Help with Tanzania itinerary
 

My husband and I are planning a trip to Kenya and Tanzania for July 2007 and were hoping for some feedback on our itinerary.

June 10: Arrive in Nairobi, stay at Holiday Inn (1 night)
June 11-12-13: Fly to Mara, stay at Bateleur Camp at Kichwa Tembo (3 nights)
June 14-15: Fly to Manyara, stay at Lake Manyara Tree Lodge(2 nights)
June 16-17: Drive to Ngorongoro Crater, stay at Ngorongoro Crater Lodge (2 nights)
June 18-19-20: Fly to Grumeti, stay at Grumeti River Camp (3 nights)
June 21: Fly home

We wanted to get a good range of stops across Kenya and Tanzania. However, we wanted to avoid significant travel time every 1-2 days, so we have opted for a fly-in trip and more time spent at each camp.

Any input would be appreciated - I want to make sure that we are not missing any essential stops in either Kenya or Tanzania.

Thank you for your help!!

You have top notch accommodations. I would not pay Crater Lodge prices with the other lovely alternatives available. That's just me. But it should be a very impressive 2-night stay in a beautiful lodge in a beautiful setting with every amenity.

This is minor because your trip spans only 11 days, but if you could flip the order of the countries, you'd be aligning your itinerary more favorably with traditional migration patterns. Perhaps availability does not all that. If your trip is in July (your 1st sentence) rather than June, I think the importance of flipping increases so you get the most of the Grumeti area.

I think you'll have a marvelous time.

We stayed at Bataleur (3 nights), Tree Lodge (2) and Crater Lodge (2) last September. At Bataleur do your best not to get the tent next to the lodge. It's noisy at night from the guests in the dining room. (It was the only one left when we got there...)

Your stay at Manyara will be short since it takes most of the day to get to the Manyara airstrip and then it's a two hour game drive to the lodge. We had to leave fairly early the morning of departure since they pick up people from the morning flight and then turn you over to the Crater people at the airstrip. We loved Manyara and would have really liked an extra day there.

At the Crater insist that you want to take breakfast and lunch to the Crater. You want to be there as early as possible. We didn't go down the day we arrived since it would have been for a very short time and it's a long way down. We just enjoyed the over- the- top lodge the first afternoon.

We didn't stay at Grumeti but stayed at Tanzania Under Canvas which was wonderful. It's a CCAfrica mobile tented camp which follows the migration: luxury camping with wonderful food. You really feel you're in Africa.

Have a great trip!

canadagirl2
your accomodation in tanzania is really upmarket you should have a great time

Thank you very much for all your help! Will keep you updated on how the trip goes...

The best advice is to book your accomodations ASAP. They will be full very shortly, if not already.

Last June I went to the all the Tanzanian lodges in your list with the addtion of Kleins.

For myself two nights at Manyara was enough - lots of birds, elephants and for us leopards! (5 in 24 hours). Make sure on your full day there you take the all day game drive rather than two shorter ones. there is a single road from the the lodge to the centre of the park which you would waste too much time travelling on.

When I trevelled from Manyara to the Crater I arrived about one o'clock. I would strongly advise going dwon around two o'clock and coming back before six. I went down and contrary to what I expected (hoards of vehicles), we didn't pass another vehicle down there...if fact I only saw two others in the distance. If you want to expereince the crater empty...go down in the afternoon!

If you are at Grumeti and the migration is still in Seronera area they will take you on an all day trip.

I also stopped at Kleins...the grasswas long which made spotting difficult but we did see the zebra migration. I'd seen the wildebeeste migration at Grumeti but thousands of zebra all in the same location was an equally impressive sight.