The Great Migration, lions in the grass all the way to the horizon and Zanzibar at the end – East Africa is the safari from the films.
Photo: Jorge Tung (Unsplash)
Full disclosure: the Serengeti is a dream I haven't yet made come true. Friends who've been there talk about nothing else: zebras and wildebeest as far as the horizon, elephants right by the jeep, the campfire in front of the lodge in the evening, and Kilimanjaro in the window in the morning.
Tanzania has the north with the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire – the classic circuit in six to seven days. Kenya has the Masai Mara, where the herds move in from August to October. The two countries can be combined, but for a first trip one of them is enough.
Unlike South Africa, you don't drive yourself here: safari means a driver-guide in a Land Cruiser, lodges or tented camps, everything organised in advance. It costs – reckon on 400 to 800 francs per day per person – but in return every day is a highlight. Then a week on the beach on Zanzibar, which almost everyone does.
Lodges and camps in the park (organised); Arusha or Nairobi only for arrival and departure; Zanzibar: Nungwi or Kendwa in the north.
I almost always compare hotels, apartments and guesthouses on Booking.com – with genuine reviews and usually free cancellation.
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