Upon landing at Kilimanjaro airport, our dedicated representative will be there to greet you, extending a warm transfer to the Rivertrees Inn where comfort and rest await.

Rivertrees Country Inn in Arusha, Tanzania, is a serene and picturesque retreat set on the banks of the Usa River. Blending colonial and traditional African architecture, it offers a range of accommodations from cozy rooms to private river cottages and a luxurious river house. The inn features a restaurant serving local and international cuisine with ingredients sourced from its gardens. Guests can enjoy activities like leisurely walks, bird watching, and swimming, or explore local markets and cultural sites in Arusha.

After breakfast, you are transferred to Arusha Airport for your scheduled flight to Lake Manyara. On arrival at Manyara airstrip, you are met and driven up into the Ngorongoro Highlands to check in at The Highlands for a three-night stay. Set on the slopes of the Olmoti Volcano, this exclusive eco-lodge feels wonderfully remote, with wide views across the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and a sense of altitude, space, and stillness that immediately distinguishes it from the busier crater rim.

The Highlands is designed to immerse you in the landscape rather than simply overlook it, combining striking architecture with a deep connection to its surroundings. From your suite, you can take in the layered greens and volcanic contours of the highlands, with vast grasslands and distant wildlife often visible far below. The setting is quiet and atmospheric, and the lodge’s thoughtful comforts make it an ideal base for both adventure and recovery between excursions.

Beyond the crater itself, The Highlands opens the door to experiences that many travellers miss, including guided walks to Empakaai Crater, where a steep caldera shelters a soda lake that often draws flamingos, and hikes to Olmoti Crater, a scenic route that can include waterfalls and panoramic viewpoints. These activities offer a rewarding contrast to game drives, showcasing the region’s forests, volcanic geology, and the rhythm of life in the highlands.

Back at the lodge, you can unwind in the cosy lounge with its fireplace and comfortable seating, or take a refreshing dip in the outdoor pool while soaking in the views. Later this afternoon, you visit a nearby Maasai village to learn about traditions that have shaped this corner of East Africa for generations, with school visits sometimes possible depending on the time of year and school calendar.

This morning you depart The Highlands for a half-day excursion into the Ngorongoro Crater, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Africa’s most extraordinary natural arenas for wildlife viewing. The descent into the crater is an experience in itself, as the road winds down through changing vegetation and the vast caldera opens beneath you, its steep walls forming a natural enclosure that supports a remarkably concentrated ecosystem.

Once on the crater floor, you explore a mosaic of open grasslands, acacia woodland, freshwater pools, and soda lakes that attract an astonishing variety of animals. The Big Five are all found here, and your guide will focus the drive on the best opportunities for sightings, from elephant moving quietly across the plains to lion resting in the shade, and, with luck, the elusive black rhino grazing at a distance. The sheer density of wildlife often means the morning is filled with memorable encounters in quick succession, without the sense of long distances between sightings.

Beyond the headline species, the crater’s diversity keeps the drive constantly engaging, with zebra and wildebeest spread across the grasslands, hyena patrolling the open areas, and an excellent chance of spotting cheetah in the short grass. Birdlife is equally impressive, particularly around the lakes and wetlands, where you may see flamingos, crowned cranes, and raptors circling high above the rim, adding colour and movement to the scenery.

Throughout the excursion, your guide shares context on the crater’s geology, its delicate balance of habitats, and the behaviours you are observing, helping you appreciate not just the sightings but how this unique landscape sustains them. After a rewarding morning in the crater, you climb back up the crater wall and return to The Highlands, arriving in time to relax and enjoy the views from the lodge as the afternoon unfolds at an unhurried pace.

This morning you rise early for your return to the Ngorongoro Crater, giving you a second opportunity to experience this extraordinary natural wonder and to explore areas you may not have reached on your first visit. With the benefit of yesterday’s sightings and your guide’s up-to-the-minute knowledge of wildlife movements, the day feels both familiar and full of new possibility, with the crater’s vastness ensuring there is always more to discover.

As you descend the crater wall, the early light and crisp air create a wonderful atmosphere for wildlife viewing, and animal activity is often at its peak. Your guide will tailor the route to the day’s conditions, perhaps focusing on open grasslands for predators, the forest edges for elephant and buffalo, or the wetlands and lakeshores where birdlife is especially prolific. With luck, you may encounter a lion pride on the move, hyenas returning from the night’s patrols, or the rare black rhino grazing quietly in the distance, while herds of zebra and wildebeest spread across the plains in impressive numbers.

Beyond the headline sightings, today allows time to appreciate the crater’s remarkable variety of habitats and the way they support such a dense and diverse ecosystem. Keep your binoculars close for the colourful birdlife that thrives here—cranes, raptors, and waterbirds around the lakes—while warthog, jackal, and smaller antelope add constant movement and character to the landscape. Your guide will continue to share insight into animal behaviour and the subtle dynamics of this enclosed environment, helping you understand not only what you are seeing, but why it is happening.

After a rewarding morning on the crater floor, you begin the scenic climb back up the crater wall and return to The Highlands, where a warm welcome, lunch, and time to relax await, rounding out your second crater day with a comfortable and unhurried finish.

After breakfast, you are transferred to Lake Manyara Airstrip for your scheduled flight to Seronera, trading the cool highlands for the wide, sunlit plains of the Serengeti. On arrival, you are met and driven into the central and southern Serengeti to Dunia Camp, your home for the next three nights. Dunia is intentionally small and serene, with just eight spacious tented suites designed to feel quietly luxurious rather than overbuilt, each with a generous private veranda that looks out over open grasslands where wildlife often moves through unannounced.

After settling in, the pace becomes wonderfully unhurried. The camp’s simple elegance—canvas, warm textures, and a layout that keeps you close to the landscape—creates a calm base between game drives. As afternoon light softens, you head out for your first Serengeti drive, a perfect introduction to this classic ecosystem of granite kopjes, big skies, and predator country, before returning to the glow of lantern light and a relaxed dinner back at camp.

You begin the day with an early game drive, when the air is cool and wildlife activity is at its best. Dunia’s location offers excellent access to the central and southern Serengeti, where lion, cheetah, leopard, and hyena are regularly encountered alongside vast herds of plains game. At certain times of year, the migration flows through this region, bringing an added sense of scale and movement to the landscape, while at other times the resident wildlife ensures consistently rewarding viewing.

Back at camp, the late morning and midday are deliberately restful, with time to enjoy the veranda, watch the plains, or relax in the mess tent, where rustic character meets understated comfort. In the afternoon, you head out again for another drive, with the flexibility to focus on predators, follow herds, or spend time at kopjes as the light turns golden, before returning to a warmly hosted evening and dinner under the stars.

This final full day at Dunia is shaped around your interests and the day’s wildlife movement, beginning again with a morning drive that makes the most of the Serengeti’s early hours. Game drives are conducted in open vehicles equipped for comfort, with a canvas roof and roll-down sides for changing conditions, plus rain ponchos and Maasai shuka blankets if it turns cool. Practical touches such as charging points and chilled storage for drinks help keep the day smooth and comfortable, particularly for photographers and those spending long hours out in the field.

The afternoon offers another opportunity to explore, or to slow the pace and simply absorb the setting from camp, where the sense of space is part of the experience. If you would like to add a special highlight, a hot air balloon safari can be prebooked at additional cost, offering a spectacular dawn perspective over the Serengeti plains before returning for the final evening at Dunia, with lantern light, a good meal, and the quiet satisfaction of time well spent in one of Africa’s great wildlife landscapes.

After breakfast, you transfer to the Seronera airstrip for your scheduled flight to Tarime, a smooth and efficient way to move from Tanzania’s Serengeti ecosystem toward Kenya’s Maasai Mara. On arrival at Tarime, you are met for a short road transfer to the border, where you complete immigration formalities as you exit Tanzania and enter Kenya. The change is subtle but noticeable as the landscape shifts and the rhythm of the journey transitions from air travel to a brief overland link.

Continuing onward, you make your way to Migori airstrip for your connecting flight into the Mara. Landing in the Greater Mara, you are met and transferred to Encounter Mara Camp for your stay in the Naboisho Conservancy. Set within a private conservancy adjacent to the Maasai Mara, Naboisho is valued for its low vehicle density and conservation-led approach, creating a quieter, more flexible safari experience than the main reserve, with the ability to enjoy activities such as night drives and guided walks.

After settling into your tented suite and enjoying lunch, you head out for your first afternoon game drive with the camp’s expert Maasai guides. The conservancy’s mix of open plains, acacia woodland, and seasonal riverbeds supports excellent year-round wildlife, and first drives here often deliver immediate sightings—plains game in abundance and a strong chance of predators as the evening cools. You return to camp for dinner and a relaxed night, with the sounds of the bush close at hand.

Your first full day in Naboisho begins with an early morning game drive, taking advantage of the cooler hours when wildlife activity is at its peak. The conservancy is known for consistently strong predator viewing, including lion, cheetah, and leopard, alongside elephant and buffalo, with giraffe, zebra, and wildebeest forming the backdrop throughout the day. With fewer vehicles on sightings, the experience feels unhurried and intimate, allowing you to stay longer and observe behaviour rather than simply “ticking” species.

Back at camp, breakfast and a quiet midday break give the day a comfortable rhythm. Later, you head out again for an afternoon drive that carries into golden hour, when the light softens and the plains take on a warm glow. If conditions are right, you may choose to continue after dark on a night drive, a signature advantage of conservancy life, scanning for nocturnal wildlife and listening for the calls of predators moving through the darkness.

Today is designed to deepen the experience, balancing excellent game viewing with the flexibility that makes a conservancy stay so rewarding. You might begin with another early drive or, if you prefer a change of pace, arrange a guided walk with a professional guide and ranger, focusing on tracks, smaller wildlife, and the ecosystem’s finer details. Walking in Naboisho adds a different perspective, bringing you closer to the landscape in a way that game drives cannot replicate.

In the afternoon, you return to the vehicle for further exploration, perhaps pushing into new areas of the conservancy in search of specific sightings or simply following where the wildlife activity is strongest. For those looking to add a memorable extra, a visit to a Maasai village or a hot air balloon safari over the Mara can be prebooked, offering either cultural context or a breathtaking aerial view of this iconic region. As the day ends, you return to camp for another evening under the stars, enjoying the calm, low-impact feel that defines Naboisho at its best.

After your final breakfast in camp, you are transferred to the airstrip for your late-morning scheduled flight back to Nairobi Wilson Airport, enjoying a last aerial glimpse of the Mara as the plains fall away beneath you.

On arrival, you are met by an Asilia representative and assisted with a private transfer to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, where you can check in for your international flight home. If your departure is later in the day, we can also arrange a day room at an airport hotel at additional cost, giving you a comfortable place to rest and freshen up before your onward journey.

If you would prefer to extend the trip rather than fly home immediately, this is an ideal point to continue onward to the Kenyan coast or Zanzibar for a few days of sun, sea, and relaxed downtime after your safari.