Tanzania: Serengeti Wildlife Safari

Arrive in Arusha
Exploring Tanzania with AdventureWomen is the perfect choice for a first-time safari, where you’ll get to stay in custom-designed glamping tents, travel with expert naturalist guides, immerse yourself in local culture, and best of all, see more African wildlife than you could have imagined!

During your adventure you’ll get to know your Tanzanian guides, experts in wildlife spotting and behavior, and the driver of your customized, four-wheel-drive Land Rover Defender, complete with a pop-top roof for wildlife viewing and a window seat for each of you. You are also accompanied by an AdventureWomen Ambassador, committed to helping make your experience a fun and personally rewarding adventure, and cheering you on as you reach beyond your comfort zone to take on new challenges in your own unique way!

You will be picked up at Kilimanjaro Airport and transferred to your comfortable lodge. One group transfer is provided for the Delta/KLM arrival today. Private transfers for other arrivals are available for an additional fee.

Enjoy a light snack at the lodge before turning in for the night. Your adventure starts early tomorrow!

Snack

Overnight: Mount Meru Game Lodge or Arusha Hotel (October 10, 2024 departure only)

Arusha to the Eastern Serengeti Ecosystem
Have breakfast with your group before driving to the small Arusha Airport. Take a short scenic flight from Arusha to the eastern Serengeti ecosystem.

Your guide will welcome your group at the remote airstrip. He will accompany you throughout your safari, offering cultural insights, wildlife spotting expertise and in-depth knowledge of wildlife behavior.

Enjoy a brief tour and history of the 10,000+ acre refuge as you make your way to camp. Enjoy wildlife viewing along the way, one of the tangible results of conservation efforts in the area. Giraffe, eland, dik dik, ostrich, leopard, and even wild dog can be seen in this unique wildlife haven.

Immerse yourself in the semi-nomadic culture of the Maasai by visiting a boma, which is a settlement of circular mud-and-dung Maasai homes. Learn more about their extraordinary culture as you tour the boma and take in the scenes of village life.

Enjoy a welcome dinner and the full Tanzanian hospitality that comes with it!

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Overnight: Eastern Serengeti Nyumba

Eastern Serengeti Ecosystem
Enjoy a light breakfast before heading out on a morning hike. The terrain will be fairly mild, but make sure that you’ve got comfortable shoes with good traction. Being out on the plains on foot at this time of day is magical.

Visit a school, teachers’ housing, or medical dispensary to learn how tourism can impact the community in positive ways through collaboration and understanding.

Enjoy wildlife viewing this afternoon in the Eastern Serengeti Ecosystem. Be on the lookout for rarer species, such as the bat-eared fox and the smaller animals that are sometimes overlooked, such as the mongoose, hyrax, dik dik, and klipspringer.

Maasai elder Nekaaki Kioki is a feisty grandmother and fantastic storyteller. She knows hundreds of Maasai folktales and tells them in a truly dramatic fashion. Travelers usually gather around the campfire to listen to her tell folktales, which are translated into English.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Overnight: Eastern Serengeti Nyumba

Eastern Serengeti Ecosystem
The morning hours offer ideal moments for wildlife viewing in the Eastern Serengeti Ecosystem. Perhaps you will spot a silver-backed jackal or even a big cat on the prowl.

The Enjipai Women’s Group was formed by a small group of Maasai women with a great entrepreneurial spirit. Now numbering over 100 members, the collaborative already has several successful microfinance initiatives underway. This is a precious opportunity to learn about their very different lives: raising kids in the remote villages, being one of multiple wives, their traditional, gender-defined domestic roles, and becoming entrepreneurs.

Sit down this afternoon with a small group of local Maasai women and a translator to have a conversation about a particular topic (to be determined prior to your trip). No men will be present during this conversation, so you will have a chance to share details of your life as well as to ask questions of the local women. This is a unique opportunity to connect with the Maasai on a deeper level.

Hop in the vehicles after dark for a night drive in the Eastern Serengeti Ecosystem. Night drives offer thrills and possible sightings of nocturnal creatures, such as spring hares, aardvarks, and porcupines. More than anything, the night drive offers an adventure few travelers in Tanzania have the chance to experience.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Overnight: Eastern Serengeti Nyumba

Eastern Serengeti Ecosystem to the Serengeti National Park
Enjoy the journey to your next Nyumba camp, as there will be plenty to see along the way. Perhaps you will come across a chase between predator and prey; maybe you will spot a wake of vultures; or maybe you will be lucky enough to find a leopard relaxing high in the limbs of an acacia tree.

Enjoy a boxed lunch along the way to maximize your time with the wildlife.

Spend an afternoon wildlife viewing in the Serengeti. The big cats often spend these hours lying drowsily about the plains and up in the trees while many antelope and other animals continue to graze.

Enjoy your Nyumba, whether you get in a workout with a Keep Fit Kit, learn a traditional Tanzanian game from your guide, write in your journal, or simply put up your feet and relax with a drink by the campfire.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Overnight: Central Serengeti Nyumba

Serengeti National Park
Those with advance reservations will have the opportunity to balloon across the plains during one of your mornings in the Serengeti. A pre-dawn wake-up call leaves you time to drive to the balloon launch site in order to catch the most dramatic light. Take to the skies just as the sun rises. Glide over the plains and acacia treetops, taking in spectacular views of the Seronera River Valley and the surrounding plains. After your descent, enjoy a magnificent champagne breakfast right in the midst of the Serengeti wilderness.

There is nothing as marvelous as traversing the plains of the Serengeti just after dawn and through the morning hours. Look for herds of wildebeest, zebra, giraffe, impala, eland, topi, and more out on the savannah.

For those who opt not to take the balloon excursion, there is much to discover within arm’s reach of camp; learn how to identify animal footprints and bird calls with your guide.

Once you return “home” from wildlife viewing, take time to sit by the fire and relax. Exchange stories of the day, write in your journals, or simply enjoy the fresh evening breeze.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Overnight: Central Serengeti Nyumba

Serengeti National Park
Explore the pristine landscapes of the Serengeti with your guide’s uncanny wildlife-spotting instincts leading the way. Expansive plains, rolling hills, dramatic granite outcrops and riverine valleys are home to an endless variety of fascinating creatures, from the lowly dung beetle to the impressive elephant.

Enjoy a picnic lunch in a scenic spot. This afternoon, spend more time seeking out wildlife and exploring the Serengeti’s rich landscapes. The so-called Big Five and the Great Migration are the most well-known of the Serengeti’s offerings, but there is much more to see. Thousands of equally fascinating dramas of a smaller scale play themselves out on these endless plains.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Overnight: Central Serengeti Nyumba

Serengeti National Park to the Ngorongoro Highlands
Take a scenic flight from the Serengeti to the Ngorongoro Highlands.

Savor lunch at Gibb’s Farm, where nearly every ingredient comes fresh from the estate’s organic farm. With delicacies to suit every palate, this is sure to be a memorable meal.

You may choose to spend the afternoon relaxing on the verandah with tea or taking advantage of innumerable optional activities: a farm or garden tour, bird watching, coffee roasting, and more.

Take a leisurely stroll on your own through the gardens at Gibb’s Farm to stretch your legs. Enjoy the quiet atmosphere, the abundance of beautiful plantings and the views out into the surrounding highlands.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodations: Gibb’s Farm

Ngorongoro Highlands
Visit the Ngorongoro Crater, where you are likely to find an abundance of wildlife. With luck, you might even see rhinoceros and big cats, such as lion and cheetah. The diversity of species often inspires awe, from baboons and elephants in the Lerai Forest to wildebeest and mountain reedbuck over the crater’s grassy floor. To maximize your wildlife viewing time on the crater floor, enjoy your picnic lunch near a hippo pool.

This evening, relax at the Tembo Fire, an open-air sitting area nestled at the foot of the organic gardens. The tradition of the nightly campfire began as a purely practical measure to ensure that elephants – or “tembo” in Swahili – are not tempted to feast in the organic gardens at night. It soon became a popular place to sit and relax at the end of the day. Now, with a comfortable seating area and full bar, the Tembo Fire makes a wonderful place for conversation, storytelling, or star-gazing.

Enjoy your farewell dinner in Tanzania, giving you time to reflect on the many sights, adventures, and experiences that you will remember for years and years to come.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Overnight: Gibb’s Farm

Depart Tanzania
A shopping mainstay in Arusha, the Cultural Heritage Center attracts many travelers each year with its abundance of wooden carvings, artifacts, apparel, and crafts. The center also has Tanzanite and other gemstones for sale.

Enjoy a special farewell lunch in Arusha. Visit the adjoining Shanga workshop where physically challenged artisans create remarkable jewelry, learn glass-blowing, and sell their work.

Enjoy a day room in Arusha, resting up and readying yourself for your departure.Have a nutritious snack, including a variety of nuts, fruit, vegetables and other treats to enjoy now or on your flight home.

Say goodbye to your new AdventureWomen friends as you transfer to the airport for your flights home. One group transfer is included for the Delta/KLM flight this evening. Private transfers for other arrivals are available for an additional fee.

Breakfast, Lunch, Snack

Day Room: Mount Meru Hotel

If you’d like to continue your adventure, ask us about our Tarangire National Park and Zanzibar extensions!

Please note: AdventureWomen will attempt to adhere to the itinerary as much as possible. However, certain conditions (political, climatic, environmental, and cultural) may necessitate changes in the itinerary. AdventureWomen reserves the right to alter any itinerary at any time, if necessary. We will attempt to notify participants of changes as far in advance as possible. Costs incurred by such changes will be the responsibility of the participants.