Tanzania · Northern Circuit and Zanzibar

Serengeti to the Sea

Duration: 12 Days
From: $9,600per person

Twelve days from the baobabs to the reef, on one ticket and one set of hands.

This is the trip most people are describing when they call us. Seven days on the northern circuit — Tarangire, Ngorongoro, the Seronera valley and the plains — and then a light aircraft straight from a grass strip in the Serengeti to the island, with no backtracking to Arusha and no night lost in a transit hotel. Five days on Zanzibar at the other end, two of them in Stone Town and three on the north-east coast.

The two halves are not a safari with a beach bolted on. The coast is where the mainland has always sent its cloves, its ivory and its arguments, and doing them in this order — plains first, port second — is the only way round that makes any historical sense. It is also, plainly, the right order for your legs.

Route: Arusha · Tarangire · Ngorongoro · Seronera · Ndutu · Stone Town · Matemwe
Best Months: June to October is the strongest overlap for both halves
Group Size: Six guests maximum, private departure
Getting There: Fly into Kilimanjaro (JRO), home out of Zanzibar (ZNZ) — book an open-jaw
Pace: Full for seven days, then deliberately empty for five

Where the twelve days go

One internal flight, Serengeti to Zanzibar, which is what stops this trip costing you two days in transit.

Day 1
Arusha
Arrival, briefing
Day 2—3
Tarangire
River and baobabs
Day 4—5
Ngorongoro
Rim and crater floor
Day 6—7
Seronera
Cats in the valley
Day 8—9
Stone Town
The old port, on foot
Day 10—12
Matemwe
Reef, sandbank, home

Day by day

Every night is offered at two levels. Adventure is comfortable, mobile and close to the ground; Comfort is a permanent lodge or hotel with a pool and a wine list.

Day01

Arrival into Arusha

We meet you at the aircraft door at Kilimanjaro International and drive forty minutes into the coffee farms outside town. The afternoon is yours to sleep off the flight. At six your guide walks all twelve days over a map on the table — including the island half, because the same office books both — and the vehicle is parked outside for you to claim your seat.

Meals: Dinner
On the road: 40 minutes
Elevation: 1,400 m
Highlight: Route briefing with your guide

Where you sleep

Adventure
Kigongoni Camp
Canvas rooms in the coffee, half a mile of birdsong from the road.
Comfort
Onsea House
A hillside guesthouse with the best kitchen in Arusha, and a view of Meru.

Day02

Tarangire National Park

Out by seven with breakfast in a box, through the gate before the day traffic. In the dry months you do not have to look for elephant here — they are standing in the river, digging for water in the sand with their front feet. The baobabs along the ridge are the oldest living things on the whole twelve days, and the largest of them predate the Maasai arriving in this valley.

Meals: All meals
On the road: 2 hours
Elevation: 1,100 m
Highlight: Elephant digging for water in the river sand

Where you sleep

Adventure
Tarangire Ndovu Camp
Six tents on a bend of the river, unfenced, generator off at ten.
Comfort
Chem Chem Lodge
Private concession on the Manyara flats, plunge pool at every room.

Day03

A full day on the Tarangire River

Nothing scheduled and nowhere to be. Two long drives with a picnic under a baobab between them, and time to sit at one waterhole long enough to watch the order in which things come to drink. The lion here specialise in buffalo, which is unusual and dangerous work, and the ridge road in the late afternoon gives you the whole valley at once.

Meals: All meals
On the road: In the field
Elevation: 1,100 m
Highlight: A long sit at one waterhole, watching the order of things

Where you sleep

Adventure
Tarangire Ndovu Camp
A second night in the same bed — no packing on a river day.
Comfort
Chem Chem Lodge
A second night, and the plunge pool in the heat of the afternoon.

Day04

Up the Rift wall to the crater rim

A slow climb through Mto wa Mbu and the banana shambas, with a stop at the Maasai market if it is running that day. By early afternoon you are on the rim at 2,300 metres, high enough that you will want the fire lit. The walk along the rim before dinner looks 600 metres straight down onto tomorrow, and the cloud usually comes over the far wall at about the time you turn back.

Meals: All meals
On the road: 3 hours
Elevation: 2,300 m
Highlight: First sight of the crater floor from the rim

Where you sleep

Adventure
Rhino Lodge
Plain rooms in the forest behind the rim, elephant on the lawn at dusk.
Comfort
The Manor at Ngorongoro
A working coffee estate and manor house, forty minutes below the rim.

Day05

The crater floor at first light

Down the Seneto descent road at six, ahead of every other vehicle in the highlands. The floor is 260 square kilometres of grass, soda lake and swamp holding around 25,000 large animals inside its own walls, among them some of the last black rhino left in the region and the heaviest-maned lions in East Africa. Lunch by the hippo pool, then out on the Lerai road while the afternoon is still warm.

Meals: All meals
On the road: 5 hours in park
Elevation: 1,700 m
Highlight: Black rhino on the Lerai flats

Where you sleep

Adventure
Rhino Lodge
A second night in the same bed — no packing on a crater day.
Comfort
The Manor at Ngorongoro
A second night, and a long bath afterwards.

Day06

West to Seronera

Out through the conservation area and across the Naabi Hill gate onto the Serengeti proper, which does not so much begin as simply keep going. Seronera is the centre of it: kopjes, a river line, and the densest concentration of predators anywhere on the continent. Resident lion prides, leopard lying up in the sausage trees, and cheetah working the termite mounds in full daylight.

Meals: All meals
On the road: 5 hours
Elevation: 1,600 m
Highlight: Leopard in the sausage trees

Where you sleep

Adventure
Serengeti Kati Kati
A classic mess-tent camp pitched in the middle of the valley.
Comfort
Dunia Camp
The only camp in the Serengeti run start to finish by women.

Day07

A full day in the Serengeti

The one day of the twelve we leave completely open, because by now your guide knows what you actually want to look at. If the migration is within reach we go to it; if the leopard on the Seronera river has cubs we sit with them instead. A balloon lifts before dawn for anyone who wants it, and the rest of the day belongs to whatever the plains are doing.

Meals: All meals
On the road: In the field
Elevation: 1,600 m
Highlight: A day built that morning, on what the plains are doing

Where you sleep

Adventure
Serengeti Kati Kati
A second night, and hyena on the edge of the firelight.
Comfort
Dunia Camp
A second night, and dinner out under the acacia.

Day08

Seronera airstrip to Stone Town

A last drive to the strip, then the light aircraft east — over the Rift, over the crater if the pilot is in a good mood, and down onto the island in the early afternoon. You go from a grass runway to a thousand-year-old port in under three hours. The last of the walk into the old town is on foot, because no vehicle fits down those lanes, and at five you are on a rooftop watching the dhows come in on the tide.

Meals: All meals
On the road: 2 hour 30 flight
Elevation: Sea level
Highlight: A grass strip to a UNESCO port, same afternoon

Where you sleep

Adventure
Jafferji House
A restored merchant house of nine rooms, all carved wood and shutters.
Comfort
Emerson on Hurumzi
The old customs officer’s house, with the highest rooftop table in the town.

Day09

Stone Town on foot

Four hours walking with a guide whose family has been in these lanes for four generations — the Old Fort, the Anglican cathedral built deliberately on the site of the slave market, the Persian baths, and the carved doors that tell you the trade and the origin of whoever commissioned them. The afternoon is a working spice farm at Kizimbani, where lunch is cooked out of the beds you walked through.

Meals: All meals
On the road: 1 hour
Elevation: Sea level
Highlight: Clove, nutmeg and cardamom, pulled off the plant

Where you sleep

Adventure
Jafferji House
A second night, and the roof to yourself after nine.
Comfort
Emerson on Hurumzi
A second night, and the taarab set on the roof if it is running.

Day10

North under sail to Matemwe

A traditional lateen-rigged dhow up the coast, three hours with the monsoon behind you and no engine unless the wind dies. This is how everything on this island moved for a thousand years. You wade the last twenty metres onto the north-east coast, and from here to the end of the trip there is nothing on the schedule that you did not put there yourself.

Meals: All meals
On the road: 3 hours under sail
Elevation: 28 °C
Highlight: Arriving at the coast the way everything used to

Where you sleep

Adventure
Matemwe Beach Village
Thatched bandas on the low cliff, the reef breaking a mile out.
Comfort
Matemwe Lodge
Twelve suites facing Mnemba, each with a plunge pool and a hammock.

Day11

The Mnemba reef, early

Out at seven, because the water off Mnemba is at its clearest before the day’s boats have stirred it. The atoll is a private marine conservation area holding green turtle, several hundred fish species, and between July and October the dolphin pods that work the channel. Two snorkelling sites and a beach lunch, back before the wind gets up, and the whole afternoon on the sand.

Meals: All meals
On the road: 30 minutes by boat
Elevation: 28 °C
Highlight: Green turtle on the atoll reef

Where you sleep

Adventure
Matemwe Beach Village
A second night, and the fishing fleet leaving under your window at five.
Comfort
Matemwe Lodge
A second night, and a massage that you will not want to end.

Day12

Zanzibar Town, and home

A slow morning — the tide at Matemwe goes out far enough to walk half a mile on wet sand before breakfast — and then ninety minutes south through the clove and coconut country to the airport. Day rooms and a shower are held for you if your flight is an evening one, and someone from our office waits with you until you are checked in.

Meals: Breakfast
On the road: 1 hour 30
Elevation: Sea level
Highlight: Half a mile of wet sand before breakfast

What's in, and what isn't

Both halves are booked and paid by the same office, which is the entire point of this itinerary. Nothing on the included list is charged again in country.

Included

All park, crater, conservation-area and marine park fees for twelve days
Eleven nights' accommodation at your chosen tier, all meals from dinner on Day 1
The internal flight from the Serengeti straight to Zanzibar — no night lost in Arusha
Private 4×4 Land Cruiser with a roof hatch, a fridge and a window seat each
One guide for the whole mainland week, and a licensed Stone Town guide on the island
The private crewed dhow from Stone Town to Matemwe, and two guided reef sites at Mnemba
Drinking water, soft drinks and house beer and wine throughout
Flying Doctors evacuation cover for the duration of the trip

Not included

International flights and Tanzanian visa — book an open-jaw, JRO in and ZNZ out
Travel and medical insurance, which we require of every guest
Balloon safari over the Serengeti, $599 per person
Scuba diving at Mnemba, from $180 for two tanks
Premium spirits, champagne and spa treatments
Gratuities for your guide, crew and camp staff

Seasonal Rates

Per person, in US dollars

Rates fall as the vehicle fills — the guide, the 4×4 and the dhow cost the same whether two of you travel or six.

Party size	Adventure	Comfort	Adventure	Comfort
	Low seasonApril—May · November		High seasonJune—October · December—March
Travelling alone	14,400	18,100	18,200	22,900
Two guests	11,100	14,000	14,000	17,500
Four guests	10,000	12,500	12,600	15,700
Six guests	9,600	11,900	12,000	14,900

Rates hold for travel through 31 December 2027. Single supplement of $1,240 applies to the Comfort tier only. Christmas and New Year on the island are quoted separately.

A 20% deposit holds your dates, camps and rooms. The balance is due 60 days before you fly, and is fully refundable until then.

What you are likely to see

Nothing here is guaranteed and we will never pretend otherwise. This is what twelve days across both halves reliably hold.

African leopard
Panthera pardus
Seronera's sausage trees hold the highest density of leopard in Tanzania. Look up, not out.
Black rhino
Diceros bicornis
Perhaps thirty animals on the crater floor, protected around the clock. Day 5 is your one real chance at them.
African elephant
Loxodonta africana
Tarangire's dry-season herds run to three hundred animals on the river at once, bulls included.
Blue wildebeest
Connochaetes taurinus
Where the herd stands depends entirely on your month, and Day 7 is held open so we can go to it if it is in reach.
Cheetah
Acinonyx jubatus
The short-grass plains south of Seronera are the best cheetah ground left in East Africa, and they hunt in daylight.
Green turtle
Chelonia mydas
Resident on the Mnemba reef and entirely unbothered by snorkellers. The atoll beaches are a nesting site.
Bottlenose dolphin
Tursiops truncatus
Pods work the Mnemba channel most mornings. We go out early and keep our distance — no swim-with boats.
Zanzibar red colobus
Piliocolobus kirkii
Around 6,000 animals and every one of them on this island. Add the Jozani morning if you want them.

Things worth adding

Each of these slots into a day already on the itinerary without moving anything else. Tell us at booking, or decide over dinner the night before.

Day 7Balloon safari over the SerengetiOne hour, at dawn$599
Day 4An afternoon in a Maasai boma, by invitationTwo hours$95
Day 9Cooking class in a Stone Town kitchenThree hours, from the market$85
Day 11Two-tank dive on the Mnemba wallHalf a day$180
Day 12Jozani red colobus on the way to the airportTwo hours$90

Tell us your fortnight, and we will build both halves of it.

Send us your dates and we will come back inside a day with where the herd should be that week, the tide tables for the island, and a price for your exact party. No deposit, no obligation, and a person on the other end.