One Week (7 Days) Kenya & Tanzania Wildlife Safari

You'll spend the day touring Nairobi's top attractions! Skip the morning journey with an early pick-up for a half-day safari in Nairobi National Park. The park has 45 square miles (117 sq m) with 80+ free-roaming mammals, including most of the "Big Five" (excluding the elephant). Lions, leopards, zebras, rhinos, wildebeest, and abundant birds inhabit Kenya's first national park, founded in 1945. One of Kenya's top spots to witness black and white rhinos.

You'll visit the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage midmorning to see rescued elephants. Sponsoring an orphan elephant lets you feed and bed it later in the day. Your driver will take you to the Utamaduni Craft Center, a humanitarian organization in a beautiful colonial mansion, around lunchtime. More than a dozen rooms sell great African art and souvenirs here.

Finally, the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (AFEW) Giraffe Center, founded in 1979 to protect the Rothschild's giraffe, is visited in the afternoon. AFEW was founded when Kenya had only 130 wild Rothschild giraffes. This organization breeds and releases 300 giraffes into the wild. You may feed and view inhabitants from a platform. A bird sanctuary and self-guided trail are on site.

The day is free. The Bomas of Kenya, a cultural center in Langata with 11 life-size homesteads (bomas) exhibiting diverse traditional construction styles from across Kenya, is an optional activity. Drumming and dancing symbolize national customs daily. Tour Kazuri Beach Factory, a women's cooperative.

Return to the hotel when you're done. Your driver can recommend and arrange supper stops.

After breakfast, your driver will take you to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for your early-morning journey to Tanzania. After arriving at Kilimanjaro International Airport, a private automobile will take you to Tarangire National Park (118 miles/190 km), where you can see buffaloes, giraffes, warthogs, and swarms of yellow-breasted lovebirds. Lions, leopards, and hyenas prey. The park is mainly renowned for its elephants.

After lunch, you'll go on a game drive along the Tarangire River's sandy banks, surrounded by baobabs and twisted acacias. Transfer to your lodge for dinner and overnight after sunset.

Tarangire Safari Lodge has private, roomy bungalows near a huge watering hole where you may view wildlife from your covered verandah. Each unit has a large en-suite bathroom, solar-heated shower, and local textile linen.

Following breakfast, drive to Olduvai Gorge and Serengeti National Park (137 miles/220 kilometers). Leakey's Olduvai Gorge changed history. Mary Leakey found Lucy, a 1.8-million-year-old ape-like skull, here. See the extraordinary documentation of prehistoric life in layers of volcanic deposits set down in an orderly sequence over over 2 million years during your stop.

Go to Serengeti National Park, one of the world's most beautiful natural settings where nature's harmony may be appreciated like nowhere else. The park is famous for its Big Five—buffaloes, elephants, rhinoceroses, leopards, and lions—and its high wildlife populations. Locals call it "Siringet," meaning "the area of the infinite plains."

Black rhinoceros live in the park, but sightings are rare. Local carnivores including cheetah, hyenas, and African wild dogs are always present due to high topi, gazelle, waterbuck, and Coke's hartebeest populations. Ostriches, crowned cranes, marabou storks, and secretary birds—some of the most gorgeous birds on Earth—live in the park.

The Serengeti Heritage Camp offers an authentic African camp experience. 13 walk-in tents with running water, flush toilets, and hot/cold showers are nestled among Acacia trees. The solar-powered camp provides electricity and hot water. A backup generator is only for rainy days.

In the central Serengeti, you'll see leopards, lions, cheetahs, giraffes, zebras, hippos, baboons, wildebeests, warthogs, gazelles, crocodiles, and many bird species.

From December to March, the Serengeti Migration may offer big herd activities. Enjoy!

Today, you'll travel to Tanzania's prehistoric Ngorongoro Crater (41 miles/66 km), the Eighth Wonder of the World and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its vast walls conceal a stunning blue-green panorama of grasslands, lakes, and forests.

A two- to three-million-year-old volcano burst and fell, creating the crater. Its 100-square-mile bottom is 2,000 feet deep (609 m) (259 sq km). Bull elephants, leopards, rhinos, wildebeests, buffalo, and Africa's highest lion concentration fill this natural amphitheater. Game drive before checking in.

The Bougainvillea Safari Lodge is a little refuge where safari guests may escape the dusty roads and enjoy fresh country cuisine, a garden setting, and Tanzanian warmth. The personnel live in the town and villages around the lodge, which is 100% Tanzanian-owned. The property's coffee garden and pool surround the cottages. Each room has a mosquito-netted bed, dressing area, fireplace, huge bathroom and shower, and a veranda for viewing.

Goodbye! At the appointed hour, you'll transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport (149 miles/240 km) to fly to Nairobi and connect to your departing aircraft. Safe travels!

If you have time in the morning, visit Shanga, a 2007 social company that employs disabled people to make unique, high-quality jewelry, glassware, and homeware from recycled materials (great for souvenirs). Profits from sales in Tanzania and abroad are used to employ disabled persons.