Highlights of Tanzania & Zanzibar

Days 1 & 2. Depart London [B, L, D (Day 2 only)]

Depart London for Arusha via Nairobi. On Day 2 you drive across the Maasai Steppe to the Great Rift Valley, where your hotel, the Lake Manyara Serena Hotel, is perched high on the rim overlooking Lake Manyara National Park.

Days 3 & 4. Serengeti National Park [B, L, D]

After breakfast and a morning of wildlife viewing, continue on to the Serengeti, for a 2-night stay at the Serengeti Sopa Lodge.

Days 5. Ngorongoro Crater [B, L, D]

After breakfast drive back across the plains, wildlife viewing en-route, to Olduvai Gorge, which is 50 kilometres long and in some places 90 metres high. After lunch here, continue to the Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge, set high on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater for a 1-night stop.

Day 6. Tarangire [B, L, D]

Tarangire National Park, dominated by the Tarangire River is a grossly under-rated park and one of the best-kept secrets in Africa. Perhaps this is because it does not fit so conveniently into a week's safari, or because it lies just off the 'northern circuit'. Whatever the reason, it means that Tarangire is a superb wildlife destination for the enthusiast, particularly welcoming when added on after the busy 'northern circuit' of Manyara, Ngorongoro and Serengeti. The river attracts enormous herds of Elephants and the landscape is a rich and varied mix of Baobab trees, acacia bush, plains, swamps and rocky outcrops. The wildlife here is superb and the area actually experiences its own migration - although smaller in scale than the one further north. Elephants are virtually guaranteed here, and Lion, Cheetah, Leopard, Spotted Hyena, jackal and occasionally Wild Dog hunt the herds of Cape Buffalo as well as Grant's, and Thompson's Gazelle, Burchell's Zebra, giraffe and Warthog. The area is excellent for birds of prey and provides superb habitats for hundreds of other species.

You spend 2 nights at the Tarangire Sopa Lodge which is built as a "low profile" structure and nestles into a wooded hill side valley overlooking Tarangire Hill.

Day 8 - 10. Fly to Stone Town, Zanzibar [B]

Fly to Zanzibar via Arusha for a 1-night stay in Stone Town, Zanzibar, before transferring on to the Mapenzi Beach Club, for a 3-night stay.

Days 11 & 12. Homeward [B (Day 11 only)]

Return to Zanzibar airport today in time to catch your flight home, where you arrive the following day.