OVERVIEW
Classic Safari: Kenya & Tanzania

“On safari”…it’s one of the most alluring phrases in all of travel. And Kenya and Tanzania count among the most alluring places to be “on safari.” As our small group travels from grasslands to highlands and reserves to national parks, we enjoy intimate game drives, see stupendous landscapes, stay in excellent accommodations, and meet gracious local people.

PRICING
Classic Safari: Kenya & Tanzania

Dates: October 23 – November 7, 2025

Deposit: $500

Land Only (transfers not included): $9,995

From San Francisco (air-inclusive)*: $11,596
($10,795 air, land & safari inclusive plus $801 airline taxes and fees)

Single Supplement: $1,295

*Other cities listed on brochure, which can be downloaded on the overview tab of this trip approximately nine months before departure. Airline prices are subject to change, and airline upgrades will be additional to the costs listed above.

Please note, all prices are for a standard, double room unless listed otherwise.

Your Tour Price Includes:
  • Round-trip air transportation from listed cities; all flights within itinerary
  • 13 nights’ accommodations: 10 nights in Deluxe and Superior First Class hotels and lodges; 3 nights in tented camp
  • 36 meals: 13 breakfasts, 11 lunches, 12 dinners
  • Extensive game viewing as described, including all park entrance fees
  • Water while on safari
  • Services of an Odysseys Unlimited Tour Director
  • Private 4×4 transportation throughout your trip with guaranteed window seating
  • Luggage handling for one bag per person
  • Gratuities for driver/guides, dining room servers, and airport and hotel porters

Book you trip today by filling out the form and emailing it to ietravel@ucsc.edu.

ITINERARY
Travel Dates: October 23 – November 7, 2025

Thursday, October 23, 2025

This evening we depart the US for Nairobi, Kenya.

Friday, October 24, 2025

After arriving in Nairobi, we transfer to our hotel. As arrival times may vary greatly, we have no group
activities or meals planned.

Accommodations: Fairmont The Norfolk

Saturday, October 25, 2025

We see highlights of Kenya’s cosmopolitan capital city today, stopping for a tour of the Karen Blixen Museum, the former home of the Danish writer who, under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen, wrote Out of Africa. We also visit the Giraffe Centre, where we see several of the endangered Rothschild’s giraffes here up close. Tonight we enjoy a welcome dinner at our hotel.

Accommodations: Fairmont The Norfolk

(B,D)

Sunday, October 26, 2025

We transfer this morning to Amboseli National Park in the shadow of snowcapped Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Masai’s “white mountain” and the world’s tallest freestanding mountain at 19,336 feet. Known for its many elephants, Amboseli boasts wide, dry plains also teeming with herds of wildebeest, zebra, impala, and giraffe, as we may see on this afternoon’s game drive.

Accommodations: Amboseli Serena Safari Lodge

(B,L,D)

Monday, October 27, 2025

Early this morning we visit a nearby Masai village. Later: game drive and time for relaxing at our lodge in the foothills of Kilimanjaro beneath a copse of feathered acacia trees.

Accommodations: Amboseli Serena Safari Lodge

(B,L,D)

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

We travel today to peaceful Lake Manyara National Park, one of Tanzania’s smallest and most diverse parks. Bordered by the dramatic Western Escarpment of the Great Rift Valley, Lake Manyara is notable for its abundant birdlife, diverse vegetation, tree-climbing lions, plains animals, and hippos.

Accommodations: Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge

(B,L,D)

Wednesday, October 29, 2025

This morning we enjoy a second game drive at Lake Manyara and then set out for Ngorongoro, a UNESCO Conservation Area, International Biosphere Reserve, and site of Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera. On the crater’s floor is Africa in microcosm: grassland, swampland, lakes, forest, mountains, and unparalleled wildlife.

Accommodations: Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge

(B,L,D)

Thursday, October 30, 2025

On our morning tour of the 100-square-mile crater, we have our only chance to see all of Africa’s “Big Five” – elephant, buffalo, rhino, lion, and leopard – in one place.

Accommodations: Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge

(B,L,D)

Friday, October 31, 2025

We’re bound this morning for the Serengeti, the Masai’s 5,700-square-mile “endless plain” considered Africa’s finest park and one of the world’s last great wildlife refuges. En route, we visit 31-mile Olduvai Gorge, where anthropologist Mary Leakey discovered the 1.8-million-year-old skull of Australopithecus boisei in 1959 and revolutionized the study of human evolution. Reaching our lodge, we embark on an afternoon game drive.

Accommodations: Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge

(B,L,D)

Saturday, November 1, 2025

Twice a year, some two million wildebeest, 200,000 zebra, and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelle migrate to new grazing lands between Masai Mara and the Serengeti, sparking one of nature’s most spectacular sights. But the Serengeti’s vast treeless plains teem with animal life year-round, and this is the best place to see lion and cheetah up close. Perhaps we will on today’s two game drives.

Accommodations: Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge

(B,L,D)

Sunday, November 2, 2025

We leave Tanzania today, crossing into Kenya and continuing on to Masai Mara by air. Kenya’s premier game reserve rich with animal life, the Mara is the traditional homeland of the native Maasai people. Known especially for the annual migration that sees some two million wildebeest, plus hundreds of thousands of other plains game migrate here from the Serengeti (Masai Mara being the continuation of the Serengeti in Kenya), the Mara sits in the Great Rift Valley and comprises 583 square miles of vast plains, acacia forests, grass-covered hills, and slow-flowing rivers. We arrive at our tented camp late this morning then have our first game drive here later this afternoon.

Accommodations: Sarova Mara Game Camp

(B,L,D)

Monday, November 3, 2025

We spend today “on safari,” venturing out on early morning and late afternoon game drives during prime viewing hours

Accommodations: Sarova Mara Game Camp

(B,L,D)

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

We are again “on safari,” with morning and afternoon game drives in this reserve that is just slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island.

Accommodations: Sarova Mara Game Camp

(B,L,D)

Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Today we reenter the urban world as we fly from the Mara back to Nairobi. Tonight we toast our safari adventure at a farewell dinner

Accommodations: Fairmont The Norfolk

(B,L,D)

Thursday, November 6, 2025

After a morning at leisure, we transfer to the Nairobi airport and board our connecting flight to the U.S.

(B)

Friday, November 7, 2025

We reach the U.S. today and connect with our flights home.

ACCOMMODATIONS
Accommodations

Fairmont The Norfolk, Nairobi, Kenya / Day 2-3 / Deluxe

One of Nairobi’s most popular hotels, the 125-room Fairmont The Norfolk has been a center of city life since its founding in 1904. The Tudor-style hotel with a traditional safari atmosphere sits in private tropical gardens a short distance from the city center.

Hotel amenities include an award-winning restaurant, coffee and tea lounge, bar, gift shop, fitness center, spa, sauna, steam room, heated outdoor pool, complimentary Wi-Fi internet access, and laundry and dry-cleaning services (for a fee). Air-conditioned guest rooms have private bath with hair dryer, tea- and coffee-making facilities, minibar, in-room safe, TV, and phone. Mosquito nets are available upon request.

Amboseli Serena Safari Lodge, Amboseli, Kenya / Day 4-5 / Superior First Class

Set against the backdrop of stunning Mt. Kilimanjaro in the midst of Amboseli’s rolling grasslands and savannahs, Amboseli Serena Safari Lodge offers a classic safari experience. The 92-room lodge, built with eco-friendly materials, blends with the natural environment and reflects traditional Maasai motifs, colors, and textures.

Amenities and activities include dining area, outdoor pool (fed by the waters of ice melt from Kilimanjaro), natural timber game viewing decks, watering holes for the animals, jogging trails, nature walks, bird watching, cultural talks, massage and spa services, library, gift shop, complimentary Wi-Fi internet access, and laundry service (for a fee). Guest rooms, outfitted in traditional Maasai style featuring beadwork, gourds, and hand-painted murals, have private bath with shower, hair dryer, in-room safe, ceiling fan, mosquito nets, and offer uninterrupted views of the game-filled plains.

Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge, Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania / Day 6 / Superior First Class

This 54-room lodge high above the waters of Lake Manyara reflects the stellar birdlife that abounds here, with an architectural motif of swooping avian curves and the traditional concentric patterns of traditional Maasai boma (encampments).

Lodge facilities and amenities include an outdoor pool, massage and beauty services, gift shop, library with books on Africa, complimentary Wi-Fi internet access, board games, and laundry service (for a fee). Guest rooms have private bath with hair dryer, in-room safe, private verandas with lake views, mosquito nets, and phone.

Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge, Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania / Day 7-8 / Superior First Class

Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge is perched on the rim of Ngorongoro Crater itself and offers endless and unparalleled views from its clustered boulder-built buildings. Ethnic Maasai handcrafts – bright-beaded robes, intricate carvings, iron spears – decorate the lodge, and sensitivity to the environment marks all aspects of development here.

The lodge offers a dining room and bar; traditional music, culture, and dance; guided walks; massage and beauty treatments; complimentary Wi-Fi internet access; laundry service (for a fee); and a gift shop and boutique. Guest rooms have private bath with hair dryer, in-room safe, private balcony, and phone.

Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania / Day 9-10 / Superior First Class

Situated high on a tree-clad ridge with panoramic views over the vast Serengeti, the Serengeti Serena Safari Lodge fuses traditional African architecture with contemporary amenities. Circular rondavel dwellings with thatched roofs and the winding paths of a traditional Maasai village mark the lodge that sits amidst groves of indigenous trees surrounded by streams and ponds.

Amenities include an outdoor pool; two-tiered dining room dominated by a central barbecue area; traditional music and dance; massage and spa treatments; laundry service (for a fee); complimentary Wi-Fi internet access; and safari boutique and gift shop. Guest rooms, in individual rondavel huts, feature private bath with hair dryer, in-room safe, wildwood balconies, intricately carved furniture, mosquito nets, and phone.

Sarova Mara Game Camp, Maasai Mara Game Reserve, Kenya  / Day 11-13 / Superior First Class

Located within Kenya’s richest game reserve, Masai Mara, the Sarova Mara Game Camp features 73 well-outfitted tents for a comfortable bush experience in keeping with the natural surroundings. The camp sits atop a slight elevation flanked by two streams, offering outstanding views of the Mara’s vast plains.

Camp amenities include an indoor/outdoor restaurant, bar with fireplace; complimentary Wi-Fi internet access (in public areas); outdoor pool massage and spa services; and laundry service (for a fee). Guests can enjoy such activities as game drives, bird watching, nature walks, traditional Maasai entertainment and cultural lectures, and optional game-viewing balloon rides (at additional cost of $450 per person (subject to change); cash or credit cards are accepted). Private tent accommodations all have en-suite bath with shower, permanent roofs, zip-up fronts, mosquito nets, and electricity.

Fairmont The Norfolk, Nairobi, Kenya / Day 14 / Deluxe

One of Nairobi’s most popular hotels, the 125-room Fairmont The Norfolk has been a center of city life since its founding in 1904. The Tudor-style hotel with a traditional safari atmosphere sits in private tropical gardens a short distance from the city center.

Hotel amenities include an award-winning restaurant, coffee and tea lounge, bar, gift shop, fitness center, spa, sauna, steam room, heated outdoor pool, complimentary Wi-Fi internet access, and laundry and dry-cleaning services (for a fee). Air-conditioned guest rooms have private bath with hair dryer, tea- and coffee-making facilities, minibar, in-room safe, TV, and phone. Mosquito nets are available upon request.

POST-EXTENSION
Post-Extension – Mount Kenya

Encounter more wildlife during a stay at the Mount Kenya Safari Club, which houses the conservancy founded by actor William Holden.

Price: $1,395

Single Supplement:$595

Post-Tour Extension Price Includes:
  • 2 nights accommodations: 2 nights at Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club (Deluxe); day room in Nairobi at Four Points by Sheraton Nairobi Airport (First Class)
  • 6 meals: 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 2 dinners
  • Extensive sightseeing, including animal orphanage at Mt. Kenya Wildlife Conservancy; game drive; and Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary
  • Services of an Odysseys Unlimited representative
  • Private transportation
  • Transfer to Nairobi airport
  • Gratuities for dining room servers, airport and hotel porters, and driver/guide

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