Northern Circuit & Pemba · Twelve Days

Bush & Beach: the Quiet Coast

The crater and six nights in the Serengeti, then five on Pemba — the same ocean as Zanzibar with a fraction of the people, and the better diving of the two by some distance.

Days

Nights

Nights on Pemba

Full

Board

I · Overview

The route, and why this shape

Two parks, six nights, then a flight east to the island most people fly past.

This is the bush-and-beach trip for people who have looked at Zanzibar’s east coast and decided against it. Pemba is fifty kilometres north of Unguja and gets a small fraction of its visitors: no beach strip, no hotel clusters, a coastline of mangrove and cliff broken by beaches that are usually empty. What it has instead is the Pemba Channel, eight hundred metres deep, and the wall diving that depth makes possible.

The safari half is deliberately short on parks. Eleven nights could carry four; this route takes two and spends the days in them instead of on the road between. A night on the crater rim buys a dawn descent, two nights at Seronera buy the resident cats, and two more in the north or west of the Serengeti — chosen by the month — put you where the migration is likely to be. Tarangire and Manyara are left out, and we say so.

The honest trade is on the island. Pemba has less to do than Zanzibar: no Stone Town, few restaurants outside the lodges, and a sea that is windy on the exposed side from June to August. If you want a beach with life around it, book Unguja. If you want five nights where the loudest thing is the reef, this is the one.

Length

12 days / 11 nights

Country

Tanzania, including Zanzibar

Start / end

Arusha → Pemba

Tour type

Private safari and beach, luxury tier

Group size

Private — 1 to 6 guests per vehicle

Meal plan

Full board on safari and on Pemba; bed and breakfast in Arusha

Best months

June – October; the island is at its best August – October

Activity level

Easy on safari; diving requires certification

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 twelve

Every day opens. One night on the rim, two at Seronera, two on the river, five on Pemba. See every lodge and camp we use

Day

Arrival

Kilimanjaro, and a night in Arusha

03°22′S 36°41′E

Dinner

Kilimanjaro, and a night in Arusha

03°22′S 36°41′E

You land at Kilimanjaro International, fifty kilometres east of Arusha and about an hour by road. Your guide meets you at the door and does the talking on the way in, through coffee shambas and the lower slopes of Mount Meru, because after a long-haul flight you will not want to.

Arusha sits at 1,400 metres and the first evening feels longer than it is. So nothing happens tonight. Eat early, repack into a soft bag for the vehicle — hard cases do not fit under the bench seats — and sleep. On a twelve-day trip the temptation to start immediately is weaker than on a short one, and it is still worth resisting.

If you want to, your guide will run through the next six days over dinner: the road to the crater, the flight out of the Serengeti, and the connections east to Pemba. Two pieces of admin are worth doing now rather than on the road: agree the tipping arrangement, and change money for it.

Meals

Dinner

Travel

JRO to Arusha · 50 km · about 1 hr

Highlight

Nothing scheduled, on purpose

Meet at Kilimanjaro International

Arusha, 1,400 m

No game drive today

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Kahawa House

★★★★☆

Arusha, garden lodge on the edge of town

Quiet grounds, a proper bed, and an early dinner. Close enough to the road west that tomorrow starts without a crossing of the city.

LUXURY

Legendary Lodge

★★★★★

Arusha, coffee-estate lodge

Rooms set among working coffee, with the mountain behind the house on a clear morning. The better first night if your flight lands late.

Day

Transfer

West to the Ngorongoro rim

03°14′S 35°30′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

West to the Ngorongoro rim

03°14′S 35°30′E

Out of Arusha after breakfast and west on tarmac across Maasai grazing country to the Rift wall. The road climbs in switchbacks past Lake Manyara, which you will see below you on the left rather than visit — on this trip the days are spent where the Serengeti and the crater are, and Manyara is the honest casualty of that.

Karatu is highlands farming country at 1,900 metres, and beyond it the road enters the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and keeps climbing through montane forest to the rim at about 2,300 metres. It is properly cold up here after dark, and people are consistently caught out by it. Bring a fleece out of your bag before you arrive.

The first sight of the caldera from the rim viewpoint is the one moment on the northern circuit that consistently outperforms the photographs: a bowl nineteen kilometres across, with its own weather, often with cloud pouring over the western wall while the floor stays clear. You sleep on the rim rather than down in Karatu, which puts you at the descent road at dawn tomorrow rather than an hour behind it.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Arusha to the Ngorongoro rim · about 190 km, 3½–4 hours

Highlight

The first sight of the crater from the top

Rift escarpment climb

Rim at 2,300 m

Cold at night

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Pakulala Safari Camp

★★★★☆

Ngorongoro Conservation Area, crater rim

On the rim itself, so the descent road is minutes away in the morning. Fires lit in the evening; the night air needs them.

LUXURY

Entamanu Ngorongoro

★★★★★

Ngorongoro Conservation Area, crater rim

Rim-facing rooms with the floor of the crater below the window, and a butler who brings the tea before the alarm.

Day

Ngorongoro

Down into the crater, then on to the plains

03°10′S 35°35′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Down into the crater, then on to the plains

03°10′S 35°35′E

You leave in the dark. The descent road opens at six and the first hour after the cloud lifts is the best game viewing of the day, before the floor fills with vehicles. The road drops six hundred metres in a few kilometres onto a caldera floor of 260 square kilometres, and because the walls are steep the animals largely stay. That is why the density is what it is.

It is the most reliable place in Tanzania to see black rhino — a few dozen animals, usually distant, so bring the binoculars and manage the expectation. Lion here are habituated to a degree that is almost uncomfortable; buffalo, hyena, and old elephant bulls with the heaviest ivory left in East Africa. Vehicles are limited to six hours on the floor, so this is a half day by regulation.

Up the western ascent road around midday, lunch, and then the road west across the short-grass plains — treeless, volcanic, and between December and March the calving ground for the whole migration, though not in the months this trip is built for. Olduvai Gorge is on the way if you want the stop. You enter the Serengeti at Naabi Hill, and the last two hours to Seronera are a game drive whether or not anyone calls them one.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

600 m descent · half day on the floor · then about 3–4 hours on to Seronera

Highlight

Black rhino on the Lerai flats before the vehicles arrive

Black rhino

Six-hour limit on the floor

Naabi Hill gate

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge

★★★★☆

Central Serengeti, Seronera valley

Tented and en-suite, inside the park, so the morning drives start from the tent rather than from a gate.

LUXURY

Lemala Ewanjan Tented Camp

★★★★★

Central Serengeti, Seronera valley

Fewer tents, further from the main tracks, and a private vehicle for the whole stay so the day runs to your clock.

Day

Serengeti

A full day in the Seronera valley

02°26′S 34°49′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

A full day in the Seronera valley

02°26′S 34°49′E

One full day, no transfer, no packing. The Seronera river holds water all year, and the fig and sausage trees along it are the most dependable leopard habitat in Tanzania. Leopard are still not a promise; if it happens it will be because your guide stopped for no reason you could see and waited.

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 Seronera has the highest year-round predator density in the ecosystem. Cheetah hunt the open ground south and east of the river in the early morning, before the heat.

Balloon flights leave from near here at first light and can be added. The alternative use of the morning is to push further out than most vehicles go, towards the Moru kopjes, where there is a small resident black rhino population and rock paintings older than the park. Either way you are back in the vehicle at four for the last two hours of light, which are the best of the day.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Full day in the park

Highlight

Leopard in the sausage trees, lion on the kopjes

Leopard country

Kopje prides

No transfer today

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge

★★★★☆

Central Serengeti, Seronera valley

Second night. Being inside the park is what makes the dawn drive worth getting up for.

LUXURY

Lemala Ewanjan Tented Camp

★★★★★

Central Serengeti, Seronera valley

Second night, with breakfast taken in the field if you choose the early start.

Day

Transfer

North or west, wherever the herds are

01°35′S 34°53′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

North or west, wherever the herds are

01°35′S 34°53′E

This is the day the itinerary bends to the calendar. From July to October the migration is in the northern Serengeti, on the Mara River around Kogatende, and that is where you go — north from Seronera through the Lobo hills, a long morning of driving that is a game drive for most of its length. In June the herds are usually still in the Western Corridor along the Grumeti, and the same day runs west instead.

We decide which at booking, not on the day, because the camps are different and they fill. What we will not do is promise a crossing. The herds cross the Mara when they choose, sometimes several times a day and sometimes not for a week, and anyone who guarantees you one on a given date is selling something they do not control.

What the north has regardless is space. The Lamai wedge and the Mara riverbanks carry a fraction of Seronera’s vehicle traffic, the resident game is strong, and the river holds the largest crocodile in the ecosystem. You arrive with the afternoon intact and a drive along the river before dark.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Game drives north or west, up to 3–4 hours between areas · game drive en route

Highlight

Positioned for the migration, by the month you travel

Northern Serengeti, Jul–Oct

Western Corridor, Jun

Crossings cannot be booked

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Gnu Mara River Camp

★★★★☆

Northern Serengeti, near the Mara River (or Grumeti, Western Corridor, in June)

A seasonal or permanent tented camp close to the river, chosen for its distance from the crossing points rather than its bar.

LUXURY

Sayari Camp

★★★★★

Northern Serengeti, Lamai or Kogatende (or the Grumeti in June)

Small, expensive and worth it here more than anywhere on the route: the difference between watching the river from camp and driving an hour to reach it.

Day

Serengeti

A full day on the river

01°35′S 34°53′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

A full day on the river

01°35′S 34°53′E

A full day with no transfer, and the last game day of the trip. Between July and October the routine is simple: out early, drive the river, and when the herds bunch on a bank, park at a respectful distance and wait. Sometimes for ten minutes, sometimes for three hours, sometimes for nothing. The waiting is the safari. Bring a book and do not let your guide feel pressured to chase.

In June, on the Grumeti, the day looks different — long grass, riverine forest, colobus monkeys in the trees, and the herds strung out across the corridor rather than pressed against a riverbank. It is a quieter spectacle and an emptier one; the Western Corridor has the fewest vehicles of any part of the park the migration passes through.

Wherever you are, the resident game — lion, elephant, giraffe, topi, eland — does not depend on the herds and will be there. In the evening pack for the coast. Tomorrow starts with an airstrip, and the safari clothes go to the bottom of the bag.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Full day in the park

Highlight

Waiting at the crossing points, which is most of the job

Full day, no transfer

Mara or Grumeti

Last night in the bush

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Gnu Mara River Camp

★★★★☆

Northern Serengeti, near the Mara River (or Grumeti, Western Corridor, in June)

Second night at the same camp — no packing until the evening.

LUXURY

Sayari Camp

★★★★★

Northern Serengeti, Lamai or Kogatende (or the Grumeti in June)

Second night. Ask for a dinner out under the trees; most camps here will do it if the weather allows.

Day

Flight

Serengeti to Pemba, by three aircraft

05°15′S 39°49′E

Breakfast · Dinner

Serengeti to Pemba, by three aircraft

05°15′S 39°49′E

A short drive to the airstrip, then a light aircraft south over the plains to Arusha — about an hour and a half from the north, less from the west — and the plains from above are the last thing the safari gives you. From Arusha the coast is a second flight of roughly an hour to Zanzibar, and a third of about thirty minutes north across the channel to Pemba.

It is a long travel day and we will not dress it up. The connections are timed so that you land on Pemba in the afternoon, but light-aircraft schedules move with demand and the routing is confirmed when we book the seats. Some days there is a direct leg from Arusha; some days there is a wait in the Zanzibar terminal. Bring something to read.

Pemba is fifty kilometres north of Unguja and a different island in every sense: hillier, greener, wetter, with clove trees where Unguja has hotels, and a coastline of mangrove and cliff rather than continuous beach. Karume airport is near Chake Chake, in the middle of the island, and the lodges are forty minutes to an hour in either direction. You arrive as the light goes, and the sea is the first thing you hear in the morning.

Meals

Breakfast · Dinner

Travel

Seronera – Arusha – Zanzibar – Pemba by scheduled light aircraft · about 4–5 hours with connections · via Arusha and Zanzibar

Highlight

From the Mara River to the Pemba Channel in one day

Three flights

Karume airport (PMA)

First night on the island

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Afro Divers Lodge

★★★★☆

Pemba, north-west coast

Small, on the water, with its own dive centre. The north-west coast has the best access to the channel walls.

LUXURY

The Manta Resort

★★★★★

Pemba, north-west coast, private bay

A handful of villas on a beach with nobody else on it, and a dive boat that leaves when you are ready rather than at nine.

Day

Pemba

The walls of the Pemba Channel

05°05′S 39°38′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

The walls of the Pemba Channel

05°05′S 39°38′E

The Pemba Channel separates the island from the mainland, and it is deep — over eight hundred metres in the middle — where the water around Unguja is shallow shelf. That depth is the whole reason the diving is what it is: the reef edge on the western side drops away as a wall, the water is clear because there is nothing to stir up, and the current brings pelagic fish in from open ocean.

The sites off the north-west coast — the Njao and Fundu gaps, the walls off Misali — are the ones that put Pemba on the map. Expect hard-coral gardens on the top of the reef, gorgonian fans on the wall, big schools of barracuda and trevally, and turtles most days. Reef sharks, Napoleon wrasse and occasionally larger visitors are seen, not promised.

The current is the trade-off. Wall dives here are drift dives, and the dive centres will want to see certification and recent experience before they take you deep. If you are not a diver the snorkelling on top of the reef is exceptional in its own right, and the boat goes to the same places. Two dives in the morning, then the afternoon is yours.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Dive boat · 20–45 min to the sites

Highlight

Drop-offs that fall hundreds of metres from the reef edge

Wall diving

Drift, current, depth

Snorkellers welcome

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Afro Divers Lodge

★★★★☆

Pemba, north-west coast

Second night. Dive centre on site, equipment hire, and a reef in front of the beach for the afternoons.

LUXURY

The Manta Resort

★★★★★

Pemba, north-west coast, private bay

Second night. Private boat, private dive guide, and the sites chosen for the day’s current rather than the rota.

Day

Pemba

Ngezi forest, and the beach at the top of the island

04°55′S 39°42′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Ngezi forest, and the beach at the top of the island

04°55′S 39°42′E

A morning off the water. Ngezi Forest Reserve occupies the northern tip of the island, a remnant of the forest that once covered all of Pemba before the cloves. It is small — roughly fourteen square kilometres — and it holds things that live nowhere else: the Pemba flying fox, a fruit bat with a wingspan close to a metre and a half, roosting in the canopy in colonies you can hear before you see, and the Pemba scops owl, green pigeon and sunbird that birders come here for.

A guided walk on the forest trails takes two to three hours. It is hot and close under the canopy and the trails are rough, so this is the day for closed shoes. The reserve is staffed and the entry fee is modest; your guide handles it.

The road out of the forest ends at Vumawimbi, a long curve of white sand on the north-east coast with a coconut fringe and, on most days, no one on it at all. The Indian Ocean here is open, so it can be windy in the south-east monsoon, and the beach is the reason to come rather than the swimming. Lunch is carried; you are back at the lodge for the last of the light on the west side.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

Road to Ngezi · under 1 hr from the north-west lodges

Highlight

Pemba flying foxes, and a beach with nobody on it

Ngezi Forest Reserve

Endemic flying fox

Vumawimbi beach

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Afro Divers Lodge

★★★★☆

Pemba, north-west coast

Third night. The lodge arranges the forest guide and the picnic; ask the night before.

LUXURY

The Manta Resort

★★★★★

Pemba, north-west coast, private bay

Third night. A private vehicle to Ngezi and back, and a massage booked for the late afternoon if you want one.

Day

Pemba

Mangroves by dhow, and Misali island

05°14′S 39°36′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Mangroves by dhow, and Misali island

05°14′S 39°36′E

Pemba’s coast is not one beach but a fretwork of creeks, tidal channels and mangrove forest, and the way to see it is from the water at the right state of tide. A morning in a wooden dhow through the channels — kingfishers, herons, fish eagles, and the mangroves’ arched roots standing in clear water — is the quietest thing you will do on the trip.

Misali is a small uninhabited island about ten kilometres off the west coast, inside a marine conservation area that the local fishing communities manage. The beach on the eastern side is where green turtles nest; the reef on the western side starts a few metres from the sand and drops into the channel, so the snorkelling here is as good as anywhere in East Africa and needs no boat once you are on the island. Divers get a third morning on the walls if they would rather.

Lunch is on the beach at Misali, out of the coolbox, and the boat brings you home with the tide in the afternoon. It is worth asking the lodge to time this day around the tides rather than around a fixed hour — the mangroves are only navigable near high water, and the difference is the whole morning.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

By boat · Misali about 10 km off the west coast

Highlight

A conservation island with a reef you can walk into

Dhow through the mangroves

Misali marine conservation area

Turtle beach

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Afro Divers Lodge

★★★★☆

Pemba, north-west coast

Fourth night. The dhow trip and the Misali landing fee are arranged through the lodge.

LUXURY

The Manta Resort

★★★★★

Pemba, north-west coast, private bay

Fourth night. The boat is yours for the day, so the tide sets the timetable and nothing else does.

Day

Pemba

A day with nothing in it

05°05′S 39°38′E

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

A day with nothing in it

05°05′S 39°38′E

The last full day is left empty on purpose, and we would ask you not to fill it. Eleven nights in, the safari days have done their work and the island has shown you its three things — the walls, the forest, the water inside the reef. What is left is the part people say they came for and then schedule out of existence.

If you dive, this is the morning for the site the dive guide has been saving, or for the one you want to see again. If you do not, the reef in front of the lodge is reachable by swimming at high tide, and at low tide the flats walk out for hundreds of metres. Clove-drying floors and the ruins at Ras Mkumbuu, the island’s eleventh-century trading town, are there if you want a car for the afternoon.

Dinner on the beach can be arranged at most lodges on the island and it is the right way to end. Pack tonight rather than in the morning: tomorrow’s connections leave Karume at the time the aircraft says, and on Pemba there is only one road to the airport.

Meals

Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner

Travel

None

Highlight

The point of the whole trip

Nothing scheduled

Optional last dive

Ras Mkumbuu ruins

Where you sleep

COMFORT

Afro Divers Lodge

★★★★☆

Pemba, north-west coast

Fifth and last night. Settle the dive-centre account the evening before rather than at breakfast.

LUXURY

The Manta Resort

★★★★★

Pemba, north-west coast, private bay

Fifth night. The beach dinner is set up whether you ask or not; ask if you would rather not.

Day

Departure

Pemba to the world, via Zanzibar or Dar

05°15′S 39°49′E

Breakfast

Pemba to the world, via Zanzibar or Dar

05°15′S 39°49′E

Breakfast, and the road back to Karume airport near Chake Chake, forty minutes to an hour from the north-west lodges. Karume takes light aircraft only, so every departure from Pemba goes through another airport first: Zanzibar is thirty minutes south, Dar es Salaam about an hour across the channel.

Which one depends on your international flight. Zanzibar (ZNZ) has direct services to the Gulf hubs and several European cities in season; Dar es Salaam (DAR) has more of them and more often. We book the connection to match, and we build in the margin that light aircraft need — a tight transfer in Zanzibar is not worth the saving.

If your long-haul flight leaves late, a day room in Stone Town or at a hotel near the Dar airport is the sensible bridge, and can be added. Otherwise the trip ends with the channel below the wing, and the mainland coming up in the haze on the far side.

Meals

Breakfast

Travel

Pemba to Zanzibar or Dar by light aircraft · about 30–60 minutes, then your international flight · Karume airport

Highlight

Thirty minutes to Zanzibar, an hour to Dar es Salaam

Karume airport (PMA)

Connect at ZNZ or DAR

Day room optional

Where you sleep

Departure day — no overnight

III · Rates

What it costs, by group size

A safari gets cheaper per person as the vehicle fills. Choose a tier to see the table.

Comfort rates by group size, per person and group total
Group size	Rooms	Per person	Group total
1 guest	1 room	$9,200	$9,200
2 guests	1 room	$6,690	$13,380
3 guests	2 rooms	$6,620	$19,860
4 guests	2 rooms	$6,010	$24,040
5 guests	3 rooms	$6,100	$30,500
6+ guests	3 rooms	$5,780	$34,680

Single supplement

$1,150

Added when a guest does not share a room

Child, 3 – 11 years

30% off

Sharing with two adults; some Pemba lodges set a minimum age

Peak season uplift

Included in the rates above

July – October, and the festive weeks

Luxury rates by group size, per person and group total
Group size	Rooms	Per person	Group total
1 guest	1 room	$23,700	$23,700
2 guests	1 room	$17,400	$34,800
3 guests	2 rooms	$18,590	$55,770
4 guests	2 rooms	$16,720	$66,880
5 guests	3 rooms	$17,570	$87,850
6+ guests	3 rooms	$16,490	$98,940

Single supplement

$4,940

Added when a guest does not share a room

Child, 3 – 11 years

30% off

Sharing with two adults; some Pemba lodges set a minimum age

Peak season uplift

Included in the rates above

July – October, and the festive weeks

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.

What is included

All game drives in a private 4×4 with a roof hatch, days 2 – 6
A professional guide throughout the safari, English-speaking
All accommodation as listed: full board on safari and on Pemba, bed and breakfast in Arusha
All national park and conservation area fees, including the crater service fee
Airport transfers at Kilimanjaro International and on Pemba
Drinking water in the vehicle throughout the safari
Domestic flights Serengeti – Arusha – Zanzibar – Pemba
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 and from Tanzania
Tanzania visa — USD 50, or USD 100 for United States passports
Zanzibar's mandatory visitor insurance, USD 44, bought on arrival or online
Travel insurance, which we ask every guest to hold — with dive cover if you dive
Diving, dive courses and equipment hire on Pemba
The onward flight from Pemba to Zanzibar or Dar es Salaam on day 12 — not included, about USD 120 – 150 per person
Balloon flight over the Serengeti
Drinks at the lodges, beyond what is listed
Tips for your guide, lodge and dive staff
Personal spending and souvenirs

V · Add-ons

Worth adding, if you have the days

Priced separately and arranged on request.

Days 8 – 11 · morning boats

A dive package on Pemba

Two-tank mornings on the channel walls, booked as a block through the lodge’s dive centre. Certified divers only for the walls; a refresher or an Open Water course can be arranged for a partner who wants to join.

USD 500 per person

Seronera · at dawn

Balloon over the Serengeti

An hour over the plains at first light on day 4, landing to a breakfast set out in the grass. Weather-dependent and booked months ahead in the high season.

USD 750 per person

Between days 7 and 8

A night in Stone Town on the way

Break the three-flight day with a night in Zanzibar’s old town — the one thing Pemba does not have — and fly north the next morning. Adds a night; the Pemba stay stays at five.

USD 150 per person, for 2 guests

Add 2 nights after day 1

Tarangire, before the crater

If you have fourteen days rather than twelve, two nights in Tarangire’s dry-season elephant country slot in before the rim without moving anything else.

USD 1,820 per person, for 2 guests

VI · The parks and the island

Where this itinerary takes you

A caldera, the plains, and an island on the edge of an 800-metre channel.

Ngorongoro Crater

The largest intact volcanic caldera in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site: 260 square kilometres of floor holding around 25,000 large animals, the most reliable black rhino in Tanzania, and a six-hour limit on how long any vehicle can stay down there.

Serengeti National Park

14,750 square kilometres. Seronera in the centre holds water all year and the resident lion, leopard and cheetah that come with it; the north, on the Mara River, is where the migration spends July to October, and the Western Corridor is where it passes in June.

Pemba Island

About 980 square kilometres, hilly and green, fifty kilometres north of Unguja across a channel more than 800 metres deep. Wall diving on the western drop-offs, the Ngezi forest with its endemic flying fox, the Misali marine conservation area, and beaches that are empty on most days of the year.

The question everyone asks

Will the sea be calm enough to dive?

800 m+

Depth of the Pemba Channel off the western reef wall

Mostly, in the months this trip runs. Pemba has two monsoons: the kusi, from the south-east, blows from roughly June to September and puts wind and chop on the exposed eastern side; the kaskazi, from the north-east, runs December to March. The dive sites are on the sheltered western side, in the lee of the island, and the boats go out through most of the kusi. Visibility on the walls is usually best from August into November, and again February to March.

What we cannot promise is a given day. Wind, tide and current decide which sites the dive centre will take you to, and on a rough morning the answer may be the reef inside the bay rather than the wall. Five nights is built in partly for that reason: it gives the weather room to have a bad day without it costing you the diving. The long rains in April and May are the months to avoid; some island lodges close for them.

VII · Season

The best time to travel

June to October for both halves; August to October is the best overlap.

June to October is the dry season on the northern circuit and the window this itinerary is built for. Grass is low and game concentrates on water, which makes the cats easier to find at Seronera; from July the migration is on the Mara River in the north, and in June it is usually still in the Western Corridor. Day 5 goes north or west accordingly.

On Pemba the same months sit inside the kusi monsoon, which is dry but can be breezy, especially in June and July on the east coast. The western dive sites are in the lee. August to October is the sweet spot for both halves of the trip: the crossings in the north, and settling seas and clearing water on the island.

December to March works well on Pemba — the kaskazi is lighter, the water is warm and clear, and February and March are the best diving of the year. The safari half changes shape: the migration is calving on the southern plains, so day 5 would go south to Ndutu rather than north. Ask, and we will rebuild it.

April and May are the long rains in both places, and we will tell you plainly that this is not the time for this route. Serengeti tracks become difficult, several island lodges close, and the sea is at its roughest. November’s short rains are brief, afternoon affairs; it is a fair, quieter month if the dates are fixed.

VIII · Flights

Getting there and back

In through Kilimanjaro, out through Zanzibar or Dar. Book an open-jaw ticket.

Fly into Kilimanjaro International (JRO), fifty kilometres from Arusha. Most European routings connect through Doha, Istanbul, Amsterdam or Addis Ababa and land in the evening, which is why day 1 is a night in Arusha and nothing else.

The trip ends on Pemba, not where it began, so book an open-jaw ticket: in to Kilimanjaro, out of Zanzibar (ZNZ) or Dar es Salaam (DAR). Most airlines price this the same as a return, and it saves a day of flying back to the north.

Inside Tanzania there are four light-aircraft legs: the Serengeti airstrip to Arusha, Arusha to Zanzibar, Zanzibar to Pemba, and Pemba back out. Light aircraft carry a soft-bag weight limit, usually 15 kilograms per person including hand luggage — pack for it from the start rather than repacking at an airstrip.

Tanzania requires a visa for most passports — USD 50, or USD 100 for United States citizens, valid up to 90 days; apply online in advance. Zanzibar, which includes Pemba, also requires visitors to hold its own USD 44 insurance, bought online before you fly or on arrival.

IX · Other costs

What else you will spend

Visas, insurance, tips and drinks — set out so there is no surprise on the ground.

Visa and entry

USD 50 — USD 100 for US passports, plus USD 44 Zanzibar insurance

Tanzania issues a tourist visa online (eVisa) or on arrival at Kilimanjaro. Applying in advance is faster and avoids the queue at immigration, which after an evening arrival can be long.

Zanzibar, of which Pemba is part, requires every visitor to hold its mandatory visitor insurance, USD 44 per person, regardless of any other policy. A yellow fever certificate is required only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is endemic.

Travel insurance

Typically USD 60 – 150 per trip

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, and Pemba’s is small.

If you dive, check the policy covers scuba to the depth you will be diving; many standard policies stop at 30 metres or exclude diving altogether. Balloon flights are excluded by some insurers too.

Tips

Usual range USD 10 – 25 per guest per day

Tipping is customary in Tanzania and it is genuinely optional. The figures below are what guests commonly give, not what is expected of you, and no one will treat you differently for giving less.

Guide tips are usually handed over at the airstrip on day 7. Lodge and dive staff tips go into a shared box so that housekeeping, kitchen and boat crew are included, not only the people you see.

Drinks and diving

USD 3 – 20 for drinks; dives priced by the boat

Drinking water in the vehicle is included throughout the safari. Everything at the lodge bar is charged to your room unless the property is explicitly all-inclusive, and most on this route are not.

Diving on Pemba is paid to the dive centre, usually per dive or as a package, with equipment hire on top if you do not bring your own. Settle the account the evening before you leave.

Personal spending

Entirely up to you

Souvenirs, laundry at the lodges, and anything you forgot to pack. Cash in small US dollar notes is more useful than a card once you leave Arusha, and Pemba has very few places that take one at all. Notes dated before 2009 are refused across Tanzania; bring newer ones.

There is little to buy on Pemba beyond cloves and woven mats. If you want Zanzibar’s shopping, add the Stone Town night on the way through.

X · Why us

Why book this with us

Arusha-based, and Tanzanian-owned

We are not a booking agent forwarding you to an operator. The vehicles, the guides and the office are ours, in Arusha, which is why the safari half can change mid-trip when the herds move.

We send people to Pemba, not just to Zanzibar

Most bush-and-beach trips end on Unguja’s east coast because it is easier to sell. We will tell you plainly which island suits you, and if the answer is Zanzibar we will say so.

Day 5 is decided by the month, not the brochure

Northern Serengeti in July to October, the Western Corridor in June, Ndutu if you come in the calving season. We book the camp that matches your dates rather than the one that matches the template.

We will tell you not to come in April

There are weeks when this route is not worth doing — rain in the Serengeti and rough seas on the island — and we would rather move you or lose the booking than take money for a trip we know will disappoint.

XI · Questions

Frequently asked

What guests ask before booking Pemba rather than Zanzibar.

How much does a 12 day safari and Pemba itinerary cost?

The rate depends on your group size and which accommodation tier you choose, and it moves with the season; the domestic flights are a larger share of the total than on a road-only safari. The table above sets out the per-person price for every group size from one to six. Our rates for this itinerary are set out in the table above — ask us and we will quote for your exact dates.

Why Pemba instead of Zanzibar?

Fewer people, by a wide margin, and better diving. Pemba sits on a channel more than 800 metres deep, so the western reefs drop away as walls; Unguja sits on shallow shelf. What Pemba does not have is Stone Town, a restaurant scene, or long swimmable beaches at every tide. If those matter, our Zanzibar bush and beach is the better trip.

Do I need to be a diver to enjoy Pemba?

No. The snorkelling on top of the reef and at Misali is exceptional in its own right, and the forest, the mangroves and the beaches do not need a tank. Divers get more out of the island, and the walls are for certified divers with some recent experience — the current is real. A partner who wants to learn can do an Open Water course at the lodge in the five days.

Will we see the migration?

Probably, and day 5 is placed to make it likely: north to the Mara River between July and October, west to the Grumeti in June. A river crossing on a given day cannot be promised by anyone, and we will not. What is reliable is the resident game at Seronera and the space of the northern Serengeti.

Is the sea rough on Pemba in the dry season?

It can be breezy from June to August, when the south-east monsoon is blowing, especially on the exposed east coast. The dive sites and the lodges on this route are on the sheltered western side. August to October is the calmest of the months this trip runs; April and May are the months to avoid.

How long is the travel day from the Serengeti to Pemba?

Most of a day, and three aircraft: Serengeti to Arusha, Arusha to Zanzibar, Zanzibar to Pemba. Exact routing and timings are confirmed when the seats are booked, because light aircraft schedules move with demand. If you would rather break it, add a night in Stone Town on the way.

Is this trip suitable for children?

The safari half is, as a private trip. On Pemba the island is quiet and the lodges are small; some set a minimum age, and the wall diving is for certified adults. Snorkelling inside the reef and the forest walk suit children well. Tell us the ages and we will say plainly whether it works. Child rates are 30% below the adult rate for children sharing with two adults.

Can I fly home from Pemba directly?

No. Karume airport takes light aircraft only, so every departure connects through Zanzibar, thirty minutes away, or Dar es Salaam, about an hour. Book your international ticket out of ZNZ or DAR and we build the connection with the margin a light aircraft needs.

Can the itinerary be changed?

Yes. This is a private journey and the route is a starting point. Adding Tarangire at the front, swapping the crater night for Karatu, splitting the Pemba nights between two coasts, or moving the whole thing into the calving season are all normal requests. See also our Pemba Island page.

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.

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