Discover East Africa from $3,899

Uncategorized > Discover East Africa from $3,899

Day 1:Arrive Nairobi
On arrival in Nairobi you will be met by a representative and transferred to the Panafric Hotel. You will be assisted with checking in at your hotel and given a brief for the safari ahead.
Stay: Sarova Panafric Hotel, Nairobi

Day 2: Nairobi – Maasai Mara
After breakfast, you will be driven to world-famous Maasai Mara National Reserve, backdrop to ‘The greatest wildlife spectacle on earth’, the annual migration of over one million wildebeest. The Maasai Mara National Reserve is an extension of Serengeti National Park. Named for the Maasai tribespeople (the traditional inhabitants of the area) and the Mara River which divides it, it is famous for its exceptional population of wildlife.
Arrive in time for lunch at your lodge followed by an afternoon game drive on safari in Kenya’s most popular reserve.
Stay Two Nights: Sarova Mara Camp

Day 3:Maasai Mara
Spend the day on safari in one of Africa’s richest wildlife viewing arenas with morning and afternoon game drives. The Maasai Mara National Reserve offers wonderful scenery of breathtaking vistas, panoramas of vast rolling plains, hills and woodland groves, well watered by the lovely Mara River. The Mara is home to the largest population of lions in Kenya; these magnificent predators spend most of the day sleeping in the shade of Acacia Trees.

The waters of the Mara River are home to crocodiles and pools of hippo, while the woodlands and forests are favored by leopard and elephant. The open savannah areas play host to the plains’ game. All of the “Big Five” – Lion, Rhino, Buffalo, Elephant and Leopard – are here, as well as cheetah, hippo, hartebeest, gazelle, topi, antelope, zebra and many other animals.

Day 4: Maasai Mara/Lake Nakuru
After an early morning breakfast, bid farewell to the dotted plains as you drive to Lake Nakuru which is the most famous of the Great Rift Valley lakes and home to a shifting population of over one million flamingos. Arrive in time for lunch at Sarova Lion Hill Lodge.
Stay: Sarova Lion Hill Lodge

Day 5: Lake Nakuru – Nairobi – Amboseli
After breakfast, drive to Nairobi arriving in time for an early lunch at a local Restaurant. After lunch drive through the scenic Athi Plains and into the bush country of Amboseli National Park, home to the legendary Maasai tribesmen and famous for huge herds of Elephant. In addition to Elephant, Antelope, Zebra, Wildebeest, Buffalo and the elusive Leopard, nearly every vista within the Park is framed by majestic Mount Kilimanjaro in the distance.

Set against the magnificent backdrop of Africa’s highest mountain, the glittering Mount Kilimanjaro, Amboseli Serena Safari Lodge enjoys a uniquely privileged position at the heart of this world-famous national park.
Stay Two Nights: Amboseli Serena Lodge

Day 6: Amboseli
Enjoy morning and afternoon game drives where photographic opportunities are incredible, with plentiful game and Mt. Kilimanjaro (the highest freestanding mountain in the world) providing an impressive and majestic backdrop. Amboseli, meaning “salty dust” in Maasai, is a place of stark contrast. Despite Amboseli’s sometimes dry and dusty appearance, it has an endless supply of water filtered through thousands of feet of volcanic rock from Mt. Kilimanjaro’s snow melt. These underground streams converge into clear fresh water springs in the heart of the park. The powder like dust is volcanic ash, which was thrown from Kilimanjaro millennia ago.

An amazing spectacle of Amboseli is the shimmering dry lake bed where false mirages of populated horizons, punctuated by real herds of zebra and gnu hover in front of you. The main attraction of Amboseli is its vast herds of elephant within the park. The bull elephants here have some of the largest tusks in Kenya.

Day 7: Amboseli – Lake Manyara
After breakfast, bid farewell to Amboseli as you transfer to the border town of Namanga for customs and immigration. Thereafter transfer to Arusha Town arriving in time for lunch at a local restaurant. Later on, drive to the beautiful Lake Manyara, a shallow alkaline lake that shimmers in a cleft in the Great Rift Valley. Enjoy an evening game drive at Lake Manyara National Park.
A small but uniquely diverse national park, Manyara is home to the world-famous tree-climbing lions, thousands of flamingos and nearly 500 species of birds.
Stay: Lake Manyara Serena Lodge

Day 8: Lake Manyara – Serengeti
After breakfast, drive to Serengeti National Park arriving in time for lunch at your lodge. Enjoy an afternoon game drive in the greatest game sanctuary in the world, fantastic in its natural beauty and unequalled in its scientific value. The grasslands and savannahs of the Serengeti National Park sustain a huge animal population and are world-famous for the Great Wildebeest Migration. Tirelessly following almost the same pattern each year, the wildebeest fill the horizons accompanied by their predators, lion, leopard, cheetah and hyena. Yet even when the Great Migration has passed, the Serengeti offers arguably the most captivating game-viewing in Africa with great herds of buffalo, elephant and giraffe, and thousands upon thousands of eland, topi, impala and Grant’s gazelle. The spectacle of predator versus prey dominates Tanzania’s greatest park. Lion prides feast on the abundance of plain grazers. Solitary leopards haunt the acacia trees lining the Seronera River, while a high density of cheetahs prowls the south eastern plains.
Stay Two Nights: Serengeti Sopa Lodge

Day 9: Serengeti
Today enjoy morning and afternoon game drives in this amazing safari area. The Maasai word Serengeti means ‘endless plains’, a perfect description of this magnificent area of over 6,000 square miles. The variety of wildlife in the Serengeti is endless, and on your game drives today you should see the ‘Big Five’ (lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and rhino) as well as huge herds of zebra and wildebeest.

Day 10: Serengeti – Ngorongoro Crater
Enjoy an early morning breakfast and then depart for Ngorongoro Conservation Area which features rolling plains, lakes, craters, mountains and dormant volcanoes. Journey up the side of the vast Ngorongoro Crater, a World Heritage Site, which is one of the largest volcanic craters in the world (almost 12 miles wide, 2,000-2,500 feet deep and covering a total area of 165 square miles) stopping en route at Ol Duvai Gorge. Known as the ‘Cradle of Mankind’, this is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world. Pioneered by famous paleontologists Louis and Mary Leakey in the 1950s it offers a glimpse into life two million years ago. Later on, drive to Ngorongoro Conservation Area arriving in time for lunch at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge.

Facing the always magnificent sunsets to the west, and located at the highest point on Ngorongoro crater’s entire rim, Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge stands well over half a kilometre above the crater floor and offers unparalleled views across this enormous caldera.
Stay Two Nights: Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge

Day 11: Ngorongoro Crater
After breakfast, descend into the ‘8th Wonder of the World’, a unique biosphere that has remained virtually unchanged since the dawn of time. Enclosed within its towering walls are grasslands, swamps, forests, saltpans, a fresh water lake and a glorious variety of birdlife. Over 30,000 animals live within this enormous natural bowl, the most densely packed concentration of wildlife in Africa. You should see wildebeest, elephant, lion, dik-dik, and wart-hog, whilst on the lakeside there are pelican, ibis and flamingo. Here too are all the members of the ‘Big Five’ (lion, elephant, rhino, leopard and buffalo) as well as a large cast of plains game and one of Africa’s densest populations of predators. Enjoy a picnic lunch on the crater floor before climbing back up to the lodge in time for relaxation before dinner.

Day 12: Ngorongoro Crater – Tarangire
After breakfast, drive to Tarangire National Park arriving in time for lunch at Sopa Lodge. The park is well known for its huge herds of elephant and buffalo, as well as lion, cheetah and leopard. With its varied habitats and the constant water areas, the park hosts a large diversity of wildlife; 94 species of mammals and over 500 bird species.

After enjoying a long leisurely game drive between herds of wild animals and along miles of Africa’s seemingly endless roads, you come over a slight rise and the lodge appears almost immediately below you. Built to blend in with the vastness of its surroundings, Tarangire Sopa Lodge lies hidden among the kopjes, ancient baobab and grasses of the Tarangire National Park – home to the greatest concentration of elephants in Africa. Many can be seen around the lodge, allowing visitors a close encounter.
Stay: Tarangire Sopa Lodge

Day 13: Depart Africa
After breakfast, drive to Arusha town in time for lunch at a local restaurant. Thereafter transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport in time for your departure flight back to the USA.