Overview
Nine days. Just the two of you. Three places that feel made for exactly this.
The Journey starts in Arusha, a gentle first day to settle in, breathe, and remind yourselves that you are actually here. Your lodge sits with views that neither of you will stop talking about over dinner.
Then the Serengeti opens up. Morning game drives when the light is still soft and the animals are moving across the plains. Evenings outside your tent watching the sky turn every shade of orange behind the acacia trees. No schedules, no noise, nothing pulling you in different directions. Just the two of you and a landscape so alive it makes everywhere else feel quiet by comparison.
Then Zanzibar. Warm water, white sand, the kind of slow mornings that remind you both what rest actually feels like. Lunch in the shade. An afternoon that belongs entirely to you. Dinner on the beach with the Indian Ocean in front of you and no reason to be anywhere else.
9 days. 3 places. 1 trip worth building a life around.
Itinerary
DAY 1: Arrival Kilimanjaro International Airport - Arusha
After landing at Kilimanjaro International Airport, a Ken Tours representative will welcome you and transfer you to your hotel in Arusha, about an hour away. Arusha is the Safari Capital of Tanzania at Mount Meru’s foothills and is the perfect gateway to Serengeti and Ngorongoro. Check in, unwind, and prepare for your upcoming adventure and enjoy expert guides daily.
DAY 2: Lake Manyara National Park
After breakfast, your Ken Tours guide drives you from Arusha to Lake Manyara National Park, a scenic two-hour journey through the Great Rift Valley. Spend the day exploring the park's lush landscapes on a full game drive, watching for the famous tree-climbing lions and over 400 bird species. Lunch is served in the bush. As afternoon fades, your guide transfers you to your accommodation in Karatu to rest before tomorrow.
DAY 3: Serengeti National Park
The morning begins quietly, just the two of you, the cool dawn air, and a short 30-minute drive to the Ngorongoro Loduare Gate as the sky slowly warms. From here, the world opens up. Your guide leads you across the crater highlands and down onto the Serengeti plains, a two-hour journey that feels like the landscape is unwrapping itself just for you.
Watch the bush thin and the horizon stretch wider than you thought horizons could. This is where the Serengeti begins, vast, unhurried, and full of possibility. The Big Five live somewhere out there in the golden grass. Your guide knows where to look.
A full morning game drive gives you the park at its most alive. Lunch is a picnic in the middle of all of it, two people, an endless sky, and Africa in every direction. By late afternoon, your camp appears on the horizon and the day softens into exactly the kind of quiet that follows something that mattered. Once inside, a full game drive takes you deeper into the Serengeti's interior. Lunch is in the bush, no restaurant, just the plains and whatever wildlife happens to be nearby. By late afternoon you're at your accommodation, settled in and ready for whatever tomorrow brings.
DAY 4: Serengeti National Park
Rise early. Your Ken Tours guide collects you for the short 30-minute drive to Ngorongoro's Loduare Gate, where the transfer game drive into the Serengeti begins. The two-hour crossing is an experience in itself — the landscape shifts from Ngorongoro's highland rim to the vast open plains, with real chances of Big Five sightings before you even reach the park proper. Once inside, a full game drive takes you deeper into the Serengeti's interior. Lunch is in the bush — no restaurant, just the plains and whatever wildlife happens to be nearby. By late afternoon you're at your accommodation, settled in and ready for whatever tomorrow brings.
DAY 5: Serengeti - Ngorongoro Highlands
Start your day with a delicious breakfast at your accommodation before setting off for an exhilarating game drive across the Serengeti. Explore the park’s stunning landscapes, including the famous lion kopjes, reminiscent of the majestic locations featured in “The Lion King.” Enjoy thrilling wildlife encounters and immerse yourself in the reserve’s extraordinary beauty.
After a day of exploration, savor a picnic lunch amidst the scenic splendor of the Serengeti. In the late afternoon, continue your journey with a game drive as you make your way to the Ngorongoro Highlands. Arrive at your accommodation in the highlands for a restful overnight stay, preparing for the wonders of the next day.
DAY 6: Ngorongoro Crater to Arusha Airport
Dawn finds you already moving, a short drive to the crater rim as the morning mist sits below you in the caldera. Then the descent. Six hundred metres down into a world that exists nowhere else on earth, where 25,000 animals share the same ancient horizon and the crater walls hold everything in.
Your guide takes you through it gently, because the Ngorongoro does not reward rushing.Lunch on the crater floor. The quiet here is something you will remember. By afternoon you are climbing back toward the rim, the crater growing smaller behind you. A drive, a flight, and then, Zanzibar appears below the plane like a different world entirely. The highlands give way to warm ocean air and the colour of the sea at dusk.
Tonight, everything changes.
DAY 6: Zanzibar
Zanzibar arrives before the plane lands, warm air through the window, the smell of the ocean and something spiced and unhurried drifting up to meet you. Stone Town pulls you in through narrow alleys worn smooth by centuries of footsteps, carved wooden doors and coral stone walls at every turn. Walk slowly here. The streets reward it.
Then the coast opens and everything simplifies. White sand, water clear enough to see the bottom from where you stand, dhows drifting across a horizon with no deadline. Wander through a spice farm in the morning, cloves, vanilla, cinnamon growing alongside the path. Be in the ocean by afternoon. Zanzibar is not somewhere you visit. It is somewhere you stay longer than you planned to.
DAY 7: Spice, Stone Town & Sunset on the Water
Morning in Stone Town, narrow alleys worn smooth by centuries, carved wooden doors, the warm scent of the ocean mixing with coffee from the street stalls. Walk slowly. Get slightly lost. By midday, your guide takes you to a spice farm where cloves, vanilla, and cinnamon grow alongside the path and the air itself becomes something you want to remember. Late afternoon, a private dhow carries you into the Indian Ocean for sunset. Dinner on the beach as the stars take over.
DAY 8: Full day relaxation
No alarm this morning. The beach belongs to you, warm sand, water so clear it barely looks real, and no reason to be anywhere else. Swim. Lie still. Order lunch close enough to hear the waves. In the afternoon, walk the shore one last time as the light turns golden and the dhows drift past the horizon. A farewell dinner by the water as Zanzibar offers its finest sunset. Some trips end. This one becomes the reason you start planning the next.
DAY 9: departure
On the final day of your remarkable adventure, savor a leisurely breakfast at your accommodation. You will be transferred to Zanzibar Airport for your flight home, taking with you a wealth of unforgettable memories and a heart full of cherished moments from your enchanting journey.
Tour inclusive & exclusive
- English speaking driver / guide
- All Park Fees
- All activities
- All accommodation
- Transportation
- Airport transfers
- All meals
- Drinking water
- International flights
- Tips for divers/guides
- Personal items/expenses
- Alcohol/Sodas