Tanzania for the world's best game viewing, and Uganda for East Africa's most dramatic scenery as well as good game viewing.

Uganda's position under the Mountains of the Moon near central Africa provides jungle-like habitats that are not as prevalent in Kenya or Tanzania. As a result visitors can see primates and outstanding birds that are limited or nonexistent elsewhere in East Africa. Uganda is in particular the best place in East Africa to view chimps, and this safari ends with that experience. (Note that mountain gorilla trekking in Rwanda can be easily placed just before the start of this safari.)

The Tanzanian program is carefully designed to change with the season, to continuously optimize your opportunities for encountering the big herds.

The prices include: ** Guaranteed window seats in specially outfitted Safari Landrovers with pop-top roofs ensuring sun protection; ** Meals as detailed in brackets following each day's description below; ** One local flight: Serengeti to Arusha; ** All park entrance fees, VAT and other government taxes; ** Comprehensive pre-trip material with discount coupons for travel gear and equipment. Additional expenses not included: - Meals not included; - All beverages; - Requisite visas and other travel preparations like inoculations; - Tipping.

Note that an international flight from Entebbe to Kilimanjaro is necessary for this program. Contact EWT for the best international air fares and for recommendations on how to use your frequent flyer miles.

Following your arrival in Entebbe airport you'll be personally met by a professionally-trained, English-speaking driver/guide with a specially outfitted Landrover with a pop-top roof. You'll proceed to Kampala for your overnight at the luxurious Kampala Serena Hotel. If you arrive in the morning, sightseeing can be arranged to the Kabaki tombs of the ancient Ugandan kings.  [no meals]

After breakfast you begin the safari with a day's drive west towards the Mountains of the Moon. These are on good roads through developed Ugandan rural countryside. Along the way, you'll stop for lunch at a local restaurant. By mid-afternoon you'll arrive the extensive eastern plains of Uganda's biggest national park, Queen Elizabeth National Park. Continue to Mweya Safari Lodge overlooking the deep Kazinga Channel for dinner and overnight.  [b-l-d]

Uganda's best national park is also its biggest, and filled with game. Game viewing is at your discretion. Your driver/guide will have the most current information and best advice as to what to do and where to go, but ultimately you decide whether to go out all day with picnics, or return to the lodge for meals. The park is famous for its Ugandan kob, a beautiful antelope only found here and found in massive numbers. There are also many elephants, giant forest hog, buffalo, as well as the cats. You'll enjoy part of the day on a boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel where you'll see many hippos and crocs, as well as some of Uganda's many species of exotic birds. Return to the beautiful Mweya Safari Lodge in time for sundowners before dinner. The lodge is built right on the edge of a steep precipice above the Kazinga Channel with beautiful views of Lake Albert.  [b-l-d]

Your destination this afternoon is one of the most unique wildernesses in East Africa, a midland ecosystem that is the convergence of jungle and savanna. This morning you travel north through Queen Elizabeth National Park game viewing, and this area is particularly good for lion. You'll enjoy a picnic lunch on the way, before heading into the Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve. Arrive Semliki Safari Lodge for dinner and overnight.  [b-l-d]

The day is spent game viewing in this huge area including up to the shore of Lake Albert. The unique combination of ecosystems provides habitat for many animals found only the interior of central Africa, such as the forest elephant, forest buffalo and (much darker) forest leopard. The savanna includes all the more traditional big game species found on the great plains elsewhere, and there are also opportunities to see unique primates and birds found nowhere else. Semliki Safari Lodge is one of Uganda's most beautiful, albeit most remote. Whatever you do, today, you'll be among the few visitors to "East Africa" to have experienced "Central Africa".  [b-l-d]

The day is spent returning from the Semliki Valley to the main road and then north into the Kibale Forest. There will be game viewing opportunities in the morning as you leave Semliki, and you'll enjoy a picnic lunch enroute Ndali Lodge near the Kibale Forest. This impressive boutique safari lodge is perched on a hill overlooking beautiful coffee plantations and one of the area's deepest lakes. Dinner and overnight at the lodge.  [b-l-d]

Kibale National Park is the best place in all of East Africa to view chimps, and this includes the more famous reserves of Gombe Streams and Mahale in Tanzania. Chimp viewing is arduous anywhere, as chimps are hyperactive, curious animals that race through the jungle canopy with the ease of forest bird. The scientific attention at Kibale has been focused for a very long time, and the guides here are all highly academic and wonderfully trained. The chances of seeing chimps are excellent, and unlike many other chimp places in East Africa, the terrain is mostly flat. Following the morning excursion, you can relax at the lodge or take a walk with a ranger around a lake known for its exotic birds. Meals and overnight at Ndali Lodge.  [b-l-d]

The day is spent returning to Kampala from the north. You'll pass through the fascinating Nile Delta and understand why it was so difficult for the early explorers to travel down the Nile. Here this massive river spreads into many marshes, small rapids and huge papyrus glens. Arrive the city of Kampala for an independent evening. Overnight at the Kampala Serena Hotel.  [b-l- ]

After breakfast you'll be taken to Entebbe airport for your flight from Uganda to Tanzania. On arrival at Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania, you'll be met by a new driver/guide and Landrover that will now remain with you for the duration of your Tanzanian safari. Travel into Arusha town and continue just outside the city to the elegant Arusha Coffee Lodge, a luxurious property which sits in the midst of a working coffee plantation. Dinner and overnight at the lodge.  [b- -d]

After an early breakfast, this morning you'll get a special glimpse into modern-day Tanzanian village life. Traditional villages are, today, difficult to come by. Practically all Tanzanians are in an exciting time of traditional from traditional ways of living to modern ones. This morning outside Arusha you'll be personally guided through Ng'iresi Village, a "suburb" of Arusha where many of the citizens now commute into town for work while others continue to work in the fields. The proud citizens want to show off their community, and you'll be taken on a walk through the paths and fields and see how things are changing, and how they might not as well. There may be opportunities to meet the village witch doctor! The little tour ends in a modest home where a traditional lunch of rice and beans will be given to you. This afternoon you spend driving to Lake Manyara over the Maasai plains and into the Great Rift Valley. This is one of the most beautiful drives on safari. At the end of the day you'll arrive Lake Manyara Serena Lodge for dinner and overnight.  [b-l-d]

Dawn game drive in Lake Manyara National Park. This is when the light is best for photography and the animals most active. The park is an UNESCO biosphere and one of the most scenic on the circuit. Game view through thick, magical forests onto savanna grasslands, and finally to the great lake shore itself. You'll see a huge variety of animals from giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, warthog and much more. Enjoy a picnic breakfast overlooking the scene that was the opening for the movie, Out of Africa. Return to Serena Lodge for lunch, and in the afternoon continue into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area on a spectacular drive through the Ngorongoro rain forest. Continue around the rim to Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge for dinner and overnight.  [b-l-d]

Dawn game drive in Ngorongoro Crater National Park. You'll make the quick descent through a glen of rare Lehai Acacia, Africa's "bonzaii" acacia. Once on the floor you'll understand why this is so often referred to as "Africa's Garden of Eden". At times there are 20,000 animals on the 100 sq. mile caldera floor, the highest density of lion in Africa, hundreds of hyaena and jackal, and large numbers of plains game. The central soda lake is often filled with flamingo. Enjoy your picnic breakfast beside a lake usually frequented by hippo. Return to the lodge for a later lunch, and in the afternoon you can return to the crater floor for a second drive, or relax at the lodge as well as visit a nearby Maasai village. Dinner and overnight at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge.  [b-l-d]

After breakfast retrace your route around the crater rim over the lip of the crater into the great Serengeti. First sop is Olduvai Gorge where so many precious finds of early man were found. There will be time to visit the museum after a short lecture by the curator. Afterwards, your game viewing begins immediately as head out over the great plains. Depending upon the season of your first, you may stop at Shifting Sands and the Gol Kopjes. Along the way you'll enjoy a picnic lunch with undoubtedly an expansive view of Africa set before you! By the end of the day you've arrived Ndutu Lodge in the great southwest lakes region for dinner and overnight.  [b-l-d]

Your final two days in the Serengeti National Park will be scheduled depending upon the season you're traveling as we try to get you in proximity to the great herds. The Serengeti's Great Migration is a hallmark of this ecosystem, but very weather dependent. More than a million animals move in pretty concentrated masses among more than 7,000 sq. miles. You'll likely spend tonight at either Serengeti Sopa Lodge in the beautiful central west kopjes area, or at Migration Camp in the north. On your journey to one of these areas from Ndutu, today, you may have the opportunity of visiting several sacred Maasai sites, of climbing Naabi Hill, and of enjoying the Serengeti Visitors' Center. Whatever you do and wherever you travel in this immense wilderness, you won't be able to avoid outstanding game viewing, because the Serengeti is the greatest wilderness park on earth!  [b-l-d]

On you last day exploring this magnificent wilderness you'll see abundant game, on the plains, in the woodlands and kopjes, and possibly near the great rivers like the Grumeti. The [Serengeti] is a vast place. Many safaris link themselves to a certain lodge and spend only a few hours outside it searching for game, but we're dedicated to finding you the optimum game viewing, the greatest collection of animals on earth! Your driver will have the most current information, and he may suggest you go out all day. And then, again, you might not have to, as large numbers of animals may be found right outside your doorstep! Meals and overnight at your lodge or camp.  [b-l-d]

After breakfast you game view to the nearest Serengeti airstrip for the morning flight back to Arusha town, which is scheduled to arrive around noon. You'll be met by a new vehicle and driver who will take you shopping and for a meal at a popular local restaurant. Afterwards, you'll be returned to Kilimanjaro Airport where you'll have a private room at KIA Lodge which is located adjacent the airport. Later this evening the lodge will shuttle you to the airport for the overnight departures to Europe.  [b-l- ]

END OF EWT SERVICES