10-Days Kenya & Tanzania Adventure Safari

Start the day at the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. Here are young elephants who have been rescued and cared for until they may be released into the wild. In addition to seeing the elephants, guests can support an orphan. If you do, you can return later to feed and bed your new elephant.

You'll then visit the Giraffe Centre. The African Foundation for Endangered Wildlife (AFEW) runs this refuge to breed and release Rothschild's giraffes. The number of wild Rothschild giraffes in Kenya has increased from 130 to 300 since AFEW was founded in 1979. From a viewing platform, you may take photos and feed the residents. A self-guided nature trail and bird sanctuary are also available.

Next are two cultural experiences. Spend an hour at the Utamaduni Craft Center. This emporium sells handmade apparel, housewares, antiques, and more in a historic colonial mansion. There's also a Nairobi street kids' collection. This is an excellent spot to buy a souvenir or gift.

Next, tour the Kazuri Bead Factory. This community economic enterprise employs and trains Kenya's underprivileged. A factory that makes handmade ceramic jewelry and ceramics with local clay resulted.

Your driver will take you to Maji Moto Maasai Cultural Camp outside Nairobi in the morning. This is a genuine visit to a Maasai village where tribespeople still follow old practices. It's fascinating to experience a centuries-old African culture.

Walking in the hills with Maasai warriors, watching warrior training, and visiting a hot spring are activities. You'll also visit a Maasai widow community. Maasai women often married older men and widow with young children. Crafting and beadwork were taught to Maasai widows to help them survive. While seeing the hamlet, you'll tour community projects like a school, tree nursery, and beekeeping enterprise.

In the afternoon, hike over the plains to a bush camping. You'll build a Maasai camp and sleep under the stars with tribespeople. You can slaughter a goat Olpul-style if you have the constitution. This ceremony for returning warriors and elders includes much singing and merrymaking. Then everyone will feast and share stories and blessings around the campfire. You'll also drink aloe root, honey, and herb ceremonial brew.

Spend the night at the jungle camp, on traditional leafy beds, and rest easily knowing fierce Maasai warriors will guard you.

Drive west from Maji Moto to the Maasai Mara National Reserve after breakfast. One of Africa's most popular safari locations, this 580-sq-mile (1,510-sq-km) game reserve borders Tanzania's Serengeti National Park. These two adjacent protected areas host the Great Migration from July to November. Millions of wildebeests, zebras, and gazelles cross the grasslands.

The Kenyan reserve honors the Maasai people. The pristine savanna, forests, and springs attract large and diverse animal populations. Lions, leopards, cheetahs, and African bush elephants live with wildebeests, zebras, and other plains game. A 4x4 afternoon game drive around the reserve will reveal many of them, so bring your camera.

Lunch awaits. Start your first African safari with a wildlife drive. After, head into the reserve to your tent lodge for the night.

On a 4x4, you will explore the Maasai Mara today, starting with an early morning wildlife drive. Animals are most active in the early morning hours, when they are searching for food, making dawn a prime time for wildlife viewing. On the grasslands, wildebeests can be seen grazing while huge predators stalk their prey. You'll go on another game drive after lunch to watch these creatures as they look for a cool place to rest and a refreshing drink.

Sunrise safaris on hot air balloons are available as an extra. Take a balloon flight for an hour and see the Maasai Mara from above the enormous savanna. A luxurious champagne breakfast in the open plains will cap off the adventure. After returning to camp for lunch, you'll spend the rest of the afternoon on a game drive. Following another satisfying supper out on the plains, you can wind down for the day in the comfort of camp.

You will leave the Maasai Mara after your final morning game drive and head to the Tanzanian border. Following clearing immigration, you'll be greeted by your safari guide and vehicle in Tanzania. You should keep going until you reach the eastern shore of Lake Victoria, where you can spend the night.

Lake Victoria is beautiful, but you won't have much time to enjoy it. This lake is the largest freshwater lake in Africa and the second-largest in the world. It is more than 2,000 miles long and has a coastline of more than 2,000 miles; its length is 210 miles (337 km) and its width is 150 miles (240 km) (3,220 km). Grabbing a fishing pole and trying your luck at reeling in a tilapia is a common pastime.

The trip to Serengeti National Park will begin after breakfast. This famous nature preserve is the ultimate location for a safari. The word Serengeti comes from the Maasai language and means "endless plains," which is exactly what you'll find in this 14,763-square-kilometer protected region. The park is home to the greatest concentration of plains game in the world and is recognized as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO. Lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo, and black rhinoceroses are the "Big Five" species included.

You won't spend any time once you reach to the Serengeti, as you'll be going on morning and afternoon game drives right away. If you'd rather not come back to camp for lunch, you can go on a full-day game drive with a picnic lunch. You can count on seeing a wide variety of animals today, including elephants, giraffes, lions, buffalo, and more. You will go back to your tent camp in the evening and spend the night there.

You'll leave Serengeti National Park in the morning for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, called after the crater. It's the world's largest volcanic caldera, measuring 1,968 feet (600 m) deep and 100 sq miles (260 sq km). On the crater floor, you can see buffaloes, elephants, hippos, hyenas, jackals, lions, ostriches, servals, warthogs, bushbucks, elands, hartebeests, reedbucks, waterbucks, and large herds of Thomson's and Grant's gazelles.

The crater is one of East Africa's rare venues to sight black rhinos due to anti-poaching operations. Leopards and cheetahs lounge under trees, and flamingos flock to the crater's alkaline lakes. Giraffes can't cross the crater's rim, thus they won't be here.

You'll go to your volcano caldera lodge for the night after lunch and wildlife viewing.

Until next time

Do a 6-hour Ngorongoro Crater game drive on your last day in Africa. A driver will take you to the airport for your journey to Nairobi and home. Safe travels!