16 Days Safari and Cultural Tour in Tanzania and Zanzibar

Day 1: Arrive into Tanzania - Arusha

Our representative/safari guide will meet and welcome you on your arrival at Kilimanjaro Airport and transfer you to Kibo Palace Hotel in Arusha town.  Bed and breakfast

 

Day 2: Arusha – Tarangire National Park

0730hrs: After an early breakfast, depart Arusha and drive to Tarangire National Park. On reaching the Park, you will go for a Game Drive.

Tarangire is Tanzania’s third largest national park and is known for its majestic baobab trees that dot the landscape, dwarfing the animals that feed beneath them. Herds of up to 300 elephants scratch the dry river bed for underground streams, while migratory wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, hartebeest and eland crowd the shrinking lagoons.

You will have ‘picnic-style’ lunch, and then continue with the wildlife observation, since the swamps, tinged green year round, are the focus for 550 bird varieties, the most breeding species in one habitat anywhere in the world.

Dinner and overnight at Tarangire Safari Lodge - Full Board

 

Day 3: Tarangire – Ngorongoro Highlands

0800hrs: After a leisurely breakfast depart with a game drive en route to Ngorongoro Conservancy. You’ll have lunch and an unforgettable visit to Mto wa Mbu - Masai Village. Here you’ll meet with the Masai people, will observe their tribal life and maybe enjoy a short dancing / singing performance.

After this memorable Cultural experience, you will then proceed to Ngorongoro in the Great Rift Valley.

Dinner and overnight: Bougainvillea Safari Lodge – Full Board

 

Day 4: Lake Eyasi

At 0500hrs: Drive across the rift valley up the escarpment to Lake Eyasi with lunch boxes to join a pre-dawn walk with Bushmen hunters or spend time participating in the morning routine of the settlement. Your local guide will interpret for you and discuss hunting techniques still used by the tribes. This dry and rugged landscape is inhabited by Bushmen who live in nomadic groups hunting with bow and arrow and gathering roots, tubers and wild fruits. Be prepared for an extraordinary cross-cultural experience as you join these nomadic Bushmen in their daily life.

Later in the day return back to Bougainvillea Safari Lodge for dinner and overnight.

 

Day 5: Ngorongoro Crater

On this morning you descend into the “eighth wonder of the world”, the Ngorongoro Crater, which is the largest unbroken caldera on earth.

Ngorongoro Crater is a home to the rare Black Rhino and has its own Soda Lake. The highest concentration of wild animals in the Crater area means that you are likely to see the lions, elephants, Zebras, hippos, flamingoes, jackals, rhinos, antelopes, many birds and other species.

With a picnic lunch you will descend the 600m high crater walls and spend the afternoon viewing wildlife on the crater floor. You will return to your lodge for a sundowner.

Dinner and overnight at Bougainvillea Safari Lodge – Full Board

 

Day 6: Ngorongoro – Serengeti National Park

0800hrs: After breakfast you will depart for Serengeti National Park with a stop en route at Oldvai Gorge. Oldvai is the famous archeological site where the Leakey’s discovered remains of Australopithecus, Homo Habilis and Homo Erectus, bringing crucial understanding of the study of the evolution of the human species. From Oldavai, you are off to the great Serengeti, the most famous wildlife sanctuary in the world.

Dinner and Overnight at Seronera Wildlife Lodge.

 

Day 7: Serengeti National Park

This day will be for exploring the famous Serengeti National Park.

Serengeti National Park is undoubtedly the best-known wildlife sanctuary in the world, unequalled for its natural beauty and scientific value. With more than two million wildebeest, half a million Thomson's gazelle, and a quarter of a million zebra, it has the greatest concentration of plains game in Africa.

Dinner and Overnight at Seronera Wildlife Lodge.

 

Day 8: Serengeti National Park – Lake Victoria

After breakfast, depart for Lake Victoria with a game drive en route and with picnic lunch. Later in the afternoon arrive at Speke bay Lodge on the shores of Lake Victoria.

Dinner and overnight at Speke Bay Lodge

 

Day 9: Lake Victoria

On this day take a Canoe-trip on Lake Victoria to a fishing village:

From the Lodge the guests will be picked up by fishermen with their traditional canoes and be rowed along the shoreline to a nearby village. Here they can explore the village on foot and then return to the Lodge while enjoying the singing of the fishermen. One of our staff members guides this trip and gives information about the different methods of fishing and the way of life in the village.

The trip takes a bit over two hours and is to be made in the morning only (departure between 9 and 10 a.m.), because that is the time the fishermen bring in their overnight catch, plus that the lake is calm then.

Later return to the lodge for the rest of the day. Dinner and overnight at Speke Bay Lodge.

 

Day 10: Lake Victoria – Serengeti

Depart Lake Victoria in the morning and drive back into the Serengeti National Park with game drives en route and picnic lunch. Arrive in Ikoma Tented Camp later in the afternoon for dinner and overnight.

Later in the evening take a night game drive in the park.

 

Day 11: Serengeti / Lake Manyara National Park.

From Serengeti National Park you drive this morning to Lake Manyara National Park. As we drive, we take a game drive en-route and enjoy a picnic lunch. On arrival we you will check-in to your hotel. Dinner and overnight at Migunga Tented Camp.

 

Day 12: Lake Manyara National Park

After breakfast we’ll enjoy a full day Safari at Lake Manyara National Park. Lake Manyara is one of the most scenic parks that we will encounter on our journey in Tanzania, and it is situated on the base of the escarpment of the Great Rift Valley.

There are numerous water birds in the area, including pelicans that waddle around next to short grasses on the shore of the lake. The park is a bird lover’s haven with a variety of local species inhabiting the forest and bush.

The best time to observe these birds is late afternoon and early morning. Animals also found in the area include zebra, wildebeest, waterbuck and warthog. Manyara is also known for its tree-climbing lions. These majestic animals find shelter in the branches of trees from the heat and biting flies.

After this phenomenal experience, you’ll return to the Lodge for dinner and overnight stay Migunga Tented Camp.

 

Day 13: Lake Manyara – Arusha - Zanzibar

0700hrs: This morning we drive back to Arusha to catch your flight to Zanzibar. This will mark the end of the first part of your cultural Safari and Start the second part of the cultural tour to Zanzibar.

1310 hrs: Depart aboard a flight to Zanzibar.

1420 hrs: On arrival in Zanzibar, you will be picked and transferred to Dhow Palace Hotel. Here you can spend the rest of the day resting. Dinner and overnight at Dhow Palace Hotel. Bed and Breakfast

 

Day 14: Zanzibar (Stonetown and Jozani Forest Tour)

After breakfast take the Stonetown tour: Visit stonetown and learn about this pre historic settlement merging old age civilization with not so modern civilization.

 

Later visit the Jozani forest: Other interesting features suitable for tourist in this forest include the coastal evergreen bush land, mangrove forest, saline grassland and ground water forest, though these may require longer walks to reach.

Return to Dhow Palace hotel for dinner and overnight. Bed and Breakfast

 

Day 15: Zanzibar (Spice and Prison Island Tour)

On this day we shall take the following tours:

Spice Tour:

Zanzibar is also known as "The Island of Spices,” whose name evokes a romantic past, embalmed in the aroma of cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and lemon grass.

This tour starts with a drive through a profusion of greenery in the countryside seeing, smelling and tasting a variety of mouth-watering tropical seasonal fruits, some examples are: jack fruit, pineapple, banana, green coconut (madafu), dourian, love apple (matufaa), litche (shoki-shoki), soursop (mabungo) and starfruit (carambola).

Some of the spices are cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, turmeric and nutmeg - are as exotic as the flavour.

A full tour involves much more than spices and you will also have a chance to see the iodine plant, heena bush, ylang-ylang, the lipstick tree, cocoa and coffee trees.

Prison Island Tour:

Prison Island or Changuu Island is the middle island of the three visible from the Stone Town, it takes approximately 30 minutes to get there by boat.

The prison on this island was built in 1893, which was later used as a quarantine Hospital, it has a frangipani lined path around the island where the former patients took their evening walks.

Apart from the Prison ruins you can also see the beautiful peacocks and the enormous giant tortoises some of which are over 100 years old.

These tortoises were brought here from Seychelles by Sultan Said in the 1820's. Efforts are being made to protect the eggs of the tortoise.

Later return to Dhow palace Hotel for dinner and overnight. Bed and Breakfast

 

Day 16: Zanzibar (North Coast Tour)

After breakfast, spend the morning at leisure and later you will be transferred to Zanzibar Airport to catch your home bound flight.

Rates Based On Two People Sharing.

Season	Per Person Sharing	Single Room Supplement	Period
Peak	4680	Enquire	01Dec - 31 Mar, 01 Jul - 31 Oct/16 Dec - 02 Jan
High	4400	Enquire	01 Nov-30 Nov
Low	4050	Enquire	01 April – 30 June

 

NB:

1.      Discounts available for more than 4 people travelling together.

2.      In Serengeti, we may change lodges depending on the season to follow migratory wildebeests.

  

Cost Includes:	Exclude:
Transport in a 4X4 Safari Vehicle with a pop up roof for Photographing,	Bottled water,
Game drives with professional English Speaking Driver/Guide,	Drinks,
Accommodation in 3 double rooms with all meals as per Itinerary,	Medical / Luggage or Personal Insurance,
Park fees & Crater fees	Fees payable directly during cultural visits to villages,
Flight from Arusha to Zanzibar,	Other type of Personal Expenses,
Pick up and drop off to Zanzibar Airport,	Gratuity,
Dhow palace on bed and breakfast basis.	All things of personal nature,
Excursions in Zanzibar	International Air fare and Airport Taxes
Transfers to all excursions
1 night game drive at Ikoma Tented Camp