Tanzania and Kenya biking holiday

country:	Kenya, Tanzania
trip type:	Adventurous mountain biking holidays
departures:	2010: 5 Jun, 3 Jul, 24 Jul, 14 Aug, 4 Sep, 25 Sep, 16 Oct
price:	From NZ $4190 (16 days) excluding flights. Local payment US $300, bike hire US $200. Price includes transport, meals, accommodation and activities for the duration of the trip as per itinerary.
vouchers:	Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday

Mountain biking holidays

Tanzania holidays

the amazing things you'll be doing

Travel at the pace of Africa on this 16 day mountain bike adventure, experience the culture, wildlife and landscapes of an amazing continent.

We are a small personal travel company with a passion for getting out and exploring new and exciting destinations around the world. Most people believe that the only way to see Africa is by vehicle. We know from experience that after a couple of days biking with us you will realise that this is the only way to truly appreciate this magnificent continent.

On our 16 day biking adventure we travel from Nairobi in Kenya through Tanzania to Dar es Salaam on the Indian Ocean coast; or the reverse journey (see itineraries below). Biking far from busy roads and main tourist routes you will experience a different face of Africa - local villages and traditional tribesmen, breathtaking scenery and wildlife grazing on the plains. We travel through open savannah, desert, mountain rain forest and tropical coastline. We follow the foothills of Mt Kilimanjaro with its snow-covered peaks and camp in the wilderness under a cloudless African sky.

We take a break from our bikes to view Amboseli and Tarangire National Parks, to give you the wildlife experience that East Africa is famous for. Enjoy a day hike and visit a local school in the unspoilt Usambara Mountains. Biking through the Usambara Mountains and down to the tropical coastal forest and villages brings us finally to Dar es Salaam, “Haven of Peace”.

trip profile

Dar es Salaam on the Indian Ocean coast in Tanzania to Nairobi in Kenya.
12 days biking - 90% on dirt and 4x4 roads, some paved roads, and a wee bit of non-technical single track.
From 25km to 90km per day. Total distance approximately 550km.
100% vehicle supported. Our trusty support vehicle carries all your luggage, helps you up those hills (if you like) and always has lunch, snacks and water at hand.
Two Game parks included, Amboseli National Park (Kenya) and Tarangire National park (Tanzania) included.
Group size minimum 4, maximum 10 plus Escape leaders and local crew.
Accommodation is twin share - two nights in hotels; and single or double for 14 nights camping. (Upgrades to rooms are available at some campsites at your own expense).
Food includes 3 meals per day from dinner on Day 1 to breakfast Day 16. This excludes 2 lunches and 2 evening meals which are at your own expense to give you the opportunity to experience local cuisine.
Includes visit to a rural primary school in Tanzania.

day-by-day itinerary

Day 1:	Arrive Dar es Salaam.
Day 2:	Bike to historical coastal town Bagamoyo.
Day 3:	Tropical farmland biking away from the coast.
Day 4-6:	Bike and explore the Usambara Mountains, plus school visit.
Day 7:	Bike along the Maasai Steppe.
Day 8:	AM transfer to Arusha, PM short bike.
Day 9:	Biking into the Great Rift Valley.
Day 10:	Game drive in Tarangire National Park.
Day 11:	Transfer into Kenya, bike to Maasai Village.
Day 12:	Bike to Amboseli National Park.
Day 13:	AM game drive, PM game viewing by bike.
Day 14:	Bike through open savannah to Ostrich Farm.
Day 15:	Last bike, transfer to Nairobi City.
Day 16:	Fly out.

Please remember that this is a guide only and due to unforeseen circumstances it may be necessary to make changes to the itinerary.

*Room upgrades are at your own cost and are subject to availability.

**School visits. The local schools in East Africa are very different to what we are used to in the western world. We have established a relationship with a school along our route which we try to visit on every tour and help in a small way with practical gifts etc. Please contact us for more information regarding these school visits and how you may be able to help them.

how this holiday makes a difference

It is important to us that when we travel to different parts of our amazing planet that our exchange is always a mutual one and that we make a positive contribution to people and places that we visit along the way.

These days ‘responsible travel' and ‘sustainability' are hot topics. Responsible travel is not about donating large sums of money to charity (at least not without thoroughly researching the long-term intentions or effects of the charity). We believe responsible travel is about taking time to think about how our actions can benefit or how they impact the people, communities, economies, environments and eco-systems we visit, and then use this to make a difference (or sometimes more appropriately - how we can NOT make a difference). We are constantly considering our actions and how we and the people who travel with us can improve our impact on the places we visit.

Here are just some of the ways that we ‘make a difference’:

Social integration with the local people is a central part of our trips. Simply travelling by bike is a great start – a great way for our bikers and local people to meet and start a conversation. We camp with a Maasai family, paying them to stay there. This gives our bikers and our hosts alike a unique opportunity to take the time to learn about each other’s cultures.
We have a relationship with a Primary School in the Usambara Mountains. Our main goal of the visit is the fantastic social and cultural exchange experienced by both the school pupils and our bikers. Over the past years money donated by our bikers has been used to employ local carpenters to build more than 100 much needed school desks for the school.
We always buy locally grown food and shop in small local markets; we support local businesses by staying in locally owned campsites and using local operators for our safaris.
Educate our bikers – about the effects of buying products that come from endangered species, or products that are destructive to wildlife or the environment (ivory and endangered hardwoods for example).
Waste/rubbish management – when we travel we should treat our surrounding as we would treat our home (or better!). We do our best to avoid ‘single use packaging’ only using reusable or recyclable packaging. We recycle what can be, and manage any rubbish in the best possible way e.g. in Africa – all of our organic waste is feed to local domestic pigs and goats, and we always leave our campsites as we find them (or better!).
We avoid campfires to help prevent deforestation. (Three are some places where wood is purpose grown and replanted for fire wood - for the occasional campfire – but it is important to carefully check the source of firewood).
We have an environmentally conscious office – to avoid paper waste we aim to use as much computer technology as possible in our office. And when we do print we use paper from recycled sources!
We are currently working on a project where we calculate the environmental cost of each of our biker’s air travel to East Africa. We then transfer this cost into trees and plant the trees in a local reforestation project during our biking journey. In addition to this for every trip we lead we will plant sufficient trees to offset the CO2 emissions of our support vehicle. We plan to initiate this project in 2008.
For every person who flies to join our trips we donate 10 trees to a reforestation project.

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.