Gorillas, Big Cats, Game & Beach – 16 Days is an exciting safari that starts in Rwanda where you will track the endearing and endangered mountain gorillas from the luxury of the Virunga Mountain Lodge or Sabyinyo Lodge.
From here you head off to Tanzania for game drives and walks to spot the predators and game of this fascinating country. Finally, you land in Kenya and relax at the stunning Kinondo Kwetu where the crystalline waters are home to turtles, dolphins and a multitude of brightly colored fish!
Note: This is a tailor-made safari and can be tailored to your specifications. Get in touch with us to design your very own East Africa safari!
One More Reason To Book This Safari Experience
- For 16 days of some of the best and exciting safari holiday destinations in Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya.
- Learn about the horrors of the Rwandan Genoside and how the country is healing its wounds on a visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre.
- Experience Rwanda's hilly countryside that has made the country to be referred to as the land of a thousand hills on a drive to the famous Volcanoes National Park / Parc National des Volcans.
- Climb up deep into the Virunga Mountains to track the endangered mountain gorillas and get rewarded by spending an hour with these magnificent creatures a truly memorable experience.
- Experience the vast unending plains of the Serengeti National Park with its wild game and memorable sunrises and sunsets.
- For a chance to catch the Great Wildebeest Migration one of the greatest spectacle on earth that occurs on the Serengeti National Park Plains.
- Experience the beauty and vegetation zones that make up the Lake Manyara Eco-System as well as the tree climbing lions.
- Experience the Ngorongoro Crater taming with wildlife including the densest population of lions and spotted hyena.
- See the endangered black rhino that is protected at the Ngorongoro Crater on a visit to the crater floor.
- Enjoy barefoot luxury at an intimate luxury resort, well away from its neighbors and any interruptions on Diani Beach at Kenya's Swahili Coast.
- Enjoy the powder white sandy beaches of Diani while relaxing or taking part in the wide variety of water sports activates available.
The Detailed Gorillas, Big Cats, Game & Beach – 16 Days Luxury Safari Adventure Holiday Vacation Itinerary
Day 1: Arrive – Nairobi City
Upon your arrival into Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO) (please Note, this international flight schedule is not included in the cost of your safari), you are met and escorted to your hotel for the night.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Fairview Hotel, Hemingways Nairobi or House of Waine Nairobi
Day 2: Nairobi City - Volcanoes National Park / Parc National des Volcans, Rwanda
After an early breakfast, you are met and transferred back to the Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO) in order to meet your international flight to Kigali International Airport (KGL).
Upon your arrival into Kigali International Airport (KGL) you are met by your private professional English speaking driver/guide and private 4x4 safari vehicle. This morning, you have the opportunity to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre. The Centre in Kigali was created by a joint partnership of the Kigali City Council and the UK-based Aegis Trust. It contains a permanent and extremely moving exhibition of the Rwandan genocide and an exhibition of other genocides around the world.
After lunch, you travel north to Ruhengeri and the Volcanoes National Park / Parc National des Volcans. This 2 hour drive undulates over Rwanda’s extremely hilly and picturesque countryside. Upon nearing the end of your journey, you will (weather permitting) begin to catch glimpses of the Virungas - a chain of 5 impossibly steep and lofty volcanoes straddling the western branch of the Rift Valley from east to west. Each mountain possesses its own unique character and silhouette, but together they form one of the most isolated and visually dramatic ecosystems in the world. A 'true island in the sky', the Volcanoes National Park is home to some of the worlds few remaining Mountain Gorilla, which were first studied here in 1959 by George Schaller, and through the 1960's by Dian Fossey and her colleagues.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Virunga Mountain Lodge or Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge
Day 3: Volcanoes National Park / Parc National des Volcans
Today’s activity may be amongst the most exciting and challenging you have undertaken. The Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda are part of a worldwide population of just 790 individuals. The gorillas we are allowed to track belong to either one of ten habituated family groups. For up to five years each, these groups have undergone an extremely delicate process that has gradually brought them to tolerate the presence of humans for a brief period every day and allowed a few privileged visitors to interact with them in the wild.
An early breakfast and you're off to the park headquarters at Kinigi to register and be allocated your gorilla family for today. Once this is done, you set out by vehicle to the start of on your gorilla safari.
The gorillas are by no means tame, and are completely wild animals. However, experienced guides will accompany you on your gorilla tracking, many of who have been involved in the habituation process themselves. The guides will use their knowledge of the gorillas' habits and information from the previous day to locate the group's whereabouts. Because of this, the time taken to track the gorillas varies enormously, from as little as half an hour to as much as 9 hours before one returns to camp. Once the gorillas are located, your group will be allowed a maximum of one hour with them. This is one of the world's truly memorable experiences - a look into one of these magnificent creatures' eyes brings home the bond that exists between them and us. It also brings home the poignant fact that they are on the edge of extinction, and that your presence here contributes to ensuring their continued survival. The hour is often over all too quickly, and you slowly make your way back to your lodge to recount the day's adventures.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Virunga Mountain Lodge or Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge
Day 4: Volcanoes National Park / Parc National des Volcans – Kigali City
Your second day of gorilla tracking! An early start to make your way to the park headquarters where you are assigned a ranger and a gorilla group. Tracking the gorillas can take anything from 4-8hrs in lush green, steep, muddy, terrain! It is, however, the experience of a lifetime...coming across these amiable primates in their natural surroundings is quite awe-inspiring as you watch them go about their daily lives, playing, grooming, farting and eating! Finally, you leave this stunning landscape behind you and are transferred back through the land of a thousand hills to Kigali and back to the comforts of the Kigali Serena Hotel (an approx. 2½hr drive).
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch
Overnight: Kigali Serena Hotel
Day 5: Kigali City - Northern Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
After an early breakfast, you leave the hotel, and are transferred back to the Kigali International Airport (KGL) in order to meet your international flight to the Kogatende Airstrip in the northern part of the Serengeti, the famed ‘Mara Triangle’ and the Mara River, an area that borders the Maasai Mara in Kenya. Upon your arrival, you travel to the wonderfully located Olakira Camp for lunch, enjoying a shared game drive along the way (an approx. 30min drive). This afternoon, you have the chance to enjoy a shared guided game drive.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Olakira Camp
Days 6 - 7: Northern Serengeti National Park
You have two full days to explore the northern Serengeti. The majestic landscape of the northern Serengeti is one of the best kept secrets of Tanzania. Far from the tourist track, this area of open grasslands and riverine woodlands supports some of the densest grazer populations in East Africa. If you are lucky you may get to see the Big 5 (rhinos sometimes cross from Kenya’s Maasai Mara) and its home to lion, leopard, cheetah, elephant, large herds of antelope and a host of other wildlife. The stunning Mara River filled with hippos and crocodiles, cuts through this land and is hosts to one of the greatest spectacles nature has to offer: the dramatic wildebeest crossings of the Mara River.
Between mid-July and November, the Great Migration typically visits the area and crosses the Mara River back and forth in search of green grass. This area does offer a truly unique safari experience; undisturbed exploration of this majestic part of the Serengeti National Park. You are taken out on morning/afternoon shared guided game drives to enjoy the wonderful landscapes and wildlife of the Serengeti National Park. During this period you can also enjoy shared guided game walks within the Serengeti (N.B. shared guided game walks are taken place from Sayari Camp, an approx. 15min drive from Olakira Camp), and cultural visits to villages bordering the national park.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Olakira Camp
Day 8: Northern Serengeti - Central Serengeti
This morning, there may be time for a final early morning shared guided game drive in the northern section of the Serengeti National Park. Finally, you are transferred back to the Kogatende Airstrip, game driving en-route. From here, you catch your internal flight to the Seronera Airstrip in the central Moru Kopjes section of the Serengeti National Park. Upon arrival, you are met and transferred to your camp, game-driving en-route (an approx. 1hr drive). This afternoon, you have the chance to go out on your first shared guided game drive.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Dunia Camp
Day 9: Central Serengeti National Park
You have the entire day to explore this area and enjoy shared guided game drives through the Central Serengeti. This is a great region for big cats as well as elephants, giraffe, zebra and more. The Moru Kopjes are one of the last haunts of the endangered black rhino so spend some time on the lookout for these beautiful beasts in their natural habitat.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Dunia Camp
Day 10: Central Serengeti - Ngorongoro Highlands
This morning, there may be chance for a final morning shared guided game drive, before you are transferred back to the Seronera Airstrip (an approx. 1hr drive), in order to meet your internal flight to the Manyara Airstrip. Upon arrival, you are met by your private professional English speaking driver guide and private 4x4 safari vehicle and transferred, with a packed lunch in-hand, heading west to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, enjoying a private game drive in Lake Manyara National Park en-route. Through the wooded pathways that wind between the banks of the shallow Alkaline Soda Water Lake and the impressive rise of the Western stretches of the Great Rift Valley Escarpment. Lake Manyara is a compact game park with no fewer than 5 different vegetation zones including grassy floodplains, groundwater forest, acacia woodland and the rocky base of the escarpment.
There are big troops of Olive Baboon, and Blue monkey, elephant, buffalo, wildebeest, giraffe, and zebra as well as a whole host of smaller animals and the potential excitement of spotting a legendary Lake Manyara tree climbing lion amongst the branches of the sausage trees. Its birdlife is fantastic. Over 400 species of birds have been recorded including White Pelicans, Rose-pink Flamingo, Bee-eaters, and Silvery-cheeked Hornbills. Lake Manyara has streams of fresh water which flows through its porous volcanic rock and also has ancient, crystalline rock that creates impressive waterfalls down the rift valley escarpment. Finally, you are transferred to your lodge for the next two nights (an approx. 1hr drive).
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Plantation Lodge
Day 11: Ngorongoro Highlands
We suggest that an early morning start is definitely the order of the day, as you head towards the Ngorongoro Crater and onto the Crater floor to experience this wildlife spectacular, with the world’s densest population of lions and spotted hyena. The crater is one of the few places in Tanzania where you can reliably see black rhino and many old tuskers, who come to spend their retirement peacefully feeding in the Gorigor swamp. Enjoy a picnic lunch at Ngoitokitok Springs; where hippos wallow and Black Kites might nab your lunch! This afternoon you continue your explorations in search of the Big Five that roam the plains of this natural amphitheatre before heading back to the lodge.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Plantation Lodge
Day 12: Ngorongoro Highlands - Diani Beach, Kenya
After an early breakfast, you leave the lodge early and are transferred by road to Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) (an approx. 5hr drive) in order to catch your international flight to Mombasa Moi International Airport (MBA), via Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO).
Upon your arrival into Mombasa Moi International Airport (MBA), you are met and transferred by road to your beach resort at Diani. Here, you sit back, relax and reminisce after your adventures.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Kinondo Kwetu
Days 13 - 15: Diani Beach
You have three full days to relax and unwind after your wonderful safari. Set on a private stretch of Galu Beach, Kinondo Kwetu is an intimate luxury resort, well away from its neighbors and any interruptions. The peaceful and tranquil resort is run by a Swedish family and has a real homely feel to it, with accommodations for just 38 guests at a time. With that entire beach to itself, there is always somewhere secluded to hide and relax. The coral reef nearby, is home to sea turtles, dolphins, and numerous tropical fish. There is also plenty to do whilst at Kinondo Kwetu, including kite-surfing, windsurfing, diving, snorkeling, and fishing.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Overnight: Kinondo Kwetu
Day 16: Diani Beach - Nairobi City - Depart
After a relaxing breakfast, you enjoy lunch at the resort and finally depart by road to the Diani Airstrip in order to catch your internal flight to Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO). From here, you are met and transferred to the Ole Sereni Hotel (N.B. dinner/room are ‘not’ included but can be paid for locally on the day).
Finally, you are transferred back to Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO) in order to meet your international flight back home – (B/L)
Optional Extensions:
From Kinondo Kwetu
- Take a beach holiday in Zanzibar Island, Pemba Island, Mafia Island and Mnemba Island off the Tanzanian Coast.
- Visit the beautiful beaches of Lamu Island, Malindi, Watamu and Kilifi in Kenya
- Take a game drive to Shimba Hills National Park Kenya
- Take a game drive to Taita Hills Game Reserve
- Take a game drive to Tsavo National Park famous for its red elephants
Prices
Please treat the prices shown as a price estimate. Your final price might go up or down following seasonal prices in the different lodges, camps and resorts. All prices indicated are per person, based on 2 persons sharing a room, and on estimated high season rates.
Rate Includes:
- All transfers
- Vehicle and guide
- One gorilla tracking permit
- Full board accommodation
