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EAST AFRICA EXPLORER
Tour Code : TIA034
Validity : 15-December-15 to 15-Dec-16
Minimum : 02 pax (Saturday)
Vehicle : 1 x 7 Seater 4X4 VEHICLE
Starts : Nairobi
Ends : Nairobi
Meals : as indicated on itinerary at a glance
ITINERARY AT A GLANCE
Day Location Accommodation Board Activity
1 Nairobi Hotel Inter-continental, Nairobi BB Arr tsf
2 Masai Mara National G.R Mara Sopa Lodge LDBB P
3 Masai Mara National G.R Mara Sopa Lodge LDBB AP
4 Lake Nakuru National Park Lake Nakuru Sopa Lodge LDBB P
5 Amboseli National Park Amboseli Sopa Lodge LDBB P
6 Amboseli National Park Amboseli Sopa Lodge LDBB AP
7 Lake Manyara N. Par Lake Manyara Serena Lodge LDBB P
8 Serengeti National Park Serengeti Sopa Lodge LDBB P
9 Serengeti National Park Serengeti Sopa Lodge LDBB A,P
10 Ngorongoro Cons. Area Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge LDBB leisure
11 Ngorongoro Cons. Area Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge LDBB crater tour
12 Tarangire National Park Tarangire Sopa Lodge LDBB P
13 Departure Dept transfer
L-Lunch, D-Dinner, BB-Bed and breakfast, LDBB-Lunch, dinner, bed and breakfast, Trsf-Transfer, E-Early morning game drive, A-Morning game drive, P-Afternoon game drive, HDS-Half Day sightseeing, FDS-Full Day Sightseeing
FULL ITINERARY
Day 1 - Nairobi
Arrival at Jomo Kenyatta Airport met and assisted by VINTAGE AFRICA representative. Transfer to your hotel. Rest of the day is spent at leisure in Nairobi (Optional tour of Karen Blixen and Giraffe center available at extra cost). Overnight at Hotel Inter-continental Nairobi or Eka hotel (BB)
Day 2 - Masai Mara National G.R
After breakfast, drive to the Masai Mara National Reserve offering wonderful scenery and plenty of game. It is perhaps the only region left in Kenya where the visitor may see animals in the same super-abundance as existed a century ago. Arrive for lunch at your lodge. Afternoon game drive until sunset. Meals and overnight at Mara Sopa Lodge (LDBB)
Day 3 - Masai Mara National G.R
Whole day in Masai Mara with morning and afternoon game drives. Meals and overnight at Mara Sopa Lodge (LDBB)
Day 4 Lake Nakuru National Park
After breakfast you will be collected for the day’s drive taking you to Lake Nakuru National Park. Lunch at your lodge. After Lunch you will proceed on an afternoon game drive in Lake Nakuru National Park. The Lake has good density of game and it is one Park that within few minutes of game drive, you will achieve quite a lot in terms of sightings. It is also a bird watchers haven. After the game drive proceed back to your lodge. Dinner and overnight stay at Lake Nakuru Sopa Lodge LDBB
Day 5 Amboseli National Park
After breakfast at the overnight lodge, you will depart Lake Nakuru National Park and drive to Lake Naivasha where you will have a boat ride and thereafter proceed to Nairobi where you will have a quick lunch. After lunch proceed to the Amboseli National Park which is set at the foot of the most famous symbol of Africa, Mt Kilimanjaro. Dinner and overnight at Amboseli Sopa Lodge (L-DBB)
Day 6 - Amboseli National Park
This is your full day to explore the Amboseli National Park. Famous for its large herds of elephants and in particular its big tuskers, a day in Amboseli is surely a highlight of your safari. All meals and overnight at Amboseli Sopa Lodge (LDBB)
Day 7: Lake Manyara
After breakfast at the overnight lodge, you will drive to the boarder post where you will clear immigration formalities and immediately proceed to Arusha town where you will have lunch. After lunch proceed to Lake Manyara National Park, which apart from its abundant bird life, is known for its tree-climbing lions. Rest of the afternoon at leisure. Dinner and overnight at Lake Manyara Serena Lodge (LDBB)
Day 8: Serengeti National Park
Breakfast at your lodge, then drive to Lake Manyara National Park for a morning game drive. After the game drive return to Lake Manyara Serena Lodge for lunch. After lunch drive to the Serengeti National Park, undoubtedly the most famous wildlife sanctuary in the world, unequalled for its natural beauty and the greatest concentration of plains game anywhere. Afternoon game drive until enroute to your lodge. Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Sopa Lodge (LDBB)
Day 9: Serengeti National Park
All day spent in the Serengeti with morning and afternoon game drives. Meals and overnight at Serengeti Sopa Lodge (LDBB)
Day 10: Ngorongoro Conservation Area
After breakfast, depart for Ngorongoro En route visit the Olduvai Gorge site of archeological findings, where traces of pre-historic man dating back to 3.5 million years ago have been discovered. Arrive for lunch at your lodge. Afternoon at leisure. Meals and overnight at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge (LDBB)
Day 11: Ngorongoro Conservation Area
After breakfast, depart for half day tour of the crater floor. Return to your lodge for lunch. Afternoon at leisure. Ngorongoro crater is the largest intact caldera in the world. Its enduring charm stems from its overwhelming physical beauty and the abundance of wildlife permanently resident on the crater floor Dinner and overnight at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge (LDBB)
Day 12: Tarangire National Park
Breakfast at the overnight lodge. This morning drive to Tarangire National Park, named after the Tarangire River which rises in Tanzania's central highland. The river lures thousands of plains game to its banks. Lunch at your lodge. Afternoon game drive. Dinner and overnight at Tarangire Sopa Lodge (LDBB)
Day 13 Depart
Today you will drive to the Kenyan boarder via Arusha and on to Nairobi and drop off at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for your international departure flight.
The Package Includes:Arrival and departure airport transfers
1 Night accommodation at Hotel Intercontinental, Nairobi on bed & breakfast
2 Nights accommodation at Mara Sopa Lodge on full board basis
1 Night accommodation at Lake Nakuru Sopa Lodge on full board basis
2 Nights accommodation at Amboseli Sopa Lodge on full board basis
1 night accommodation at Lake Manyara Serena Lodge
2 nights accommodation at Serengeti Sopa Lodge
2 nights accommodation at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge
1 night accommodation at Serengeti Sopa Lodge
Boat ride in Lake Naivasha
All game drives as per itinerary
All park entrance fees
Transport in 1 x 7 Seater in Kenya and 4x4 vehicle in Tanzania
Services of a qualified English Speaking Driver Guide
1 Litre bottle of mineral water per person per day while on a road safari in a VINTAGE AFRICA vehicle
The Package Excludes:
All International Flights + Taxes
Visas
Travel & Personal accident insurance
Tips & personal expenses such as telephone calls…etc.
Excursions not detailed in above program
Included flights:
No flights included
Added Value:
Va gift pack
Complimentary 188 pages Vintage Africa Safari Guide covering the whole of East Africa
Complimentary Vintage Africa Safari Pouch with a pen
Complimentary Vintage Africa Hat
PARKS & RESERVES INFORMATION
Masai Mara National G.R
Probably the most famous of the reserves, the Masai Mara, in Kenya's south western corner, boasts an astonishing amount of game. Unfenced, the Mara is bounded in the east by the Ngama Hills and in the west by the Oloololo or Siria Escarpment. Gazelle, wildebeest and zebra graze in large numbers and where prey is found so are predators. Not only is this a great place in which to find game, but the wide greeny-gold savannahs spotted with thorn trees make it ideal for photography. The Mara, as it is known in Kenya, is ravishingly beautiful and also offers long, undisturbed views and utterly dramatic panoramas. The weather really means something here. The sun may beat down unforgivingly, huge clouds in fabulous shapes may sweep across the widest of skies, and the wind ripples the grasses as though they are stroked by a giant hand. The landscape is stunning.
The famously black-maned Mara lions are possibly the stars of the Mara show, but cheetah, elephant, kongoni, topi, Thompson's gazelle, waterbuck, hyena, and primates are all here too. As with the rest of Kenya, the birdlife is good. There is no settlement within the reserve however; the Mara is in theory owned by the Maasai, pastoralists and, in earlier times, renowned lion-killers. Lodges and hotels offer the opportunity to buy their beadwork, checked cloths and copies of their spears. It is said that if lions scent approaching Maasai on the breeze they move swiftly in the opposite direction.
Famously, the Mara is the northerly end of the Great Migration, that great primeval surge of wildebeest, zebra and antelope that sweeps in from Tanzania’s Serengeti to Kenya's Masai Mara as the Tanzanian grass starts to fail. They are tracked by the large predators that pick off the weak, the stragglers and the young. The great herds, nearing their destination by July, mass along the Mara River, pushing, shoving and fantastically noisy, just waiting for the first animal to cross so that they can all follow, lemming-like, on the final leg of the journey. However, crocodiles lie in wait, sluggishly cruising the waters, fully prepared for their best meal of the year. Many fail in the life-and-death struggle - drowned, eaten by the crocodiles or, made careless or weak by their stressful swim, brought down by lions. The Masai Mara is terrible yet wonderful, and not to be missed.
Lake Nakuru National Park
Originally declared a national park because of a superbly diverse bird population, which includes many migrants, the park is also a favourite place for travellers to seek the rare black rhino. However, it is for the flamingos that the lake is best known, and it was for their protection that the park was originally created. The level of the blue-green alkaline waters here varies and this, with other accompanying environmental changes, causes considerable variation in the flamingo population, but when they are present, en masse, the whole lake turns a gorgeous rosy pink.
Although protection of the flamingo population on the lake was the original rationale for the inception of the national park, further land was included in the early seventies and it is now about 190 sq m. This expansion, which took in a large grassland area, has allowed the park to protect further species. Buffalo, zebra, antelope and both lion and leopard are to be found. The rather less ubiquitous reedbuck and waterbuck are also here as is the glamorously leggy Rothschild giraffe. Temptingly, the black rhino breeding programme, started in the late eighties, has proved successful and this is an excellent place to view them.
Lake Nakuru is a small national park. There is no need to stay in the area in order to see all that is to be seen. A good day trip may be enough and these can easily be organised from the Lake Naivasha area.
Amboseli National Park
Arid looking as Amboseli is it has, historically, supported both game and the Maasai that kept their herds of cattle here. It is thanks to the waters that run off Africa's greatest mountain that the apparently dry Amboseli, Kenya's first game sanctuary is able to support its wildlife. Mount Kilimanjaro broods high over Amboseli, generally cloaked by clouds but appearing in all its snow-shrouded magnificence from time to time. Kilimanjaro was once part of Kenya, but on the marriage of Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany Queen Victoria gifted it to her beloved grand son, whose colony Tanzania then was, as the perfect wedding present. The mountain now provides water for the park, wonderful views and, of course, the most glorious background for animal photography.
There has been serious erosion in the park. Elephant feeding habits combined with light soil have made serious inroads in the Amboseli vegetation. Nonetheless, there are still high numbers of the elephant for which the park is famous, and it is here that much research has been done on the largest land mammal. Indeed, a cursory examination will show that humankind is not the only animal to destroy its own environment.
The grasslands in the park can be undeniably lovely when made verdant by the rains and the three major swamps could star in a dinosaur movie. The swamps on the east of the park attract wildebeest, zebra and antelope with the predators that live off them, chiefly lion which tend to be easy to view here. In the south, Enkongo Narok swamp attracts hippos to the larger pools and plenty of buffalo, buck and teeming birdlife including the jacanas that pick their way elegantly and carefully. Giraffe are here and in areas still sufficiently treed there are leopard. Cheetah, caracal and civet may be seen.
In the west of the park lies Lake Amboseli, a seasonal soda lake, sometimes with flamingos. Amboseli is a fabulous place to visit. The overwhelmingly lovely views and good wildlife sightings are too good to miss.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area
In the Great Rift Valley, that great schism in the earth's crust lies the wonderful Ngorongoro Crater, one of the wonders of the natural world. It is an extinct volcano that collapsed in on itself around 25 million years ago thus forming a vast super bowl where the largest permanent concentration of African game is on display.