8 Nights

Highlights

This very special flying safari visits remote Gombe Stream National Park in western Tanzania, where Jane Goodall undertook her famous chimpanzee reseach. Here you can track habituated chimps on the shores of beautiful Lake Tanganyika, before flying into the famous Serengeti National Park for a thrilling Big-5 safari, with optional Zanzibar extension

Day 1
You will be met at Kilimanjaro Airport and transferred 1-hour to Arusha.

Check into your hotel in this warm and friendly town in the northern highlands, situated beneath the twin peaks of Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro and formerly an administrative centre in German East Africa.
Day 2
Transfer to Arusha Airport for your light aircraft flight to Kigoma - the gateway to Gombe Stream National Park.

After checking into your hotel, enjoy a shared trip to Ujiji to visit the site where Henry Morton Stanley famously met Dr. Livingstone.

Day 3
Today transfer 2.5-hours by boat to Gombe Stream National Park.

The smallest of Tanzania’s National Parks, Gombe Stream is a thin strip of ancient forest straddling the steep slopes and river valleys along the sandy northern shore of Lake Tanganyika.

After checking into your lodge, enjoy an afternoon trek in search of the chimpanzees that are the main attraction here. These remarkable mammals – habituated to human visitors – were made famous by the pioneering work of Jane Goodall, who in 1960 founded a research program that now stands as the longest running study of its kind in the world.
Day 4
This morning your guide will help you track the chimps of Gombe Stream, in the area where Jane Goodall conducted her famous research.

Your guide will show you how to identify their spoor and search for their nests high in the trees deep in the forest, as you walk 2 to 3 hours each way in search of the chimps. Once you find them, viewing is limited to 1-hour before walking back to your lodge. Tracking a noisy chimp family is a thrilling experience and is best in the morning, when they come down to the forest floor to forage. The chimps are very mobile, so viewing can be quite unpredictable and never guaranteed, but the walk itself is enchanting.

In the afternoon you can participate in an optional activity arranged by your lodge, such as a walk to the beautiful Kakombe waterfall (30-minutes) or Mkenke waterfall which is further out. Alternatively simply relax beside the lake or snorkel in its clear waters.

Note: Chimp tracking is limited to a small group, with a minimum age of 12 years. Please note the chimpanzees move a lot - sometimes far into the dense forest. So wear good walking shoes and expect to walk a lot today. Gombe Stream National Park is closed in March & April.
Day 5
Transfer 2.5 hours by boat to Kigoma airstrip for your light aircraft flight to your safari lodge in the great Serengeti (meaning "Endless Plains").

A World Heritage site, Serengeti National Park hosts the largest and longest wildlife overland migration in the world - as from October each year nearly 2 million animals travel 500 miles from the northern hills toward the southern plains, crossing the Mara River in pursuit of the rains. In April the animals return to the north, through the west, crossing the Grumeti River in their migration.

You will be met at the airstrip and transferred to your lodge, where you can enjoy an afternoon game drive in this amazing wildlife sanctuary.
Days 6 To 8
Today is devoted to early morning and late afternoon game viewing in the great Serengeti National Park.

This vast conservation area, which is larger than Northern Ireland, lies between Lake Victoria in the west, Lake Eyasi in the south and the Great Rift Valley in the east. The landscape varies from open grass plains in the south, savanna with scatterred acacia trees in the centre, hilly wooded grasslands in the north and woodlands and clay pans in the west - with small rivers, lakes ands swamps scattered throughout.

With more than 70 large mammals and over 500 other animal species, including large prides of lions and great herds of wildebeest, zebras and gazelle, outstanding game viewing is guaranteed on a scale only seen in East Africa. Bird watching is also outstanding.
Day 9
After some final game viewing in the Serengeti, transfer to the airstrip for your light aircraft flight to Arusha.

Here you will be met and transferred to Kilimanjaro Airport for your flight home.