Classic Safari: Kenya & Tanzania
"On Safari"...it's one of the most alluring phrases in all of travel. And Kenya and Tanzania count among the most alluring places to be "on safari." As our small group travels from grasslands to highlands, to reserves and national parks, we enjoy intimate game drives, see stupendous landscapes, stay in excellent accommodations, and meet gracious local people.
Exclusive Highlights
- Tanzania's unparalleled game viewing.
- Amboseli National Park.
- Serengeti National Park, Africa's best game viewing site.
- Ngorongoro Conservation area, wildlife haven and Massai homeland.
- Olduvai Gorge.
- Diverse bird life at Lake Manyara National Park.
- Top-rated game lodges.
Itinerary
DAY 1: Depart U.S. for Nairobi, Kenya
Mid-morning you’ll depart from New York on your Emirates flight to Nairobi via Dubai, UAE.
DAY 2: Arrive Nairobi
You’ll arrive this morning in Dubai then connect with the flight to Nairobi, arriving in Nairobi this afternoon. From the airport you’ll transfer directly to the hotel, where tonight you’ll meet your fellow travelers and Odysseys Unlimited tour director at a briefing about the journey ahead, followed by dinner together.
Accommodations: Norfolk Hotel
Meals: Dinner
DAY 3: Nairobi
We see highlights of Kenya’s cosmopolitan capital city today, including the City Market, a lively enclave of stalls selling produce, flowers, and handcrafts; and the house and museum of Danish writer Karen Blixen, who as Isak Dinesen wrote Out of Africa. Lunch and dinner today are on your own in this city that’s renowned as a staging point for safari-goers.
Accommodations: Norfolk Hotel
Meals: Breakfast
DAY 4: Nairobi/Masai Mara
Early this morning we leave for Masai Mara (via Narok), Kenya’s – and Africa’s – premier game reserve rich with animal life and homeland of the native Maasai people. Known especially for its annual wildebeest migration and abundance of leopards and rhinos, the Mara comprises 200 square miles of vast plains, acacia forests, grass-covered hills, and slow-flowing rivers. We reach our luxury tented camp in the heart of the Mara in time for lunch and an afternoon game drive. Dinner tonight is at our camp, as are all meals throughout our stay.
Accommodations: Sarova Mara Tented Camp
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 5: Masai Mara
We spend today “on safari,” venturing out on game drives during prime viewing hours to glimpse some of the lions, leopards, cheetahs, zebra, giraffe, gazelles, wildebeest, elephants, buffalo, hippo, rhino, and other wildlife that call the Mara home. When not out in the bush, we can enjoy the activities and amenities of our camp, including a spa and swimming pool, cultural and wildlife talks, and Maasai dance performances.
Accommodations: Sarova Mara Tented Camp
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 6: Masai Mara
After an early morning visit to meet children at a local school, again today we’re “on safari” in this preserve that’s just slightly smaller than the state of Rhode Island. As we explore we’re sure to encounter native Maasai, the semi-nomadic people who have called the Mara home for millennia and whose deep-rooted culture dictates they live in harmony with the wildlife surrounding them; hence they rarely hunt. The Maasai raise cattle, which along with lions and wildebeests, play important roles in their cultural beliefs.
Accommodations: Sarova Mara Tented Camp
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 7: Masai Mara/Amboseli
Leaving Masai Mara this morning, we fly to Nairobi, where we stop for lunch in a local restaurant then drive to Amboseli National Reserve, in the shadow of snow-capped Mt. Kilimanjaro (though a universal symbol of Kenya’s natural world, free-standing Kilimanjaro actually sits in neighboring Tanzania). The park comprises five main wildlife habitats: open plains, acacia woodland, rocky thorn bush country, swamps, and marshland. Known especially for its large elephant population (an estimated 650 elephants live here, more than in any other Kenyan preserve), Amboseli’s wide dry plains also boast herds of wildebeest, antelopes, zebras, giraffes, gerenuks, gazelles, and buffalos among its 50 species of large animals; some 400 species of birds; hippos patrolling the swamps and springs; and many Maasai villages. We encounter some of this grandeur of nature during a game drive on the way to our classic safari lodge where we’ll be spending the next the next two nights. After settling in at our lodge late this afternoon, we enjoy dinner there tonight.
Accommodations: Amboseli Serena Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 8: Amboseli
Our day begins with an early morning visit to a nearby Maasi village to meet the people and to see everyday life up close. Then we enjoy additional game drives, and also have time to relax at our luxurious lodge set beneath a copse of feathered acacia trees in the foothills of Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain (and only free-standing one).
Accommodations: Amboseli Serena Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 9: Amboseli/Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania
We leave Amboseli early this morning, cross the border into Tanzania at Namanga, and continue onward to Arusha, gateway to Ngorongoro and where we stop for lunch. Late this afternoon we reach spectacular Ngorongoro, a UNESCO Conservation Area, International Biosphere Reserve, and site of Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera. On the crater’s floor is Africa in microcosm: grassland, swamps, lakes, forests, mountains, and unparalleled wildlife, including the rare black rhino and black-maned male lion among its 25,000 creatures.
Accommodations: Ngorongoro Crater Serena Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 10: Ngorongoro Crater
On our morning tour of the 100-square-mile crater we have our only chance to see all of Africa’s “Big Five” – elephant, buffalo, rhinoceros, lion, leopard – in one place, along with many other animal species (including Thomson’s gazelles, wildebeests, and zebras) and diverse flora. Because Ngorongoro has abundant food and water year-round, the animals here do not migrate as they do in Masai Mara and Amboseli. And because they live within the confines of the steep-walled caldera, Ngorongoro’s animals are less shy and more approachable than those at other reserves. Throughout our explorations we also may see semi-nomadic Maasai tribespeople as they engage in their age-old practice of grazing their cattle alongside the wild animals. This afternoon is at leisure to relax at our luxurious lodge on the crater’s rim.
Accommodations: Ngorongoro Crater Serena Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 11: Ngorongoro Crater/Serengeti National Park
Leaving Ngorongoro, we’re bound today for the Serengeti, the Maasai’s 5,700-square-mile “endless plain” considered Africa’s finest park and one of the world’s last great wildlife refuges. On the way we visit 31-mile Olduvai Gorge in the Great Rift Valley, where in 1959 anthropologist Mary Leakey discovered the 1.8 million-year-old skull of Australopithecus boisei – and revolutionized the study of human evolution. Known as the “cradle of mankind,” Olduvai ranks as one of the world’s most important prehistoric archaeological sites for its rich fossils, early hominid remains, and the ongoing discovery of one of the oldest stone tool technologies. The Leakey family continues to research early human development at Olduvai to this day.
Continuing on, we reach our Serengeti lodge early this afternoon; we relax over lunch then embark on our first game drive here. Comprising two UNESCO World Heritage sites and two Biosphere Reserves, the Serengeti has inspired such writers as Ernest Hemingway and Peter Mattheissen, as well as filmmakers, photographers, and scientists in an ecosystem that has changed little in the past million years. More than a million wildebeest, 200,000 zebras, and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelle still move from the northern hills of the Masai Mara to new grazing lands on southern plains of the Serengeti each October and November, then return after the “long rains” in April, May, and June.
Accommodations: Serengeti Serena Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 12: Serengeti
With the highest concentration of large animals on the planet, the Serengeti’s vast treeless plains teem with animal life year-round (including 2,500 lions – the most anywhere), and this is the best locale in which to see lions and cheetahs up close. With two game drives scheduled today, we’re sure to see a variety of African wildlife.
Accommodations: Serengeti Serena Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 13: Serengeti/Lake Manyara
Tanzania has 13,000 square miles of protected national parkland, more than any other country. We drive this morning to peaceful Lake Manyara, one of Tanzania’s smallest (125 square miles) and most diverse parks, where elephants graze beneath baobab trees, lions doze on the branches of umbrella trees, monkeys leap from treetop to treetop, hippos loll on the lake shore, and masses of flamingos paint the lake a colorful pink. Bordered by the dramatic Western Escarpment of the Great Rift Valley, Lake Manyara is especially notable for its abundant bird life (some 400 species), diverse vegetation, rare tree-climbing lions, and hippos. We reach our safari lodge in time for lunch then take an afternoon game drive.
Accommodations: Lake Manyara Serena Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 14: Lake Manyara
On today’s two game drives we’re sure to see hippos, which we can get closer to here than anywhere else; as well as blue monkeys, lion, elephant, giraffe, impala, zebra, and such bird life as flamingos, saddle-bill stork, knob-billed duck, and Hottentot teal.
Accommodations: Lake Manyara Serena Lodge
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 15: Lake Manyara/Nairobi, Kenya
Today we re-enter the urban world as we return to Nairobi via Arusha. Continuing on we cross the Namanga border before reaching Nairobi late this afternoon. Tonight we celebrate our safari adventure during a farewell dinner at a local restaurant.
Accommodations: Norfolk Hotel
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 16: Nairobi/Return to U.S.
After a morning at leisure, we board our flight to Dubai, where we connect with our return flight to the U.S.
Meals: Breakfast
DAY 17: Arrive U.S.
We reach New York this morning and connect with our flights home.
Faculty Host:
A professor from Bates, Colby or Hamilton College will accompany this trip.
Please
contact the Alumni Office if you're
interested, 207-786-8344 or
lgailey@bates.edu!
