The Indian Ocean

Your driver-guide meets you at Kilimanjaro International Airport and gives you a short introduction to the trip. It is about an hour’s drive west to Arusha, with Mount Meru ahead of you.

Your first night is at a small guest house outside town. The evening is yours to rest after the flight.

You drive about three hours south to Tarangire National Park. It is known for big elephant herds, especially in the dry months when they gather at the Tarangire River, and for the huge, ancient baobab trees that stand across its ridges.

You game-drive through the day with a picnic lunch in the park, looking for lions, giraffes, zebras and the colourful birds of the riverbanks. In the late afternoon you drive up the Rift Valley wall to Karatu, your base for the next three nights.

It is about 30 minutes to Lake Manyara National Park, and you have the full day there. You start in the groundwater forest near the gate, full of baboons and blue monkeys, then drive along the shore under the steep wall of the Rift Valley.

Look for elephants among the trees, the lions that sometimes rest up in the acacias, and flamingos, pelicans and storks on the lake. You have a picnic lunch in the park and return to Karatu for the night.

After breakfast your guide drives you to Arusha Airport for your flight to Zanzibar. Depending on the flight schedule, you may fly from the Lake Manyara airstrip instead, which is much closer to Karatu.

The flight to Zanzibar takes about 1 hour 20 minutes. You are met at the airport and driven to your beach hotel, where the rest of the day is yours.

Enjoy a last morning by the sea. At a time that suits your flight, your driver takes you to Zanzibar Airport, where the tour ends.