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Join Blank Park Zoo on an exclusive safari to Tanzania
Animal Kingdom’s Garden Of Eden
November 1-11, 2026
DAY 1
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1
Your journey begins as you board your overnight flight to Arusha. (Meals Aloft)
DAY 2
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2
ARRIVE ARUSHA
Today you land at Kilimanjaro International Airport. Upon arrival, you will be met by your Classic Escapes representative and transferred to your hotel, where you will enjoy the balance of your day at leisure. Based in the heart of Arusha, on 18 acres of beautiful, landscaped coffee and tea plantations, this luxury hotel has 171 rooms and suites designed to capture the diversity and energy of local Tanzanian tribes and the rich colors of the coffee plantations. The rooms provide spectacular views over Mount Meru or Arusha City. All bedrooms are equipped with private balconies, TV’s, air-conditioning and free Wi-Fi. Gran Meliá Arusha's signature restaurant, Yellow Chilli, led by celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, offers a menu inspired by the Punjab region of India and the traditional dishes of the Mughal Empire. The hotel also has an all-day restaurant -Saba Saba, a coffee shop and rooftop bar.
Rejuvenate yourself in the hotel’s beautiful spa or relax in the heated outdoor pool and get ready for your once-in-a-lifetime safari experience.
Overnight at GRAN MELIA ARUSHA HOTEL in a deluxe Mount Meru-view room. (No Meals)
DAYS 3 & 4
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3 & WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4
TARANGIRE NATIONAL PARK
Wake up feeling refreshed and eager to start your journey as you drive to Tarangire National Park, the third-largest national park in Tanzania. The feeling that this is a special, almost magical place strikes you as soon as you enter Tarangire and witness your first baobab tree. Here the gently rolling countryside is dotted with these majestic trees, which seem to dwarf the animals that feed beneath them. Called the “tree of life,” many myths and legends surround Adansonia digitata (Adansonia for the French surgeon Michel Adanson and digitata meaning hand-like, a reference to the shape of the leaves). Your guides regale you with one or two of these tales as you pass through the park. This stretch of Africa is spectacular in the dry season when many of the migratory wildlife species come back to the permanent waters of the Tarangire River. Huge herds of wildebeest, zebra, eland, and oryx gather to stay in Tarangire until the onset of the rains when they migrate again to good grazing areas. For those who love birds, Tarangire has over 300 bird species. But in addition to all those magnificent trees, birds, and beasts, Tarangire is superlative for another reason—elephants. Tarangire is home to the largest population of elephants in northern Tanzania, now numbering close to 2,500 individuals.
Lake Burunge Baobab Tented Lodge, offering breathtaking views of Lake Burunge, is a luxurious yet eco-friendly retreat in a prime location between Manyara and Tarangire. Enjoy stunning views from the lodge’s central platform, watching wildlife gather at the lakeshore. Just 20 minutes’ drive from Tarangire National Park, the lodge features 20 double tents and 10 bungalows well-appointed, a swimming pool, campfire, and 24-hour electricity. It’s the ideal spot to unwind after a day of game drives, letting the breeze and vibrant hues of the African sunset envelop you as you relax on your private terrace. Each room has thoughtful amenities, including room service, mosquito nets, mineral water, an internal phone, a tea and coffee tray, a fan, complimentary Wi-Fi, and laundry service.
Overnight at the LAKE BURUNGE BAOBAB TENTED LODGE. (B,L,D Daily)
Driving Times from Arusha to Lake Burunge Tented lodge: about 2 1⁄2 hours.
DAY 5
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5
TARANGIRE NATIONAL PARK/CONSERVATION PROJECT IN TARANGIRE/NGORONGORO CONSERVATION AREA
This morning you will visit African People & Wildlife (APW), co-founded by Yale alumna Dr. Laly Lichtenfeld and Tanzanian natural resources expert Charles Trout. APW leads a series of impactful community-driven conservation projects near Tarangire National Park, designed to foster harmony between people and wildlife. Dr. Lichtenfeld, a conservation biologist with a Ph.D. from Yale, brings over two decades of experience in East Africa, while Charles Trout, a respected member of the local Maasai community, contributes invaluable cultural insight and grassroots leadership.
Together, they established APW on the belief that effective conservation must be led by and for the communities who live closest to wildlife. Their flagship initiative, the Living Walls program, protects livestock from predators using natural, eco-friendly enclosures, dramatically reducing human-wildlife conflict. APW also empowers local communities through youth environmental education, women’s enterprise development, sustainable rangeland management, and the training of community game scouts who monitor wildlife and support anti-poaching efforts.
All of these initiatives are coordinated from the Noloholo Environmental Center, APW’s 45-acre conservation campus in the heart of northern Tanzania. Exit Tarangire National Park and drive to Ol Mesera Restaurant for lunch. Dining at Ol Mesera offers an opportunity to savor Tanzanian cuisine with a modern twist. Local favorites include mchicha, ugali, Zanzibar Boga Boga (pumpkin soup), sambusas (appetizers), and local drinks like Dawa (a cocktail made from konyagi and honey). Resume your drive to Karatu and along the way, stop at a school to learn about Tanzania's educational system. Interact with students and teachers, who are genuinely interested in meeting you and eager to make your acquaintance.
Also, visit a traditional Iraqw home. The Iraqw are the local tribe that has inhabited the immediate Ngorongoro highlands in the area for over 200 years. The home is built entirely using traditional materials and methods of construction, just as it would have been 200 years ago. You will see many of the tools and weapons used by the Iraqw.
Try your hand at grinding maize the traditional way using grinding stones and listen to a presentation and demonstration of Iraqw skirt making. While here you will also have the opportunity to visit a present-day Tanzanian farm and observe a biogas plant used for producing gas for cooking and lighting. Continue to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and your home for the next two nights.
Acacia Farm Lodge is a charming country retreat situated on a vibrant mixed farm, perched on the stunning escarpment of the Great Rift. It offers breathtaking views of the picturesque Karatu farmlands and the nearby Ngorongoro forest. The lodge features 28 contemporary African chalets that blend modern comforts with a touch of luxury. Each chalet includes a private balcony that provides stunning views and the chance to witness enchanting African sunsets. Guests can enjoy complimentary Wi-Fi and various modern amenities, as well as a shared lounge area or a cozy bar for relaxation. Dining options include an airy dining
room and a secluded coffee shop. For recreation, there’s an inviting swimming pool, a well-equipped gym, and a rejuvenating spa to meet all guests’ needs. The dining experience at Acacia Farm Lodge is distinctive, offering a fresh and diverse menu that adds a modern twist to local flavors.
Overnight at ACACIA FARM LODGE. (B,L,D)
Driving times from Lake Burunge to Acacia Farm Lodge: approximately 2-3 hours
DAY 6
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6
NGORONGORO CRATER
Board your 4-wheel drive vehicle this morning for an amazing journey as you descend onto the floor of the crater, a World Heritage site, which is an extinct volcano and the largest unbroken caldera in the world. The cone is believed to have collapsed nearly two million years ago, and while the cone was standing, it could have been as tall, if not taller, than Mount Kilimanjaro. The crater (1,800 feet deep and 102 square miles) is a microcosm of East African scenery with abundant wildlife including more than 25,000 larger animals, mostly zebra and wildebeest. This is also the best place in Tanzania to see magnificent black-maned lions. This area offers an outstanding opportunity to see black rhinos, as they are protected around the clock.
Over the years, the floor of this crater has become mostly savannah (grassland), with a soda lake whose size changes depending on the rains that are the lifeline of this amazing land. On this lake, marvel at the colorful flamingos and a variety of other water birds – more than 100 species of birds found here that are not found in the Serengeti. Resident Ostrich, Crowned Crane, and Kori Bustard are joined seasonally by migrant flocks of White and Abdim's Storks. Patience
may also reward you with glimpses of leopard, cheetah, hyena, jackal, elephant, warthog, buffalo, impala, buffalo, hartebeest, eland and many other antelopes. Your wildlife-viewing will be dramatic, and the experience memorable. Enjoy lunch on the crater floor and afterwards return to the rim of the crater and your lodge.
Overnight at the ACACIA FARM LODGE. (B,L,D)
DAYS 7, 8 & 9
SATURDAY-MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7-9
OLDUPAI GORGE/SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK
You now drive to the legendary Oldupai Gorge. En route you will have the chance to visit a Maasai village. Once there, feel free to explore the village at your leisure, peruse the local handicrafts, or observe traditional Maasai dancing. The drive to the gorge is breathtaking – passing through a spectacular mix of savannah grassland and volcanic hills, where red-robed Maasai graze their cattle before it drops steeply down into the gorge itself. The name originated from the Maasai word “ole” meaning “the place of” and “dupai” meaning “wild sisal,” a local plant resembling aloe which grows abundantly in the area. This plant has yellow-green, succulent, spear-like leaves which form dense clumps, binding the loose soil of the gorge and sheltering many other plants and animals. Domesticated sisal is used to produce rope, rugs, and baskets which are sold at the local markets and are one of the largest exports of Tanzania. Oldupai is one of the world’s most important paleoanthropological locations. This is where, in 1959, Mary and Louis Leakey found fossil evidence of the 1.7-million-year-old
Australopithecus Boisei (Zinjanthropus) and Homo Habilis (Handyman). Thousands of stone tools, some of which have been used by Homo Habilis, have been found at Oldupai; the oldest style is easiest to remember because it is called Oldowan. In addition to the remarkable human fossils, prehistoric elephants, giant horned sheep, and enormous Ostrich fossils have been found here and extinct species unearthed include three-toed horses and giant antelope. Since the Leakeys first began searching the area for clues to our distant past, more than sixty hominid remains have been excavated, belonging to four different hominids, showing the gradual increase in brain size and in the complexity of their stone tools. The gorge itself is a very steep-sided ravine roughly 30 miles long and 295 feet deep. It resembles a small Grand Canyon with exposed strata of different layers where the deposits of rich fossil fauna, hominid remains, and stone tools were found. The gray lines are volcanic tuffs and eruptions are used to estimate the age of the fossils. You will want to visit the museum which
contains a cast of the 3.7-million-year-old footsteps of Australopithecus Afarensis preserved in solidified volcanic ash, found at nearby Laetoli by Mary Leakey in 1979. Outside of the museum, a Tanzanian guide will explain the geological features of the gorge and the work of the Leakeys.
Resume your drive to Serengeti National Park (3,646,500 acres), the jewel in the crown of Tanzania’s protected areas with over 3 million large mammals roaming its plains. It lies between Ngorongoro and Lake Victoria and adjoins Kenya's Maasai Mara. The Serengeti has come to symbolize paradise to all, including the local Maasai, who have grazed their cattle on the vast grassy plains for generations. To the Maasai, it is Siringitu – “the place where the land moves on forever." Today, the Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and the Maasai Mara Reserve protect the greatest and most varied collection of terrestrial wildlife on earth, and one of the last great migratory systems still intact.
More than a million wildebeest, accompanied by hundreds of thousands of zebras and other herbivores, descend upon the short-grass plains of the southeastern Serengeti at the start of the rainy season around December. After calving in January and February, they scatter over the southern and central plains. By May the rain ends, the grass has been reduced to stubble, and the animals begin their long march to dry-season grazing grounds near the permanent waters of the Serengeti's northern woodlands and Kenya's Maasai Mara. Reaching these destinations by July or so, they remain until October, when they head back to the southeastern Serengeti. This struggle for survival continues unaided and unaltered through the millennia!
The Serengeti is incredible to visit any time of the year. In the Seronera Valley, towering yellow fever trees and palm thickets line the Seronera River and its hippo pools. This is a superb area for seeing predators such as lion, leopard, and cheetah, and their prey – giraffe, topi, Bohor reedbuck, Defassa waterbuck, buffalo, and impala. The kopjes (prehistoric rock outcroppings) host hyraxes, dwarf mongooses, and red-headed agamas, while patience might reward you with a sleepy black-maned male lion or leopard. The open grassland is home to large groups of Thomson's and Grant's gazelles, spotted hyenas, jackals, and such birds as the Double-banded Courser, Yellow-throated Sandgrouse, Red-capped Lark, Fischer's Sparrow-lark, and Capped Wheatear. Your twice-daily wildlife drives will allow ample viewing.
As an optional excursion, you can take a balloon safari for an exhilarating experience over the Savannah as the early sun rises and the animals are more active. Nestled atop a hill in the heart of Serengeti, your lodging, Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge, offers panoramic vistas of the sprawling Serengeti plains. Designed in a contemporary African aesthetic with a hint of romance, Kubu Kubu strikes a harmonious balance between modern sophistication and inviting warmth. The main area boasts a deck, lounge, and pool, while the lodge comprises 25 spacious tents. Each tent is elevated on wooden platforms and equipped with en-suite facilities, ensuring comfort amidst the wilderness. Step onto your private balcony to behold the magnificent expanse of the Serengeti plains stretching before you.
Overnights at the KUBU KUBU TENTED LODGE. (B,L,D Daily)
From Acacia Farm Lodge to Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge3-4 hours (not including wildlife viewing en route and stop at Oldupai Gorge) some are on tarmac, and most are on dirt tracks.
DAY 10
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10
ARUSHA/EN ROUTE
Last chance to photograph that awesome sunrise before flying back to Arusha. You will have lunch at the Melia Arusha Hotel. An opportunity to shop at the African Heritage before transferring to the airport for your flight back home bidding a fond farewell to your driver/guides.
A DAYROOM IS PROVIDED AT THE GRAN MELIA ARUSHA HOTEL. (B,L)
DAY 11
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11
ARRIVE USA
Today you arrive back home bringing with you the memories of all the wonderful sights of East Africa. (Meals Aloft)