We want you to have a comfortable and enjoyable experience. That’s why we have rated all of our excursions with activity levels to help you assess this program’s physical expectations. Activity Level ratings indicate each excursion’s physical expectations. To make the best personal choice, please evaluate each excursion’s rating and your ability to meet the tour’s physical demands. Please note excursions on this program require you to: walk on cobblestones, unpaved paths or uneven surfaces; and get on/off motor coaches, boats and trains.
1–Mild: walk under 1 mile on mainly flat terrain; navigate under 50 stairs; stand under 1 hour
2–Moderate: walk 1-3 miles on flat/uneven terrain; navigate 50-100 stairs; stand 1-2 hours
3–Active: walk 2+ miles on flat/uneven terrain, including up and down inclines; navigate 100+ stairs; stand 3+ hours
Depending on the excursion, more leisurely alternatives may be available

Arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport. Proceed through immigration to the baggage claim area and retrieve your luggage. After completing customs, AHI FlexAir passengers traveling on flights that qualify for the group arrival transfer and Land Program passengers who have purchased seats on the group transfer should exit the baggage claim area and proceed to the Arrivals Hall, where an AHI Travel representative will meet you.

Transfer to The African Tulip in Arusha. Please note, if you arrive before check-in time, your room may not be immediately available.

Accommodations – The African Tulip
Meals – Appropriate in-flight meal service

During your journey, begin each morning with a hearty breakfast at your hotels and safari camps.

Enrichment: The Tanzanian People. From the nomadic, red-robed Maasai to urban residents, discover the rich culture of the Tanzanian people.

Discovery: Tanzanian Crafts and Coffee.
Activity level: Moderate
Meet the artisans of a local cooperative workshop that provides disabled people with livelihoods through handcrafting and selling glass-blown pieces, jewelry, textiles and more using recycled materials. Continue to a coffee plantation to see how Tanzania’s most famous crop is grown, harvested and processed.

Tonight, get to know your fellow travelers better at a Welcome Reception and Dinner at the hotel.

Accommodations – The African Tulip
Meals – Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Depart the hotel in Arusha in Land Cruisers and travel to beautiful Tarangire National Park. After settling into your open-air room at the Ole Serai Kuro and enjoying lunch, get ready for wondrous safari adventures! As you explore, your expert driver-guide will offer intriguing insights about the wildlife you observe.

Discovery: Pursuing Pachyderms.
Activity level: Moderate
Embark this afternoon on your first exhilarating game drive. Tarangire’s diverse landscape makes the park hospitable to a wide range of native and migratory animals. With the continent’s highest concentration of elephant herds wandering about, elephant lovers are in for a treat. Look forward to delightful viewing experiences as they frolic in the mud, strip bark off acacia trees and tend to their babies. Excellent photo opportunities abound!

Accommodations – Ole Serai Luxury Camp Kuro
Meals – Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Discovery: Birds of Paradise.
Activity level: Moderate
Climb into your Land Cruiser this morning and await more unforgettable sightings! You may be astonished by the incredible number of birds swirling overhead and flitting among the trees. From the vivid, yellow-collared lovebird, which can fit in your hand, to the martial eagle, Africa’s largest bird of prey, more than 550 species of birds make their home here. In drier spots, you may spy the stocking-thighed ostrich, the world’s largest bird, and the Kori bustard, Africa’s heaviest flying bird.

Discovery: Beneath Baobab Branches.
Activity level: Moderate
Tarangire’s many habitats — grassy plains, swamplands, acacia woodlands and huge baobab trees — house a fantastic variety of wildlife. This afternoon’s game watching may reveal gazelles and zebras kicking up dust as they gallop nearby, or lions stretched out next to the barrel-like trunks of the long-lived, iconic baobab, known as the Tree of Life.

Accommodations – Ole Serai Luxury Camp Kuro
Meals – Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Discovery: A River Runs Through It.
Activity level: Moderate
Drive off this morning on your final, exciting expedition within Tarangire, which is named for the meandering river that bisects the length of the park. Its life-sustaining water draws continual herds of animals even during the dry season when they root nearby in search of underground streams. Watch as giraffes, wildebeests and warthogs congregate and linger along its banks.

In the afternoon, depart Tarangire National Park on a panoramic drive along the Great Rift Valley. As you arrive in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, see the great biodiversity in this area of the Great Rift Valley, a 4,000-mile fissure in the Earth’s crust that stretches from southwest Asia to Mozambique. This tectonic valley was created along a fault in the surface 30 million years ago, and the landscape today is a result of millions of years of geologic activity.

Discovery: Tanzanian Farm Town.
Activity level: Moderate
Visit a lively farming community near Ngorongoro, where as many as 120 different tribes co-exist. Stroll through the colorful market with your guide, then take a tuk-tuk ride for an interesting cultural perspective of this active community, from its churches, schools and local businesses to the surrounding farms and fields.

On your way to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, break for lunch, then arrive and check in to the Ngorongoro O’ldeani Mountain Lodge.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area supports a wide range of animal and bird species due to its many ecosystems: savannas, forests, mountains, plateaus and wetlands. It also has volcanic craters, lakes and rivers. The world’s largest herds of hoofed animals — including wildebeest and zebra — roam the land here. Lions, cheetahs and leopards live in the area as do more than 400 types of birds. You may be lucky to spot an endangered black rhino or hear the distinctive laugh of a hyena. Some 25,000 animals live in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Accommodations – Ngorongoro O’ldeani Mountain Lodge
Meals – Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Discovery: The Garden of Eden.
Activity level: Moderate
Spend a full day exploring the Ngorongoro Crater, which actually is a caldera created when the volcano’s cone collapsed more than 2 million years ago. A vast natural wonder, it forms a bowl that spreads 102 square miles with a forested rim that rises 2,000 feet above the caldera’s floor. The animal population in the crater is so large that you may see the Big Five — lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo and rhinoceros — during your game drive. Take a thrilling ride to the crater floor. Burchell’s zebra, Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelles, hippopotamus, cheetah and the African wild dog all live inside the crater. The serval is another spotted cat you may see. Savor a once-in-a-lifetime alfresco lunch on the crater floor with the Ngorongoro’s breathtaking scenery as your backdrop.

Discovery: A Maasai Village.
Activity level: Moderate
Ngorongoro also is home to the seminomadic Maasai people, who make their living through subsistence farming and raising cattle, goats, donkeys and sheep. Visit a Maasai village this afternoon to meet some of the local residents and learn about their culture.

Return to the lodge late this afternoon.

Accommodations – Ngorongoro O’ldeani Mountain Lodge
Meals – Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Discovery: The Cradle of Mankind.
Activity level: Moderate
On your way to the Serengeti today, visit the Olduvai Gorge. This 30-mile ravine is where eminent anthropologist Mary Leakey in 1959 discovered a skull that belonged to an early human ancestor who lived 1.75 million years ago. Her find, often credited to her spouse Louis, confirmed that human evolution began in Africa. This area, rich in anthropologic value, is known as the Cradle of Mankind and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

After crossing the Serengeti plains, enter Serengeti National Park. Check in to the Old Serai Luxury Camp and experience a luxury tented safari camp. Staying in these tents is an experience you won’t soon forget. Feel adventurous without abandoning the comforts of a luxury safari. Enjoy the most important creature comforts: electricity and an en-suite bathroom with hot and cold water. Floor-to-ceiling tent windows with mosquito-net screens allow you to admire the views.

Accommodations – Old Serai Luxury Camp Moru Kopjes
Meals – Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Discovery: Echoes of Thundering Hooves.
Activity level: Moderate
The Serengeti region gained fame as the setting for the Great Migration, the annual round-trip trek between Tanzania and Kenya made by almost 2 million wildebeest, plus zebra and often other antelope, as they instinctively follow the seasonal rains in search of water and grassy plains. Today’s morning drive may offer you an exciting opportunity to observe this impressive scene firsthand.

Elective Activity: Up, Up and Away.
Activity level: Moderate.
Rise before dawn and hop into the gondola of a hot-air balloon for a ride of a lifetime over the Serengeti plains. See to the end of the horizon and be amazed at the sweeping view of this spectacular natural area. Float over grazing gazelle or a cheetah chasing his prey across the savanna. When you land, raise a toast to your adventure with a glass of sparkling wine and enjoy breakfast alfresco before returning to the lodge.
If you choose to participate in this optional experience, which is available at an additional cost, you will not be able to participate in the morning Discovery excursion.

Discovery: Endless Plains.
Activity level: Moderate
Thoughts of the Serengeti always bring to mind rolling, grass-covered plains dotted with flat-topped acacia trees. Sprawling over 5,791 square miles, Serengeti National Park is just about 100 square miles smaller than the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. It’s part of the Serengeti ecosystem, which also includes Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, among several other parks. Relish the opportunity to see the park’s great biodiversity on this afternoon’s game drive.

Accommodations – Old Serai Luxury Camp Moru Kopjes
Meals – Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Set out in anticipation of today’s astounding and unexpected wildlife encounters during morning and afternoon game drives in this celebrated reserve.

Discovery: Featured Creatures.
Activity level: Moderate
If you haven’t already spotted all of the Big Five, you may have a chance this morning. Every day on safari is different, so no one knows what the day, much less each game drive, has in store. Keep an eye out for the Big Five: elephant, lion, buffalo, rhinoceros and leopard. But did you know the Serengeti also is home to the Little Five? Each member of this quintet of diminutive creatures was named after their larger counterpart. The elephant shrew, named for its trunk-like nose, can grow to be a foot long. The ant lion is tiny, but its powerful jaws make it a formidable insect. The buffalo weaver gets its name because they flock near buffalo, whose pounding hooves stir the dirt, making it easier for the weavers to find insects. The rhinoceros beetle has a horn that looks just like a rhino’s. A leopard can’t change its spots, and neither can a leopard tortoise; their markings are their only similarities!

Discovery: Where the Antelope Roam.
Activity level: Moderate
The staggering diversity of animals in the Serengeti is the primary reason that it’s regarded as one of Africa’s finest national parks. Consider that there are more than a dozen species of antelope alone. In addition to the numerous wildebeests, impalas and gazelles you might see on this afternoon’s game drive, other species range from large elands and topis to the dik-dik, a sweet-faced dwarf antelope, and the very elusive, white-spotted bushback.

Share your favorite memories of your Tanzanian adventure with your fellow travelers at a Farewell Reception and Dinner this evening.

Accommodations – Old Serai Luxury Camp Moru Kopjes
Meals – Breakfast, lunch and dinner

Discovery: Life in the Moment.
Activity level: Moderate
Venture out on your last game drive this morning. As you breathe in the fresh air, take time to appreciate your amazing Tanzanian safari experience and survey the visual feast set before you. Maybe you’ll spot the rainbow-hued feathers of the lilac-breasted roller, witness a herd of elephants splashing in the river or gaze at hippos jostling by a water hole. What is certain is that your last spot of a wild and free creature is as exhilarating and memorable as your first!

Travel to the Seronera Airstrip, and board your flight to Arusha. Upon arrival in Arusha, refresh and relax in your day room at The African Tulip, prior to an evening departure for your connecting flights home.

This evening, AHI FlexAir passengers traveling on flights that qualify for a group transfer and Land Program passengers who have purchased seats on the group transfer depart for Kilimanjaro International Airport. Your Travel Director will provide the details.

Accommodations – The African Tulip
Meals – Breakfast and appropriate in-flight meal service

Depending on your air arrangements, connect in Europe and arrive home today.

Meals – Appropriate in-flight meal service

NOTE: Itinerary may change due to local conditions.