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Tanzania - Our Most Popular Tour

Tanzania Safaris - 6 Day Serena Special 4 X 4 Safari tour

Price from £1,730 per person

The Safari tour Package Includes:

-Arrival and departure airport transfers
-1 Night accommodation at Lake Manyara Serena Lodge
-2 Nights accommodation at Serengeti Serena lodge
-Visit to the Olduvai Gorge en route to Ngorongoro
-2 Nights accommodation at Ngorongoro Serena Lodge
-All game drives as per itinerary
-All park entrance fees as per itinerary
-All meals as detailed
-Transport in 1 x 7 Seater 4 x 4 for both Kenya & 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 our 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
-Added Value:
-Complimentary 188 pages Safari Guide covering the whole of East Africa
-Complimentary Safari Pouch with a pen
-Complimentary Safari Hat

ACCOMMODATION INFORMATION

Lake Manyara Serena Lodge
Lake Manyara Serena Lodge is located at the edge of the Mto WA Mbu escarpment, overlooking the Great Rift Valley and the stunning Manyara soda lake. The views of the lake from this escarpment are simply breathtaking. Lake Manyara National Park is only 15 minutes drive down the escarpment. The Park has long been known for its tree-climbing lions and the large elephant population, while ornithologists from around the world come to observe the masses of pink flamingos and great birds of prey around the lake which can also be seen from the lodge and its rooms.
 
Lake Manyara Serena Lodge is built in a traditional African architectural style, with graceful domed ceilings, swooping curves, geometric patterns and circular buildings that look like large African huts. Colourful murals adorn the walls. Each of the 67 comfortable guest rooms - with en-suite bathroom facilities - has a private balcony with panoramic views of the Great Rift Valley and of Lake Manyara. The views from the simply yet elegantly decorated bedrooms are terrific, especially at sunrise. Sunset, however, is best viewed while downing a sundowner at the superbly located poolside, a welcome facility for those who want to cool off in the scorching afternoon heat. Meals at the lodge are eclectic and of a high standard. Full English breakfasts are a Serena specialty and worth every penny! The full-service lounge and bar serves fresh fruit juices, soft drinks, tea and coffee, cocktails, wines, spirits and liqueurs. The Manyara Serena is in an ideal place to stay for the Lake Manyara National Park. 

Serengeti Serena Lodge
Perched high on a hill, the Serengeti Serena Lodge and its swimming pool command beautiful views of the surrounding Serengeti plains and hills. The stylish lodge and its rondavel 'huts', which house sixty-six elegantly furnished en-suite bedrooms, are built from local materials in traditional African village style and merge impeccably into the wilderness. Indigenous handicrafts and art adorn the walls of the rooms and the main building.
 
The lodge’s central position within the Serengeti means that game drives can be conducted without ever having to go too far to find the wildlife. From here you can explore the rich and varied life of the Serengeti Eco-system. The area boasts all the 'big five', lion, elephant, leopard, rhino and buffalo and occasionally you may bump into lions resting in trees during the heat of the day when the flies mean business. The Serena offers a host of optional activities, such as bush meals and sundowners by the pool. In the evening, traditional dancers perform for the guests and a resident naturalist give fascinating slide shows and talks.

Ngorongoro Serena Lodge
Ngorongoro Serena Lodge is perched on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater with exquisite views of the crater, one of the wonders of the natural world. Your first sighting of the crater will simply take your breath away.
 
The lodge is built of local stone and blends harmoniously into its surroundings. From here you will descend the wall of the crater for a most amazing game drive inside the crater. Glorious sunrises and sunsets, roaring log fires and excellent food all form part of the renowned Serena experience. 
 
PARKS & RESERVES INFORMATION.

Lake Manyara
Cradled in the glory of its surroundings below the sheer majesty of the Rift Valley, Lake Manyara lies serene , spreading in a heat haze backed by a thin green band of forest and the sheer 600 metre red and brown cliffs of the escarpment. Lake Manyara National Park is about 330 sq km (205 sq miles), of which about 200 sq km (125 sq miles) is lake.

A wedge of surprisingly varied vegetation sustains a wealth of wildlife, nourished by chattering streams bubbling out of the escarpment base and waterfalls spilling over the cliff. Acacia woodland shelters the park’s famous but elusive tree-climbing lions, along with squadrons of mongoose feasting on the trail of buffalo and elephant.

Deep in the south of the park , hot springs bubble to the surface in the shadow of the escarpment. Hippos wallow near the lake’s edge. The park hosts 400 species of birds

Manyara’s most stunning feature is the lake which covers two-thirds of the park’s surface. Tinted pink by the myriad flamingos that make their home here. It is considered the best place in northern Tanzania to observe hippo.

Serengeti National Park
George Adamson, co-raiser of Elsa the lioness, and husband of "Born Free" author Joy Adamson, visited the Serengeti in the early sixties and describes the experience in "Pride and Joy", his autobiography. At this time he considered it probably the greatest of all game reserves in Africa and one man was mainly responsible - Bernhardt Grzimek, Director of Frankfurt Zoo. The Serengeti had suffered terribly from over-zealous hunting in the 1930's and from large-scale killing of game during the war. Grzimek applied himself to the tensions between Maasai need for grazing and the indigenous wildlife. He and his son carried out a massive survey, using planes to quantify the game, and identifying and logging the plant life. He used his best-seller "Serengeti Shall Not Die" to raise funds and publicize the exercise. Thanks to the Grzimeks, and to John Owen who established a renowned scientific research establishment there, the Serengeti still has an amazing concentration of wildlife.

The 14,763 square kilometres of the Serengeti are probably most famous for being the southern end of the Great Migration. Every year over 1.5 million animals, mostly wildebeest but also zebra and Thompson's gazelle, follow their instincts and move through the western corridor on their 1000 kilometre journey to the fresh grazing of the Masai Mara. Predators pick off the weak, the laggardly and the young and crocodiles feast as the vast herd crosses the rivers but they continue their trek, as they have done since time immemorial. This is one of the earth's great sights - but it is by no means all the Serengeti has to offer.

The vast, flat central plains, made fertile by the ashes of the nine volcanoes of the Ngorongoro highlands, are places of huge skies, of shimmering heat hazes, yet also of delicate wild flowers blooming after the rains. The savannah, sprinkled with Acacia Tortilis, has majestic termite mounds and rock formations called kopjes which make great vantage points for predators. The lion are abundant, the leopard are plentiful (yet still secretive) and black rhino and cheetah both breed here. There are more than 500 species of bird and, interestingly, 100 sub-species of dung beetle - a sign of a varied animal population! Ndutu, in the south, has small lakes where you may see hippo and water birds. Perhaps one of the best ways to see the Serengeti is a hot air balloon ride when, in the cool of the early morning, you may admire the grandeur, the vastness and the stunning landscape.

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 superbowl where the largest permanent concentration of African game is on display.

The central bowl, the caldera, has sides roughly 1,950 feet high and a flattish centre with a diameter of about ten miles. The views from the top of the crater wall are absolutely breathtaking. The crater walls are forested but four wheel drive vehicles will take you down into this primeval paradise of woodland, lake, river, swamp and plain that shelters around 20,000 animals. Many of these are the large grazing animals such as wildebeest, buffalo, gazelle and zebra who depend on the open grasslands in the crater. These attract the attendant predators, the black-maned lion, the leopard and hyena. The elephant found within the caldera tend to be the lone males who have left the herds in the forested crater rim.

When the water stocks are low elsewhere the animals within this micro-world turn to the swamps for fresh water and food. Elephants feed on the giant sedges and hippo wallow in the pools. The Fever Tree forests shelter monkeys, bushbuck and waterbuck and the few black rhino that have taken refuge here. A soda lake, fed by the Munge river attracts water birds, including flamingos and is a favourite place for predators to make their kill. Wildly beautiful as it is, it is not surprising that Ngorongoro Crater has been called a Garden of Eden.

The conservation area also encompasses several other volcanoes, one of which, Oldonyo Lengai, is still live. You may struggle to the top, if you wish, to gaze into its open and sulphurous maw but many prefer to admire from afar. One of the most fascinating attractions in the area is the Olduvai Gorge, where an old river has carved away the rock to expose layer upon layer of volcanic soil. This is where Dr Louis and Mary Leakey found the remains of hominids "Nutcracker Man" and "Toolmaking Man". The "Cradle of Mankind" now has a visitor centre where you may hear a short lecture on the work of the Leakeys and their successors and a small museum where you may see some of their finds, including a giant giraffe - it is hard to believe that they were once even taller!