OVERVIEW
This itinerary is designed to offer a perfect cultural experience by allowing you to live among one the most remote ethnic groups in the world. Live among Maasai!
ARRIVAL DAY
On arrival and after border formalities, you will be welcomed by our guide, who will transfer you to Africa Amini Life Lodge (HB). Depending on your arrival time, it is possible to do some activities on the arrival day.
On your way to the lodge, you will be welcomed by great views of Mount Kilimanjaro (when the sky is clear), the highest in Africa covering 5895m, and the second highest Mount Meru covering 4563m above sea level. You will encounter different ways of living practiced by locals and plenty of banana and coffee farms.
PROGRAM
Day 1, Africa Amini Maasai Lodge
After morning breakfast gets ready for this day’s activities with lunch included. Add more value to your trip by spending your night in Original Maasai Lodge. This meaningful and mindful African nature accommodation facility is located in the most beautiful part of Tanzania between Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru.
It also offers a spectacular view of small mountains around these two iconic Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro. Africa Amini Life Lodge is one of the places to rest and refresh. It is the gate away for excursions, safaris, mountain hiking, and cultural adventures.
The lodge offers free activities like; spear-throwing, Maasai traditional dances, Maasai nature walks tour, or getting to know Maasai culture through stories around campfire conversations. Every day you can experience the sunrise behind Kilimanjaro on the terrace, in the midst of African nature. International and traditional Swahili dishes are refined with home-grown herbs and served in the restaurant.
Other Activities:
1. Live music/performance off-site
2. Tour or class about local culture
3. Walking tour4. Mountain biking (additional charges)
5. Donkey riding (additional charge)
6. Hiking with the Maasai
After enjoying all these activities, you will depart to a lodge/ hotel in Arusha town for an overnight retreat.
Day 2, Maasai Lodge – Lake Natron
You will be picked up from your lodge at 7 am and drive deep into the great rift valley to Lake Natron for a full-day tour with packed lunch and overnight at a lodge/tented camp.
The lake is situated in the northern part of Tanzania inside the great rift valley’s basin. One of the most toxic lakes in the world due to its high concentration of sodium carbonate and the existence of dangerous toxic algae. The area receives very little rain throughout the year and is closer to the active volcano of Ol Doinyo Lengai, the temperature here can reach as high as 350C. The lake is highly alkaline due to years of evaporation leaving salt deposits in these shallow waters.
Life in this lake is almost impossible for most living creatures except for millions of Lesser Flamingos who have made their living paradise here. Almost three-quarters of all lesser flamingos in the world live and breed in Lake Natron. Every year they flock to feed and breed in this salt-crusted lake. They feed in algae containing photosynthetic pigment which gives a pink color to these beautiful tall birds and colors the lake. A tour of this lake is both educative and mind-blowing.
Lake Natron offers much more than just wonders of this one-of-a-kind lake. While in Lake Natron you can do a night hike of Mount Oldoinyo Lengai which is the only active volcano in Tanzania and the only one in the world to erupt carbonatite lava. One may also choose to visit waterfalls while in Lake Natron.
Day 3, Lake Natron – Ngorongoro Crater
We start our day very early ready to descend into the crater floor for an incredible and most valued game drive. Get ready to see wildlife in the most beautiful place on earth, truly the garden of Eden. After the game drive, you will head to have lunch at a public picnic site after which you will start ascending the walls of the crater 5.6km to the rim. (You can discuss with your guide, for the lunch might be taken on the crater floor or at the rim) before exiting the Ngorongoro conservation area to lodge/hotel for an overnight retreat.
Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s most famous and biggest caldera. The caldera has a 19km of diameter and 260km circumference offering one of the largest concentrations of wildlife due to the availability of water and food almost all year round. The crater has a river, several swamps, a soda lake with a great concentration of flamingos, a forest, and open plains. Gorigor and Mwanduzi swamps are home to the oldest male elephants with the longest tusks ever, buffalos, and hippos all year round. The crater is a very important hide and habitat for endangered species of wildlife. One of few places with a high population density of black rhinos in the world.
Day 4, Lake Eyasi Cultural Tour
A guide will pick you up from your lodge/tented camp at 8 am and start a journey to the incredible Lake Eyasi for a full-day cultural tour.
Located southwest of the Ngorongoro crater and southern of Serengeti is the famous soda/salty lake of Eyasi. The lake lies in the east African great rift valley similar to lake Manyara. This is a shallow terminal basin (endorheic) lake, very shallow receiving most of its water from the volcanic flanks of Ngorongoro crater. Apart from being a stop to seasonal migrating flamingos, this is the home to some of the oldest traditional hunter and gatherer tribes of Hadzabe. The Hadzabe or commonly known as Hadza will give you a glimpse at how most indigenous tribes of Africa lived before civilization.
Hadza is very close to nature, traces show that the bushmen inhabit the same area for thousands of years. They get their food by hunting and if you have a full day here you will have a chance to hunt with Hadza. For a day visit, the bushmen will demonstrate and explain their hunting techniques which have lasted for generations. These bushmen hunt using bows and arrows which are self-made. Hadza is holding to their traditional way of life even in the modern world of the 21st century.
To date majority of Hadzabe still start a fire by friction and smoke to get their favorite food, honey. Visiting Hadzabe land is truly a tour to remember and will leave you knowledgeable of the history of mankind.
Day 5, Activities at Mto wa Mbu
You will be picked up from your hotel at 8 am and drive deep into the great rift valley to Mto wa Mmbu area near Manyara National Park for your two hours biking tour. You can however choose to do biking and walking.
Mto wa Mbu is an area/ward near Lake Manyara National Park lying in the great rift valley banking with the escarpment. There is cultural diversity in this area and it is hard to pin any indigenous even the traditional dance performance is diverse. Despite being small in terms of population (less than 20000 people) and area, locals here have a lot of interesting economic activities to explore.
Peasant farms of rice and banana, local restaurants, and carvings activities by craftsmen are common and you will get a chance to visit all this if you bike or walk here. Indeed, Mto wa Mmbu is a vibrant and active place all day long. After activities, you will have local lunch which is pre-ordered, and head on to your lodge/hotel for afternoon refreshments and an overnight retreat.
Day 6, Tarangire National Park
After early breakfast at the lodge/hotel, you will leave and head to Tarangire National Park for a day game drive and later drive back to Arusha for overnight or departure.
Tarangire is a breathtaking and fascinating wildlife destination, you will only realize how beautiful the park is once you get in. With the high encounters of big herds of elephants (bigger than anywhere else in the northern parks of Tanzania), the biggest baobab trees, thousands of wildebeests and zebras as they turn from their calving grounds of Lokisale and Simanjiro plains bringing calves home to get permanent water from Tarangire river and other sources like Silalei swamps and prominent ponds.
Tarangire is endowed with such a good habitat and vegetation giving it a good cover enough to offer 4 out of the big five namely Lions, Leopards, Buffalo, and Elephants. Tarangire is unique in many ways but the frequency of witnessing lions on trees is second to Manyara National Park. For birdlife lovers, this is home of birds, get stunned by the high concentration and diverse bird species here.
EXTRA DAY (Optional)
Itinerary Customization
This is a blended program that will give an authentic experience of both wildlife and cultural abundance in Tanzania unforgettable. However, to decorate your experience, spending your first day exploring Arusha National Park is highly recommended.
A trip to Arusha National Park starts with a pick-up from your hotel at 0800am and drives directly to this thrilling park. After check-in at the gate, you will start your full-day game drive including lunch at one of the public picnics, and continue with the game drive before exiting the park to Africa Amini Life Lodge.
Arusha National Park is situated a few kilometers away from Arusha town. This exciting Park has a rich variety of wildlife, but one shouldn’t expect the same game-viewing experience they find in other national parks of Tanzania’s northern circuit. Arusha national park is famous for; Over 400 bird species, Black and white colobus monkeys, Host the second highest peak in Tanzania, Mount Meru with a height of 4565m, canoeing around the alkaline lake Momella, Walking safari, Waterfalls, Museum visit (Ngurdoto Museum)
Package Available In
Premium
High-end service, Dedicated expert, Hot Lunch, Park Fly-in- Private Tours
Luxury
Luxury Accommodation, Low Mileage Luxury 4×4 Jeep, Hot Lunch- Private & Group
Mid-Range
Best mid-priced lodges, Luxury 4×4 Jeep, Hot Lunch- Private & Group
PACKAGE
Includes
Excludes
- All
- Full board accommodations
- Hotel lunch during the safari
- Service of professional English Speaking Guide (Other Language on request)
- 4 x 4 Safari Jeep with pop-up roof, charging unit, in-car fridge, large windows
- Unlimited Mileage
- Unlimited drinking water while on safari
- All park, conservation, and concession fees plus Taxes
- Detailed Itinerary
- Airport drop-off and pickup
- All
- Traveler’s insurance
- VISA
- Drinks outside safari
- Tipping (we recommend from $10 per person per day)
- Personal spending
- International flights
Tour Gallery
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