“Exceptional time in Zanzibar with Rameses Tours”
My friends and I met the Rameses team on our first night in Zanzibar , their energy and friendliness immediately made us feel welcomed and we were treated as one of their own on…
9 days · Walking & fly-camping
Leave the vehicle behind. Track on foot with an armed ranger and sleep under canvas where the sound at night is not a generator.
Duration
9 days / 8 nights
Parks
Serengeti, Ngorongoro highlands
Style
On foot, with fly-camping
Best months
Jun–Oct
From
$2,950$5,600On request pp
The journey
A vehicle shows you more animals. Walking shows you fewer, closer, and in a way you do not forget — tracks, dung, birdsong, the small things a Land Cruiser drives past. Two nights of the eight are fly-camps: bedroll, bucket shower, and a fire.
This runs in the dry months only, and it asks something of you: two to three hours of walking a day over uneven ground, in heat. No technical skill, but a reasonable level of fitness. Minimum age 16 on the walking sections.
Day by day
Day 1
Arrive at Kilimanjaro International Airport, where your guide meets you and transfers you the short distance to your hotel in Arusha. The rest of the day is yours to rest after the flight and settle in before the safari begins in the morning.
Stay: Arusha lodge or hotel · Dinner
Day 2
Out of town after breakfast and up into the Ngorongoro highlands, trading the vehicle for your feet, with an afternoon walk to find your legs and your rhythm. The pace is set by what the guide reads in the ground — tracks, dung, a bent stem — not by distance covered. This is walking as a way of seeing, slow and close and quiet, rather than exercise. You notice the things a vehicle races past: the small signs, the smells, the sounds of the bush closing in around you.
Stay: Highland farmhouse lodgeStay: Luxury camp — to be confirmed · Lunch, dinner
Day 3
Down through montane forest to the floor of Empakaai, a collapsed crater holding a deep soda lake with flamingo strung along its edge, and then the steep climb back up — a rewarding half-day on foot with a Maasai guide and an armed ranger. It is demanding in places, and that is the point: this is country you simply cannot reach from a vehicle, and arriving under your own effort changes how it feels. The quiet down by the water, broken only by birds, is the reward for the descent.
Stay: Highland farmhouse lodgeStay: Luxury camp — to be confirmed · All meals
Day 4
A long walk across open highland country with a Maasai guide alongside the ranger, moving through grazing land where cattle and wildlife have shared the same ground for centuries. The guide reads the country as home rather than as a park, which changes what you see and how you see it. Time in a homestead along the way, if the day allows — pastoral life met at walking pace, on foot and at eye level, rather than glimpsed through glass from a passing vehicle.
Stay: Fly-campStay: Fly-camp, privately serviced · All meals
Day 5
Tracking on foot through country with no roads in it at all, the camp packed and moved ahead of you to a new site while you walk — the closest this trip comes to how the land was crossed before vehicles existed. There is nothing scheduled but the walking and the ground underfoot, the day shaped by terrain and what you find rather than a timetable. Fly-camping under canvas that night, somewhere with no lights but the fire and the stars, is the heart of the whole trip.
Stay: Fly-campStay: Fly-camp, privately serviced · All meals
Day 6
A driving day, and an earned one after the highlands and the walking. The transfer takes you west and down onto the Serengeti, with an afternoon game drive on the plains to reset the scale entirely — from the intimate, close-up world of the last few days on foot to something enormous and open. Seeing the herds spread across the horizon from a vehicle, after days of reading single tracks in the dust, lands very differently than it would have at the start.
Stay: Kubu Kubu Tented LodgeStay: Luxury camp — to be confirmed · All meals
Day 7
A guided walk in a designated walking area at first light, on foot among the plains game while the air is still cool, then a vehicle for the wider country later in the day — the two ways of seeing the Serengeti in a single day. On foot you get the detail, the tracks and the tension of being on the animals’ level; by vehicle you get the distance and the numbers. Having done both, you understand the place in a way most safaris never quite reach.
Stay: Kubu Kubu Tented LodgeStay: Luxury camp — to be confirmed · All meals
Day 8
A last morning on foot, making the most of the walking before it ends, then the drive east and up to the Ngorongoro rim — the walking behind you now, the crater and its wildlife ahead. It is a day of transition, the quiet effort of the trail giving way to the anticipation of the floor tomorrow. The caldera opens beneath you as you reach the rim, an enormous full stop to the walking half of the journey.
Stay: Ngorongoro Sopa LodgeStay: Luxury camp — to be confirmed · All meals
Day 9
The one part of this trip you do sitting down, and thoroughly worth it after nine days on your feet — a half day on the crater floor among the densest concentration of wildlife in Africa, with the best chance of black rhino you will get anywhere in Tanzania. After a week of reading tracks and working for every sighting, having the animals simply there, at close range and in numbers, feels like a fitting reward before the climb out and the drive back to Arusha.
Stay: —Stay: — · Breakfast, lunch
Is this journey for you
Active. two to three hours on foot most days, over uneven ground, in heat.
A reasonable level of fitness is required. No technical skill. Minimum age 16 on walking sections.
Confident walkers who want wildlife at eye level. Dry season only, June to October.
What it costs
| Season | Mid-range | Luxury |
|---|---|---|
| Green seasonMar–May | $1,650 | $3,150 |
| ShoulderNov–Feb | $2,000 | $3,850 |
| Peak seasonJun–Oct | $2,350 | $4,500 |
Rates are per person based on two sharing. Solo travellers and parties of three or more are priced differently — tell us your party and we will quote it properly.
Includes park fees, accommodation, all meals, a private vehicle and guide. Excludes international flights, visas, insurance and tips. Mid-range stays inside the national parks; luxury uses private concessions where off-road and night driving are permitted.
What you get
Extra fly-camp night
Quoted with your dates
Zanzibar extension
Add three to seven beach nights — a good way to end eight days of walking.
From $640on request per person
Private ranger
A second armed ranger, so the group can split by pace.
Quoted with your dates
Senior guide, and a spotter where the camp provides one
Off-road game viewing and night drives where permitted
House drinks at camp, and laundry
Airport transfers and bottled water
Not included
International flights
Tanzania visa
Travel insurance
Drinks other than bottled water
Premium wines and champagne
Tips for your guide and camp staff
Balloon safari and other add-ons
Make it yours
Dawn over the Serengeti plains, then a champagne breakfast where you land.
From $600on request per person
Add three to seven beach nights — white sand, spice lanes, dhow sunsets.
From $640on request per person
Trade driving for time. The single best upgrade on this itinerary.
Quoted with your dates
“Exceptional time in Zanzibar with Rameses Tours”
My friends and I met the Rameses team on our first night in Zanzibar , their energy and friendliness immediately made us feel welcomed and we were treated as one of their own on…
“Great vehicles and amazing team for amazing experience”
We are an amazing experience with them with the Arusha national Park and we also did the Kilimanjaro one day hike. Definitely recommended!
“An Unforgettable Serengeti Experience with Exceptional Service”
We had an incredible experience visiting Tanzania together with our business partners from Venezuela (Mimoas Company), and it truly exceeded all our expectations. Our journey with Rameses Safaris was absolutely amazing—from the moment we…
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