Transfer this morning to Zanzibar airport for your flight to Manyara airstrip. On arrival at Manyara you are met and transferred to Manyara Tree Lodge for three nights. Lake Manyara Tree Lodge is renowned for its romantic stilted tree house suites that are shaded by a mahogany forest.

Over the next three days enjoy your choice of included activities.

Game Drives
&Beyond Lake Manyara Tree Lodge is the only permanent lodge set in the remote southern region of the reserve, far from the park’s entrance gate. This means that game drives explore areas of the park that cannot be reached by day visitors and your game viewing is unlikely to be disturbed by vehicles from other lodges. Each morning and afternoon you will set off in the company of your guide and tracker team in an open 4×4 safari vehicle with a canvas canopy as protection from the sun. Your guide will help you explore the many diverse habitats of the park, stopping on the lake shore to admire the different bird species and look for pink flamingo. You will traverse a mosaic of acacia woodlands, grassy floodplains and tall forest in search of wildlife, including Manyara’s famous tree-climbing lions and family herds of elephant.

Sleepout Experience
Spend an evening under a blanket of a million stars, on an unforgettable sleepout adventure. After your evening game drive, you will be ushered to a secluded and exclusive sleepout spot within the Lake Manyara National Park. Here, luxuriously adorned beds, swathed in romantic netting, as well as a private campfire (and all the amenities you require to feel comfortable) await you. After a scrumptious dinner and a restful evening spent serenaded by the sounds of the Tanzanian wilderness, you will be collected and taken back to the lodge, in time for your morning game drive.

Bicycle ride through Mayoka Village
Guests can enjoy a scenic guided bike ride through the Mayoka community. Drive to Mayoka to collect your bicycle and begin. Cycle through this bustling village and interact with the friendly people, including the nomadic Mang’ati tribe, adorned with traditional animal skin cloaks, skirts and colourful beads. A picturesque bike ride brings you to the lakeshore, where you can admire bright pink flocks of flamingos. If the birds are close enough, put on some gumboots and walk out to observe and photograph them. All proceeds go directly to the Mayoka community.

After a morning game drive you will have breakfast and depart with a transfer to the Ngorongoro area for check in to the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge. Guests can be forgiven for losing track of which era, or even continent, they are experiencing at &Beyond Ngorongoro Crater Lodge. Nowhere else on earth can you wake up among all the trappings of an elegant baroque chateau – brocade sofas, gilt mirrors, beaded chandeliers and panelled walls – and be instantly transported into one of the most famous African landscapes with just one glance out the window of the lodge. In this place of dramatic contrasts, where Versailles meets Maasai, anything is possible and the natural luxury of the breathtakingly beautiful setting ensures the dramatic interior of your suite blends perfectly with its stilted thatch architecture.

The afternoon is at leisure to enjoy the view and amenities.

This morning you depart the lodge for a half-day excursion to the Ngorongoro Crater. This protected area is located in the Great Rift Valley. The Crater actually is a gigantic fracture of the earth’s crust. The magnificent landscape consists of volcanoes, mountains, plains, lakes, forests and archaeological sites. At 1600 meters altitude the bottom of the Crater (265 km square), dotted with watering holes, offers shelter to almost 30.000 animals in an area naturally enclosed by the slopes of the volcano. The Crater elephants are strangely, mainly bulls. There is a small number of black rhino. The bird life is largely seasonal and is also affected by the ratio of soda and fresh water on the Crater floor. You will also explore the wildlife: lions, elephants, zebra, hippo, buffalos, and rhino are just a few to be mentioned. Enjoy picnic lunch at the crater floor. After an exciting safari ascend the other side of the crater and proceed back to the lodge. Rest of the day at leisure to enjoy the facilities.

Rise early this morning for another exploration of Ngorongoro Crater with your guide.  You may choose to revisit some spots from the day before if you had some interesting sightings you’d like to build on or explore new areas of the Crater.  You won’t be bored with plenty of wildlife and areas to explore.  After your half-day excursion, climb the Crater wall again and proceed back to the lodge with the rest of the day at leisure.

This morning after breakfast you will transfer back to Manyara airstrip for your flight to Grumeti Airstrip. On arrival you are met and transferred to Grumeti Serengeti River Lodge for three nights. Located in the remote Western Corridor of the Serengeti, Grumeti provides a private Serengeti experience with exclusive game viewing in some of the most secluded parts of Africa’s most famous game reserve. 

The lodge is perfectly situated on the banks of a tributary of the Grumeti River. Using the natural bow shape of the river, and paying homage to the circular forms of a traditional Masai manyatta, the lodge unfolds to reveal an understated sense of luxury. Walking into the guest area upon arrival is a real wow moment. Spacious decks are perfect for enjoying sundowners overlooking the river and the camp’s rim-flow swimming pool provides a view of the seasonal hippo pools below. The proximity to water draws a profusion of wildlife throughout the day and night. Touching the earth lightly and seemingly floating across the landscape, 10 nostalgically elegant, and very spacious, guest suites offer natural light, an enormous bed, bath, an indoor shower (with a spectacular view), and sparkling private plunge pool. A new family suite has been incorporated featuring a small additional bedroom attached. Adorned with Kitenge fabrics and accentuated with stone walls, the lodge also features the vibrant colours of the fishing communities surrounding Lake Victoria and the grey tones representative of hippo hide that have been beautifully woven into deeply comfortable furnishings and bespoke, hand-made fittings.

Game Drives
Situated in the Western Corridor of the renowned Serengeti National Park, wildlife viewing is truly exceptional throughout the year. The camp’s location on a tributary of the Grumeti River means that it is ideally positioned for sightings of dramatic river crossings when the famous Great Wildebeest Migration is in the area. However, the wildlife experience can be even more spectacular when the Migration is not nearby, with a staggering density of year-round wildlife and relatively few tourists encountered in this part of the reserve. While the camp itself is sheltered in the riverside thickets and provides beautiful views of a river bend inhabited by hippo, game drives venture out into the wide open plains, where guests can enjoy the quintessential Serengeti landscapes in open 4×4 safari vehicles with canvas canopies. With the Grumeti River providing a permanent water source, the area is particularly rich in predators, with massive lion prides and extensive clans of hyena numbering up to a hundred frequently spotted. The river also attracts large herds of buffalo and elephant, while the open plains are the ideal habitat for cheetah. Riverside drives are bound to spot the massive crocodiles that the area is renowned for, while birders will be amazed by the number of endemic species spotted throughout the area. The thickets near the camp are home to colobus monkeys, which cannot be seen anywhere else in the Serengeti, while the area also plays host to a far lesser known migration, during which large numbers of topi antelope move across the plains.

You also have the option of doing a day trip to Lake Victoria or booking a Hot Air Balloon Safari at an additional cost.

This morning you will be transferred to the airstrip for your flight to Kilimanjaro airport to connect for your flight home.