Great Migration Family Adventure
Destination
Tanzania & Kenya
Travel Period
July-September
Duration
10 days | 9 nights
- 1 800 414 3090
- info@africansafarico.com
Arusha is located at the foothills of Mount Meru on the eastern side of the Great Rift Valley. This is the gateway to the northern safari circuit, with easy access to the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara, Tarangire, Mount Kilimanjaro, and Mount Meru. Its elevation of 1,400 m (4,600 ft) keeps temperatures relatively cool despite proximity to the equator; temperatures generally range between 10 and 30 C (50 and 86F), with little humidity due to the altitude.
Arusha is serviced by two airports, Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) on the eastern side, and Arusha Airport, which primarily services domestic travel. The two airports are connected by the main road, which is notorious for traffic. There is some good shopping available, including the impressive Cultural Heritage, with curio shops, a jewellery boutique, a Tanzanite and precious stone counter, a bargain center, and an art gallery.
Arusha Coffee Lodge’s location is a combination of tranquillity and convenience. Situated on the fertile grounds of a coffee plantation, Arusha Coffee Lodge is a sanctuary of peaceful gardens right on the doorstep of Arusha city. The lodge is also close to Arusha airport and situated along the road leading to Tanzania’s most famous national parks, making it the best place to begin and end a safari.
Arusha Coffee Lodge is a delightful sanctuary of aromas, gourmet food, and vibrant gardens located on the expansive grounds of a verdant coffee plantation. The Lodge is made up of a main area incorporating a restaurant, a café bistro, various boutiques at the Traders Walk, a spa, and a swimming pool. The rooms and suites spill off to the left of the main area, each looking out onto coffee trees and surrounding gardens.
Plantation Room
En suite rooms with a shower and bath, verandah, and in-room log fire. Eight doubles, four twins and six triples (45m2).
Plantation Suite
En-suite rooms with a shower and bath, flat-screen television with satellite TV service, private sun terrace with log fire, verandah, mini-bar and personal room attendant. Four doubles, five twin and three convertible (58m2).
Activities at Arusha Coffee Lodge include coffee tours, shopping and cafes, spa treatments at Peaberries Spa, a swimming pool, quad bikes, and bird watching in the gardens. Other nearby attractions include Maasai markets, golf at Kiligolf (advanced booking required), the Tanzanite Museum, the Arusha Cultural Heritage Centre, and the Museum of National History. It is also possible to arrange day trips into nearby Arusha National Park or to Mount Meru with a picnic lunch.
Day 2: Visit Lake Manyara National Park
Lake Manyara National Park is only 325 km2 (125 mi2) in size and yet offers a unique wilderness experience with an incredible diversity of habitats, from its Acacia forests and dense woodlands to its soda lake and steep escarpment. This spectacular setting, within easy road access from Arusha, makes Manyara a popular stop off on the way to the crater highlands.
The park is famous for its tree climbing lions and some of the largest baboon troops in the country, as well as for often having large numbers of flamingos at its shorelines. Great herds of buffalo can also be found, alongside general plains game and excellent birding.
Day 3: Visit Ngorongoro Crater. A veritable Garden of Eden, the Ngorongoro Crater is only 260 km2 (100mi2) in size yet has some of the highest densities of lion and spotted hyena found anywhere in the world. The view from the crater rim at 600 m (1970 ft) is nothing short of breathtaking. The thick mountain forests of the crater highlands strike a sharp contrast with the short grass plains of the crater floor with its yellow fever Acacia woodlands and streams. The soda lake Magadi in the center of the crater floor sometimes attracts lesser flamingos, and the area is known for very large tusked elephants, black rhino, and great predator action.
Easily accessible from Arusha, the three million year old Ngorongoro Crater was once a gigantic volcano that some suggest was even higher than Mt Kilimanjaro. It is the largest intact caldera in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Walks are available on the rim in certain areas, but game viewing on the crater floor is strictly by vehicle and on designated game drive routes. Local Maasai pastoralists and their villages surround the western side of the crater whilst the eastern side is heavily forested up to the farming town of Karatu.
A private highland retreat overlooking the Ngorongoro Crater. There is surely no truer way to appreciate the magnitude and wonder of the Ngorongoro Crater, than from Entamanu Private where it’s done entirely on your own terms and schedules. A highland retreat with minimal impact on this precious place, this is your exclusive Crater experience.
There’s nothing tame about this location – the high altitude sun has some real heat and the wind can be biting and sometimes noisy. Nomad Tanzania have taken up the challenge to create a camp that makes the most of the extraordinary view while providing warmth and shelter from the elements, while being entirely removable. Every design detail has been considered in light of this, while still providing comfort in this elemental place.
The Rooms
Entamanu Private is comprised of four rooms elevated on wooden platforms, with two family rooms made up of two full size rooms each with their own bathroom. Each room is constructed using wood, glass and stretched canvas and has indoor heating and en-suite bathrooms with hot and cold running water, and flush loos. Every effort has been made to create comfort in this very special place.
A big highlight of any stay, the Ngorongoro Crater is one of Africa’s most iconic wildlife destinations. The beauty of Entamanu Private is that it sits within the Conservation area and only 30 minutes drive from the descent road into the Crater. An early start is highly recommended to enjoy the Crater before the majority of visitors make it in from other camps. You will set off with your guide and a packed breakfast and return to camp in time for lunch. Or, head out in the afternoon and enjoy sundowners on the rim on your way back to camp.
Entamanu Private offers guided walks along the rim of the Crater and in the surrounding highlands. You will head out with your guide and a member of the local Maasai community and learn all about medicinal plants, Maasai beliefs, as well as track any local wildlife that has wondered close to camp. Walks are all about soaking up the view at a slower pace and learning to appreciate the little things and they come highly recommended.
This photographer’s paradise is one of the best places in Africa to view the big cats as well as an amazing array of plains game. The northern Serengeti has the classic big open plains of the African savannah, sprawling views, and consistently delivers excellent wildlife sightings. It is one of the best places in East Africa for leopards, and the kopje strewn hillsides that are home to these elusive creatures are in themselves stunningly beautiful. A few days here can be very action packed and there’s even chances to see black rhinos in some areas.
The Serengeti is perhaps the most famous African wilderness area, its name synonymous with the notion of safari for nearly a hundred years. This UNESCO World Heritage site covers 14,750 km2 (5,700 mi2) of premiere game viewing in Acacia woodlands, open grasslands, and undulating savannahs interspersed with seasonal rivers. The park on the northern side borders the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya and, together with several other smaller reserves and conservation areas, forms the larger Mara-Serengeti ecosystem.
Lamai Private is Lamai Serengeti’s little sister, exclusively for private groups. Strung around the bottom of the boulder-bound Serengeti base, this camp communes completely privately with the bristling plains of the north – annual site of the Migration crossings of the Mara River, gateway to the Lamai Wedge and a year-round arena of spectacular resident big game.
Half fabulous bush camp, half homely HQ, this is where your group can get together as one around communal tables or the pool, or disappear off for some nature communing, wildlife photography or bird watching around the kopje. Plenty of personal space here, on spreading timber decks under giant Serengeti skies.
The camp offers all the appeal and flair of Lamai Serengeti, but offers the added benefit of complete privacy for you and yours. Lamai Private is self-contained to only your group. It has its own central lounge and dining area, swimming pool, and outside decking to allow you to take in the views.
Standard Room
Lamai Private has five rooms with large verandas. The en-suite bathrooms have flush toilets and running hot/cold water. One room has an adjoining children’s room, which shares its bathroom and has no direct access to the outside.
Lamai Private fulfils the promise of the Serengeti many times over – by car and on foot – in these remote, less-travelled short grass plains. This remote part of the Serengeti is bisected by the perilous Mara River, where once a year, between July and October, over a million-strong wildebeest and zebra throw themselves across its crocodile-infested waters, heading for where the grass is greener. This makes for spectacular predator and prey viewing on the banks in the late dry season.
What is less known about this part of the Serengeti ecosystem are the very healthy concentrations of lion, leopard and buffalo to be seen all year round. With expert guides and rugged 4x4s, you’ll head out into the plains for big mammal discovery, and fantastic photographic opportunities. When the grass is short and safe to move through, guides lead groups out of the lodge, where small valleys, river lines and rocky kopjes make for frequent changes of scenery…and provide perfect cover for approaching wild animals.
Named in honour of the Maasai people who call this corner of Africa home, the Mara is world renowned for its exceptional populations of lion, leopard, cheetah, buffalo, black rhino, and a thriving elephant population. Around July of each year, the Great Migration arrives in the Maasai Mara National Reserve for its annual four-month stay.
West of the Mara River, beneath the Oloololo escarpment and bordered by Tanzania to the south, lies the jewel of this great reserve: the Mara Triangle. Not only is this the most productive part of the entire Serengeti-Mara ecosystem in terms of grass nutrition, but it is also spectacularly scenic. The huge grassy plains are dotted with widely spaced Balanites trees that give the landscape an almost manicured look which, together with the steep-sided escarpment and broad Mara River, provides a breath-taking backdrop for wildlife photographers.
The Mara Triangle has been most efficiently managed by the Mara Conservancy for the past 15 years – evidenced in the guides’ discipline, successful anti-poaching efforts, and impressive road infrastructure. For much of the year, the Mara Triangle has the lowest density of visitors in the Greater Maasai Mara, with just two lodges within its perimeters and a few on the northern border.
Covering over 500 square kilometres, the Mara Triangle includes seasonal marshes, open plains, and gallery forest habitats, providing homes for a great diversity of mammals and birds. This is Angama Mara’s wonderland.
Angama is inspired by the Swahili word for “suspended in mid-air.” Located high above the floor of Africa’s Great Rift Valley, Angama Mara is a remarkable owner-run safari lodge overlooking Kenya’s world famous Maasai Mara. Here guests will find a lodge where everything is as it ought to be: two intimate camps of just fifteen tented suites each, a private airfield and access to the Mara below, tailor-made safari days, and a famously warm Kenyan welcome.
The lodge’s remarkable setting overlooks what many safari travellers deem the finest game reserve on the continent, Kenya’s Maasai Mara. Angama Mara’s tented suites stretch out over two kopjes on the edge of the escarpment. The third kopje is immediately recognisable as the site where many of the most memorable scenes from Out of Africa were filmed.
Tented Suite
The Tented Suites have been designed for guests’ comfort and are reminiscent of a classical African safari, each with a view as lovely as the next. Highly polished parquet floors, distinctive splashes of Maasai red, a handsome drinks cabinet, vanity with double basins, separate w/c, writing desk with ample charging points and tablet with guest information, WiFi, Africology guest amenities, a collection of East African books, a beautiful John Vogel woven screen, and a butler’s lobby allowing for the discreet delivery of early morning tea and coffee, all add to the comfort and delight of guests in their luxury tents.
Family Tented Suite
The lodge has four sets of interconnecting tents, which allow children to move freely between their tent and their parents’ in complete safety and privacy. Highly polished parquet floors, distinctive splashes of Maasai red, a handsome drinks cabinet, vanity with double basins, separate w/c, writing desk with ample charging points and tablet with guest information, WiFi, Africology guest amenities, a collection of East African books, a beautiful John Vogel woven screen, and a butler’s lobby allowing for the discreet delivery of early morning tea and coffee, all add to the comfort and delight of guests in their luxury tent.
Safaris: The Maasai Mara never fails to deliver extraordinary wildlife sightings: prides of lion, solitary leopards, the shy black rhino and abundant herds of elephant and buffalo are all to be found here in and amongst bountiful plains game. Head out at sunrise with a picnic breakfast and be back for lunch; head out after breakfast with a picnic lunch; or a favourite, pack two picnics and spend the whole day exploring the Mara.
Hot-Air Ballooning: Watch the balloon as it is inflated and just before dawn, lift off into the skies, witnessing the sunrise and a multitude of animals below while floating over the Mara. End with a champagne breakfast in the middle of the endless plains.
Walking Safaris: Guests have access to a huge tract of wilderness along the escarpment. Escorted by a Maasai naturalist guide, walks can be as long or short as guests prefer. Discover the smaller details – plants, birds, insects and animals and the role they play in traditional Maasai beliefs and customs.
Photography: Visit Angama Mara’s Photographic Studio for a private tutorial with the on-site wildlife photography who will help guests come to grips with their camera. Hire photographic equipment or learn more about the editing process on the large-screen Apple desktops. Explore the Mara on a private photographic safari with one of the resident specialist guides. For those who prefer to put down their cameras, the in-house photographer can capture their special moments in a professional photoshoot.
The Shamba: Explore Angama Mara’s one-acre kitchen garden followed by a soil-to-fork lunch under towering moth trees. Crusty bread, local cheese, chilled rosé and the freshest of salads served with the Mara as a backdrop.
Out of Africa Picnics: Intimate private picnics for two (maximum four) on the Out of Africa kopje featured on the movie’s iconic poster. Checked blankets, comfy cushions, canvas chairs, a picnic and sparkling wine on ice – everything you could need for elegant romance.
Sundowner Boma: Traditional dawa (local mojito) in hand, toast the sun as it descends from the vantage point of the lodge’s Sundowner Boma to the sound of Maasai warriors as they perform singing, dancing and jumping.
Bush BBQ: Gather in a lantern-lit forest for dinner cooked over the coals. Guests dine family-style at long wooden tables, off enamel plates. It’s fun, relaxed and most of all, delicious.
Visit the Beading Studio: Leading off the Safari Shop is a sunny studio for Maasai ladies who come daily to bead bespoke items. Guests can try their hand at beading or perhaps have them bead a name bracelet or item of their clothing.
Run with a Kenyan: Join the Angama Running Club and see how you fare against this nation of great athletes as you jog along the escarpment with the possibility of encountering plains game along the way.
Visit a Maasai Manyatta: Guests can enjoy a rare opportunity to gain a deeper understanding into the every day lives, the Maasai, their ways and fascinating culture, while shopping for keepsakes to take home.
Mara Conservancy Canine Patrol Training: A hands-on opportunity to learn about the invaluable work of the Mara Conservancy’s canine unit. Observe and participate in training exercises to see if guests can outsmart these determined canines.
In and Around the Lodge: Take a troll up the Out of Africa kopje, orientate yourself and catch up on the latest sightings in the Map Room, burn up some energy in the Fitness Room, put in some lengths in the 12-metre swimming pool, catch a few rays or do some shopping in the Safari Shop. Guests can also browse the numerous books in the Library, watch a movie from the African film collection or treat themselves to an in-tent massage.
Welcome to Nairobi National Park, an island of incredible flora and fauna surrounded by a sea of humanity. Nowhere in the world is there a National Park of this magnitude, home to some of the most endangered species on the planet, next to a capital city. Where on earth can you land on an international flight and be amongst four of the big five in less than half an hour of clearing customs.
Nairobi is the gateway to the safari world, and what better place to arrive than in this incredible city and enjoy a wilderness that has been set aside.This is Kenya’s first national park, and one of the first protected areas set aside for wildlife in the world.
The park is teaming with game and incredible birds, having boasted one of the highest world bird counts of a capital city in one day. There are over 400 species of birds in the park along with 80 species of mammal, over 40 different reptiles and amphibians and well over 500 tree and plant species. It is an extraordinary space!
The park is not only famous for its age, but also, and most importantly the hugely successful Black Rhino population with well over 80 Black Rhino and more than 10 White Rhino. The park is just under 120 Square Kilometres which makes it one of the largest Black Rhino populations in the world per square kilometre. The park Rhinos have been relocated to different areas in the country and the Black Rhino program is one of the most successful in Africa.
From other members of the Big 5, the park has over 30 adult resident Lions that roam the plains, and 10 resident Leopard which are being seen more frequently. Recently a female Cheetah with her three cubs have moved into the park and are seen on regular occasions in The Emakoko area.
Any visitors to Kenya and in fact East Africa MUST visit Nairobi National Park to not only support the incredible conservation work in the park, but also to enjoy the amazing views!
The Emakoko allows people to start and finish their safari in the wildlife environment they have traveled so far to enjoy. Within 15 minutes of clearing customs you can be viewing game in Nairobi National Park. The only “transfer” delays likely to be encountered en route to or from The Emakoko are the natural pauses to watch a pride of lions or waiting for a rhino or journey of giraffe to cross the road.
The Emakoko is a boutique lodge uniquely positioned on the edge of the Nairobi National Park. It is located a short 45 minute drive from either of Nairobi’s airports. The drive through the park itself, with its beautiful scenery and abundance of plains game is a superb way to start any East African safari. What better way to start a holiday by supporting the conservation of this unique area and in particular, by supporting the endangered black rhino which are prolific in this park.
Luxury Rooms
With only ten rooms The Emakoko offers an exclusive and personal environment. Five rooms are situated at the main level and five have been built into the cliff face higher up. The climb to the upper rooms is worth it for the spectacular views, but if you do not fancy the climb you can always jump onto the funicular lift.
The room designs and interiors are designed for comfort, from huge, luxurious beds to the black-out curtains. Each room has its own private veranda and a soaking tub.
Private House
The Emakoko has recently opened a Private House. The house has two ensuite bedrooms with a shared living / dining area. It also has its own pool and is situated on the upper level with great views over Nairobi National Park.
The Nairobi National Park, despite its proximity to the capital city of Kenya, boasts a spectacular assortment of birds and wildlife, with over 400 species of bird recorded in one day. With an excellent possibility of spotting four of the Big Five, many Nairobi residents find the lodge a perfect antidote to the hustle and bustle of city life. By staying at The Emakoko you are directly contributing to the protection and conservation of Nairobi National Park and its wildlife.
Visit to the Giraffe Centre
The Giraffe Centre is the creation of the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (A.F.E.W. Kenya), a Kenyan non-profit organisation. The main purpose is to educate Kenyan school children and youth on their country’s wildlife and environment, as well as give local and international visitors an opportunity to come into close contact with the world’s tallest species, the giraffe. The centre is home to the endangered Rosthchilds Giraffe and visitors have the opportunity to get up close and personal with them!
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