12-Day Kenya & Tanzania: East Africa Splendor

Welcome to East Africa. Your driver-guide meets you at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and drives you to your hotel in Nairobi, Kenya's lively capital and the traditional starting point of the great safaris.

If you land early, there is time to visit the elephant orphanage or the Giraffe Centre on the city's edge (optional). Otherwise settle in, enjoy dinner and an early night, with a short briefing on the route through Kenya and Tanzania that awaits you.

After breakfast drive north-west from Nairobi into the Great Rift Valley, stopping at a viewpoint over the valley floor, and continue to Lake Nakuru National Park, about three hours away. You arrive in time for lunch.

The afternoon game drive explores this compact Rift Valley park, a stronghold for both black and white rhinos and home to Rothschild's giraffes, buffaloes, waterbucks and, at times, great flocks of flamingos and pelicans along the soda lake's shore. Look for leopards in the yellow fever-tree forest, and stop at Baboon Cliff for a sweeping view over the lake.

Following an early-morning game drive in Lake Nakuru, you drive south-west through farming country and Narok to the Masai Mara National Reserve, a journey of about 5 hours.

After lunch at your camp, set out on an afternoon game drive across the Mara's rolling grasslands. Elephants, topi, zebras and giraffes graze the plains, while lion prides and cheetahs keep a watchful eye on them. Return to camp at sunset for dinner.

Today is devoted entirely to exploring the Masai Mara. Leave early, when predators are most active, and spend the day roaming the rolling plains, riverine forest along the Talek and Mara rivers, and the open grasslands where cheetahs hunt in daylight.

You stop for a picnic lunch beneath a shady acacia and continue in the afternoon, perhaps to the Mara River to watch hippos and crocodiles, or, in migration season, to wait for the herds to gather at a crossing point. Return to camp in the late afternoon for a sundowner and dinner.

After breakfast you leave the Mara and retrace your route through Maasai country and the Great Rift Valley to Nairobi, a drive of 5–6 hours with a lunch stop along the way.

On arrival in the afternoon you check in to your hotel. If time allows you can visit the Karen Blixen Museum or the Kazuri bead workshop in Karen (optional), before dinner and a restful night.

Today you head south towards the Tanzanian border and Amboseli National Park. The road crosses open Maasai rangelands, and if the morning is clear the great dome of Kilimanjaro rises ahead of you as you approach. Allow 4–5 hours for the drive.

Check in, enjoy lunch, and set out in the afternoon to explore the park's swamps and plains, where elephants, buffaloes, wildebeests, zebras and countless water birds gather around the spring-fed marshes.

Your last morning in Kenya begins with a short game drive while Kilimanjaro is at its clearest. After breakfast you drive to Namanga on the Kenya–Tanzania border, where you clear immigration on both sides and switch to a Tanzanian 4x4 Land Cruiser with your new guide.

From Namanga it is about two hours to Arusha, a green, busy town at the foot of Mount Meru. Check in to your lodge, enjoy a leisurely afternoon and dinner, and prepare for the Tanzanian parks ahead.

Leave Arusha in the morning on the good tarmac road towards Makuyuni, then turn south to Tarangire National Park, about two hours in all. The park opens before you as a landscape of rolling savannah, ancient baobabs and the meandering Tarangire River.

Spend the day on game drives with a picnic lunch at one of the park's picnic sites. Elephant families are the stars here, but you may also find tree-climbing pythons, lions resting in the shade, fringe-eared oryx and lesser kudu. Return to your lodge in the Tarangire area in the late afternoon.

An early start today for the long, spectacular journey to the Serengeti. You climb up into the cool Ngorongoro highlands, pausing at the viewpoint over the crater, then descend through Maasai grazing lands towards the endless plains. There is the option of a stop at Olduvai Gorge, one of the world's most important sites for the study of human origins.

You enter Serengeti National Park at Naabi Hill Gate and game drive towards Seronera in the heart of the park, where rivers and kopjes support lions, leopards and cheetahs year-round. You arrive at your lodge in the Central Serengeti in time for dinner, with a picnic lunch along the way.

Today you have the whole day to explore the Serengeti, setting out early with a packed breakfast or picnic lunch. Your guide follows the animals across the central plains, the Seronera River and the rocky outcrops of the Moru and Simba kopjes.

The Serengeti is home to the largest lion population in Africa and the open country makes it wonderful for watching predators hunt. Return to your lodge in the Central Serengeti in the late afternoon to share stories around the fire before dinner.

After a morning game drive across the Serengeti plains, you leave the park through Naabi Hill Gate and drive back up into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, with the option of stopping at Olduvai Gorge on the way.

In the afternoon you reach the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, around 2,300 m above sea level. The air is cool and the views down into the caldera are breathtaking. Enjoy a quiet evening at your lodge on the rim, where it can be chilly after dark, so bring a warm layer.

Descend early into the Ngorongoro Crater, the world's largest unbroken volcanic caldera and one of the finest wildlife areas on earth. About 600 m below the rim, the crater floor is home to lions, elephants, buffaloes, hyenas, zebras, wildebeests and flamingos on Lake Magadi, and it is one of the best places in Tanzania to see the endangered black rhino.

After a picnic lunch by the hippo pool, you ascend the crater wall and drive back to Arusha, about 3–4 hours, for a late lunch stop or a chance to freshen up before your transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your evening flight. Safari njema!