Visiting family in South Africa in June,and thought we'd do Tanzania for just 5-7 nights on our way back to USA. Not our first safari but never been to Tanzania. Any suggestions for a short trip e.g. tour company to use and areas we should do or not do. Planning on staying some of the trip in mobile tent camps. Suggestions for lodges as well. Lastly,what airport do we fly out of for our return to US, and what airlines operate.
Any info will be welcome.

lynrak, Tarangire National Park is lovely in June, and if you are interested in seeing the Ngorongoro Crater (often considered the 8th wonder of the world) you could do something like:

Day 1: arrival day in Arusha, drive to Tarangire. Overnight Boundary Hill, Maramboi or similar
Day 2: Tarangire. Overnight.
Day 3: Drive to Crater, stopping in Karatu for cultural visit. Overnight Lemala Camp or one of the Crater lodges.
Day 4: full day Crater tour or 1/2 day crater tour and Masai boma visit. Overnight Lemala Camp.
Day 5: Drive to Lake Manyara National Park. Overnight Kirurumu, E Unoto including cultural visit, walking tour.
Day 6: Return to Arusha for outbound flights.

Others will have more suggestions for you, I'm sure. You could venture into the Serengeti but with 5 -7 nights it'd be a rush unless you did a drive/fly itinerary using internal flights from Arusha to Serengeti or some other combination.

We fly in and out of Kilimanjaro International Airport (outside of Arusha) to Nairobi using Precision Air, then spend the night plus the following day in Nairobi. We fly out of Nairobi to London on an overnight flight, and fly home to Canada from London by way of Air Canada. Others fly by way of Amsterdam.

Lynrak, you have a couple of options. Most people go to northern Tanzania on safari. There are no flights from Jo'burg to Kilimanjaro, the international airport near Arusha. There is, however, a South African Airways flight to Dar es Salaam that arrives in the evening. You'd probably have to stay in Dar overnight, then catch a Precision Air or other carrier's flight to the domestic Arusha airport. You could also go to Nairobi, but would probably have to overnight there, as well, with would require paying the Kenya visa fee. At Arusha, you'd meet your safari outfitter (I use Kibo Guides) and drive to Ngorongoro Crater. You might have time for a half-day stop at Lake Manyara NP along the way. Spend the next day in the Crater and a second night on the Crater's edge at a lodge like the Sopa or Serena. Then, drive to a tented camp in the central Serengeti or Western Corridor, such as Simiyu Camp, which is a seasonal tented camp. There are other lodging options, of course. Spend 3 to 4 nights in the Serengeti, then fly back to Arusha for your flight home. The only major airline flying out of Kilimanjaro is KLM to Amsterdam. This would be about 7 nights.

There is another option, though, and that is southern Tanzania: Selous, Mikumi, and Ruaha NPs. You'd fly to Dar, but would travel directly out of Dar, either driving or flying into the parks. These are much more remote areas, with fewer visitors, but lots of wildlife. You could contact Authentic Tanzania in Dar for a specific itinerary. From Dar, you have several options to fly back to the US via Europe or the Middle East, including KLM, Swiss, British Airways, Emirates, Qatar, and Kenya Airways.

If you want seclusion and remoteness, then Southern Tanzania would be a great option. But from what I've learned about going there (never been but want to go) June might be a bit early for the best wildlife viewing. Later in the season would be better.

June is a good time in the Western Serengeti. I think I'd try a Ngorongoro crater & mobile in the Western Serengeti combo, especially since you mention mobiles. I like Sopa Lodge at the crater but there are other places too. As Calo states, you'd probably need internal flights, making this more expensive than the driving option. But you could see the wildebeest migration in the Serengeti, if that was important to you.

I believe Kilimanjaro is a departure point for KLM, Lufthansa, Kenya Air, and Northwest. These stop in Europe, usually Amsterdam, on the way back to the US. Otherwise you can fly or drive from Arusha to Nairobi or fly from Kilimanjaro to Nairobi and take a variety of carriers back to the US, again going through Europe.

You can check out flights on kayak dot com.

You'd want whatever airline you choose to return home to be compatible with your flight over to South Africa so you can do a round trip and not piece together one-ways.

Sorry, Lynn, but the only airline on your list to actually fly into JRO is KLM. Northwest = codeshare KLM flight. Kenya Airways = codeshare Precision Air flight from Nairobi or Dar. Lufthansa = codeshare Ethiopian Air flight. I don't usually think of Ethiopian Air an option, as most people don't want to fly via Addis Ababa to the US.

Date: 03/10/2008, 04:48 pm
I got home from a trip to Tanzania in December. While I didn't book with either of the companies you are inquiring about, our driver's brother owns
Baeshta safaris tours and we saw them out on safari. They are Tanzanian and locally owned. They had really nice Land Rovers, which are better than Land Cruisers in staying out of mud. We also were in a Rover and passed so many Cruisers stuck in the mud. You can ask for our driver, Amme, or you can book directly through his own company: http://lillacadventures.com/index.html
He was awesome!!! I've been to Tanzania before, and Amme was the best driver and guide I've had. He can help you come up with a perfect itinerary. Tell him Erika from NH says hi! I wish we had booked directly with him. Good luck and have fun!
This was our itineray
1,Tarangire national park and we overnight at Tarangire safari lodge,for 2 days at Tarangire,
3 day we drive to Lake Manyara and we do game drive at manyara and we overnight at Njake tented lodge at the view of lake manyara.
4 day,we drive to Lake Eyasi where we do walking at Bushmens and lake Eyasi afteroon we get back to Karatu where we overnight at Kudu Lodge,
day 5 we do a game drive at crater and we overnight at Serena hotel at Ngorongoro.
Day 6,We drive to Serengeti Western Corridor and we overnight at ikoma Tented lodge,
day 7 we do full game drive at Serengeti and we overnight at Seronera wildlife lodge.
Day 8 after early morning safari we take our flight to Arusha with Coastal air.

Forgive me if I am jumping to conclusions, but the last post looks like an ad. However the general itinerary could be to your liking. While Tarangire is always a beautiful park, my own experience has been that the further into the dry season, the better, especially for elephant and June might be a little early.

I am not an international flight expert but you normally arrive in Dar from JHB in the later afternoon/early evening (unless taking longer and more expensive flights to Nairobi). This means you have to overnight in Dar.

In June Selous/Ruaha/Tarangire are not yet at their best and for first-timers to Tanzania I normally suggest to spend more nights in the Serengeti, etc - especially on short safaris with the incredible migration around or near the Grumeti River.

You have 2 or 3 AM departures from Dar to Kilimanjaro, or Arusha and out to the parks. Once in Arusha you drive to Ngorongoro for perhaps 2 nights and after that out to the West/Central Serengeti for at least 3 nights before flying back to Kilimanjaro (JRO) and home.

There are different combinations of flying/driving but this depend on your budget. Tented camps galore once in the Serengeti.

Flight info is here (somewhat out of date now) but still helpful.
http://www.go-safari.com/safari_Tanzania.htm

Tented Camps with pics are here:
http://www.go-safari.com/Serengeti/serengetilodges.htm