11-Day Highlights of Tanzania Adventure Camping Tour from Dar es Salaam

11-Day Highlights of Tanzania Adventure Camping Tour from Dar es Salaam

Explore the best of Tanzania and Kenya on this short safari and beach adventure tour. The highlights include seeing the Serengeti's game-filled plains, meeting colourful Maasai tribes, gazing skyward at snow-capped Kilimanjaro, meandering through the spice markets and diving into the clear Indian Ocean on idyllic Zanzibar. This tour has it all! Come experience the magic on an adventure through this exciting corner of Africa.

Itinerary

Day 1: Zanzibar Island

Stop At: Stone Town, Zanzibar City Tanzania
Evocative and exotic, Zanzibar conjures up images of idyllic, sandy, palm fringe beaches; romantic winding cobbled alleys and lush tropical forests. You will find all of these here – and an intriguing history. Zanzibar was the base of the great 19th century explorers such as John Hanning Speke, Richard Burton and David Livingstone and once was a major trading centre of spices. Indeed, the spice trade is centuries old: Zanzibaris have traded with the people of the Arabian Peninsula for generations, plying the ocean in simple dhow sailboats relying on the annual trade winds for passage. The Arab influence is evident in the architecture and diverse street stall offerings of the capital, Stone Town. This influence can be seen right along the Eastern coast – the Swahili language itself is a result of the mixing of Arab and African languages and cultures over many centuries.

Zanzibar’s other history is not romantic. The island was also a staging post for slaves bought from the African interior being held before shipping to slave owners in the Middle East. You can still see the places where these men and woman were held – and even a short visit is enough to convey the appalling conditions they had to endure.

Our time on the island over the next 4 nights is not structured and your time is at leisure. Perhaps the best way to see Stone Town is on foot: explore the bazaars for old maritime trinkets, cloths, wooden carvings, visit mosques, palaces, courtyards and alleyways of the old town. Spices are grown in plantations nearby and you can take day tours to visit some and have your senses dazzled by the tastes and scents experienced. If it’s white sand, sparkling ocean and hot sun you prefer – head to the northern beaches and enjoy the Indian Ocean at its best. Try snorkelling and diving, indulge in some sumptuous seafood, or simply relax beneath a coconut palm with a cocktail and a good book.

Duration: 1 day

No meals included on this day.
Accommodation included: Overnight Safari Lodge, Stonetown, Zanzibar

Day 2: Zanzibar Island

Stop At: Kendwa Beach, Kendwa Tanzania
Enjoy free time on Zanzibar and transfer to the northern beaches from Stone Town. Relax on the sun kissed beaches of Kendwa, northwest part of the island, take an optional diving trip to the rich colourful reefs or grab a snorkel and goggles to explore these from above
Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
Accommodation included: Overnight at Sunset Bungalows, Kendwa, Zanzibar

Day 3: Zanzibar Island

Stop At: Kendwa Beach, Kendwa Tanzania
Browse markets or enjoy hanging in a hammock with a cocktail and a good book. The beach is a great place to catch up with the locals who will pass by selling their wares, offering henna tattoos and inexpensive massages. Round the day off with a sunset dhow cruise or chilling to the tunes from the nearby beach bars.

Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
Accommodation included: Overnight at Sunset Bungalows, Kendwa, Zanzibar

Day 4: Zanzibar Island

Stop At: Kendwa Beach, Kendwa Tanzania
Adjusting to the lazy ways of the northern beaches is easy to do in such picturesque surroundings. Enjoy your last day on the island swimming in the warm ocean, snorkelling in the crystal turquoise waters and enjoy time at leisure in this tropical haven.
Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
Accommodation included: Overnight at Sunset Bungalows, Kendwa, Zanzibar

Day 5: Zanzibar – Dar es Salaam

Stop At: Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Dar Es Salaam Region
We have the morning to do any last-minute shopping or enjoy one last swim before catching the ferry back to the African mainland to Dar es Salaam and onwards to our campsite on the coast for the evening.
Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Overnight at Kipepeo Beach, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Day 6: Dar es Salaam – Marangu

Stop At: Marangu, Marangu, Kilimanjaro Region
Departing early from Dar es Salaam, we head north past the Usambara and Pare Mountains in the Eastern Arc Mountain Range to Marangu, nestled at the base of the famed Kilimanjaro. The camp takes its name from the surrounding area. "Marangu" means "full of water" in the local Chagga language, and the lush green surroundings demonstrate the truth of this. If weather is clear we will gain a view of the magnificent snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain (5895m).
Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Overnight Marangu Camp, Marangu, Tanzania

Day 7: Marangu - Arusha

Stop At: Meserani Snake Park, Arusha Tanzania
We drive past the town of Moshi and eventually reach Arusha; a city situated exactly mid-way between Cape Town and Cairo. This is Tanzania’s ‘safari capital’, a city of some 2 million people, a bustling melting pot of markets, vehicles and people – all nestling in the shadow of the brooding Mt Meru (4556m). With time to explore town we head out to our camp just outside the city at the edge of the Masai plains.

This afternoon we enjoy a walk to one of the local Maasai villages, a local school and clinic, a small but highly interesting Maasai museum, and the snake enclosure at the Meserani Snake Park.

It is from here that we prepare for our two night/three-day excursion to the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater.

Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Overnight at Meserani Snake Park, Arusha, Tanzania

Day 8: Arusha - Serengeti National Park

Stop At: Serengeti National Park, Serengeti National Park
This morning we transfer to smaller more ‘game park friendly’ vehicles and drive west across the Great Rift Valley, passing through Mto Wa Mbo (‘mosquito creek’) and enter the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area. We pass into the park and drive around the ‘Crater’s rim and down onto the Serengeti plains. Green after the rains, brown and burnt in the dry, this is home to an enormous variety of grazing animals, predators, and birdlife. Flatter and larger than the Masai Mara the Serengeti is simply huge - indeed the name derives from the Maasai word Siringitu – ‘the place where the land moves on forever’. We game drive to our designated (but unfenced) campsite for the evening where lion and hyena roam nearby for an unforgettable experience.
Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Overnight at Serengeti Bush Camp, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

Day 9: Ngorongoro Crater

Stop At: Ngorongoro Crater, Ngorongoro Conservation Area Tanzania
We drive out of the plains, game driving en route, and after lunch ascend the outer wall of the Ngorongoro Crater. We spend the night camping on the rim (you may need a jacket; it can be cold at night due to the high altitude here), where wildlife also roams free. At 326 square kilometres in area the Ngorongoro is Africa’s largest intact caldera and a World Heritage Site. If the view from the rim (2400 metres above sea level) is spectacular, the site from the Crater floor (some 600 metres below) is equally enjoyable.

Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Overnight at Simba Camp, Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area, Tanzania

Day 10: Ngorongoro Crater - Arusha, Meserani Snake Park

Stop At: Meserani Snake Park, Arusha Tanzania
We wake early and descend the steep dirt road of the Ngorongoro Crater for a morning of game driving in this spectacular wildlife haven. All the major mammals are present except giraffe (which cannot manage the steep slopes leading down onto the Crater floor). After our game drive we ascend to our campsite on the rim for a final view over the Ngorongoro Crater, pack up our camp and have lunch before retracing our steps to Arusha and our campsite at the Meserani Snake Park where we will overnight.
Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Overnight at Meserani Snake Park, Arusha, Tanzania

Day 11: Arusha – Nairobi, Kenya

Stop At: Nairobi, Nairobi
After a last night at camp, we make our way across the Masai Steppe to the Kenyan frontier. Completing formalities at Namanga border post, we drive the last stretch of road to Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, where our tour ends on arrival in the late afternoon
Duration: 1 day

Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Lunch
No accommodation included on this day.