Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar in two weeks, with a small group of like-minded travellers.
An epic two-week small-group journey for solo travellers across Kenya and Tanzania, ending with beach days in Zanzibar. Highlights include Amboseli, Tarangire, Lake Manyara, the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti, with a group of like-minded travellers to share them.
You are met at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by your Dawn Safaris representative and transferred to your hotel. Your guide gives a short briefing on the days ahead and answers any last-minute questions.
After breakfast, travel from Nairobi to Amboseli (about 4 to 5 hours), with a picnic lunch or lunch stop on the way. You arrive at your lodge in time for lunch. An afternoon game drive across the open plains brings you close to Amboseli's famous elephant herds, with Mount Kilimanjaro rising behind them when the clouds lift.
Spend the day with some of Africa's best-studied elephant herds. Early light is the best time to see Kilimanjaro, and the swamps around Enkongo Narok draw hippo, buffalo and abundant birdlife.
After breakfast, travel from Amboseli to Tarangire (a long day of 6 to 7 hours including the Namanga border crossing and a stop in Arusha), with a picnic lunch or lunch stop on the way. You arrive at your camp in time for lunch, followed by a first game drive among Tarangire's baobab trees and elephant herds, with the river a magnet for wildlife in the dry season.
Spend the day among Tarangire's large elephant herds and ancient baobab trees, with good birdlife and plenty of antelope, giraffe and buffalo, and lion and leopard on the lookout.
After breakfast, travel from Tarangire to Lake Manyara (about 1.5 hours), with a picnic lunch or lunch stop on the way. You arrive at your lodge near the escarpment for lunch, then enjoy a game drive through the groundwater forest, with baboons, elephants and hippos and a chance of the park's tree-climbing lions.
After breakfast, travel from Lake Manyara to Ngorongoro (about 1.5 hours), with a picnic lunch or lunch stop on the way. You arrive on the crater rim in the Ngorongoro highlands, where the air is cool and the views drop into the world's largest intact volcanic caldera. The afternoon is free to enjoy the lodge or take a short rim walk.
After breakfast, travel from Ngorongoro to Serengeti (about 3 to 4 hours), with a picnic lunch or lunch stop on the way. You arrive in the Serengeti for lunch and a first afternoon game drive across endless plains. The park is home to lion, leopard, cheetah and huge herds of zebra and wildebeest, and the scale of the landscape is hard to describe.
Spend the day exploring the park's plains and river valleys with a picnic lunch in the bush. Seronera is known for lion, leopard and cheetah, and the migration herds can be tracked depending on the season.
Your guide uses the latest sightings to track the wildebeest and zebra herds, whose position shifts through the year: southern plains in the early months, western corridor around mid-year and northern Serengeti from July to October.
Fly to the coast via Nairobi or Arusha (about 3 hours in total, connections arranged by us) and transfer to your beach resort. You arrive on Zanzibar and transfer to your beach resort for lunch. The afternoon is free to swim in the turquoise water, walk along the shoreline and settle into island time.
Wander the alleys of UNESCO-listed Stone Town with a guide, visiting its carved doors, markets and Old Fort, then tour a spice farm to taste cloves, cinnamon and vanilla.
Sail by traditional dhow to a sandbank or reef for snorkelling and a seafood lunch, returning at sunset.
Enjoy a final swim and a relaxed breakfast. You are then transferred to the airport for your onward flight, with an easy hand-over to your international connection.
