East Africa Fly-in Safari

Day 1: Arrive
at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and transfer to the historic Norfolk Hotel. Optional city tour.
 O/N NORFOLK HOTEL

Days 2-3: The Great Rift Valley We fly by private charter aircraft (20 minutes) to the Great Rift Valley to spend two nights in this former family home on the shores of Lake Naivasha. This area is renowned for its hippos and birdlife. Across the lake the view is dominated by the distinctive outcrop of Longonot, an extinct volcano. We spend a day in Lake Nakuru National Park, home to black and white rhino, Rothschild’s giraffe (rarely seen elsewhere), zebra, buffalo, eland, waterbuck as well as lion and leopard. Hundreds of thousands of flamingoes and hundreds of white pelicans dwell in this lakeside sanctuary.
O/N LOLDIA HOUSE

Days 4-6 Maasai Mara Reserve: After a leisurely breakfast we fly by 40 minute private charter to the Maasai Mara. Here we spend the next three days exploring the world’s greatest wildlife spectacle with miles and miles of open plains: rhino, elephant, giraffe and herds of buffalo, wildebeeste, zebra and other plains game attended by their predators - lion, cheetah, leopard. This is the heartbeat of Africa: the chase, the kill, the mating…the rituals of daily survival.
O/N MARA EXPLORER

Days 7-9 Tanzania and Serengeti: After breakfast and a game drive to the airstrip we take the scheduled flight to Nairobi to connect with the flight to Arusha, Tanzania. On arrival you transfer to a short, internal flight to the Grumeti airstrip in the heart of the Serengeti. You will arrive early afternoon, and in time for an afternoon game drive. We spend our days exploring this most famous of Tanzania’s remote national parks, home to more than two million large mammals, the largest concentration anywhere in the world. Continually migrating in search of fresh grazing on the short grass over plains that stretch as far as the eye can see, the herds of wildebeest, zebra, Thomson’s and Grant’s gazelles are perpetually stalked by their predators: lion, leopard and hyena.
O/N KIRAWIRA TENTED CAMP

Days 10-11 Ngorongoro Crater: We fly on across the Serengeti Plains to Ngorongoro Crater. The crater protects an incredible wildlife spectacle: the floor of this extinct volcano, some 2000 feet below the rim, spans 102 miles of savannah, lakes and marshes. It is home to over 30,000 large mammals, the greatest concentration of resident mammals in all of Africa, including some of Tanzania’s last remaining black rhino. Black-maned lions stalk the grasslands, flamingos congregate at the soda lakes and elephants graze through the forests. We may also have the opportunity to see wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, gazelle, lion, leopard, hyena and jackals.
O/N NGORONGORO CRATER LODGE

Day 12 Return to Nairobi, departure: Fly back to Nairobi, dayroom at Norfolk Hotel. Transfer to airport for late evening departure.