Tanzania safari, tailormade
| country: | Tanzania, Zanzibar |
| departures: | Daily departures (minimum 2 persons per departure). This trip follows a set itinerary and you are likely to be with other people during the trip. |
| price: | From £2455 (10 days) excluding flights. Price includes all transport from Arusha, game drives & walks, park fees, accommodation, meals & drinks at the camps & internal flight as per itinerary. Matemwe prices include accommodation, guided reef & village walks |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
the amazing things you'll be doing
A 9 night/10 day safari & beach holiday staying in intimate tented camps with excellent guides, in 2 of Tanzania’s best wildlife areas, followed by a relaxing beach extension to Matemwe, Zanzibar. The safari camps/beach accommodation are small and exclusive and working closely with the local communities. Located in the middle of the Tarangire wilderness, Oliver’s Camp has one of the most wonderful settings one could imagine and offers an unparalleled bush experience. From the camp, a much wider eco-system can be overlooked: the Ngorongoro highlands, the Great Rift Valley, the Lame Manyara region and of course Tarangire NP itself.
Naturalist guides will not only be able to find you the lion prides, but will also be able to tell you about the different family members of the lion prides, their characters and their habits. Walking safaris are the specialty of the camp, and especially on walking safaris, the depth of knowledge and experience of the camp naturalist guides makes the experience one to never forget. The Serengeti eco-system is much larger than the Serengeti National Park itself and includes the game controlled areas bordering the National Park. The large Loliondo Game Controlled Area, bordering the Serengeti to the east, is known for its unspoilt Maasai culture, spectacular natural beauty and great variety of animals.
Far from the madding crowd, Suyan Camp has only 5 guest tents, offers gourmet food, great wines, and all the comforts you can possibly expect. Yet a stay here is not about luxury. It is about discovery, exploration and nature in its overwhelming totality. Suyan Camp offers a menu of activities that is a dream to anyone wanting to discover Africa. Explore the land on foot with a walking safari led by an expert naturalist guide. Drive out at night to find animals that hide during the day. Visit remote Maasai settlements to experience how cultural tourism is meant to be. Enjoy breakfast or lunch overlooking endless plains or dinner under countless stars. Take your best shots in a country that is made for photography.
Zanzibar Island is a tropical island east from Tanzania, known for its beautiful beaches and coral reefs, its palm trees and its seafood. The northeast part of the island is known as Matemwe. This part of the island is well known for its fine weather and natural beauty - the contrasting colors of the Indian Ocean, the fine white powder sand of the beach, the extreme beauty of the coral reef of the Mnemba Atoll and the wild bush vegetation. Matemwe Bungalows borders a small village of fishermen, Kigomani, who go out sailing with their armada of traditional dhows on a daily basis.
Matemwe Bungalows has 12 en-suite bungalows available built from local materials, each with a personal touch. While the sea is always available, a multi-level swimming pool is available to refresh guests during the sunny Zanzibar days. All the rooms, as well as the restaurant are directly overlooking the Indian Ocean. You can enjoy the comings and goings of the local ngalawa fishing fleet from the comfort of your veranda, from the poolside relaxation area or from the restaurant. Matemwe Bungalows is tucked between two perfect, white-sanded beaches, inviting you to relax and unwind.
Best time to go: Tarangire & Loliondo (Serengeti eco-system) are a year round destinations providing excellent wildlife viewing. Matemwe Bungalows is an excellent stay at almost any time of the year, as Zanzibar has a tropical climate which is fairly stable - average temperature never drops below 25 degrees. Water temperature is just as nice with an average temperature of 20 degrees. Matemwe Bungalows is closed during the rain season.
Naturalist guides will not only be able to find you the lion prides, but will also be able to tell you about the different family members of the lion prides, their characters and their habits. Walking safaris are the specialty of the camp, and especially on walking safaris, the depth of knowledge and experience of the camp naturalist guides makes the experience one to never forget. The Serengeti eco-system is much larger than the Serengeti National Park itself and includes the game controlled areas bordering the National Park. The large Loliondo Game Controlled Area, bordering the Serengeti to the east, is known for its unspoilt Maasai culture, spectacular natural beauty and great variety of animals.
Far from the madding crowd, Suyan Camp has only 5 guest tents, offers gourmet food, great wines, and all the comforts you can possibly expect. Yet a stay here is not about luxury. It is about discovery, exploration and nature in its overwhelming totality. Suyan Camp offers a menu of activities that is a dream to anyone wanting to discover Africa. Explore the land on foot with a walking safari led by an expert naturalist guide. Drive out at night to find animals that hide during the day. Visit remote Maasai settlements to experience how cultural tourism is meant to be. Enjoy breakfast or lunch overlooking endless plains or dinner under countless stars. Take your best shots in a country that is made for photography.
Zanzibar Island is a tropical island east from Tanzania, known for its beautiful beaches and coral reefs, its palm trees and its seafood. The northeast part of the island is known as Matemwe. This part of the island is well known for its fine weather and natural beauty - the contrasting colors of the Indian Ocean, the fine white powder sand of the beach, the extreme beauty of the coral reef of the Mnemba Atoll and the wild bush vegetation. Matemwe Bungalows borders a small village of fishermen, Kigomani, who go out sailing with their armada of traditional dhows on a daily basis.
Matemwe Bungalows has 12 en-suite bungalows available built from local materials, each with a personal touch. While the sea is always available, a multi-level swimming pool is available to refresh guests during the sunny Zanzibar days. All the rooms, as well as the restaurant are directly overlooking the Indian Ocean. You can enjoy the comings and goings of the local ngalawa fishing fleet from the comfort of your veranda, from the poolside relaxation area or from the restaurant. Matemwe Bungalows is tucked between two perfect, white-sanded beaches, inviting you to relax and unwind.
Best time to go: Tarangire & Loliondo (Serengeti eco-system) are a year round destinations providing excellent wildlife viewing. Matemwe Bungalows is an excellent stay at almost any time of the year, as Zanzibar has a tropical climate which is fairly stable - average temperature never drops below 25 degrees. Water temperature is just as nice with an average temperature of 20 degrees. Matemwe Bungalows is closed during the rain season.
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Met at Arusha and transfer to Olivers Camp, Tarangire. Enjoy lunch at the camp and then afternoon game drives in the beautiful Tarangire National Park. Overnight Olivers Camp. |
| Day 2: | Enjoy getting closer to nature by taking a bush walk with a professional guide. Game drives in Tarangire. Overnight Olivers Camp. |
| Day 3: | Breakfast and then transfer to the airstrip for flight to the Serengeti. Game drives and overnight Suyan Camp. |
| Day 4: | Enjoy the full day exploring the area and on the lookout for the Big Cats. Take a night game drive hoping to see some of the more elusive nocturnal animals. Overnight Suyan Camp. |
| Day 5: | Another day in the Serengeti-ecosystem with bush walks and game drives. Overnight Suyan Camp. |
| Day 6: | Game drive and then transfer to airstrip for flight to Arusha then connect to Zanzibar. Met on arrival and transfer to Matemwe Bungalows for 4 nights, located on the north-east part of Zanzibar. Relax in your ocean suite and explore what Matemwe has to offer. Overnight Matemwe Bungalows. |
| Day 7: | Full day to spend as you choose. Take advantage of the many activities available or just relax and enjoy the surroundings. Overnight Matemwe. |
| Day 8: | Full day to spend as you choose and overnight Matemwe. |
| Day 9: | Full day to spend as you choose and overnight Matemwe. |
| Day 10: | After breakfast, transfer to Zanzibar airport for flight to Arusha. |
award winner
This tourism business won an Award in our 2008 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards - organised by responsibletravel.com in association with The Daily Telegraph, World Travel Market, Geographical Magazine, of the Royal Geographical Society and BBC World News.Since 2004, the Awards has recognised individuals, companies and organisations in travel making a big commitment to the culture and economies of local communities and helping to conserve biodiversity.
how this holiday makes a difference
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The Camps have helped form a grassroots organization dedicated to community support and to the conservation of wildlife. This is being achieved through long-term community partnerships. Established in 2006 the Foundation is an independent entity that supports specific projects in the areas where the Group has a presence. The Foundation is trying to cover a wide range of different projects. These projects include education, supporting small local, eco-friendly businesses and initiating land use plans. Other initiatives being undertaken are - Environmental initiatives that aim to conserve community resources, community health care and conservation awareness. Many communities, especially in the rural areas where we operate, are poor and lacking in education. They may not even be aware of their basic rights to land, water and honest leadership.
With more than a decade's experience in Tanzania, we believe the most successful projects are those initiated from within a community - rather than those imposed from outside. A selected community must be able to articulate its issues, needs and vision to the Foundation, rather than simply being handed a solution. Each community is unique. The challenge for the Foundation is to evaluate sensitively the status and progress of each community's capability as well as to monitor and help guide the individual projects. Honesty and commitment have to be evident on our part too. This means constant evaluation of our own progress - and sometimes admitting we've got it wrong. This means setting long-term goals - with enough immediate short-term results to encourage. By encouraging self-awareness and good leadership at a focused, grass-roots level, the Foundation envisions that our partner communities will pull themselves out of poverty. This will therefore achieve sustainability for the projects and at the same time, the communities will become stable, imaginative and progressive contributors to the preservation of the country's wildlife and wild places. Helen and Katharina, the Swedish sisters that founded Matemwe put great emphasis on their relationship with the fishermen in the next door village of Kigomani. This co-operation still continues today. Besides buying the catch of the day from the local fishermen, the lodge has helped the village to get electricity and clean drinking water. It also assists in financing classrooms for the village school and sponsors promising students for further education. Although tourism has developed in the two decades since the arrival of the sisters, stunning Matemwe, safely surrounded by the quietest and most beautiful beaches of Zanzibar, is still the top pick of the island. |
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. |