in the lodge.  [b-l-d]

Your final two days and nights in the Serengeti National Park will be spent in a luxury permanent camp chosen for the season to provide you the best game viewing possible. In the first half of the year, this could be anywhere from quite near Ndutu to the center of the park. In the latter half of the year, it could be somewhere in the western corridor, the center or north of the park. All the camps are luxurious, provide private, modern facilities in remote locations. They are all small, with exceptional staff and gourmet dining.

As you move to camp, today, you may be able to augment your game viewing with some cultural touring. Much of the Serengeti was a Maasai homeland, and there are sacred sites including the giant Ngong Meeting Rock and cave paintings. Many of these are found in the Moru Kopjes, one of the most beautiful areas of the park. But even if you head your direction this way, you'll be unable to avoid some of the best game viewing on earth, for the Serengeti is packed with animals! From the world's largest herds to some of its finest black-maned lions, this will be the highlight of your game viewing. You'll arrive in Luxury Camp at the end of the day for dinner and overnight.  [b-l-d]

The last full day in the greatest wildlife park on earth to witness outstanding game viewing. The non-migratory predators, plains animals like eland and topi, great elephant families, and literally hundreds of thousands of Thomson Gazelle fill this animal wonderland with color and excitement impossible to find elsewhere. As throughout your entire Tanzanian sojourn, you are in control of your game viewing, and your driver/guide will go out for as long as short as you like, with picnics, or returning to camp for meals. Then, saivour your final night under the canopy of African stars, enjoying the camp fire before a fabulous dinner in the great Serengeti.  [b-l-d]

Your final game drive is to the Serengeti airstrip where by late morning you're once again in the air over beautiful African landscape. Like memories in rewind, you'll pass over the plains then fly over the Ngorongoro Crater and finally see the great Rift escarpment of Lake Manyara before connecting through Arusha to Kilimanjaro airport. At the airport you'll be met by staff from KIA Lodge who will shuttle you to the attractive lodge adjacent the airport. You have a private room until you're returned to the airport for the overnight departures to Europe.  [b- - ]

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