Journeys: Tanzania Safari Experience

Arrive at any time. Arrival transfer is included. Our trips throughout Kenya and Tanzania have a maximum group size of six travellers in addition to an Expedition Leader and a driver who are both trained safari guides. That means everyone gets a window seat and twice the insight about the astounding wildlife all around you.

Included Experiences

• Arrival Transfer: You will be met at the airport and transferred to the hotel to start your adventure.
• Welcome Moment - Meet Your Expedition Leader and Group: Your opportunity to meet your National Geographic Expedition Leader and fellow travellers, and learn more about your tour. Opt to join the group for a local meal afterwards. Don't forget to see the notice in the lobby (or ask reception) for the official time and place to meet up with the group.

This morning, make your way to Mto wa Mbu, a vibrant settlement of Tanzania’s diverse tribal groups. Take a guided walk through the rural town, visiting the local market and meeting artisans in their workshops; then sit down for a traditional lunch with a local family. Continue to the Rift Valley escarpment and settle into our safari camp, located at the edge of Lake Manyara National Park. Set out on our first safari drive to discover East Africa’s legendary wildlife, searching for lions, elephants, hippos, giraffes, and more. This western wall of the Rift Valley escarpment is truly stunning. It provides a backdrop for your search of the park's bird life, tree-climbing lions, elephants, hippos, and baboons. The afternoon is spent viewing wildlife along the main road that winds through a lush, cool forest that’s dominated by large ficus trees covered in bromeliads and ferns.

Included Experiences

• 7-Seat 4x4 Safari Vehicle: Get a better view and take better snapshots aboard this off-road ride with a pop-up top.
• Lake Manyara National Park Afternoon Safari Drive: This western wall of the Rift Valley escarpment is truly stunning. It provides a backdrop for your search for the park's phenomenal bird life (including raptors), tree-climbing lions, elephants, zebras, hippos, baboons, and buffalos. Look up and see some of the more than 400 species of birds, including pink flamingos, pelicans, cormorants, and storks. Beyond wildlife, Lake Manyara NP is home to giant fig trees, acacia woodlands, mahogany trees, and grassy flood plains. The contrasts of this area are simply breathtaking; the open plains, huge escarpment, central alkaline lake, dense woodlands, and distant volcanic peaks coming together in an area best described by Ernest Hemingway as “the loveliest I have seen in Africa.”
• Mto wa Mbu Community Visit and Lunch: Take part in a cultural walk to learn about life in this East African town. Mto wa Mbu has attracted some 18,000 residents from 120 different tribes. During the two-hour tour, visit the community's local market, go right to the farmer's fields, see how huts are constructed, and meet artisans in their shops. Afterwards, sit down with our new friends and enjoy a traditional lunch of meat and plantains.

Travel through the breathtaking Rift Valley en route to our safari camp in Serengeti National Park. Enjoy a stop along the way at the Olduvai Gorge Museum and Visitor’s Centre—located near the site where National Geographic archaeologists Louis and Mary Leakey discovered early hominid fossils and stone tools in 1960. From here, continue to the world-famous Serengeti National Park and head out on a late afternoon safari drive across the Serengeti Plain, keeping an eye out for grazing giraffes, lounging lions, and herds of antelope in the golden light.

Included Experiences

• 7-Seat 4x4 Safari Vehicle: Get a better view and take better snapshots aboard this off-road ride with a pop-up top.
• Olduvai Gorge Museum: The Olduvai Gorge is a steep ravine in the Great Rift Valley of Tanzania. It is one of the world’s most important paleoanthropological sites. Beginning in 1931, excavations by Louis Leakey revealed evidence of early man dating back nearly 2 million years. Visit the Olduvai museum and see bone fossils and fragments of ancient stone tools. This UNESCO World Heritage site provides an intriguing glimpse into the origin and evolution of man in these Serengeti Plains of Africa.
• Serengeti National Park Safari : This is the reason you came to Africa. Charge your camera, grab your binoculars, and set out on safari. Your eagle-eyed driver will keep an eye out for wildlife – buffaloes, elephants, lions, wildebeests, zebras, and more. Tanzania’s Serengeti tends to be less crowded than some of Kenya’s reserves, so enjoy the scenery, the vast expanse of the grasslands, the play of light and shadow, and the up-close look at wild Africa.

Immerse yourself in the splendor of the Serengeti, one of Africa’s most celebrated wildlife reserves. Discover the park’s iconic creatures when you set out in a 4x4 on morning and afternoon safaris through the golden grasslands. With luck, spot all of Africa’s “big five”—lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, and buffalo. Later, visit the Serengeti Wildlife Research Centre, and enjoy a talk by one of the visiting researchers.

Included Experiences

• Serengeti National Park Safari : This is the reason you came to Africa. Charge your camera, grab your binoculars, and set out on safari. Your eagle-eyed driver will keep an eye out for wildlife – buffaloes, elephants, lions, wildebeests, zebras, and more. Tanzania’s Serengeti tends to be less crowded than some of Kenya’s reserves, so enjoy the scenery, the vast expanse of the grasslands, the play of light and shadow, and the up-close look at wild Africa.
• 7-Seat 4x4 Safari Vehicle: Get a better view and take better snapshots aboard this off-road ride with a pop-up top.
• Serengeti Wildlife Research Centre Lecture: Visit the Serengeti Wildlife Research Centre, where most of the wildlife researchers and scientists are based for projects within Serengeti National Park and surrounding protected areas. Enjoy a lecture by one of the visiting researchers; topics will vary based on the studies being done at the time.

Depart from the Serengeti early and travel across the vast savanna to the Ngorongoro Conservation area. Spanning more than 20 kilometres in diameter, the Ngorongoro Crater is the largest non-flooded caldera in the world and is inhabited by some 25,000 animals. Set out on a full-day safari drive into the Ngorongoro Crater and observe the biodiversity and resident wild animals in this incredibly important location to the conservation and protection of global wildlife. Enjoy a picnic lunch in the heart of the world’s largest caldera surrounded by Ngorongoro’s flora and fauna. Then, travel to our accommodations in Pembeni for dinner and a relaxing overnight stay in a pristine wilderness setting.

Included Experiences

• 7-Seat 4x4 Safari Vehicle: Get a better view and take better snapshots aboard this off-road ride with a pop-up top.
• Ngorongoro Crater Full Day Safari Drive: See the wonders of the Ngorongoro Crater on a full-day safari drive down into the crater to some of the best spots to view wildlife. Watch for zebra, gazelles, buffalo, and warthogs. Keep your eyes peeled and camera ready to capture a pride of lions or a lone leopard walking along the savanna. Enjoy lunch down in the crater before driving around for more wildlife viewing opportunities.

Leave Ngorongoro behind this morning and travel from our lodge in Pembeni to a Maasai village. Here, we learn about the G Adventures–supported Clean Cookstoves Project, dedicated to providing clean-burning cookstoves to Maasai communities throughout Tanzania. Enjoy a presentation by a Maasai woman on the impact of the project, and take a guided tour of the village, visiting traditional homes or bomas and helping build a new stove. Continue to Arusha stopping en route for lunch. Spend the remainder of the day in the safari capital city of Tanzania, at your own leisure.

Included Experiences

• 7-Seat 4x4 Safari Vehicle: Get a better view and take better snapshots aboard this off-road ride with a pop-up top.
• Clean Cookstove Project Visit: Visit a Maasai village in the Monduli District and witness the benefits of the G Adventures-supported Clean Cookstove Project. In Tanzania, 95% of people rely on cooking with wood and coal. Women and girls spend hours walking to collect wood every day (making them vulnerable to assault and unable to use their time to go to school). Indoor smoke from open-fire stoves causes cancer, emphysema, pneumonia, blindness, and burns. Take a guided tour of these villages and meet the women that have been trained as stove engineers, visit bomas (traditional homes), and observe (or get your hands dirty) by helping the Stove Team build a stove in a home. See the beneficial impact of the clean-burning stoves on the health and daily lives of the Maasai villagers, especially the women.
• Clean Cookstove Project Talk: G Adventures has partnered with the Masai Stoves and Solar Project to install more efficient cookstoves across the Serengeti in order to cut down on smoke-related illnesses. Enjoy an exclusive talk with some of the “Masai mamas” and learn how their lives have been impacted and their community empowered.

Depart at any time.