11 Days A Grand Safari Vacations and Luxury Tour Packages
Duration: 11 Days  / 10 Nights
Priced From: $5,135 pp Dbl. Occ.
Dates: Jan - Dec /08

This grand African safari takes you to some of Tanzania’s most renowned game reserves for the vacation of a lifetime. Take this opportunity to observe Africa’s Big Five -- elephant, leopard, lion, rhinoceros, and buffalo. One of the most thrilling ways to see Tanzania is from the basket of a hot-air balloon floating over the savannah. In addition, see stunning landscapes, local villages, and one of mankind’s most important archaeological sites. Travel by safari vehicles within Serengeti, Tarangire, and Lake Manyara National Parks, plus Ngorongoro Crater. Stay in luxury safari lodges and tented camps, pulsing with the sounds of the symphonic African bush by night.

Itinerary

Day 1: Touch down in Tanzania
African safari begins at Serena Mountain Village, Arusha. A transfer from Kilimanjaro International Airport to Serena Mountain Village, Arusha, is included. Welcome to Tanzania and the start of your African safari; your hotel overlooks Lake Duluti.
Lodging: Serena Mountain Village, Arusha, Tanzania

Day 2: Wild about wildebeest
Ride in specially designed, open-top safari vehicles to Tarangire National Park, which boasts one of the highest concentrations of wildlife in Africa. You may see large herds of wildebeest, zebras, giraffes, and buffalo. Relax at your safari lodge before the late afternoon game drive, and swap sightings at the welcome reception and dinner.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Lodging: Tarangire Sopa Lodge, Tarangire National Park, Tanzania

Day 3: Tarangire game drives
Enjoy morning and afternoon game drives in Tarangire National Park. It’s one of the best parks for elephant watching, and is home to hundreds of bird and game species.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Lodging: Tarangire Sopa Lodge, Tarangire National Park, Tanzania

Day 4: Flamingos at Lake Manyara National Park
Look for gazelles, waterbucks, impalas, and leopards on a morning game drive. Then travel to Lake Manyara National Park, famed for flamingos and birds of prey. On the way, stop at a local school, where you'll have an opportunity to meet both the teachers and their students. Enjoy free time at your lodge, set on the Rift Valley escarpment overlooking the park and valley 1,000 feet below. Keep a sharp eye out for tree-climbing lions lazing among the limbs of acacia trees on an afternoon game drive.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Lodging: Lake Manyara Serena Lodge, Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania

Day 5: Circle of life in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Take a morning nature walk through tranquil lodge grounds. Travel to the village of Mto wa Mbu for an in-depth view of tribal life in the African bush; take a look inside a typical home and school, and see villagers at work in their daily life. Then journey on to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, home to Ngorongoro Crater and one of Africa’s largest concentrations of permanent wildlife. Your lodge on the dormant volcano’s rim provides private terraces overlooking the lost world of the caldera below.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Lodging: Ngorongoro Serena Lodge, Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

Day 6: Wildlife in Ngorongoro Crater
Head to the heart of Ngorongoro Crater, one of the largest calderas in the world, which contains a variety of ecosystems and an astounding concentration of birds and animals. Encounter massive herds of zebra, wildebeest, and gazelles. This area affords an opportunity to spot the Big Five, which includes African elephant, leopard, the black maned lion, buffalo, and the rare black rhinoceros. Enjoy a picnic lunch in the crater.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Lodging: Ngorongoro Serena Lodge, Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

Day 7: Olduvai Gorge & a Masai VillageMasai Warriors
Visit Olduvai Gorge, where archaeologists Louis and Mary Leakey discovered the fossilized remains of the earliest known man, an estimated 1.8 million years old. Visit a local Masai village, then continue wildlife viewing while driving the rough dirt roads across the plains and grasslands of the Serengeti. Arrive at your safari lodge in the Western Serengeti, which was inspired by Masai tribal dwellings.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Lodging: Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

Day 8: Balloon over the Serengeti
Lift off on an exciting hot air balloon flight as dawn breaks over the vast Serengeti grasslands; from aloft, observe wildlife in the first light of day, an African safari thrill – and enjoy another thrill upon your return where a champagne breakfast in the bush waits for you. An afternoon game drive on the Serengeti plains may yield sightings of wildebeests, zebras, giraffes, hyenas, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, rhinoceros, hippos, buffalos, jackals, and gazelles. This is one of the best places on the continent to see prides of lions.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Lodging: Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

Day 9: A luxury tented camp in the west
Travel to the Serengeti’s remote western corridor, known for huge masses of game migrating animals across the terrain. Arrive at your luxurious tented camp for another unique African safari experience.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Lodging: Kirawira Tented Camp, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

Day 10: Species survival in the bush
Your safari guide shares fascinating insights about the African bush on your dawn game drive. Toast your final afternoon wildlife-viewing experience with traditional sundowner cocktails as the setting sun streaks the Tanzanian sky.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Lodging: Kirawira Tented Camp, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

Day 11: Journey home
Fly to Arusha where a day room is reserved for you at a hotel set in a tree-shaded coffee plantation overlooking Lake Duluti. Recount the week’s many adventures at dinner before transferring to the airport. Tour ends: Arusha. A transfer is included from Serrena Mountain village, Arusha to Kilimanjaro International Airport.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch, dinner
Day Lodging: Serena Mountain Village, Arusha, Tanzania

12/08