8-Day Private Family Safari and Cultural Discovery

Your family trip starts at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO). There, your Private Safari Guide will assist you with your luggage and will take you through immigration. Then, you will have a short and comfy drive to your hotel in Arusha. We have chosen a hotel with lovely gardens and swimming pool. This will allow your mom and dad to enjoy a welcome drink and a relax, whilst the children let off some steam from the flight. This hotel has a nice, calm, and secure atmosphere. Later in the evening, you will have a buffet dinner with tons of food options to suit even the pickiest eaters. Your guide will give you a fun and interactive briefing about the animals you might see tomorrow.

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Gran Meliá Arusha
Lake Duluti Lodge

Your family will have a relaxed breakfast and then depart with the guide at around 2 hours to Tarangire National Park. Tarangire is a great first park for kids as the wildlife is large and of easy visibility. Not to mention, the park is home to the large African Elephants mud-bathing in the rivers and the humorous, upside-down Baobab trees. Maasai Cultural Immersion This afternoon, we will stop for an interactive visit to a Maasai Boma, breaking up the game viewing. This is not a “museum” tour, but it is hands-on.

Kids: Throw a rungu (wooden club), do beadwork with the women, and learn the secrets of making fire with donkey dung and cedar wood.

Adults: Speak to the elders about the difficulties of maintaining traditions and cultural practices in today’s contemporary society.

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Tarangire Sopa Lodge
Maramboi Tented Lodge

Today, the focus changes to the rural and vibrant life of Tanzania. After driving up the Great Rift Valley escarpment, we reach the cool, green highlands of Karatu. This region is the "breadbasket" of Tanzania as it has many coffee and vegetable farms.

Mto wa Mbu and Karatu Tuktuk and Village Tour We trade the Land Cruiser to ride in local Tuktuks (three wheeled Rickshaws) for a breezy tour of Mto wa Mbu or Karatu town. This is a sensory delight as you can smell the spices at the market, see the local rice paddies and wave to local school aged children. Alternatively a guided walk through a coffee farm is an option where you can see where your morning brew came from. The lodge where we spend the afternoon is a working farm, children can often visit the vegetable gardens or see the farm animals.

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Ngorongoro Farm House
Acacia Farm Lodge

Wake up early for the exciting descent into the Ngorongoro Crater. This is the best place in Africa for kids to see animals up close. The crater walls keep the wildlife closed in, and there is a high number of lions, hyenas, and buffalo.

Hippo Pool Picnic Your guide will choose a suitable site for a picnic lunch by Ngoitoktok Springs, and you can observe the hippos wallowing in the water from the safety of the bank. Look out for 'Pumbaa' (Warthogs) trying to snatch a sandwich! The objective today is to see the Black Rhino and complete the Big 5 checklist. In the afternoon, we will climb the crater rim and head towards Lake Eyasi, changing the scenery from highlands to the irregular Rift Valley floor.

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Ziwani Lodge
Lake Eyasi Safari Lodge

One of the most popular activities on the trip with teenagers is an early start to visit the Hadzabe bushmen, one of the last remaining true hunter-gatherer tribes on the planet. We start with no program. Active children and the parents can run and join the men on the hunt, a bush run where they stalk birds and then use bows and arrows to hunt. It's your turn to learn to dig tubers and find honey. Players on the hunt and the other members of the tribe communicate via clicks, a unique and fascinating sound to mimic. Later we visit the Datoga tribe, blacksmiths who melt scrap metal to form arrowheads and jewelry. Watching metalworking is a great science lesson. We return for a late lunch at the lodge and go for a swim to wash off the dust of the adventure.

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(Same as Day 4 to minimize packing/unpacking)

As we depart Eyasi, we start with Ngorongoro and then descend down to the Serengeti. From the start, it was clear this place was huge, regardless, the sheer scale was still mind-boggling. As we were at the start of the Ngorongoro rim, we heard the word "Serengeti" from the Maasai "Siringet". It means "the place where the land runs on forever". The kids loved the big cats, and out of all the places we have been to so far, the Serengeti was the best place to find them. As you drive around, your guide will focus on the game drive on the Kopjes (rocky outcroppings)- that are also called "Simba Rocks" where lions love to sleep and have meals. Cheetahs are also around, and they are the fastest land animals. They often use termite mounds as lookout points and it is always great to spot them.

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Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge
Lahia Tented Lodge

Depending on the season, the Serengeti may be home to the Great Migration, which boasts millions of zebras and wildebeests covering the land. This spectacle of nature draws travelers and adventurers of all ages. The guide will teach kids how to identify animal scat (always a hit!), track animal movement through their prints, and how the various components of an ecosystem work. With the 'Bush Lunch' option, we can organize a picnic meal in the middle of the wilderness, surrounded by nature and wildlife, but secure in the vehicle.

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(Same as Day 6 to ensure a relaxed base)

Instead of the long 8-hour bumpy drive back to Arusha, you will take a shorter drive to the Seronera Airstrip where you will board a light aircraft for a scenic flight back to Arusha (or Zanzibar, if you are extending). Seeing the Serengeti from the air is a breathtaking way to appreciate the herds and the rivers from the air.

Departure After arriving in Arusha, a driver will pick you up and either take you to Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) for your international flight or to a day room to have lunch and relax before your flight home. You will leave Tanzania with more than just memories, as you have a family bond that has been strengthened through adventure.