East Africa by Air

Nights

16

Party

2–4 guests

Countries

Kenya · Tanzania

From

US$ 50,000 per person, based on four guests sharing, including private aircraftExcludes international flights to and from Africa.

Best season

Jul–Oct

This is the Great Migration seen from every angle, with a round of golf before you go. You start at Giraffe Manor in Karen and play Karen Country Club, laid out on what was Karen Blixen's estate. Then the aircraft takes you to the Maasai Mara: three nights at Angama Mara, 1,000 feet up on the escarpment, and four at Angama Safari Camp, a private standing camp inside the reserve that takes one party at a time. You cross into Tanzania for Singita Sabora in the 350,000-acre Grumeti concession and finish on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater.

Highlights

• A round at Karen Country Club
• Angama Safari Camp, one party only
• A Mara River crossing with no other vehicles
• A hot-air balloon at dawn over the Mara
• Singita Sabora in the Grumeti concession
• Ngorongoro Crater Lodge on the rim

1. Day 1

   Nairobi · Giraffe Manor

   We meet you on arrival in Nairobi and drive you to Giraffe Manor in Karen, twelve rooms in a manor house with Rothschild giraffe wandering the grounds. Spend the afternoon in the garden. Dinner is at Talisman, the best kitchen in Karen, known for its grilled meats and its garden tables.

2. Day 2

   Golf · Karen Country Club

   Breakfast gets interrupted. The giraffe put their heads through the upper-storey windows looking for pellets, and they are not shy about it. Then you play Karen Country Club on the old Karen Blixen Estate, where you often see wildlife from the fairways and the city disappears behind the trees. Non-golfers stay with the giraffe and the gardens.

3. Day 3

   Nairobi → Maasai Mara · Angama Mara

   A Cessna Caravan flies you from Wilson Airport to the Angama airstrip, about forty-five minutes west. The pilot makes a low pass over the grass first to move the zebra and topi off it. Angama Mara sits on the Oloololo Escarpment, its tented suites 1,000 feet above the Mara.

4. Day 4

   Angama Mara · Studio and forest

   A morning drive in the Mara Triangle in your own vehicle with your own guide. In the afternoon you sit down in Angama's photography studio with the resident professional photographer and go through what you have shot so far, and how to get more from it. Dinner is the Forest BBQ, a long table lit by lanterns in the forest above the Mara.

5. Day 5

   Out of Africa picnic

   A dawn drive, a long breakfast and the middle of the day to yourselves. In the afternoon your guide takes you to the spot on the escarpment where Out of Africa was filmed. There is white linen and champagne, and the plains 1,000 feet below go gold as the sun drops.

6. Day 6

   Into the reserve · Angama Safari Camp

   You drive down off the escarpment into the Maasai Mara National Reserve to Angama Safari Camp, a private standing camp that takes one party only. Because it sits among the herds, you get roughly two more hours of game viewing a day than you would from a camp on the escarpment. The afternoon drive leaves from your tent.

7. Day 7

   Balloon over the Mara

   You lift off before dawn in a hot-air balloon and spend an hour over the Migration as the sun comes up. When you land there is a long table in the grass for a champagne bush breakfast, with the wildebeest still around you.

8. Day 8

   The Mara River crossing

   Your guide has been watching the river since before dawn and puts your vehicle at the crossing point, with no other vehicles in sight. Then you wait, sometimes for hours, while the wildebeest bunch up on the bank. When the first one goes the river fills with animals, and you stay until it is over.

9. Day 9

   Among the herds

   A full day in the reserve with nothing on the schedule. Sleeping inside the Mara means you are with the herds at first light and can stay out until the last. Your guide goes wherever the day leads: lion, cheetah, or another crossing.

10. Day 10

    Maasai Mara → Grumeti · Singita Sabora

    Your Caravan flies south over the border into Tanzania, formalities cleared en route, and lands at the Grumeti strip. Singita Sabora is eight tents in the 350,000-acre private Grumeti concession on the Serengeti's western corridor. Your guide and vehicle are waiting, and the afternoon drive is yours.

11. Day 11–13

    Grumeti · Serengeti

    A helicopter takes you up over the Serengeti to find the herds from the air, then puts you down to follow them by vehicle across the concession. You also visit the Singita Grumeti anti-poaching operations centre and meet the people who run it. On the last evening dinner is a long table out in the open grass at last light.

12. Day 14

    Grumeti → Ngorongoro · Crater Lodge

    A Cessna Caravan flies you east to the Lake Manyara strip, and a private vehicle climbs up through the highland forest to &Beyond Ngorongoro Crater Lodge on the rim. Thirty suites look down into the Crater, and your butler meets you at the door.

13. Day 15–16

    Ngorongoro Crater

    You go down into the Crater at first light in your own vehicle with your guide, ahead of the day's traffic, for lion, rhino and the flamingos on the soda lake. On the last evening your butler serves three courses on your private deck while the light goes on the Crater floor, 600 metres below.

14. Day 17

    Departure

    A private vehicle and a Cessna Caravan get you to Kilimanjaro International. From there an Embraer Praetor 600 flies you to Johannesburg, or you connect straight onto your international flight. Your Journey Architect has your luggage checked through, and thirty days later the coffee table book of your trip reaches your door.

Flown by turboprop, mid-size and super mid-size jet and helicopter. How we choose the aircraft