Great Baby Boom Safari

Duration: 9 days

Highlights: Tarangire National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Serengeti National Park

A luxury safari following Tanzania's amazing wildlife and their adorable young ones while staying at incredible properties.

Itinerary

Day 1 - Arrive Arusha

Arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport, clear customs and immigration formalities and meet your representative who transfers you to Arusha Coffee Lodge for overnight.

Arusha Coffee Lodge is set within the Burka coffee estate, a 2100 acre working coffee plantation just five minutes drive from Arusha airstrip in Northern Tanzania. There are 21 individual chalets built on raised platforms with private sitting rooms, log fireplaces and large balconies overlooking Mount Meru and the coffee fields. With coffee roasters and a fermentation plant on the estate, you can watch the roasting process, taste aromatic coffee blends and buy freshly roasted beans. The lodge also has a swimming pool and spa to help you relax.

Overnight: Arusha Coffee Lodge

Meal Plan:

Day 2 - Fly to Tarangire National Park

After breakfast, take a scheduled flight to Tarangire National Park with an afternoon game drive. You will be met by a Sanctuary Swala driver/guide and transferred to camp.

Amongst acacia trees and ancient baobabs, Sanctuary Swala offers fantastic safari accommodation in a secluded location in Tarangire National Park. As one of the less visited park in Tanzania, as well as home to the only permanent water source in the area, the lodge offers unmatched views. Look across the decking to a waterhole that enjoys frequent visits from Tarangire's famously large elephant herds as well as hundreds of impala, for which the camp is named.

The spacious accommodation - dressed in campaign furniture, each room with its own private balcony - has recently been completely reconstructed to minimize Swala's carbon footprint. Situated off the beaten track, the sense of staying in your own secluded kingdom is emphasized when you are introduced to your personal butler.

In addition to classic African game drives, night safaris and walking tours, guests can witness how Sanctuary Swala gets involved with the local community. 

Later enjoy an afternoon game drive in Tarangire.

Overnight: Sanctuary Swala Camp

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 3 - Tarangire National Park

Experience morning and afternoon game drives in Tarangire National Parks and marvel at the huge herds of elephants and groves of Baobab Trees.

Tarangire National Park is one of the finest parks in Tanzania. Centered on the Tarangire River, this park has expansive views with wide panoramas of wooded savannah stretching in every direction. The park gets its name from the Tarangire River, a permanent river that  serves as the only reliable dry-season source of water available to wildlife in a vast stretch of Tanzania's Rift Valley. Tarangire is home to the largest elephant population in northern Tanzania, with some herds being 500 elephants strong.  

The advent of short rains in the months of November and December turns the plains green providing nourishment for the elephants and other wildlife. The animals take advantage of the fresh grass to drop young ones between January and March. What an adorable sight watching the calves and foals take their first wobbly steps.   

Overnight: Sanctuary Swala Camp

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 4 - Drive to Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Drive to the Ngorongoro Crater with a game drive in Lake Manyara National Park on the way.

However you approach Lake Manyara National Park, your first view is spectacular. Lake Manyara National Park has a wide variety of habitats attracting a host of different animals: monkeys leap between the trees of the ground water forest, on the slope of the escarpment elephants stand in the shade of the baobab. In the pools along the lakeshore, hippos wallow and in the acacia woodland lions rest in the trees. The birdlife is fascinating, with pelicans, storks, geese, herons and cormorants sharing the water with migrant flamingoes that turn the crystalline edges of the lake a bright pink.

Overnight: Sanctuary Ngorongoro Crater Camp

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 5 - Ngorongoro Crater

After an early breakfast descend into the Ngorongoro Crater (aptly nicknamed the Garden of Eden) for a full day game drive before returning to Sanctuary Ngorongoro Crater Camp.

Your game drive today will be like no other as you visit one of the most dramatic safari destinations in Africa, the Ngorongoro Crater. Descend to the crater floor in search of the big 5 with the back drop of the forest covered crater walls surrounding you, creating stunning back drops for all of your wildlife photographs. Travel through the Lerai Forest looking for baby leopard and onto the plains where the gazelles graze whilst lion and their cubs lay and watch. Further afield a rhino and her calf wander and a hippo family hide in the pools.

Overnight: Sanctuary Ngorongoro Crater Camp

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 6 - Fly to Serengeti National Park

Fly to the Serengeti National Park where you will have the next three nights at Sanctuary Kichakani.

Sanctuary Kichakani Serengeti Camp is a mobile tented camp based in two set locations across the Serengeti, inviting guests to intimately experience the movement of a million-plus wildebeest and zebra as they follow the fresh grasses across the Serengeti plains during the annual migration cycle.

An elegant contemporary take on the classic campaign look, the camp offers accommodation under canvas with 10 five-star tents, all of which have been styled with distinction. Each tent has a wooden deck perfect for pausing for a just-brewed cup of Tanzania's finest coffee and en suite bathrooms feature authentic bucket showers. A personal tent attendant is available around the clock to fill each bucket shower to the perfect temperature.

Thanks to the on-the-go nature of the whole sand-coloured canvas-constructed camp, there is little impact on the environment, casting a lighter ecological shadow.

Overnight: Sanctuary Kichakani Camp

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 7 & 8 - Serengeti National Park

Our planet is amazing. Between 400,000 and 600,000 years ago a series of volcanic eruptions occurred throwing a huge amount of white ash over what we now call Southern Serengeti. Over thousands of years the ash compacted with only grass and small shrubs being able to grow. Coupled with seasonal rains it has become the perfect spot for wildebeest and zebras to have their babies.

It is a truly astonishing sight to look out over the gently undulating plains and almost find it impossible to see the grass. Millions of wildebeest and zebras litter the grasslands, joined by approximately 400,000 wildebeest calves and zebra foals. This is the migration birthing season, starting at the beginning of February and lasting around six weeks. The high protein grass, plentiful water supply and safety in numbers means these little ones get the best chance of survival.

But that doesn’t mean everyone survives, because the huge numbers of plains game draws in thousands of predators. This is the best possible time to see the big cats on the hunt. There is nothing as exciting as seeing the lionesses working as a well drilled unit, the concentrated stealthy stalking of a leopard or the thrill of watching the cheetah go from stationary to full speed (around 120 kph or 75 mph) in just a few strides.

Overnight: Sanctuary Kichakani Camp

Meal Plan: B,L,D

Day 9 - Fly to Arusha/depart

Today it is time to return home with some new and exciting memories - you will fly back to Arusha where you will have a day room before connecting onto your international flight.

If you would like an extension into the Masai Mara, Zanzibar or onto Uganda for gorilla tracking please contact us.

Meal Plan: B