Patty

I haven't been to Nakuru so can't comment on whether 1 or 2 nights is best, but if you decide to visit Sweetwaters, you can stay here:

http://www.lonrhohotels.com/sweetwat...roduction.html

sandi

GGAfrica - If flying JRO/NBO, the drive to Nakuru is easy, but you have to determine which flights. There are a number of flights from JRO to NBO. You have to get an early flight from JRO to NBO to make the day/drive to Nakuru worth it. If leaving by road from Tarangire, it's not likely you can make an early flight. Remember that it gets dark by 6:30pm (not much daylight in East Africa) and you have to be off National Park/Reserves by 6pm.

Nakuru doesn't need more than 1-nt, then continue onto Sweetwaters for 1-nt. Sweetwaters is Sweetwaters and the only place to stay - it's not a place, rather a camp.

I would suggest your coordinate with your tour operator based on air schedules to determine if you have sufficient time to stop at these two places before arriving at Samburu.

GGAfrica

Another quick question:

I understand that Treetops in Tarangire is quite a drive from the Park....is this a good choice, or do you have a better suggestion?

sandi

Yes, Treetops (formerly Maji Moto Camp) is at the far end of Lake Manyara. You have to drive thru the entire park to get to the camp. Beautiful, but..............

climbhighsleeplow

Yes, Treetops is about 20km outside the east side of Tarangire which can take 45 minutes or longer when the road is not in good shape. It is a game drive however (no villages, etc) so it's not bad considering the uniqueness of the tree houses! It's great to sleep in a baobab tree!

If time is important then the Safari Lodge is closest to the entrance and the River Camp is not too far away.

After that, the Sopa and Maweninga (both inside) are next in terms of distance followed by Kikoti (outside), then Oliver's and finally Swala (both inside the park).

sandi

GGAfrica -

My mistake, you asked about Treetops versus Tree Lodge... two different animals. The first at Tarangire, the latter at Lake Manyara. I answered for Lake Manyara. Wish these people could more creative with names so as not to confuse minds like mine... stale at the end of the day.

GGAfrica

Thanks again for all the great suggestions. I have a revised itinerary that I think is looking pretty good, and a couple of questions:

Safari from Raylenne Tours & Safaris

Day 1.Arusha.
Arrive Kili and transfer to Impala hotel for overnight.

Day 2.Ngorongoro Crater
depart for ngorongoro and overnight at Sopa lodge
*when I asked about full day tours vs half day this was their replygt; As for now we still have full day at the crater when staying for two nights, though there was that provision of half day.All in all since you will be there for only a night you only have half day crater tour.*

Day 3.Tarangire Treetops
Day 4.Tarangire Treetops

Day 5.By road to Arusha and transfer to Kilimanjaro for flight to Nairobi-proceed by road to Lake Nakuru overnight at Lion hill lodge
*their comment:The flight depart Kili at 1345 hours arriving Nairobi at 1435 hours from
where you will proceed to Nakuru.In this case you will have two nights at
Nakuru so you can enjoy it the following full day.*

Day 6. Lake Nakuru.
Full day in lake nakuru overnight at Lion hill lodge.

Day 7 .Sweet Tented Camp.
Optional night game drive.

Day 8.Samburu Intrepid-overnight at Intrepids.

Day 9.Samburu
Full day in Samburu overnight at Samburu intrepids.

Day 10 Masai Mara.
Fly to masai mara -overnight at Mara Serena lodge

Day 11.Masai mara-Mara Serena

Day 12.-Transfer to Rekoro tented camp

Day 13.Rekoro tented camp

Day 14 Nairobi-
Fly back to Nairobi -day room at Norfolk hotel -transfer to the airport for your flight out.


Still need to clarify a few things:

>do we have a choice of flight times from JRO to NBO before the drive to Lake Nakuru? When we arrive at Lake N, in the above itinerary, is it too late to do a drive?

>since I am mainly interested in seeing flamingos at Lake N, should we stay there just one night, and add a night to Ngorongoro Crater?

Sandi, Lynn, climbhighsleeplow, everyone...
I would like to spell out everything that I want to include (like the night safari at Sweetwaters-oh boy!) for a final pricing from Raylennes.....can you help me with suggestions at the camps we will be visiting?? Any and all comments about everything and anything will be greatly appreciated.

I think I am almost there!!!!!

vacationbennett

I was told by my outfitter that the Tanzanian government plans to limit drives into Ngorongoro Crater to half-days after July 1st - the key word here being "plans".

climbhighsleeplow

Hi GG

I am more of a Lake Nakuru fan than Ngorongoro. You can see rhinos, leopards and flamingoes in abundance and the sunsets are spectacular. The Lion Hill Lodge is also very nice.

At Ngorongoro you mostly see the rhinos from very far away and leopard is hit and miss even in the Mara although you should see some in Tarangire.

You will do 2 drives in Ngorongoro anyway, one late afternoon and one in the next morning.

The leopards in Nakuru are huge and feisty - some have been brought in from other areas were they were outlawed!

Personally, I'd rather spend 2 nights at Nakuru - especially if you're interested in rhino and leopard which are hard to find elsewhere!

Don't know what else to add! Your itinerary is very good. I don't think you can fly to Wilson any earlier than the flight you have.

atravelynn

GGAfrica,

It is almost a completed masterpiece.

I think there is a morning flight into Nairobi from Kilimanjaro, but then you might have trouble getting to the airport in time to make it.

If you spend two nights at Nakuru, you should be fine. I would never limit to one day/night a stay at a place that was to be a highlight. If flamingos are a biggie for you, then I think you should allot two nights to try to see them, plus some of the wonders described by climbhighsleeplow.

Looks good.

sandi

The morning flight is at 7:30am, so you won't have time if driving from Tarangire. Otherwise, it's the 1:45pm flight. And since you'll be driving to Nakuru and arriving near or at dark, it only makes sense to stay the next day here.

It's looking good.

sandi

Sorry, having slept on it... the flight is at 8:30am - 1hr. to NBO. Still you're not likely to make this early flight,if driving from Tarangire.

GGAfrica

Whew!!! Have come up with a final (?) safari.....please let me know what you think.....any places to 'tweak' (Sandi ), save time or money, or whatever, all suggestions welcomed.

Day 1.JRO/Arusha-Impala Hotel, B&B basis
Arrive Kili and transfer to Arusha

Day 2. Arusha/Ngorongoro Crater-Sopa Lodge
After breakfast, drive to Ngorongoro Crater for lunch and afternoon crater tour

Day 3. Ngorongoro/Tarangire-Treetops
Morning crater tour or rim walk, then depart with lunch stop at Gibbs Farm, arrive for dinner at Tarangire

Day 4.Tarangire-Treetops
After breakfast depart with lunch boxes for a full day game drive at Tarangire National  Park, return for dinner

Day 5. Tarangire /Lake Nakuru-Lion Hill Lodge
After breakfast, driveto Arusha, transfer to Kilimanjaro for flight to Nairobi. Drive to Lake Nakuru for dinner

Day 6. Lake Nakuru-Lion Hill Lodge
Morning and afternoon game drives

Day 7. Lake N/Sweetwaters-SweetwatersTented Camp
After breakfast, drive to Sweetwaters for lunch and visit Jane Goodall Chimpanzee Sanctuary; night game drive.

Day 8 Sweetwaters/Samburu-Intrepid
Morning game drive, after breakfast, drive to Samburu for lunch and afternoon game drive

Day 9.Samburu-Intrepid
Full day in Samburu , visit Elephant Watch and/or morning and evening game drives

Day 10 Samburu/Maasai Mara-Mara Serena lodge
After breakfast, fly to Maasai Mara , drive to Mara Serena for lunch, afternoon game drive and dinner

Day 11Maasai Mara-Mara Serena
game drives and/or visit tribes

Day 12 Maasai Mara-Rekoro Tented Camp
after breakfast, drive to Rekoro Tented Camp for lunch and afternoon game drive

Day 13 Maasai Mara-Rekoro Tented Camp
game drives.....full day or half day?

Day 14 Maasai Mara/Nairobi-day room at Norfolk Hotel (or Nairobi Safari Club, which do you think?)
Fly to Nairobi -transfer to the airport for flight out

Well, there you have it!!! I would appreciate suggestion/critiques and anything else you have to say about it. Are we trying to do tooooooo much? Will the drives/transfers work out?

Might like to add some cultural visits....any suggestions? Where would we do this?

We do not wish to go to the Carnivore, any suggestions for meals in Nairobi for our last day??

As soon as I hear from you, I will submit the final product and repost.

Thanks, again, for all your wonderful help!

sandi

GGAfrica - Go ahead and submit this itinerary to whichever outfitters you've selected and see how the pricing comes in and what space is available. The itinerary is doable. One you have information, details such as cultural tours and eating can be refined. Remember: September is high season, so I wouldn't wait much longer.

atravelynn

You earlier mentioned Nakuru flamingos were important to you. I’d share that with your agent. Day 7 may allow for another look at the lake and flamingos before you go.

Re flamingos: I’ve seen some on in Ngorongoro Crater also.

Day 13 I would do either a full day or two half-day game drives. Whether you take your lunch and are gone the whole day or whether you come back for lunch/brunch and then go again on another drive is often decided the night before. But I wouldn’t lock in only a half day activity.

You are not trying to do too much. This is a good itinerary that does not rush about.

Cultural visits with Samburu or Masai can occur once you are in camp, sometimes between game drive activities.

Nairobi hotel—Though I’ve not stayed at it, I have visited and eaten at The Norfolk several times, which I would describe as a classic elegant landmark, with good food. So that would be a suggestion for meals on the last day. Never been in Nairobi Safari Club. But they are similar distances from the airport.

To save just a little money on the last day, you could stay at the Boulevard Hotel for a day room, just a few hundred yards from The Norfolk.

Nairobi activities—National Museum and snake park, Karen Blixen Museum, Giraffe Center where you can feed giraffes from a platform, Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage.

It's going to be a fabulous trip.

GGAfrica

Greetings!! Many thanks for all the help....as I am a bit 'anal' about the details when I make travel plans, I had to ask for help again! I am just about ready to book our safari, but my husband was a bit alarmed when I told him that the pricing has come in between $4500 and $5500 for the 14 day land portion (if you recall, he is a bit lukewarm about the trip to begin with!)

Any suggestions for places to shave a little $$?? I might be willing to compromise on some of the accomodation, if I must! Any ideas about changes to the itinerary are stlll viable, since it isn't booked yet. I could really use some assistance from all of you who have been there before.

One more question....if, for KA flight schedule, we need to extend one day, would it be best to stay in Nairobi or Arusha for a rest day, or should we do it at the end in Nairobi? We are coming in from LAX-London-NBO and it could be pretty exhausting! If Arusha, still at the Impala, or is there another low cost suggestion??

Many thanks!

PS Here is my safari, so you don't have to scroll up and find it:


Day 1.NBO-JRO/Arusha-Impala Hotel, B&B basis

Day 2. Arusha/Ngorongoro Crater-Sopa Lodge
After breakfast, drive to Ngorongoro Crater for lunch and afternoon crater tour

Day 3. Ngorongoro/Tarangire-Treetops
Morning crater tour or rim walk, then depart with lunch stop at Gibbs Farm, arrive for dinner at Tarangire

Day 4.Tarangire-Treetops
After breakfast depart with lunch boxes for a full day game drive, return for dinner

Day 5. Tarangire /Lake Nakuru-Lion Hill Lodge
After breakfast, drive to Arusha, transfer to Kilimanjaro for flight to Nairobi. Drive to Lake Nakuru for dinner

Day 6. Lake Nakuru-Lion Hill Lodge
Morning and afternoon game drives

Day 7. Lake N/Sweetwaters-SweetwatersTented Camp
After breakfast, drive to Sweetwaters for lunch and visit Jane Goodall Chimpanzee Sanctuary; night game drive.

Day 8 Sweetwaters/Samburu-Intrepid
Morning game drive, after breakfast, drive to Samburu for lunch and afternoon game drive

Day 9.Samburu-Intrepid
Full day in Samburu , visit Elephant Watch and/or morning and evening game drives

Day 10 Samburu/Maasai Mara-Mara Serena lodge
After breakfast, fly to Maasai Mara , drive to Mara Serena for lunch, afternoon game drive and dinner

Day 11 Maasai Mara-Mara Serena
game drives and/or visit tribes

Day 12 Maasai Mara-Rekoro Tented Camp
after breakfast, drive to Rekoro Tented Camp for lunch and afternoon game drive

Day 13 Maasai Mara-Rekoro Tented Camp
game drives

Day 14 Maasai Mara/Nairobi-day room at Norfolk Hotel

Fly to Nairobi -transfer to the airport for flight out

Patty

Flights do add to your costs - the Samburu-Mara flight is about $225pp and the Mara-Wilson flight is about $110pp. I think the JRO-NBO flight is in the neighborhood of $150pp. But since you wish to keep road travel to a minimum, I'm not sure how you could get around this unless you chose different parks which are located closer together.

Rekero is pricey so you may want to ask for quotes with other options to see what the difference is. I think Treetops isn't inexpensive either but I recently heard from someone who stayed there and highly recommended it.

<One more question....if, for KA flight schedule, we need to extend one day, would it be best to stay in Nairobi or Arusha for a rest day, or should we do it at the end in Nairobi?>

I'm a little confused about this question. I don't see where you would have to add an extra night either coming or going.

If you're coming from LAX (I thought you were originating from London and missed the part about LAX earlier) and plan to fly straight through, i.e. no overnight in LHR, then your only option on KQ or BA are the evening red eye flights that get into NBO early the following morning. I don't think any LAX flights get into LHR early enough for you to catch the day time KQ or BA flights that arrive NBO at night which would necessitate an overnight. You can certainly add an extra overnight if you want to for resting up, but that's entirely up to you and you probably know better than we do how well you deal with lengthy flights, jet lag, etc.

Same goes for the return. There are two flights each on KQ and BA departing from NBO. You have a choice between the evening red eye which would allow you to return from the Mara and depart for LHR the same day or the morning flight which would probably require overnighting in NBO. Keep in mind that neither the KQ nor BA day time flight operates daily, only the red eye does. So again no need to add an extra night unless you want to see more of the sights around Nairobi.

An alternative you could consider would be arranging your London stopover at the beginning of your trip instead of the end. That would allow you to get partially adjusted to the time zone which I think is 3 hours difference from UK vs 11 from US west coast.

GGAfrica

Patty-Thank you for all the good advice. The flights do seem important, but maybe we could rethink one....maybe!

Sorry about the inflight confusion; we are hoping to use ff miles LAX-LHR, and then KQ to NBO, and then the reverse, but on 9/20, the day to return to LHR, I was told that KQ is fully booked. They do have seats open on 9/21, hence the extra day. We both feel that a few days in London would be nice at the end of the safari, so I think the extra Africa day would be best spent after the inflight in NBO or Arusha.

Any suggestions for alternate stays in Tarangire? In the Mara, upon recommendation that we split our 4 day stay, we choose Rekoro because, from what I read here, it is somewhat close to Mara Serena for transfer on the last two days, but I am open to other accomodations.

Thanks, again!! Anyone else with suggestions????

sandi

GGAfrica -

Patty is right on with the flight prices, so there isn't any cutting here; unless you want to drive and that cuts into your gameviewing times and is hard on the body.

Bear in mind that you are traveling in September which is high season, prices are at peak (except for Christmas/New Years) so there's not much you can do as most of your accommodations are in the mid-range. That is, except the Norfolk, TreeTops and Rekoro which are probably higher then the lodges. Those are the only three where you might want to consider alternatives and save a few dollars, but it might not be all that much.

Like Patty, I didn't understand your comment re the KenyaAir flight necessitating an extra day? Returning from the Mara gets you into NBO about 12:15-12:30pm and you have the rest of the day till your evening homebound flight... if that's when you're departing. Clarify.

As to travel from the States (LAX) via LHR to JRO, since Arusha is you're first stop... do you already have your flight tickets? Same question regarding your return... are these firmed up? While I travel from JFK, saving 5-6 hrs in either direction, I still prefer to keep moving and getting where I'm going and worrying about jetlag or whatever once at my destination. On only one trip to Africa did we ever do a layover - in Amsterdam - outbound to NBO one of our Tanzania safaris. Figured we'd take 2-days of art and history beforehand. On our return, which was from the Seychelles, it was close to 40-hours door-to-door, and I had a dinner to attend that same evening upon my return. Surprisingly, I was fine until 2-days later, when I hit "the wall." In the end, it has to be up to you.

csuss

Hi Sandi - these last few posts on this thread have been interesting to me since we are also going to be flying from LAX and hoping to use AA FF miles for at least one ticket (buy and use miles to upgrade for the 2nd). Trust me - those 5 or 6 hours that make up the difference between flying from LA or NY are big cause you also have the additional 3 hour time difference, but if you can get on a direct flight from LAX to LHR and go to sleep right away, you actuallly get a full nights sleep (unlike going from NYC where the flight is too short).

Do you know if you can fly from Amsterdam or London directly to Arusha or do you have to go through Nairobi anyway?
I am assuming KQ in Kenyan Airlines?

Thanks