Skip to main content

Places of Africa Safaris

A pool at sunset
Serengeti & Zanzibar · Ten Days

Ten days, for two

The crater at first light, three nights in one small Serengeti camp with a vehicle to yourselves, and four on a beach where the tide sets the timetable — flown between, so no day is spent on a road.
10
Days
9
Nights
2
Flights
4
Properties
Overview
Day by day
Rates
Included
Add-ons
Parks
Best time
Flights
Other costs
Why us
Questions
Your trip
Related
I · Overview

The route, and why this shape

Two parks and an island, flown between. Four properties in nine nights.
A honeymoon safari fails in one of two ways: too many single-night stops, so the fortnight is spent packing, or a long road day in the middle that puts two tired people in a vehicle for seven hours. This route removes both. There are four properties in nine nights and the two longest legs are flown, so the only real drive is the morning from Arusha to the crater rim.
The shape is simple. A night on a coffee estate to lose the flight. A night on the Ngorongoro rim so that you are on the crater floor at dawn, before the traffic. Then a light aircraft into the Serengeti and three nights at one small camp with a vehicle and guide to yourselves — which means the day runs to your clock, and a balloon or a bush dinner can be fitted without moving anything else. Then a second flight to Zanzibar and four nights on one quiet beach.
One thing we do that costs nothing and matters: we write to every property before you arrive and tell them it is a honeymoon. Camps are generous to honeymooners when somebody asks. What they do with that — a better tent, dinner set apart, something on the bed — is theirs to give, and we will not put it on an invoice or promise it on their behalf. We ask, and we tell you we have asked.
Length
10 days / 9 nights
Country
Tanzania
Start / end
Arusha → Zanzibar
Tour type
Private, for two
Group size
Two guests — a couple. friends or family can join in a second room
Meal plan
Full board on safari; half board on Zanzibar
Best months
June – September, and January – February
Activity level
Easy — vehicle, aircraft and beach
Vehicle
Toyota Land Cruiser 4×4 with a pop-up roof, a window seat for every guest, charging points and a cool box
II · The days

Day by day, all ten

Every day opens. A night on the rim, three at one Serengeti camp, four on one beach. See every lodge and camp we use
Day
01
A Maasai homestead
Arrival

Arusha, and a night among the coffee

03°22′S 36°41′E
Dinner
A Maasai homestead
Arusha, and a night among the coffee
03°22′S 36°41′E
You land at Kilimanjaro International, most likely in the evening, because that is when the long-haul routings arrive. Your guide is at the door with your names on a board. The drive west to Arusha is fifty kilometres and about an hour, through coffee shambas and the lower slopes of Mount Meru, and you will not see much of it in the dark.
Tonight is a coffee estate outside town rather than a hotel in it. The estates sit on the volcanic slopes at around 1,400 metres, and the difference from a city hotel is the quiet: you wake to birds and the smell of the drying beds rather than traffic on the Nairobi road. If your flight lands early enough there is a walk through the coffee before dinner; if it does not, there is dinner.
Nothing else is planned. This is the first night of a honeymoon and the last of a twenty-hour journey, and the itinerary is built so that the safari starts tomorrow, rested, rather than tonight. Repack into soft bags — the light aircraft on day 3 has a weight limit and a hold that does not take hard cases.
Meals
Dinner
Travel
JRO to Arusha · 50 km · about 1 hour
Highlight
Nothing scheduled, on purpose
Meet at Kilimanjaro International
Coffee estate, 1,400 m
No game drive today
Where you sleep
Moivaro Lodge: Cottage bedroom with canopy bed and warm lighting
COMFORT

Moivaro Lodge

★★★★☆
Arusha, coffee estate on the Meru slopes
Garden cottages among the coffee, a short drive from town, quiet enough to sleep off the flight.
Legendary Lodge: Bedroom with wooden four-poster bed and white sheer curtains, hardwood floors
LUXURY

Legendary Lodge

★★★★★
Arusha, coffee estate on the Meru slopes
A larger cottage with a private veranda and fireplace, and dinner served to you rather than in a dining room.
Wildebeest in the Ngorongoro Crater
West to the Ngorongoro rim
03°14′S 35°29′E
You leave after a proper breakfast and drive west on tarmac. The road drops onto the floor of the Rift Valley, passes Lake Manyara on the left, and then climbs the Rift wall in a series of bends to Karatu at 1,900 metres — highlands farming country, and noticeably cooler. There is a viewpoint at the top of the escarpment where everyone stops, and it is worth stopping.
From Karatu the road enters the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and climbs again, through forest, to the rim. The crater appears all at once: a caldera nineteen kilometres across with walls six hundred metres high and its own weather, often with cloud pouring over the western wall while the floor stays clear. You reach it by early afternoon with the light still good.
You sleep on the rim tonight rather than in Karatu, and that is the point of the day. It puts you at the descent road at dawn instead of an hour behind the vehicles that stayed below. The rim is at 2,300 metres and cold after dark — properly cold, with fires lit in the rooms. Bring the warm layer out of the bag before dinner, not after.
Meals
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
Travel
Arusha to the rim · about 180 km · 3½ to 4 hours
Highlight
First sight of the crater from 2,300 metres
Rift escarpment viewpoint
Crater rim overnight
Cold at 2,300 m
Where you sleep
Pakulala Safari Camp: Tent interior with two queen beds, patterned throws and bedside lanterns
COMFORT

Pakulala Safari Camp

★★★★☆
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, crater rim
On the rim, so the morning descent is minutes rather than an hour. Fires in the evening; a fleece is not optional.
Entamanu Ngorongoro: Main lounge: guests by the fireplace
LUXURY

Entamanu Ngorongoro

★★★★★
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, crater rim
Rim-facing suites with the crater floor below the window, a fire in the room, and dinner for two set apart if you ask.
A black rhino with buffalo on green grass
The crater at first light, then the flight in
03°10′S 35°35′E
You are on the descent road as it opens, in the dark, with breakfast in a box. The crater floor holds cloud until mid-morning and the first hour after it lifts is the best game viewing of the day. By ten there will be a great many vehicles down there with you; at half past six there are a handful, and the light is low across the Lerai forest.
The floor is 260 square kilometres and the animals largely do not leave, which is why the density is what it is. This is the most reliable place in Tanzania to see black rhino — a few dozen animals, usually at a distance, so bring the binoculars. Lion here are habituated to a degree that is almost uncomfortable, and the old elephant bulls on the floor carry some of the heaviest ivory left in East Africa.
You are up the ascent road by late morning and driving back down to the Lake Manyara airstrip on the Rift floor. The flight to the Serengeti is about an hour, low, with the crater highlands and then the short-grass plains under the wing. Your camp’s vehicle meets the aircraft and the drive to camp is a game drive whether anyone calls it one or not. Three nights here, one camp, no packing.
Meals
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
Travel
600 m descent · rim to Manyara airstrip about 1½ hours · flight about 1 hour
Highlight
Black rhino on the floor before the vehicles arrive
Dawn descent
Black rhino
Light aircraft to the Serengeti
Where you sleep
Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge: Tent interior with mosquito-net canopy bed under a thatched roof
COMFORT

Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge

★★★★☆
Central Serengeti, Seronera valley
A small tented camp — around ten tents — with en-suite canvas bathrooms and the plains at the door. Three nights here.
Lemala Ewanjan Tented Camp: Camp exterior: guest tents with verandas under acacia trees, lantern in foreground
LUXURY

Lemala Ewanjan Tented Camp

★★★★★
Central Serengeti, Seronera valley
Fewer tents still, a private vehicle and guide for the three days, and a tent set at the quiet end of the line.
A leopard in a tree
A full day with the Seronera prides
02°26′S 34°49′E
The vehicle is yours, which changes the shape of a day more than people expect. Out at six with coffee, or out at eight after breakfast; back for lunch and a sleep in the heat, or a full day with a picnic under a kopje. Nobody else’s plan is in the vehicle with you.
The Seronera river holds water all year and the fig and sausage trees along it are the most dependable leopard habitat in Tanzania. The granite kopjes standing out of the grass are lion furniture — shade, a lookout, and safe ground for cubs — and the resident prides here are the reason the central Serengeti works in any month. Cheetah hunt the open ground south of the river in the early morning before the heat.
Where the migration is on this day depends on your dates. In June and early July the herds are usually moving through the west and centre; from January to March they are on the southern plains an hour or two south of here. In August and September they are in the far north, a long day’s drive away, and we will say so before you book rather than after. The cats do not move with them.
Meals
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
Travel
Full day in the park · private vehicle
Highlight
Leopard in the riverine fig, and the day runs to your clock
Leopard country
Kopje prides
No transfer today
Where you sleep
Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge: Restaurant under a high thatched roof with set tables
COMFORT

Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge

★★★★☆
Central Serengeti, Seronera valley
Second of three nights. The value of staying put is the early morning: you are already inside the park when the cats move.
Lemala Ewanjan Tented Camp: Guest tent with furnished wooden deck lit up at night under a starry sky
LUXURY

Lemala Ewanjan Tented Camp

★★★★★
Central Serengeti, Seronera valley
Second night. Breakfast can be taken in the field, and the return to camp is whenever you decide it is.
A balloon above the migrating herds
Dawn from the air, dinner under the sky
02°26′S 34°49′E
If you have added the balloon, this is the morning. You leave camp in the dark for the launch site, lift off at first light, and spend about an hour drifting over the plains at tree height with the shadows still long. It lands to a breakfast set out in the grass. It is a serious expense and it is weather-dependent — the pilot decides on the morning, and a cancelled flight is refunded, not rescheduled, because there is no spare morning.
If you are not flying, the alternative is the quiet one: a long drive out towards the Moru kopjes, where there is a resident black rhino population, Maasai rock paintings on the granite, and far fewer vehicles than along the river. Your guide will have his own idea of where yesterday’s leopard went, and he is usually right.
The evening is a bush dinner: a table set away from camp, a fire, lanterns, and the Serengeti sky, which has no light pollution at all. We ask every camp for this in advance for honeymoon couples. Whether it happens on this exact night depends on the camp and the weather, and what the camp adds to it — a private table, something on the bed, a bottle — is the camp’s gesture and at the camp’s discretion. We ask; we do not promise on their behalf.
Meals
Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
Travel
Full day in the park · private vehicle
Highlight
An optional balloon, and a bush dinner away from camp
Balloon optional
Moru kopjes
Bush dinner
Where you sleep
Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge: Infinity pool overlooking the Serengeti plains at sunset
COMFORT

Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge

★★★★☆
Central Serengeti, Seronera valley
Third and last night. A late return from the bush dinner, and an unhurried morning tomorrow before the airstrip.
Lemala Ewanjan Tented Camp: Guest tent interior: bed, desk and open front looking onto the plains
LUXURY

Lemala Ewanjan Tented Camp

★★★★★
Central Serengeti, Seronera valley
Third night. The private vehicle means the last drive can run right to the aircraft rather than back to camp first.
Dhows moored off a white-sand beach on Zanzibar
Serengeti to the Indian Ocean
05°52′S 39°21′E
A last drive on the way to the airstrip, which in practice is the best drive of the three days — early, cold, and everything still out. Then the aircraft. Flights from the Serengeti to Zanzibar normally route through Arusha with a stop on the ground, and the whole thing takes three to four hours door to door. It is a long morning of sitting, and it saves two days on the road.
Zanzibar is at sea level, hot and humid, and the change from the highlands at 1,500 metres is immediate when the aircraft door opens. You are met and driven to the coast. The east and north-east coasts are about an hour from the airport; Stone Town is twenty minutes, and you can see it on the way out on day 10 rather than now.
Four nights on one stretch of beach, and nothing scheduled for the rest of today. The Indian Ocean on the east coast has a large tide — at low water the reef flat is exposed for a kilometre and the swimming is off a boat or in the pool; at high water it is off the sand. Ask for the tide table at check-in. It runs the next four days more than the clock does.
Meals
Breakfast · Dinner
Travel
Flight Seronera to Zanzibar, usually via Arusha · 3 to 4 hours with the stop
Highlight
From the plains to the sea before the afternoon is out
Morning game drive
Two flights
Sea level by mid-afternoon
Where you sleep
Pongwe Beach Hotel: View from the suites
COMFORT

Pongwe Beach Hotel

★★★★☆
Zanzibar, quiet east coast
A small beachfront hotel on a stretch with no strip of bars — a handful of rooms, a pool for the low tide, four nights.
Baraza Resort & Spa Zanzibar, Tanzania
LUXURY

Baraza Resort & Spa Zanzibar

★★★★★
Zanzibar, quiet east or north-east coast
A private villa with its own pool and a section of beach, meals where and when you want them, and a butler rather than a desk.
A dhow on the Indian Ocean at low tide
A day that belongs to the tide
05°52′S 39°21′E
The first full day on the coast is the one where you do nothing, and we mean it. Five days of six o’clock starts end here. Breakfast comes when you appear for it. The beach on the east coast faces the sunrise, so the light is best early and the shade is best after lunch.
If you want something, the reef is it. Zanzibar’s east coast sits behind a fringing reef a kilometre or so offshore, and at high water a boat runs you out to snorkel over coral in a few metres of clear water — parrotfish, angelfish, the occasional turtle. The Mnemba atoll off the north-east corner is the best of it and is reached by boat from the beach; it is a marine conservation area with a fee per person, which the hotel collects.
In the afternoon the tide goes out and the women of the village walk onto the reef flat to tend the seaweed lines, which are the coast’s other economy. It is worth walking out with the water at your ankles, in reef shoes — the flat is sharp — to see how far the sea goes. Dinner is on the sand if the hotel does that, and most on this coast do.
Meals
Breakfast · Dinner
Travel
No transfer
Highlight
The reef at high water, and nothing else
Snorkelling at high water
Reef walk at low water
Sunrise coast
Where you sleep
Pongwe Beach Hotel: Sea View Suite
COMFORT

Pongwe Beach Hotel

★★★★☆
Zanzibar, quiet east coast
Second of four nights. The point of four is that the second day is the one you finally stop looking at the clock.
Baraza Resort & Spa Zanzibar, Tanzania
LUXURY

Baraza Resort & Spa Zanzibar

★★★★★
Zanzibar, quiet east or north-east coast
Second night. A private boat for the snorkelling rather than the hotel’s shared run, on request.
Dhows moored off a white-sand beach on Zanzibar
Spice farm, or the sea — and a dhow at sunset
06°03′S 39°18′E
A half day inland is the one excursion worth the drive. Zanzibar grew rich on cloves, and the spice farms in the centre of the island still grow clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, cardamom and black pepper on the same ground. A guide walks you through and hands you things to crush and smell; it takes two hours and it is the best explanation of why the island exists that you will get. Or stay on the beach. Both are correct.
The evening is the one we would add. A dhow — the lateen-rigged wooden boat that has crossed this ocean for a thousand years — taken out for two hours before sunset, with the sail up, the engine off, and nobody else aboard but the crew. On the west coast the sun sets into the sea; on the east it sets behind the island, and the sea goes pink instead. Either works.
The dhow is an add-on rather than included because it is a private charter and priced as one, and because some couples would rather have the evening on the sand. It is weather-dependent and the skipper’s call on the day; in the June to September south-easterly the east coast can be too lively, and we will tell you which coast your hotel is on before you decide.
Meals
Breakfast · Dinner
Travel
Optional half-day inland · about 45 minutes each way
Highlight
A private dhow into the evening
Spice farm optional
Private dhow at sunset
Clove country
Where you sleep
Sea-view pool at Pongwe Beach Hotel
COMFORT

Pongwe Beach Hotel

★★★★☆
Zanzibar, quiet east coast
Third night. Back from the dhow at dark, dinner late, and no reason at all to be up early.
Baraza Resort & Spa Zanzibar, Tanzania
LUXURY

Baraza Resort & Spa Zanzibar

★★★★★
Zanzibar, quiet east or north-east coast
Third night. The dhow can leave from the villa’s own beach where the reef allows it.
A dhow on the Indian Ocean at low tide
The last full day
05°52′S 39°21′E
The last full day is kept empty on purpose, because the itineraries that fill it — Stone Town and a spice farm and a dolphin boat in one day — end a honeymoon with a schedule. If there is something from the week you wanted to do again, this is the day it fits: a second boat to the reef, or a walk up the beach to the village and the fishing boats coming in at midday.
One honest note on the dolphin trips sold along the south coast at Kizimkazi. They exist and they see dolphins; they also put several boats around one pod and drop swimmers on top of it, and we do not arrange them. If you want to be in the water with something, the reef is better and kinder.
Tonight is the last night on the coast. The hotel knows this is a honeymoon — we will have written to them, as we write to every property on this route — and most do something with the last dinner. What that is, and whether it is anything, is theirs to decide. Our part is to ask early and to tell you plainly that we have asked, not to sell you a gesture that belongs to somebody else.
Meals
Breakfast · Dinner
Travel
No transfer
Highlight
Kept empty, deliberately
No schedule
Reef or beach
Last night on the coast
Where you sleep
Pongwe Beach Hotel: Beachfront Room
COMFORT

Pongwe Beach Hotel

★★★★☆
Zanzibar, quiet east coast
Fourth and last night. Settle the bar bill this evening rather than in the morning; the airport run is timed to the flight.
Baraza Resort & Spa Zanzibar, Tanzania
LUXURY

Baraza Resort & Spa Zanzibar

★★★★★
Zanzibar, quiet east or north-east coast
Fourth night. A late checkout on day 10 where the flight time allows it, which the villa can usually manage.
A lane in Stone Town
Stone Town, then the flight home
06°10′S 39°11′E
The drive back across the island to the airport takes about an hour from the east coast. If your flight is in the afternoon or evening there is time for Stone Town on the way, and you should take it: the old stone quarter is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a knot of nineteenth-century Omani and Indian merchant houses with carved doors, a few streets deep and completely walkable in ninety minutes.
The Old Fort, the former slave market under the Anglican cathedral, and the seafront at Forodhani are the three things to see if you have only an hour. The slave market is not a comfortable visit and should not be; the island’s wealth was built on it and the town does not pretend otherwise.
Zanzibar’s airport has direct international flights on some days and connections through Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Doha and Addis on the others; the routing depends on your home airport and we will set it out when we quote. A morning flight means the coast at dawn and the airport straight after, with Stone Town left for another visit.
Meals
Breakfast
Travel
Coast to Zanzibar airport · about 1 hour · via Stone Town if time allows
Highlight
An hour in the old town on the way to the aircraft
Stone Town, if time allows
Airport transfer
Ends in Zanzibar
Where you sleep
Departure day — no overnight
III · Rates

What it costs, by group size

Priced for two. The vehicle and guide are yours alone, so the per-person rate does not fall the way a shared safari’s does.
Luxury rates by group size, per person and group total
Group sizeRoomsPer personGroup total
2 guests1 room — the itinerary as written$6,310$12,620
4 guests2 rooms — two couples, one vehicle$5,750$23,000
6 guests3 rooms — <span class=”it-todo”>second vehicle, to confirm</span>$5,570$33,420
Priced for two
Two sharing
The rate assumes a couple sharing; a single traveller is quoted separately
Peak season uplift
Included in the rates above
July – September, and the festive weeks
Zanzibar villa upgrade
On request
Tier II on the coast is a private villa; the difference is quoted per night
All figures in US dollars, per person sharing unless stated. Valid for travel until 30 June 2027. Park fees, guiding, vehicle, accommodation and full board are included — see what is and is not covered below.
IV · Included

What is in the price, and what is not

Stated in full, both ways — including what belongs to the camps and not to us.

What is included

  • A private 4×4 with a roof hatch and your own guide on the Serengeti days
  • Light-aircraft flights: Lake Manyara airstrip to the Serengeti, and Serengeti to Zanzibar — scheduled flights, 15 kg per person in soft bags
  • All accommodation as listed — full board on safari, half board on Zanzibar
  • All national park, conservation area and crater service fees
  • Airport transfers at Kilimanjaro International and Zanzibar
  • The bush dinner in the Serengeti, weather permitting
  • A letter to every property before you arrive, saying it is your honeymoon
  • Drinking water in the vehicle throughout
  • A licensed, English-speaking professional guide, trained in wilderness first aid
  • Round-the-clock support from our Arusha office, and a first-aid kit in every vehicle

What is not

  • International flights to Tanzania and home from Zanzibar
  • Tanzania visa — USD 50, or USD 100 for United States passports
  • Travel insurance, which we ask every guest to hold
  • Balloon flight over the Serengeti
  • The private dhow evening on Zanzibar
  • Lunches on Zanzibar, and drinks at the lodges beyond what is listed
  • Mnemba marine conservation fee, if you snorkel there
  • Tips for your guide, camp and hotel staff
  • Anything a property chooses to give you — that is theirs, not ours
  • Personal spending and souvenirs
V · Add-ons

Worth adding, if you have the days

Priced separately and arranged on request. The balloon and the dhow are the two most couples add.
A balloon above the migrating herds
Day 5 · at dawn

Balloon over the Serengeti

An hour over the plains at first light from a launch site near Seronera, landing to a breakfast in the grass. Weather-dependent, decided by the pilot on the morning, and booked months ahead in the high season. Minimum age <span class=”it-todo”>7, to confirm</span> — not a concern here, but stated for completeness.
USD 750 per person
Dhows moored off a white-sand beach on Zanzibar
Day 8 · Zanzibar

A private dhow at sunset

A wooden dhow chartered for the two of you and its crew, two hours before sunset with the sail up and the engine off. Which coast, and whether the sea allows it, is decided on the day.
USD 100 per person, for 2 guests
A Maasai homestead
Before day 1

A second night on the coffee estate

If your flight lands late, a second night in Arusha means the drive to the crater starts on a full night’s sleep. It also protects the trip if a bag is a day behind you.
USD 980 per person, for 2 guests
A lane in Stone Town
After day 9

A night in Stone Town

Swap the airport dash for a night in the old town — a hotel in a merchant house, the night market at Forodhani, and the airport twenty minutes away in the morning.
USD 130 per person, for 2 guests
VI · The ground, and the sea

Where this itinerary takes you

The crater, the central Serengeti, and the Zanzibar coast — north to east, by air.
Wildebeest in the Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater

The largest intact volcanic caldera in the world, nineteen kilometres across, with around 25,000 large animals on 260 square kilometres of floor. The most reliable black rhino in Tanzania, and at its best in the first hour after the descent road opens.
Dawn over the Serengeti

Serengeti National Park

14,750 square kilometres of plain, kopje and riverine forest. The Seronera valley at its centre holds water all year and carries resident lion, leopard and cheetah in every month — which is why three nights here work whether or not the migration is near.
Dhows moored off a white-sand beach on Zanzibar

Zanzibar

An island of clove farms and coral-rag coast ninety minutes’ flying from the Serengeti. The east coast sits behind a fringing reef with a tide that empties and refills the lagoon twice a day, and Stone Town on the west side is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The question every couple asks

What will the camps do for a honeymoon?

4
Properties, each written to before you arrive
It is the question couples ask most, and the honest answer is: usually something, and we cannot tell you what. A camp that knows a honeymoon is arriving will often give the best-placed tent, set dinner apart from the other guests, or leave something on the bed. These are gestures and they belong to the camp. They are not on our invoice and we will not describe them as if they were.
What we do is write to every property — the estate, the rim lodge, the Serengeti camp and the beach hotel — well before you arrive, say plainly that it is a honeymoon, and ask for the bush dinner and the quiet tent by name. In our experience camps are generous when somebody asks and silent when nobody does. So we ask. If a property tells us in advance what it will do, we will pass it on; if it does not, we will not guess for it.
VII · Season

The best time to travel

Including the months we will tell you to avoid.
June to September is the long dry season in the north and the coolest, driest months on the coast, with the south-east monsoon blowing steadily. Grass is low in the Serengeti and the cats are easy to see; the crater is at its clearest; Zanzibar is warm rather than hot. It is also the busiest window and the highest rates, and in August and September the migration is in the far north, a long day from Seronera. This route does not chase it and we say so.
January and February are the second window and, for a honeymoon, arguably the better one. The southern plains are calving, an hour or two south of camp, so the herds are within reach of the private vehicle. The coast is hot and still between the monsoons, which is the best of the year for swimming and the reef. Fewer vehicles than July, and the camps are quieter.
March, April and May are the long rains on both the mainland and the island, and we will tell you plainly that this route is not worth doing then. Serengeti camps and many Zanzibar hotels close for part of it, the coast is wet and grey, and the light aircraft schedules thin out. If these are the only weeks you have, we would rather build you something different.
October and December work, with caveats. October is the end of the dry and very good in the Serengeti, with the coast warming up. December is festive-season pricing everywhere and books early. November brings the short rains — brief afternoon storms rather than washouts — and the rates drop; it is an honest, quiet month if you do not mind a shower at four o’clock.
VIII · Flights

Getting there and back

Into Kilimanjaro, out of Zanzibar. Two light aircraft in between, with a 15 kg soft-bag limit.
Fly into Kilimanjaro International (JRO), which is an hour from the coffee estate. Most European routings connect through Doha, Istanbul, Amsterdam or Addis Ababa and land in the evening, which is why day 1 has nothing in it.
Inside Tanzania the route uses two light-aircraft legs: Lake Manyara airstrip to the Serengeti on day 3, about an hour, and Seronera to Zanzibar on day 6, usually via Arusha with a stop and three to four hours in all. These are scheduled flights on small aircraft with a baggage limit of around 15 kilograms per person in soft bags — pack for that, not for the international allowance.
Coming home, the itinerary ends at Zanzibar (ZNZ) on day 10, so book an open-jaw ticket: into Kilimanjaro, out of Zanzibar. Most airlines that serve one serve the other and the fare is rarely more than a return. Zanzibar has some direct international departures and connections through Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Doha and Addis on the rest.
Tanzania requires a visa for most passports — USD 50, or USD 100 for United States citizens, valid up to 90 days and covering Zanzibar. Apply online in advance rather than on arrival.
IX · Other costs

What else you will spend

Visas, insurance, tips, drinks and Zanzibar lunches — set out so there is no surprise on the ground.
Tanzania issues a tourist visa online (eVisa) or on arrival at Kilimanjaro. Applying in advance is faster and avoids the queue at immigration after an evening landing. One visa covers the mainland and Zanzibar; there is no second visa on the island.
A yellow fever certificate is required only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is endemic. Coming directly from Europe or North America, it is not.
  • USD 50 for most nationalities
  • USD 100 for United States citizens, multiple entry
  • Valid up to 90 days, mainland and Zanzibar
  • Passport must have six months' validity and two blank pages
We ask every guest to travel insured. Medical cover and evacuation are the parts that matter — the nearest hospital to the Serengeti is a flight away, not a drive.
Check that the policy covers light-aircraft travel, snorkelling and any add-on you have booked. Balloon flights are excluded by some insurers, and a few exclude boat charters.
Tipping is customary in Tanzania and it is genuinely optional. The figures below are what guests commonly give, not what is expected of you. On Zanzibar the custom is lighter than on safari; a shared box at the hotel is usual.
Guide tips are usually handled on the last Serengeti morning before the airstrip; camp staff tips go into a shared box so that housekeeping and kitchen are included, not only the people you see.
  • Guide: USD 20 – 30 per day, per group
  • Camp and hotel staff, shared box: USD 10 – 15 per guest per day
Drinking water in the vehicle is included throughout. On safari the camps are full board; whether the bar is included depends on the camp and we will say which. On Zanzibar the plan is half board, so lunches are yours — USD 10 – 25 a head at the hotel, less in the village.
  • Soft drinks: USD 3 – 5
  • Local beer: USD 4 – 6
  • Wine and spirits: USD 7 – 20
  • Lunch on Zanzibar: USD 10 – 25
Souvenirs, laundry, the spice-farm guide, the Mnemba fee if you snorkel there. Cash in small US dollar notes is more useful than a card once you leave Arusha — the Serengeti camp may have no connection at all. Zanzibar takes cards more readily, and Tanzanian shillings are useful for small things in the village.
Notes dated before 2009 are refused across Tanzania. Bring newer ones.
X · Why us

Why book this with us

01

Four properties, not seven

Nine nights could be sold as seven stops. We sell it as four, with three nights in one Serengeti camp and four on one beach, because the second day in a place is the first one you stop packing.
02

The vehicle is yours

On the Serengeti days the guide and the 4×4 are for the two of you. Out at six or out at nine, back for lunch or out all day — the shape of each day is decided at breakfast, by you.
03

We write to every property

Before you arrive, each camp and hotel hears from us that this is a honeymoon. What they do with that is theirs. Our part is to ask early, ask specifically, and tell you honestly that we have asked.
04

We will tell you which months not to come

March to May the camps close and the coast is grey, and we would rather move your dates or lose the booking than take money for a honeymoon we know will disappoint.
XI · Questions

Frequently asked

What couples ask before booking this itinerary.
The rate is for two sharing and moves with the season and the tier you choose. Our rates for this itinerary are set out in the table above — ask us with your dates and we will quote for them exactly rather than give you a range. The two internal flights and the private vehicle are the largest lines after park fees.
Usually something; we cannot tell you what. We write to every property before you arrive and say it is a honeymoon, and camps are generous when somebody asks — a better tent, dinner set apart, something on the bed. These are the camp’s gestures, given at the camp’s discretion, and we will not list them as if we were providing them. See also our honeymoon collection.
No. It is an add-on, priced at USD 750 per person, and we keep it out of the base rate because it is a serious expense and about half of couples choose not to. It is weather-dependent and decided by the pilot on the morning; a cancelled flight is refunded.
It depends on your month, and the route does not chase it. January and February put the calving herds an hour or two south of camp. June and early July they are often passing through the centre. August and September they are in the far north, a long day away. What is reliable at Seronera in every month is the resident lion, leopard and cheetah, and that is what the three nights are for.
Because the drive from the crater to Seronera is five to six hours on a rough road, and on a honeymoon that is a day lost. The flight from Lake Manyara airstrip is about an hour and lands you in the park with the afternoon intact. The same logic applies to Zanzibar, where the drive is not a realistic option at all.
For a quiet honeymoon, the east or north-east. The east coast faces the sunrise and sits behind a reef with a large tide, so swimming is from the pool or a boat at low water. The north-west around Nungwi has less tide and a livelier village, and the sunset over the sea. We place you on a stretch with no strip of bars; tell us if you want the opposite.
Around 15 kilograms per person in soft bags, and no hard cases. Exact allowance is confirmed with the carrier. If your international luggage is heavier, the surplus can be left in Arusha and forwarded to Zanzibar, which we arrange.
Yes — this is a private itinerary and the route is a starting point. A fourth Serengeti night, a night in Stone Town, or a second night on the coffee estate all fit without moving the rest. Doing the beach first and the safari second is possible but we advise against it: the safari is the effort and the beach is the rest, and the order matters.
Yellow fever is required only if you are arriving from a country where it is endemic — not from Europe or North America. Speak to a travel clinic six weeks before you fly. Malaria prophylaxis is normally advised for northern Tanzania and for Zanzibar.
XII · Your trip

Request your personalised safari proposal

Tell us how you like to travel and we will put together a personalised proposal for this route — dates, camps and a firm price per person. No payment is required at this stage.

WhatsApp+255 785 558 736Emailinfo@placesofafricasafaris.comReply timeWithin one working day

No payment is required at this stage. We reply by email and WhatsApp within one working day.

XIII · Related

Other journeys like this one

Four more that share this one’s parks, or its kind of travel.
Dhows moored off a white-sand beach on Zanzibar
Pemba Island

Bush & Beach: the Quiet Coast

11 nights · Arusha → Pemba
View itinerary
Dhows moored off a white-sand beach on Zanzibar
Most Requested

Bush & Beach: Serengeti to Zanzibar

10 nights · Arusha → Zanzibar
View itinerary
Elephants crossing the Great Ruaha River
Sixteen Nights

The Grand Tanzania

16 nights · Arusha → Zanzibar
View itinerary
Chairs on a safari tent veranda
Your Guide Only

Private Guided: Serengeti Wilderness

9 nights · Arusha → Arusha
View itinerary

Ten days, for two

10
Days
9
Nights
2
Flights
4
Properties
Starts
Arusha, Tanzania
Ends
Zanzibar, Tanzania
Departures
Daily — a private safari on the dates you choose
Availability
Open all year, subject to lodge space
From
from$5,570/pp
Per person, sharing
Print this itinerary
Jump to the days
Customise
Enquire
Private safari for two · no booking fee · we reply within one working day
from $5,570 / person
Customise
Enquire
Loading itinerary…
Saved Trips