helloworld Travel Mt Maunganui - Recent staff trips

Our arrival into Tanzania was at Kilimanjaro Airport, the closest international airport to Arusha where we were starting our trip. Unfortunately it was dark when we landed so we didn’t get to see Mt Kilimanjaro, but that’s okay, it just means I have to go back another day!

Arusha is about 1 hour drive over very pot-holed roads, but you go through a number of smaller towns so get to see a bit of Tanzania’s nightlife along the way. There are a lot of Tuktuks around, but everywhere you look there are motorbikes which are actually taxis, so groups of men on bikes are just waiting around for fares. We were delivered by our &Beyond transfer driver to the Gran Melia Arusha, a stunning hotel with amazing views of nearby Mt Meru. The hotel itself has a coffee plantation as well as its own garden, so most of the food they serve is produced right there. I went for a wander to the gardens and 2 extremely helpful gardeners showed me around and explained the coffee bean process – it was really interesting to see what stages the bean goes through, and I never would have thought it started as a lovely smelling white flowered bush!

The next day we were off, a quick drive to Arusha Airport and a short flight to Lake Manyara Airport to meet up with the guides from our accommodation for that night, Lake Manyara Tree Lodge. The Lodge is located at the opposite end of Lake Manyara National Park, so the transfer there is actually a game drive, and it was so much more than I was expecting. On our first day we saw monkeys, elephants (including a baby!), lions, buffalo, hippos, baboons to name a few, and all so close to our jeep. Once we arrived at the lodge we were greeted with song and dance and then shown to our ‘rooms’, actually treehouses in the bush. &Beyond lodges are very luxurious, and this was the first of some spectacular accommodation on our trip. With an outdoor shower (yes the monkeys and giraffes can watch you) and a wrap around deck, you are surrounded by nature, and at night we could hear lions roaring, elephants trumpeting and baboons grunting and screaming from our beds – truly in amongst it all. We were given strict instructions at all our lodges to not walk alone after dark, and we were escorted to dinner and back by a Masai warrior. The next morning when we saw lion tracks on the path to our treehut we understood why!

Day 2 saw us on the road back to the airstrip, again via a game drive. As it is a National Park, there are other tourists coming into the park for game drives, but by staying at the lodge it meant that we got sole access for the first half of the drive back, and came across even more animals close to the road.

Once we arrived back at Lake Manyara airstrip, we were met by our next &Beyond guides, who took us to Ngorongoro Crater National Park, about an hour from Lake Manyara. As we drove up to the crater rim, there was a noticeable temperature drop – from the mid 30s we had been experiencing we were now at around 18 degrees, due to the altitude. Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s biggest caldera (a volcano whose sides have fallen in) and while the animals are free to leave, most stay due to the plentiful food supply. We stayed at &Beyond’s Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, the only lodge that looks down into the crater, and every room has views. The current lodge is about to be demolished and a new lodge built in its place, but it was still spectacular, furnished like a French castle with chandeliers, clawfoot tubs, a reading library and fireplaces. It played with my mind – from the outside the rooms looked like Masai huts! After dropping our bags we grabbed a packed lunch, and headed out on a game drive into the crater. Here we spotted hyena, flamingos, elephants, rhino, jackals, vultures, and got up close with a lion pride, in food comas after a kill in the night and lying on the road – they kept moving into the shade the jeeps provided, so were literally right next to us. After driving all over to seek out the rhinos, we ended up on a sprint to leave the park before it closed – made it with 1 minute to spare! National Parks in Tanzania close at 7pm, so the animals can be undisturbed during the night. We arrived back at the lodge to find a bath ready for us with rose petals and bubbles, and a fire lit in the fireplace – so spoiled, and not your typical safari!! We also got a good lesson that night about why you do not walk alone at night – on returning to our room, our warrior asked us to pause, walked forward about 5 metres and tapped on the bush next to the path to our room, and 2 buffalo came storming out!

Day 3 saw us heading back to the airstrip for our flight to the Serengeti, arriving at Kogatende airstrip, to the north east of the Serengeti. We were here for 2 nights, and &Beyond’s Serengeti Under Canvas – yep, we were camping – or should I say glamping! A game drive on the way to the camp saw giraffes, hippos, zebra, wildebeest, and vultures cleaning up a kill. We had missed the Great Migration by a few weeks, but there were still some herd animals around. After arriving at camp, our butlers settled us in, and explained how the bucket showers worked (give 15 mins notice so they can heat some water up!) and then headed off on another game drive. Having seen most of the animals you could ever hope to see on a safari holiday, we gave our guides the challenge of finding a leopard, and after much hunting we finally found a mother leopard looking for dinner. Sadly she didn’t bring her cubs out, but since a leopard sighting is quite rare we were happy with just the mum.

Day 4 we were up before dawn and taken out to a very special experience – hot air ballooning at dawn, followed by breakfast in the bush. Such stunning views – not a lot of wildlife visible from the air, as most of the herds had moved to the south, but still a spectacular experience. That afternoon was our afternoon game drive and one of the highlights of my trip – we found 2 mother lions with their 5 cubs, relaxing and happy to play only 5 metres from our jeep.

Day 5 – We headed back to the airstrip and did a morning game drive on the way - yet another highlight when we came across 4 male lions in a bachelor group, all with huge bellies after gorging themselves on a fresh kill. The sight of these big boys with blood on their muzzles and paws, stalking past us to lie in the shade, was incredible.

Another quick flight north and we landed at Grumeti Airstrip, about 10km from the border with Kenya. &Byeond’s Grumeti River Lodge was washed away in a flood early in 2024, so the lodge we stayed at was brand new, and was situated perfectly for the area. Right on the river bank, looking out over numberous families of hippo – we could even sit in our private pool on our deck and watch the hippos in the river. Didn’t want to swim at night; many baboons decided to walk across our deck, and the hippos took a walk past our room too! The sounds of the hippos grunting and calling was amazing. Our evening game drive took us to crocodiles, giraffes and ended on a hill with a glass of bubbles to watch the sunset.

Day 6 – Our safari was over, and we were off to Zanzibar for a little bit of beach before heading home. Zanzibar is known for its history in the spice and then the slavery trade. Stone Town is a UNESCO heritage site, with the buildings all being made from stone and reflecting the Indian, African and English heritage that being a trading port brought together. Our walking tour of this town took us through the markets and the fort, and ended up at the birthplace of Freddie Mercury! An hour drive down the coast was our beautiful resort, the Zanzibar White Sands Villas & Spa, where we were lucky enough to have a 2 bedroom villa and a private pool. Set right on the most beautiful beach, this is a great way to unwind after a safari!

This trip was about experiencing a lot of different areas of Tanzania to show the variety that there is. Every lodge we went to had a different type of scenery and different wildlife, from the lake and trees close to the road in Lake Manyara, to the open crater of Ngorongoro, the wide-open plains of the Serengeti and the river at Grumeti – all were so diverse. We would usually recommend picking 2 or 3 at the most and spending 3 nights at each one to get the most out of the experience. The time of year also affects what you will see – as I mentioned we missed the Great Migration, so if that is on your must do list, then you will need to go earlier. I loved the time we went, as there were so many baby animals, and there were a lot less tourists around, competing for viewing spots.

I would go back in a heartbeat – still haven’t seen a cheetah!!