Kenya & Tanzania overland tour
| country: | Kenya, Tanzania |
| departures: | 2009: 21 Jun |
| price: | From £995 (14 days) excluding flights. Tour price includes all highlights (inclusive activities worth £395), all ground transport, all road tolls and vehicle taxes, camping and cooking equipment and crew. Local payment US $360 covers all food & camping fees |
the amazing things you'll be doing
Travel through Kenya and Tanzania visiting the famous game parks of East Africa with a maximum of 16 person in our custom build full size expedition truck. With over a meter of legroom in your seat sit back, relax and experience the wonders of the wildlife migration as it passes through the Serengeti National Park. Also visit the Nukuru National Park, Masai Mara and the Ngorongoro Crater to complete this special wildlife safari with great facilities available for the keen photographer.
We are unique in providing the services of an expert photographer and digital download facility on all our overland tours! One of our crew (normally the Tour Leader) is a full-qualified, semi-professional, photographer who will be available to give advice on photographic (and video) techniques; and will organise “workshops/tutorials” on photographic subjects and techniques (eg landscape, wildlife and bird photography, night shots, close-ups and portraits) to assist our guests to improve their photographic experience and technique. We also provide a laptop computer with multi-card reader for those clients with digital cameras to enable you to download your memory cards and burn those special memories to CD or DVD while on tour.
Included highlights:Ngorongoro Crater Entry and all day 4X4 game drive Serengeti National Park Entry and Game Drives* Lake Victoria Nakuru National Park Entry and game drives Lake Naivasha - Hells Gate National Park Entry (activities such as cycle hire are at own expense) Elsmere Conservation Center - Spiritual home of Joy Adamson Masai Mara National Park Entry and Game drive (4x4 local operators)*
* The Migration: although our itinerary includes both the Serengeti and the Masai Mara, and we make every endeavour to take you close to the migrating herds, we cannot absolutely guarantee that we can reach the route that the herds will be taking, as this depends on access to the area they are in, the state of the grazing and therefore timing of the migration, and any instructions from the Park authorities.
Please be aware that most campsites within the National Parks have only very basic ablutions with little water available for washing.
Not included in the price: Visas, travel insurance, vaccinations, flights, airport taxes, sleeping bag, items of a personal nature, curios or alcohol.
We are unique in providing the services of an expert photographer and digital download facility on all our overland tours! One of our crew (normally the Tour Leader) is a full-qualified, semi-professional, photographer who will be available to give advice on photographic (and video) techniques; and will organise “workshops/tutorials” on photographic subjects and techniques (eg landscape, wildlife and bird photography, night shots, close-ups and portraits) to assist our guests to improve their photographic experience and technique. We also provide a laptop computer with multi-card reader for those clients with digital cameras to enable you to download your memory cards and burn those special memories to CD or DVD while on tour.
Included highlights:
* The Migration: although our itinerary includes both the Serengeti and the Masai Mara, and we make every endeavour to take you close to the migrating herds, we cannot absolutely guarantee that we can reach the route that the herds will be taking, as this depends on access to the area they are in, the state of the grazing and therefore timing of the migration, and any instructions from the Park authorities.
Please be aware that most campsites within the National Parks have only very basic ablutions with little water available for washing.
Not included in the price: Visas, travel insurance, vaccinations, flights, airport taxes, sleeping bag, items of a personal nature, curios or alcohol.
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Departing from Nairobi we cross the border into Tanzania and head for Arusha, camping our first night a little way out of town with the backdrop of Mt Meru in the distance. CAMPING |
| Day 2: | After a relaxed morning we head into Arusha to have a look at the town and spend some time wandering through the curio markets. Returning to our campsite for some lunch we head for the Ngorongoro Crater area stopping along the way to visit a Masai tribal village. We camp that night a short drive from the crater on the outskirts of the town of Karatu. CAMPING |
| Day 3: | Up early the next morning we use local operators to do an all-day game drive into the Ngorongoro Crater in 4X4 vehicles, stopping for lunch at the hippo pools. Leaving the crater floor we drive up to the rim and spend the night in a campsite situated right on the crater’s edge, hopefully giving us a beautiful sunset. CAMPING |
| Day 4: | Next morning we make our way down to the Serengeti Plains, stopping along the way at the Olduvai gorge to visit a museum about early man before entering the great grass plains of the Serengeti. We take game drives through the park and hope to glimpse the spectacle of the great migration of wildlife. We spend two nights camping in the Serengeti giving us the chance to experience the true African bush. CAMPING |
| Day 5: | Game drives in the Serengeti. CAMPING |
| Day 6: | Next morning we leave early on another game drive through the Western Corridor of the park before exiting the park at about lunchtime and heading for Lake Victoria and spending the night on the lakeshore. CAMPING |
| Day 7-8: | Leaving the lake we head for the border and cross into Kenya heading for Lake Nakuru National park camping the night on the edge of the park in a conservancy area. CAMPING |
| Day 9: | Up early next morning we do an all day game drive into the park after which we leave the park returning back to the same campsite. |
| Day 10-11: | We then head for Lake Naivasha one of Africa’s great lakes which is renowned for its birdlife. We camp two nights here on the lakeshore to give us time to explore the area the next day. We visit the spiritual home of Joy Adamson, the author of Born Free, and take a walk in the Hells Gate National Park. . CAMPING |
| Day 12-13: | We leave the lake and head for the Masai Mara National Reserve, one of Kenya’s best-known parks. We spend two nights here giving us time to explore the park in search of lion, cheetah and perhaps catch the early stages of the migration into this area. CAMPING |
| Day 14: | Leaving the reserve in the morning we drive back to Nairobi where the tour ends in the afternoon. This itinerary should be used as a guide only and may vary from day to day depending on road & weather conditions, political situations and group decisions. |
small group adventure holiday
Typically you will be sharing your experiences with between 4-20 like minded travellers (depending on the trip, operator and how many others are booked on the trip) and you'll have a group leader with you. Whether you are travelling alone or with friends its good value, and a great way to meet new people! While itineraries are pre-planned there is some flexibility and you'll have plenty of privacy. This trip will appeal to travellers of all ages who enjoy meeting new people as well as seeing new places.how this holiday makes a difference
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On our this tour where we are visiting many National Parks we only make use of local operators, local guides, and stay at locally run campsites. The guides impart a great deal of knowledge not only about the animals but also about the way of life of the locals in each area. Local guides are also used for cultural village tours.
Food is purchased at local markets where possible. On all our tours we make use of gas for cooking; only getting firewood where it is readily available. The fridges on the expedition vehicle are powered by batteries on the truck, which are in turn charged using solar panels when we stop over for more than a day or two. We also only carry a maximum of 16 clients on our tours thus lessening the impact on local communities we visit. Freeplay Foundation Finally, as part of our commitment to responsible tourism, we support the Freeplay Foundation. This charity supplies wind-up radios (needing no electrical or battery power) to children in Africa who have been orphaned by Aids or genocide and who are trying to bring up their younger siblings alone and unaided. Each radio costs only £35. It provides these children with health care information and how to obtain free testing and drugs, as well as general education and help on growing their own food crops and advice on issues such as safe pesticides. We aim to donate at least one radio per overland trip to help these children. If you would like to make a contribution towards this and would find it easier to do so before departure (rather than into the collection box on the truck) please send us a cheque to our UK address made out to “Freeplay Foundation” and we will forward it on. You can find more information at www.freeplayfoundation.org "The Lifeline radio can change the world one person, one house, one village at a time" – Tom Hanks, Actor and US Ambassador of the Freeplay Foundation. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |