The greatest wildlife spectacle on earth, followed by an island of white sand and Swahili stone towns an hour's flight away. Safari is exhausting in the best way — Zanzibar is what puts you back together.
Game drives start at half past five in the morning and the roads are rough. It is not a restful week.
Six days on the northern circuit means early starts, long drives on corrugated tracks, and a great deal of sitting upright in a vehicle. It's extraordinary and it's tiring. Zanzibar afterwards — an hour's flight, no long transfer — is the recovery. People who do it the other way round arrive at the Serengeti relaxed and go home shattered, which is the wrong shape for a holiday.
Twelve nights: six on the northern safari circuit, six on Zanzibar, with an internal flight between them.
1The warm-up and the crater. Tarangire has the elephants and the baobabs; Ngorongoro is a collapsed volcano with 25,000 animals inside it.
Where you stay: Lodges on the crater rim, or tented camps in Tarangire. The rim is cold at night — 2,300 metres.
Getting there: 9 hours to Kilimanjaro (JRO) with one stop, then road transfers on the circuit.
2Fourteen thousand square kilometres of plains and the migration moving through them. Three nights minimum, because it's vast.
Where you stay: Mobile tented camps that follow the migration, or permanent lodges in the central Seronera.
Getting there: Light aircraft from the crater to a Serengeti airstrip, or a long road transfer.
3An hour's flight, and a complete change: Indian Ocean water, Swahili architecture and no early starts.
Where you stay: Nungwi or Kendwa in the north for swimmable water at all tides; Paje or Jambiani in the east for kitesurfing and drama.
Getting there: 1h 15m by air from the Serengeti or Arusha to Zanzibar.
Everything below is quoted up front. Nothing appears after you've paid a deposit.
Guide prices per person, two sharing, outside school holidays. The hotel standard is the biggest single variable.
| Standard | What that means | Guide price pp |
|---|---|---|
| 4-star | Comfortable lodges and tented camps, good Zanzibar beach hotel | £3,399 |
| 4-star plus | Crater rim lodge, mobile migration camp, boutique Zanzibar resort | £4,699 |
| 5-star | Premium camps in private concessions, luxury Zanzibar resort | £7,499 |
Safari pricing is driven by park fees and remoteness far more than by luxury — even a modest camp inside the Serengeti costs more than a smart hotel elsewhere. Zanzibar is where the budget relaxes: excellent beach hotels there cost a fraction of the safari leg.
The migration moves all year, so the question isn't whether to go but where in the Serengeti to be.
June to October is the dry season and the classic window — thin bush, animals at waterholes, and the Mara River crossings from July onwards. January and February bring calving in the southern Serengeti, thousands of newborns and every predator in attendance, which many guides prefer. April and May are the long rains, when some camps close and tracks become difficult. Zanzibar follows a similar pattern: dry June to October and December to February.
We'll place you in the right part of the Serengeti for your month, match the camps to your budget, and write the payment plan out in full.
July to September, in the northern Serengeti near the Mara River. They're unpredictable — herds can mass on a bank for days. Nothing is guaranteed.
The tide goes out several hundred metres, leaving seagrass flats. Beautiful, and not swimmable at low tide. The north coast doesn't have this — we'll match the coast to what you want.
Most lodges have minimum ages, often six or eight, and some are adults-only. Tell us the ages and we'll only quote camps that take them.
Park fees alone run to around $70 per person per day, plus remote logistics and low guest numbers. It isn't hotel luxury you're paying for.
Similar shapes, and the ones people most often weigh up alongside it.
Same approach, different shape. All reshapeable around your dates.
13 nights · Jul–Oct, Jan–Feb · from £4,299pp
10 nights · Jun–Oct, Jan–Feb · from £2,899pp
12 nights · May–Oct · from £6,499pp
11 nights · Jun–Aug, Dec–Feb · from £4,899pp
14 nights · May–Oct · from £3,299pp
11 nights · Apr, Oct · from £2,699pp
