13-Nights African Safari: Kenya and Tanzania - Explorations – Small Group

Arusha

Arusha is the safari capital of East Africa, a bustling, vibrant town with the streets filled with 4X4 game viewing vehicles criss-crossing the potholed roads. Maasai warriors in full regalia stroll the streets, mingling with tourists in crisp khaki, fresh off the plane from Europe or the United States.

Nairobi

Nairobi is Kenya's capital and one of Africa's most modern and fastest growing major cities. The original center retains Asian influence in its older buildings with glassy modern buildings. Visit City Market with local produce and handicrafts. Other attractions are: National Museum, displaying ethnographic, paleontological and ornithological exhibits; the Arboretum, with an excellent collection of East African flora; the University, known for its unique architecture; the excellent Kenya Railway Museum; and Nairobi's landmark, the extraordinary Kenyatta Conference Center, the country's most monumental building, visible from miles outside the city. There are casinos at Safari Park Hotel and Inter-Continental, and there's Sunday-afternoon horse-racing. Visit Karen Blixen Museum, where some action of the book and film Out of Africa took place. The beautiful forested Ngong Hills is a spiritual place for the Maasai and an excellent area for hiking and enjoying views of Nairobi and the Rift Valley. Nairobi National Park is a wildlife game reserve.

Tarangire

As you enter Tarangire National Park a vast number of baobabs catch your eye. The gently rolling countryside is dotted with these majestic trees, which seem to dwarf the animals that feed beneath them. The park is spectacular in the dry season when many migratory wildlife species come back to the waters of the Tarangire River. Huge herds of wildebeest, zebras, elephants, eland and oryx gather to stay in Tarangire until the onset of the rains when they migrate again to good grazing areas. Tarangire National Park is second only to Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area in concentrations of wildlife and lies to the south of the large, open grass plains of southern Maasailand.

Serengeti

Today, the Serengeti National Park helps protect the greatest and most varied collection of terrestrial wildlife on earth, and one of the last great migratory systems still intact. The Serengeti is the jewel in the crown of Tanzania's protected areas and has come to symbolize paradise. The region encompasses Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Maswa Game Reserve, the Loliondo, Grumeti and Ikorongo Controlled Areas and Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Two World Heritage Sites and two Biosphere Reserves have been established within the region. It's unique ecosystem has inspired writers and filmakers as well as numerous photographers and scientists. The essential features of climate, vegetation and fauna have barely changed in the past million years. Some patterns of life, death, adaptation and migration are as old as the hills themselves.

Amboseli

Amboseli National Park, at the foot of Africa's highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, is one of Kenya's most popular parks. The snow capped peak of Mount Kilimanjaro rising above a saucer of clouds dominates every aspect of Amboseli. Despite its small size and fragile ecosystem it supports a wide range of mammals and birds. The snows of Kilimanjaro, white and crystalline, form a majestic backdrop to one of Kenya's most spectacular displays of wildlife - lion, elephant, leopard, rhino, cheetah, buffalo and hosts of plains' game, creating Kenya's most sought after photographer's paradise. The Park's best game runs are around swamps and there is a fine lookout on Observation Hill which offers views over the whole of the Park and beyond.