12-Day Kenya & Tanzania: The Essence of East Africa Expedition

Karibu Kenya! On arrival at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, your Gip Adventure representative meets you outside the arrivals hall and transfers you to your hotel in Nairobi. The drive takes 30–60 minutes depending on the city traffic.

The rest of the day is yours to rest after the flight. In the evening your guide joins you for a short briefing on the journey ahead, the vehicles, the border crossing into Tanzania and what to pack for each park, before a relaxed welcome dinner.

Leave Nairobi after breakfast and drive south-east through the Kajiado plains, Maasai land of red earth and grazing cattle. The drive of about 240 km takes 4–5 hours, and on a clear day Kilimanjaro appears on the horizon well before you reach the park gate.

After lunch at your lodge, head out on an afternoon game drive in Amboseli National Park, famous for its big-tusked elephants. Families move between the swamps and the dusty plains, with the snow-capped summit of Africa's highest mountain floating above them as the evening light turns gold.

Rise early for the best chance of a clear view of Kilimanjaro, which often hides in cloud by mid-morning. Spend the full day exploring Amboseli: the Enkongo Narok and Longinye swamps, the seasonal bed of Lake Amboseli where mirages shimmer in the heat, and Observation Hill, where you can climb for a panoramic view over the park.

Amboseli is one of the best places in Africa to watch elephants up close, and you can spend unhurried time with family herds bathing and feeding in the swamps. Lions, hyenas, cheetahs, giraffes and more than 400 species of birds share the park. An optional visit to a Maasai village can be arranged in the afternoon.

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.

After breakfast you drive about two hours south-west from Arusha to Tarangire National Park, arriving in time for a morning game drive. Tarangire is famous for its great herds of elephants, which gather along the Tarangire River in the dry season, and for its giant baobab trees, some many centuries old.

After a picnic or hot lunch, continue exploring the river valley and the swamps, looking for lions, leopards, buffaloes, giraffes, zebras and some of the park's more than 500 bird species. In the late afternoon you head to your lodge in the Tarangire area for dinner and the sounds of the African night.

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.

A full day of game drives in the Seronera area of the Central Serengeti, with a picnic lunch out on the plains. The Seronera River valley is one of the best places in Africa for big cats: lions lounge on the granite kopjes, leopards rest in the sausage trees along the river and cheetahs scan the short-grass plains for gazelles.

Depending on the season, the Great Migration may be passing nearby, with hundreds of thousands of wildebeests and zebras moving across the plains. Hippo pools, elephants, giraffes, buffaloes and topi complete a memorable day. An optional sunrise hot-air balloon safari can be arranged.

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 to the Lake Manyara airstrip for your scheduled light-aircraft flight to Zanzibar. You are met on arrival and transferred to your hotel in historic Stone Town for a relaxed evening; dinner on a rooftop terrace overlooking the harbour is a fine way to toast the end of the safari.

After breakfast a local guide leads you on a walking tour of Stone Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Wander the narrow alleys past carved wooden doors, visit the old fort, the House of Wonders area, the former slave market and Anglican cathedral, and the busy Darajani market filled with spices and fresh produce.

In the afternoon you drive about an hour north to Nungwi on the island's northern tip. Check in to your beach hotel and watch your first Zanzibar sunset from the sand.

A day of complete freedom on Zanzibar's northern tip. Nungwi has some of the island's best swimming beaches, as the tide here goes out less than elsewhere, so you can swim in clear turquoise water at almost any time of day.

Relax on the white sand, snorkel over the coral gardens at Mnemba Atoll (optional), visit the dhow builders at work on the beach or the Mnarani turtle aquarium, and end the day with one of Nungwi's famous sunsets, perhaps aboard a traditional dhow.

Enjoy a final breakfast overlooking the ocean and some last hours on the beach. At the appropriate time you are transferred, about an hour, to Abeid Amani Karume International Airport in Zanzibar for your flight home or onward journey.

Kwaheri and safari njema, from all of us at Gip Adventure.