Sixteen nights run from northern Tanzania into Kenya’s highlands. A first night below Mount Meru at Arusha leads to the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, then a ridge in the western Serengeti corridor. Crossing into Kenya, the trip takes in the Maasai Mara’s Olare Motorogi Conservancy, the Laikipia escarpment above the Ewaso Ng’iro, and finally the Borana Conservancy under Mount Kenya.
The days move from forest walks and crater descents to off-road tracking, night drives, horseback and camels, ground the national parks do not allow. Each stay is a small, design-led camp or family ranch, from ten and twelve tented suites to eight cottages of stone and cedar, chosen for its position rather than its size.
You land at Kilimanjaro International, an hour's drive away, and spend the first night in montane forest on Mount Meru's lower slopes, inside Arusha National Park. Here the days are walked rather than driven, with an armed ranger and colobus monkeys calling from the fig and cedar crowns at first light. Opened in July 2025, Koroi has nine rooms, eight tented chalets on raised timber platforms and a single treehouse suite, all facing a seasonally flooded glade where giraffes move through the trees below.
From the forest below Meru you continue to the wooded rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. A stay is built around one early descent onto the floor, among the first vehicles down, with a picnic breakfast and lunch carried for the day; the crater is one of the more reliable places in Tanzania to see black rhino, and the Big Five can turn up in a single morning. Ten tented suites stand in acacia forest close to the descent road, at roughly 2,300 metres, where evenings turn cold and a hot-water bottle answers the altitude.
Next comes a high, isolated ridge in the western corridor of the Serengeti, where the Great Migration passes through and the Grumeti country holds resident lions, leopards and hyenas. Below the ridge a waterhole draws elephants, buffalo and antelope into view, and custom Land Rovers switch between fuel and electric power so a morning drive can approach a herd in near silence. Twelve tented suites double as a gallery, with forty-six museum-grade works woven through the lodge, which opened in July 2025.
Crossing into Kenya, you reach the private Olare Motorogi Conservancy on the northern edge of the Maasai Mara, where guests track off-road, drive after dark and walk the plains on foot. Traversing rights reach into Mara North and the reserve itself, where the migration's river crossings run roughly July to October; leopards and lions work the riverine forest close to camp. Seven octagonal tents sit on decks of recycled railway sleepers, reached across a rope suspension bridge, each carrying a Canon camera set and Swarovski binoculars.
From the Mara you move to a family ranch on a Laikipia escarpment above the Ewaso Ng'iro, where days run on horseback, on camels and on foot with Samburu guides. A waterhole and salt lick sit beneath the cliff, drawing elephant, reticulated giraffe, eland and buffalo, while leopards visit after dark and guests can sleep in the stone hide beside it. Because Ol Malo is private land, night drives and off-road tracking are permitted, and the cottages here were hand-built by the Francombe family, now run by a third generation.
The final four nights are spent on the Borana Conservancy, a private rhino sanctuary in the Laikipia Highlands where rangers monitor the animals daily and guests can join them on foot. Since the boundary with Lewa came down, the two form a single landscape of more than 92,000 acres, home to over 200 black and white rhino. Days also fill with horse riding among zebra and giraffe, night drives, biking and helicopter excursions to the Ngare Ndare Forest. Eight cottages of local stone and cedar terrace into a hillside above the Samangua Valley, with Mount Kenya rising to the south.
Ed Charles, BBC Producer
Fitzroy are true specialists in accessing the wilderness. They know where to go and importantly, when to go there. Highly recommended.
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Walking safaris through Tanzania's Rift Valley and Serengeti, then five nights in a private villa on Zanzibar's coast.
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Eleven nights linking the Ngorongoro rim, the herds of the Serengeti and chimpanzee tracking at Mahale.
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Ten nights from Mount Meru across the eastern and southern Serengeti to the Ngorongoro Crater rim.
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our approach
Every journey starts with a conversation. We take the time to understand your vision before we start planning.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape something that is considered, personal, and expertly delivered.
Every journey starts with a conversation. We favour a direct, personal approach: understanding your vision before anything else.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape a journey that is both thoughtfully considered and expertly delivered.
Get in touch to start planning yours.
