13 Days Ultimate Tanzania Mid Range Safari
Destinations
Tarangire, Karatu, Lake Eyasi, Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Lake Victoria area, Olduvai Gorge, Lake Manyara.
Duration
13 Days
Day by Day Itinerary
Day 1: Arusha
Meet at Kilimanjaro airport or Arusha airport, after meet and greet you will be transfer to Arusha town,
Overnight at Four Points By Sheraton – (BB)
Day 2: Tarangire National Park
After breakfast, collect packed lunch and drive to Tarangire area for mid-morning and afternoon game viewing in Tarangire National park, a small breathtaking Park with an immense natural richness surrounded by ancient baobab trees, Lesser kudu, eland, lion, zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, elephant, Maasai giraffe and fringe-eared Oryx and gerenuk can be found in this beautiful park, noted for its multitude of baobab trees and its lions.
Meals and overnight at Tarangire Sopa Lodge
Day 3: Tarangire National Park – Karatu
After breakfast, drive for morning game drive in Tarangire National Park, lunch at Tarangire Sopa Lodge. Afternoon drive to Karatu area
Dinner and overnight at Ngorongoro Farm House
Day 4: Lake Eyasi
After breakfast, drive to Lake Eyas area, on arrival you will proceed for Hadzabe Bushmen tour, a hunter-gatherer tribe who are believed to have lived in the area for nearly 10,000 years, live close to the shores of Lake Eyasi, Their language resembles that of Kalahari bushmen tribe (who were featured in the 1980 film ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy’) with clicking noises used
The Hadzabe – what you can learn from the Hadzabe includes the following
- Different kinds of materials being used to make arrows – arrow sticks, the preparation of poison and the point of poison in the arrow
- Processing poison from the poison tree
- Shallow wells prepared by women for water collection from the ground for the home use
- Traditional dancing
- Barbeque preparation of fresh meat for the lucky days of hunting, normally about 2 -3 days of big kills per week but small kills are regular and common
- How to make fire the traditional way, in the ancient hand-drill method using palms of the hands and two pieces of sticks / wood
Lunch will be served at your lodge – Lake Eyasi Safari Lodge
Afternoon enjoy tour with the Nilotic-speaking Datoga tribe who are pastoralists
What you can learn from the Datoga includes:-
- General life style of the Datoga
- How mud & cow dung huts are being prepared by women
- Preparation of the boma ( the cattle fence)
- Learning the way men and women dress
- Learn about black smiths, weapons & weapon making
- Flour making by women using grinding stones
If time allow – In the evening you will have walking tour at Lake Eyasi
Dinner and overnight at Lake Eyasi Safari Lodge
Day 5: Ngorongoro Crater
After breakfast, collect packed lunch and drive to Ngorongoro crater well known as a highly successful sanctuary for the endangered black rhino. Strategically Ngorongoro Crater is often referred to as the 8th wonder of the world, a large caldera that hosts the most unique ecosystem on Earth with 20,000 large grazing mammals and the largest concentration of predators on earth playing a key role in the maintenance of the ecological balance. Your experience will start by descending 2000 feet (over 600 metres) to the floor of the crater to explore the forest areas that are inhabited by monkeys and elephants, the lake area, where you may see the flamingos and the open savannah where many predators hunt to make their kill. Thereafter in the afternoon drive to your lodge.
Dinner and overnight at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge
Day 6: Serengeti National Park
After breakfast, collect packed lunch drive to Serengeti National Park for an afternoon game drive in the prime attraction of Africa – Serengeti National Park, a World Heritage Site! Africa’s largest and most famous park is an astounding 14,763 sq. kms of wild paradise. Most famous for its annual migration of wildebeests and zebras, this is Africa’s best protected reserve. The “Famous Big Five” at your disposal during game drive – lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhino – all in African style! Watch out for the Impala stags, giraffes, water bucks and more – found in this area.
Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Sopa Lodge
Day 7: Serengeti National Park
Safari in Swahili simply means a “journey”. Nowadays it has become a synonym for wildlife viewing in the African bush. Enjoy morning and afternoon game drives in the endless plains of Serengeti plains which sustain the greatest and most spectacular concentration of wildlife found anywhere in the world including great herds of wildebeest, zebras and gazelles or a pride of lions dawdling in the acacia trees.
Meals and overnight at Serengeti Sopa Lodge
Day 8: Serengeti – Lake Victoria Area
After breakfast, collect packed lunch and proceed for morning game drive in Serengeti National park toward Lake Victoria area arriving by evening for check in into your hotel
Dinner and overnight at Serenity on the Lake
Day 9: Lake Victoria Area
After breakfast, you will be picked up by fishermen with their traditional canoes and be rowed along the shoreline to a nearby village. Here they can explore the village on foot and then return to the Lodge while enjoying the singing of the fishermen. One of Serenity On The Lake staff member guides this trip and gives information about the different methods of fishing and the way of life in the village. The trip takes a bit over two hours and is to be made in the morning only (departure between 9a.m and 10 a.m.), because that is the time the fishermen bring in their overnight catch, plus that the lake is calm then. Later you will get back to your hotel for lunch, thereafter enjoy an afternoon at leisure / bird watch along the lake shore.
Dinner and overnight at Serenity On The Lake
Day 10: Serengeti
Drive back into the Serengeti with packed lunch, enjoy morning and afternoon game drives in the endless plains of Serengeti plains which sustain the greatest and most spectacular concentration of wildlife found anywhere in the world including great herds of wildebeest, zebras and gazelles or a pride of lions loitering in the acacia trees.
Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Sopa Lodge
Day 11:The Craddle of Mankind (Olduvai Gorge)
After breakfast, collect packed lunch and drive to Olduvai Gorge for a day tour, a Dr Louis and Mary Leakey’s famous discoveries of early humans and magnificent antiquities documenting the evolutionary history of our stone tool-using ancestors, vertebrate fauna, and the environments over the last two million years. It has yielded numerous fossil remains from Pleistocene times (from about 5,000,000 to 10,000 years ago), including the skull of the primitive. The world famous palaeoanthropological site studied for more than 40 years by the Leakeys. The 40-kilometre-long Gorge (Olduvai is a mispronunciation of Oldupai, a Maasai word meaning ‘the place of wild sisal’) is located in northern Tanzania at the border of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the Serengeti National Park. In the afternoon drive to Karatu area
Dinner and overnight at Ngorongoro Farm House
Day 12: Lake Manyara National Park
After breakfast, collect packed lunch and drive to Lake Manyara area , enjoy game drive in Lake Manyara National Park whose inhabitants include large variety of animals such as Giraffe, Zebra, Elephant, Gazelle, hippos, monkeys and about 400 different species of birds providing the perfect introduction to Tanzania’s birdlife and even a first-time visitor to Africa might reasonably expect to observe 100 of these in one day.
Dinner and overnight at Lake Manyara Kilimamoja
Day 13: Airport
After breakfast, drive for Arusha city tour, lunch on own account
Afternoon transfer to JRO airport
Inclusions
Price Includes
- Accommodation as per itinerary
- Game drives as Indicated on the Itinerary using Land Cruiser 4 x 4 – 6 Seaters
- English Speaking driver guide
- Mineral Water
- Return airport transfers
- Park entrance fees as indicated on the itinerary
- Meet and greet services
Price Excludes
- Tips, Porterage, beverages, items of personal nature such as laundry, phone, fax, insurance etc.
- International flights, visas and airport taxes
- Any other item not mentioned on itinerary
- Easter Supplements per person – $200.00
- Christmass and New Year Eve and New Year Supplements(24th, 25th, 26th and 31st of Dec 2022 & 01st Jan 2023 – per person $250.00
Important Travel Information
Driving in the Parks
- For clients’ safety and that of the wildlife, our driver-guides are not allowed to exceed a speed of 50KPH in the parks, while speed limit inside the Ngorongoro Crater is strictly 25KPH.
- Game viewing from vehicles is restricted to designated tracks/ roads and driving off road is not allowed except in specified areas; please check with your guide.
- Night driving is not allowed in the parks {from 1900hrs evening to 0600hrs in the morning}, except where night game drives are permitted like in Lake Manyara National Park and Tarangire National Park
Consider below notes while in the national parks
- Do not take water from any natural sources in the Park.
- Please put your trash in authorized sites only in order not to litter the Parks.
- Put burning cigarettes and butts in your vehicle’s ashtrays.
- Do not remove any animate or inanimate object from the Park.
- Do not bring any animals or any plants in the Parks.
- Do not bring any poison, weapons, explosives or any object of that kind into the Parks.
- Do not get out from your vehicle, or hang out of the windows near any animal.
- Do not kill, harass, disturb, feed or interfere with the wildlife or vegetation.
Do not take photograph of Maasai or any local people. Please ask your driver/Guide for assistance if you wish to do so; a small fee may be applicable.
Tipping guidelines
It is habitual to tip your safari driver-guide. Tips are paid at the end of the safari and are given to your guide, below are just a guideline for tipping:-
- We suggest $20.00 per person in the vehicle per day for driver-guide during safari days
- $3.00 per group for porters/waitress upon checking in and when checking out.
General Terms and Conditions
Holiday Surcharge
A supplement of US $ 50.00 per person per day will apply to all bookings on the 24th, 25th, 26th and 31st December and 1st January except Zanzibar accommodation
A supplement of US $ 45.00 per person per day will apply to all bookings between Easter Friday and Easter Monday (for all 4 days) as Easter holiday surcharge
Validity of Prices
Prices are valid for the periods shown but are subject to change without notice in the event of Government action, i.e. increase in hotel tax or VAT, or to increase if prices are significantly affected by other circumstances beyond our control. Prices are based on exchange rates prevailing at the time of publication and may alter should any major variation in exchange rates occur.
Payment
We do accept payment via bank transfer and credit cards. Please note that sender collects all charges. Kindly always send remittance of payments /payments proof including booking reference # after completion of transaction for our records. When paying through credit card surcharge of 5% will apply.
Prices Include
Prices quoted for safaris generally include transport as per the itinerary, airport transfers, game drives, flying doctor membership where appropriate and charged separate at price of $30.00 per person , full board accommodation, picnic/extra lunches where stated, scheduled charter flights where mentioned, Mineral water and park entrance fees.
Prices Exclude: Itinerary prices generally exclude international flights, visa costs, optional excursions, personal insurance (medical or other), drinks, tips, phone calls, laundry and any items of a personal nature.
Children Policy
Children between the age of 3 and 12years
- Pays 60% of the adult rate if sharing a room with two adults
- Pays 80% of the adult rate if sharing a room with another child
- Pays 100% of the adult rates if sharing a room with one adult
- No discount on Holiday and other supplements
Reservations, Payment and Deposits
When Destination Specialists accepts your booking, the date of the confirmation invoice activates the terms and conditions of the contract. Confirmation of services is subject to payment of a 50% of the total invoiced amount to secure space. The balance is to be paid not later than 60 days prior to commencement of the services. When bookings are made within 30 days prior to the departure date, full payment is required immediately on written confirmation.
Cancellation Policy
Should you wish to cancel your confirmed booking, you must advise the company in writing.
Reservations that are cancelled, reduced in length of stay or reduced in numbers (hereinafter collectively called a CANCELLATION) are subject to Cancellation and No Show fees if cancelled within 44 days of the arrival date:
150 days to 90 days prior to arrival: 25%
89 days to 45 days prior to arrival: 50%
44 days to 01 days prior to arrival: 100%