Tanzania
Safari
Drive

After breakfast, we jump into the Land Cruisers and our 5-day off-road, rooftop-tent adventure begins. Driving along the Kenyan border, we make our way around Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain.

Along the way, we visit a coffee plantation, where we get a closer look at local coffee culture and the everyday life of the communities living around the mountain. By the evening, we arrive at our campsite on the southern side of the mountain, where we spend the night in our rooftop tents.

Early in the morning, we head to the starting point of the Marangu route, Kilimanjaro’s best-known hiking trail, at 1,860 metres. This is where our one-day hike begins. With a local guide, we make our way up through tropical rainforest, along mossy trails, surrounded by special plants, calling birds and colobus monkeys, all the way to 2,700 metres.

Of course, in one day we will not reach the summit of this more than 5,800-metre-high mountain, but that is not the goal of the day. This is an intense, spectacular mountain hike, with humid forest, cooler mountain air, and the feeling of hiking on Africa’s most famous and highest mountain. In the evening, we return to the same campsite.

We point the Land Cruisers towards Ngorongoro, and as we leave the landscapes around Kilimanjaro behind, we arrive in the classic world of safari. Along the way, we make one more stop at a hidden oasis with turquoise-blue water, where we take a swim and enjoy a tropical break in the middle of the dusty road trip.

By evening, we arrive at our campsite overlooking the Ngorongoro Crater. In the cooler highland air, we have dinner outdoors, surrounded by the sounds of the wild - this is where the first big safari day begins the next morning.

We start the day early to make the most of the morning hours, when the animals of the Ngorongoro Crater are at their most active. During breakfast, we still look out over the crater from the campsite, before descending with our Land Cruisers into one of the world’s most extraordinary safari locations.

The vast, 600-metre-deep volcanic crater functions as its own ecosystem, with an incredibly rich concentration of wildlife for its size. As the Land Cruisers roll across the crater floor, lions, zebras, wildebeest, hippos, buffaloes and, with a bit of luck, even rhinos may appear around us.

After the game drive, we continue towards Lake Ndutu. We spend the evening by the lake, in a safari tented camp, before the next big safari day.

We start the day around Lake Ndutu, one of the most exciting February safari locations in the Ngorongoro area. This is the season of mass wildebeest calving, when countless calves are born on the endless grassy plains over a short period of time - keeping not only the herds, but also the predators, constantly on the move.

Lions, cheetahs and leopards may all appear during the day, while safari here shows a completely different side of the wild: more open landscapes, more movement, more action.

In the afternoon, we head back towards Arusha, and by evening we are once again resting in our private Bauhaus villa after the adventures of the wild.

After breakfast, a transfer takes us to the airport, where we board a domestic flight to Zanzibar. After the safari-filled, rooftop-tent days on the mainland, we arrive in a completely different world: palm trees, an oceanfront resort, warm water and a proper holiday pace.

The afternoon is all about resting, swimming in the pool and easing into our first oceanfront chill.

Over these two days, we enjoy full freedom and explore Zanzibar at our own pace.

The island is not called the Spice Island by chance: at a local farm, we can discover its scents and flavours, from vanilla and cinnamon to cloves. If we feel like it, we can visit a jungle forest, where we may encounter the island’s unique plant life and red colobus monkeys.

We can explore Zanzibar’s wilder coastlines, dotted with caves, or simply slow down: relaxing under palm trees on white-sand beaches, snorkelling in turquoise water, and of course visiting the island’s iconic restaurant, built on a rock rising out of the ocean.

On our last full day, we visit Stone Town, the historic centre of Zanzibar. Narrow streets, carved wooden doors, markets, the scent of spices, and a mix of Arab, Indian, African and European influences: this city shows a completely different side of the island.

In the evening, we say goodbye to the ocean with a sunset catamaran cruise. We watch the sun go down from the water and look back on the best moments of our journey.

A transfer takes us to Zanzibar Airport according to our flight times. Although we are heading home, we take with us the lasting memories of rooftop-tent nights, dusty safaris, crater-view mornings and oceanfront sunsets.