Day 1: Nairobi to Masai Mara Game Reserve – Kenya

This budget East Africa Safari begins with collection from your pre-tour hotel in Nairobi at 7:30 am, followed by a brief about the exciting journey ahead.

Leaving Nairobi we travel along the Great Rift Valley, taking in the scenery en route to our camp near Masai Mara National Reserve. After lunch at our tented camp, we set off on a game drive in the world-famous game reserve. This is one of the best game viewing destinations in the world, considered the heartland of authentic African safaris.

Returning to the luxury tented camp we have dinner and relax after our first game drive in Kenya, East Africa. The camp is located on the banks of a river, inside a private conservancy area, where various animals are often spotted.

Day 2: Masai Mara Game Reserve – Kenya

The whole of day two is set aside for game viewing in Masai Mara. The iconic plains of Masai Mara are home to more than 450 species of wild animals, including the Big Five – lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo. Today you experience the wild savannahs of Africa encountering an abundance of wildlife, including hippos, wild dogs, crocodiles, wildebeest, zebras, hyenas, giraffes, jackals and many more creatures.

Masai Mara is best known for the spectacular wildlife migration that sees millions of wildebeest, zebras, gazelles and other herbivores stampeding across the plains and rivers. Every year this mass migration, known as the Great Migration, attracts a host of predators along the migratory route between Kenya’s Masai Mara and the Serengeti National Park, in Tanzania.

You also have the chance to take an optional balloon ride over the plains of Masai Mara. This optional balloon ride costs extra and is one of the most spectacular ways of viewing Masai Mara and the abundance of wildlife inhabiting the reserve.

Tonight we stay at the same comfortable camp near Masai Mara, sleeping in tented rooms with en-suite bathrooms and verandahs.

Day 3: Masai Mara & Speke Bay – Kenya

Rise and shine for breakfast at camp, before we drive to the Isebania Border Post and cross into Tanzania. First stop in Tanzania – Lake Victoria, the biggest lake in Africa. We stay at Speke Bay Lodge, a mere 15 km from Serengeti National Park on Tanzania’s Northern Safari Circuit.

This afternoon you are free to relax at the lodge on the south-eastern shores of the Great Lake. Alternatively, you can go fishing or take an optional boat ride (at extra cost) on Lake Victoria. The lodge is located on the Speke Gulf, named after British explorer John Hanning Speke, the first European to arrive at Lake Victoria and identify the Great Lake as the source of the Nile in the mid-1800s.

Day 4: Speke Bay to Serengeti National Park – Tanzania

On day four we head into the remote western corridor of the Serengeti National Park, entering at the Ndabaka Gate. The entire day is spent game viewing in the Serengeti, stopping for a picnic lunch en route.

The Serengeti National Park is one of the leading safari destinations in Africa, seen as the original home of the traditional African safari, along with Masai Mara. Forming part of the same ecosystem as Mara, the Serengeti Plains also offer the quintessential African savannah setting, only more vast than the Kenyan counterpart, at 14 763 km².

After our game drive, we have dinner at Ikoma Safari Camp (or similar) where we overnight.

Day 5: Serengeti National Park – Tanzania

Day five is set aside for exploring the legendary Serengeti National Park on game drives.

This massive wildlife reserve is famous for the same annual migration as Masai Mara, whereby over a million herbivores move south from the northern to the southern plains of Serengeti, in the short rainy season (October and November), returning north after the long rainy season (April to June). Serengeti Park offers superb wildlife viewing year-round, so we should see plenty of plains game and predators roaming the grasslands.

At the end of the day, we return to Serengeti Ikoma Tented Lodge (or similar) for dinner and another overnight stay.

Day 6: Serengeti to Ngorongoro via Olduvai Gorge – Tanzania

This morning we embark on an early morning game drive in Serengeti National Park, before having breakfast back at the lodge.

Then we make our way to Olduvai Gorge, a deep ravine in the East African Rift Valley. En route we stop for a picnic lunch and enjoy game viewing. The gorge features one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites, hosting some of the earliest fossils of our humanoid ancestors. We visit the Olduvai Gorge Museum to see the excavated remains of our ancestors, with Homo erectus remains that date as far back as 1.2 million years ago.

From Olduvai, we continue to Ngorongoro Forest Tented Lodge (or similar) where we have dinner and spend the night.

Day 7: Ngorongoro Crater – Tanzania

On day seven we enjoy breakfast early in the morning and dip some 600m down into the crater for an action-packed day of game viewing in this wildlife paradise.

Our 4×4 game drive takes us through the diverse habitats of the crater floor, where we encounter a variety of wild animals. While in the crater we have a picnic lunch. The Ngorongoro Crater is renowned for its high concentration of animals, with most wildlife species represented here. Due to the high density of animal populations, we are likely to see an excellent array of animals in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Ascending the crater walls after our game viewing adventure, we return to Ngorongoro Forest Tented Lodge (or similar) for dinner and our last overnight stay.

Day 8: Ngorongoro to Arusha & Nairobi

Our final morning starts with a leisurely breakfast before we travel to Arusha. We take packed lunches along with us from the lodge to enjoy en route. Arriving in Arusha by midday, you have the option of concluding your safari here or continuing to Nairobi in Kenya.

From the Kibo Palace Hotel in Arusha we catch the 2:00 pm shuttle to Nairobi, where you are transferred to the airport or your post-tour accommodation. Parting ways in Nairobi, you leave the safari having experienced unforgettable game viewing in three of the finest wildlife havens of Africa.