13-Day Kenya & Tanzania: The Spirit of African Safari

Karibu Tanzania! On arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport you are met by your Gip Adventure guide and driven about an hour to your lodge in Arusha, set among gardens on the slopes of Mount Meru.

The rest of the day is at leisure to recover from your flight. Your guide joins you for a briefing on the safari ahead before dinner and a good night's rest.

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.

After breakfast you leave Tarangire and drive to Lake Manyara National Park, beneath the steep western wall of the Great Rift Valley. Ernest Hemingway called it the loveliest lake he had seen in Africa, and its mix of groundwater forest, grassland and soda lake makes for varied game viewing.

Look for elephants among the mahogany trees, troops of baboons, blue monkeys, giraffes and hippos, and with luck the lions that rest in the branches of the acacias. In the late afternoon you climb up to Karatu in the cool highlands for dinner and the night.

An early start takes you up through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, with a stop at the crater viewpoint, and down past Maasai bomas to Olduvai Gorge, where you visit the museum dedicated to the discoveries of early human ancestors.

Continue across the vast southern plains into Serengeti National Park at Naabi Hill Gate, game driving towards Seronera. A picnic lunch is taken on the way, and you arrive at your lodge in the Central Serengeti in the late afternoon.

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 via Mto wa Mbu to Arusha, arriving in the late afternoon for dinner and a restful night at your lodge.

After breakfast drive north from Arusha to the Namanga border, about two hours, where you complete exit and entry formalities and meet your Kenyan guide and safari vehicle.

From Namanga it is a further 1.5–2 hours to Amboseli National Park. After lunch, set out on your first game drive among the park's great elephant herds, with the snow-capped summit of Kilimanjaro now seen from the Kenyan side.

Start with a sunrise game drive in Amboseli for the best views of Kilimanjaro, then drive east through Maasai country and lava landscapes to Tsavo West National Park, about 3–4 hours.

In the afternoon explore this wild, volcanic park: watch hippos and crocodiles through the underwater viewing chamber at Mzima Springs, see the black lava of the Shetani flow and scan the bush for elephants, lions, lesser kudu and gerenuk. Tsavo is also one of the places where the Big Five can still be found in a rugged, uncrowded setting.

After breakfast and a short morning game drive, leave Tsavo West and drive down towards the coast, crossing to the Mombasa road and continuing south of Mombasa via the Likoni ferry to Diani Beach. The journey takes 5–6 hours with a lunch stop.

Check in to your beach resort and feel the warm Indian Ocean breeze. Diani's 17 km of powder-white sand and turquoise lagoon, protected by a coral reef, are the perfect place to wind down after the safari.

A free day to enjoy Diani Beach. Swim in the calm lagoon, walk the long white sands at low tide, or simply relax under the palms with a good book.

Your hotel can arrange optional excursions such as a dhow trip to Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Park and Wasini Island for snorkelling and dolphin spotting, a visit to the Colobus Conservation centre, or diving on the reef.

Another day of sun and sea on the Kenyan coast. Perhaps try kitesurfing or a glass-bottom boat over the coral gardens, explore the sacred Kaya forest nearby with a local guide (optional), or enjoy a spa treatment at your resort.

In the evening, toast the end of your journey with a seafood dinner as the sun sets over the coast.

Enjoy a final breakfast by the ocean. At the appropriate time you are transferred to Ukunda airstrip or Moi International Airport in Mombasa for your flight to Nairobi or your onward international connection.

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