African Wildlife Safari and Optional Kilimanjaro Ascent CME

NEAR ARUSHA

Arusha Serena Hotel

Arusha Serena Hotel, Resort & Spa is located on the shores of Lake Duluti, 20 kilometres from Arusha, Tanzania and 60 kilometres from Kilimanjaro International Airport. As the gateway to the Tanzanian Northern Safari Circuit, the hotel is convenient to both Arusha and Mount Meru National Parks and Mt. Kilimanjaro.

The vibrant safari town of Arusha is the bustling starting and ending point for safaris and cultural tours into Serengeti National Park. While known as the gateway to Tanzania’s Northern Safari Circuit, it is also home to a colourful array of street markets, museums, craft shops, Makonde carving workshops, street cafes, restaurants and bars.

NEAR TARANGIRE NATIONAL PARK

Kikoti Lodge

Kikoti means “meeting place” in the Maasai language. Kikoti is a meeting place of people, cultures and wildlife. A lone bush elephant stately lumbers through the camp, watched by buffalo, drinking at the water hole, passing through on the migration route. A Maasai warrior, armed with bow and arrows, escorts you to your room in the evening, looking out across the Simanjiro plains as the African sun sets over the horizon, the air alive with noise and life.

Situated in the heart of the Maasai plains, just 6km from Tarangire National Park, Kikoti is a place where visitors come as guests and leave as friends. A place where your safari dreams can come true.

Rooms
Kikoti’s rooms are beautiful raised luxury bandas, with spectacular views of the hills, looking down into the national park. In total, there are 8 double rooms and 10 twin rooms, built from natural materials in tune with their environment, with a design that echoes safari tents from years past.

Simple and elegant, the rooms are decorated in warm caramel and creams, with stylish en-suite bathrooms. Water is tanked in on a weekly basis as there is no natural supply by the camp but hot water is available and the lights run from solar power.

There are touches of local craftsmanship everywhere, the woven rugs, the bed frames made from snot apple wood and African ebony, found outside Tarangire National Park and the thatched roofs, recalling the safari tents of years past. The beds are wonderfully comfortable, perfect to sink into after a long day’s safari. Alternatively, you can sit out on your private verandah, in one of the wicker chairs and watch the world pass by. Wildebeest, water buffalo, hyenas and zebra have been known to wander underneath the rooms, providing a close up wildlife experience.

NEAR NGORONGORO CRATER

Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge

Regularly voted one of the best hotels in the world, this unique lodge clings to the rim of the magnificent Ngorongoro Crater, the largest and most perfect volcanic crater on Earth. Long and low, the lodge is built from local river stone and camouflaged with indigenous vines. Designed to blend completely into the landscape, it is entirely invisible from the floor of the Crater 600 metres below.

Known as ‘the eighth wonder of the world’ the Ngorongoro Crater is one of Africa’s best-known wildlife arenas. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it offers a unique biosphere, which has remained virtually unchanged since the dawn of time. Deep within the Crater, enclosed by towering walls, some 25,000 large mammals wander the plains, lakes and forests of ‘the land that time forgot’, dominated by enormous bull elephants, rhinos and lions.

Hugging the contours of the jagged Crater rim, the lodge takes its inspiration from the so-called ‘Cradle of Mankind’, the prehistoric site of Olduvai Gorge, which lies close by. Linked by arched stone passages and timbered decks, its walls are decorated with stylized prehistoric cave paintings and lit by flaring torches. At the stone heart of the lodge burns a glowing fire, which is kept constantly alight. Decorated with cave paintings, the rooms are strung around the Crater rim. Each has its own rock- enclosed balcony, and all enjoy completely uninterrupted views of the volcanic amphitheatre far below.

Ngorongoro Farm House

A small and exclusive lodge facing the Oldeani Volcano, only 5 kms. from the Ngorongoro Lolduare gate, was built to offer our clients an original experience reminiscent of the atmosphere of the old days.

Ngorongoro Farm House was inaugurated on February the 20th 2003, and is offering 40 huge cottages with ample space inside, built on the style of an old colonial farm and rustically decorated with local materials and full of details of good taste, with the purpose of offering our clients an imaginary journey to the life of the days gone.

Ngorongoro Farm House is a perfect stopover within any safari in the Northern Circuit of Tanzania and a privileged place to visit the Crater or enjoy a bunch of activities: Like a walking safari to the adjacent forest leading to the Oldeani Volcano or an excursion to the nearby Lake Eyasi in the Rift Valley, still inhabited by a tribe of hunter-gatherers, the Hadzabe, a relic of ancient times who still follow a style of life similar to the humans who inhabited the Earth before the discovery of agriculture.

NEAR SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK

Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge

Set high on the saddle of a tree-clad ridge, commanding panoramic views across the Serengeti, this lodge is the ultimate fusion of traditional African architecture and world-class style. Winner of numerous awards from the world travel press, it is perhaps the finest venue the Serengeti has to offer.

Centrally located adjacent to the famous Western Corridor and Grumeti River, the lodge has been designed to blend completely into the living landscape. A series of traditional domed ‘rondavels’ are widely spaced throughout the grounds, which are cooled by groves of acacia trees and watered by sparkling streams. On the very edge of the ridge is a ‘vanishing horizon’ pool, which looks out over the ‘endless plains’ after which the Serengeti is named.

Situated close to the world-famous 2-million-year-old paleolithic site of Ol Duvai, ‘birthplace of mankind’, the lodge has been styled to offer a showcase of cultural performance, heritage and traditional art, which is best illustrated by the lavish Makonde carvings which decorate both the rooms and the stunning domed dining room.

As for wildlife, the Serengeti National Park offers not only all the members of ‘The Big Five’ (elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and buffalo), but also the annual ‘migration’ of over one million wildebeest and their attendant cast of predators.

*Note: depending on availability we may choose a different hotel of similar type and equal quality.