Upon arrival tonight at the Kilimanjaro airport, we transfer directly to our hotel in Arusha.

We meet our fellow travelers at this morning’s briefing about the journey ahead.  This afternoon, we set out on a game drive in Arusha National Park, where we may spot waterbuck, zebra, giraffe, flamingos, monkeys, and more.  In the distance, we may see iconic snowcapped Mt. Kilimanjaro, a dormant volcano and, at 19,340 feet, Africa’s highest peak – and the highest freestanding mountain in the world.  Inside the park, we see Mt. Meru, Africa’s fifth-highest peak at 15,000 feet.  Tonight we enjoy a welcome dinner together.

We depart today for the two-hour drive to Tarangire, Tanzania’s 1,100-square-mile park known especially for its high concentration of elephants and for the many baobab trees dotting the savannah.  We enjoy a game drive en route to our lodge, which is located within the park.  After lunch and some time at leisure, late this afternoon we enjoy another game drive in the park; we may see zebra, wildebeest, Cape buffalo, giraffe, lion, leopard, cheetah, and of course elephants.

In store today: morning and afternoon game drives in this gem of a park slightly off the beaten path.  Along with the abundant game, we’re sure to see some of Tarangire’s 550 species of birds as well as the many termite mounds scattered amid the grasslands and swamps here.

This morning we depart for Ngorongoro, a wildlife haven and homeland of the semi-nomadic Maasai people.  We arrive in time for lunch at our safari lodge uniquely set on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, blending in so well with the landscape as to be invisible from the crater floor.  This afternoon is at leisure; the views of the crater from our lodge are spectacular and sure to entertain.

This morning we descend to the floor of the magnificent Ngorongoro Crater, a UNESCO site and at 100 square miles the world’s largest intact and perfectly formed volcanic caldera.  The unique biosphere here has remained unchanged for eons; towering walls encircle the crater’s floor which represents Africa in microcosm: grassland, swamps, lakes, forests, and some 25,000 mammals, including elephant, giraffe, lion, hippo, and zebra.  Afterwards we return to our lodge for an afternoon at leisure.

En route today to the fabled Serengeti, we visit 31-mile Olduvai Gorge.  It was here in 1959 that anthropologist Mary Leakey discovered the 1.8-million-year-old skull of Australopithecus boisei – and revolutionized the study of human evolution.  Part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Olduvai is considered the true “Cradle of Mankind” and ranks as one of the world’s most important prehistoric archaeological sites for its rich fossils and early hominid remains.  We visit a Maasai village before we continue on to Serengeti National Park, home to plains dwellers such as lion, cheetah, zebra, and wildebeest.  The Serengeti, the Maasai’s “endless plain,” is Africa’s finest park, and we begin to see why on this afternoon’s game drive.  Today’s safari outing concludes at our lodge, which we reach in time for dinner.

In Tanzania’s northeast corner sits the vast Serengeti National Park, the Tanzanian portion of Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve.  It reaches 5,700 square miles (equal in size to Connecticut), making it one of the world’s last great wildlife refuges.  Twice a year (Jan–Feb and Jun–Oct), some 1.3 million wildebeest, 200,000 zebra, and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelle migrate to new grazing lands in the area, sparking one of nature’s most spectacular sights and the world’s largest migration.  But the Serengeti’s plains teem with animal life year-round, as we’ll see on today’s game drives.

We embark on more game drives today.  We have the chance to see some – or all – of Africa’s “Big Five": lion, Cape buffalo, elephant, rhino, and leopard, along with wildebeest, zebra, eland, gazelle, other plains animals, and some 500 species of birds.

We fly this morning to tropical Zanzibar, Tanzania’s semiautonomous Indian Ocean archipelago with a colorful and storied history.  Upon arrival today, we set out to discover Stone Town – Zanzibar’s capital, a UNESCO site, and East Africa’s only ancient town that is still functioning.  A heady mix of Moorish, Middle Eastern, Indian, and African influences (though predominantly Muslim today), Stone Town boasts a labyrinth of narrow alleys lined with shops, homes, hidden courtyards, and extravagantly carved wooden doors, as we see on our tour today.

A morning tour of a spice plantation reveals why Zanzibar is known as the “Spice Island” – its bounty of cloves, nutmeg, ginger, chilies, black pepper, vanilla, coriander, and cinnamon have found their way around the world for centuries.  We return to our hotel in time for lunch on our own and an afternoon at leisure, perhaps to relax at the beachfront pool of our hotel.  Tonight we celebrate our Tanzania adventure at a farewell dinner.

This morning we take a quick flight to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city.  Upon arrival, we will have a day room at a local hotel and an afternoon at leisure.  After an early dinner tonight, we return to the airport for our flights to the U.S.

We arrive in the U.S. today and connect with our flights home.