7 Days, 6 nights safari

Overview

Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara and Zanzibar Holiday can offer outstanding wildlife viewing in true safari style with all the creature comforts you could possibly wish for whilst ensuring an entirely authentic experience without hordes of tourists.
The original Safari Blue tour (make sure you are booking the right thing!) is one of the most popular day trips from Nungwi village (and a fair few other locations as well).

Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara and Zanzibar

Safari Itinerary

Day 1: Arusha/Moshi – Serengeti National Park

We head towards the Serengeti National Park. En route, there is an opportunity to visit Olduvai Gorge. It is within this steep-sided ravine that Louis and Mary Leakey made some of the world’s most important archaeological discoveries in the 1950s. Here is a small museum we are able to see evidence of our ancestors that have been dated back 2.5 million years. After lunch, we drive into the Serengeti itself and the rest of the afternoon is spent game viewing in the vast plains that are broken only by stands of acacia trees and the occasional kopje. In December, January and February we will normally meet the migration with large herds of wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle. There are always plenty of resident animals, such as giraffe, buffalo, and elephant, and many large predators such as lion, cheetah, and leopard. We return to our special tented camp for the night.

Day 2: Serengeti National Park

We have another full day in this wonderful park, rising early to make the most of our time. Our guides will choose the best spotting locations for the time of year; we can spend time at the Hippo pool watching these majestic animals laze about in the cool water happily living alongside the crocodiles, watch a big pride of lions, be in the middle of the migration, sometimes surrounded by wildebeest, sometimes by zebras, which travel with the wildebeest. We journey from the wide open plains to the kopjes: these volcanic rocky outcrops provide protection and shelter for a wide variety of animals and from the top, we can look out across the vast grasslands of the Serengeti. This diverse and interesting landscape will provide us with the ultimate in game viewing, we will hopefully see all of the plain games; elephants, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, lions and if you are lucky the elusive leopard and cheetah, as well as huge amounts of interesting birdlife, from the elegant secretary birds to the flightless ostrich. We return to our special tented camp for the night.

Day 3: Serengeti - Ngorongoro Crater

We start the day with an early morning game drive before heading to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Ngorongoro is a special place in that it is a Conservation Area, not a National Park; this means that the whole area is managed for both the animals and the local Maasai people who graze their cattle alongside the indigenous wildlife. During the drive in Ngorongoro, we have a chance to glimpse something of the Maasai way of life. After stopping at the entrance gate, where there is a chance to learn more about this fascinating volcanic landscape, we will drive around the rim of the Crater itself, and from here we can look down and see the herd of wildebeest or buffalos. Finally, we descend into the crater. The crater walls provide a natural sanctuary for the animals, which means there is plenty to see: lions, elephants, buffalo, rhino and leopard (if you are lucky). The only animal you won’t see in here is a giraffe, whose long legs are unable to cope with the steeps sides of the crater. In the late afternoon, we travel back to our special tented camp.

Day 4: Game drive in Lake Manyara

We depart from your lodge in Karatu and proceed to Lake Manyara National Park. Although small in size, this park is one of the most diverse reserves in the country. Lake Manyara covers two-thirds of the park. At the backdrop is the wall of the Great Rift Valley, before which lies the groundwater forest, areas of open grassland near the lake foreshore, and the Soda Lake. We enjoy a picnic lunch in this area, which consists of open grassy areas, hot springs, dense woodlands, and steep mountainsides. Lake Manyara National Park is a birding paradise that has more than 350 species of bird. The park is also famed for its unique and elusive tree-climbing lions. After lunch, we travel back to Kilimanjaro Airport for the flight to Zanzibar. On arrival in Zanzibar you will meet us at the airport and pick up with a private transfer to Nungwi.

Day 5: Spice Farm and Stone Town Tour

Morning after breakfast at 9:30 am you will be picked up to spice farm where you can see different types of spices and how they grow up plus tasting the seasonal fruits then will have lunch at spice farm. After lunch, you will do stone town tour where you can see historical site, slave market, daily market, narrow streets and later shopping.

Day 6: Safari Blue Tour

Morning at 7:30 am you will be picked up from hotel to Fumba village where you will meet special guide who will guide you to the boat for blue safari tour. It is about visiting three different sandbanks and you stop in one of those for Seafood lunch whereby later you do snorkeling and having the chance of seeing the dolphins. It is full day trip back at 05:30 pm from Fumba village and arrive at the hotel around 06:30 pm.

Day 7: Departure Day

Depending on your flight schedule and departure point you will be transferred to the Zanzibar Airport to take a flight back home. If you are flying out of Dar es Salaam or Nairobi, we will arrange a connection flight for you to catch your flight back home.