Tanzania Safari and Zanzibar Package

The Itinerary

Seven nights, designed as one journey

The structure below is the 7-day framework our family runs most often for a first-time East African trip. It is not a fixed product — the day-by-day can be reshaped around your dates, your party, and what you most want from the trip. But the framework is the strongest 7-day shape we know how to design, and Don will tell you on the first call whether the shape is right for your situation.

1. Day 1

   Arrive Kilimanjaro, private transfer to Arusha

   Met on arrival by the Bobby Safaris team and driven to a private residence in Arusha. No public transfer, no group shuttle, no waiting for other arrivals. A relaxed evening, a light dinner, and a full briefing on the week ahead with your safari guide in person. Many of our 7-day guests use this evening to set the trip's pace — what to prioritise, what to leave flexible, which drives the guide should shape around weather or recent wildlife movements. The briefing is not a sales call; it is the working session that makes the rest of the week feel intentional.

2. Day 2

   Fly to Tarangire, afternoon game drive

   Light aircraft from Arusha to the Tarangire airstrip after breakfast. The drive from the airstrip to camp is short, and you are on a private afternoon game drive before the light goes flat. Tarangire in the dry season is elephant country in the most direct sense — large herds, baobab-studded landscape, and the kind of game-viewing that the more famous parks have priced past their own character. Sundowners on the Tarangire River, a private dinner at camp, and an early night. The first full day on safari is best ended before midnight.

3. Day 3

   Full day in Tarangire, sundowners on the river

   A full day in the park, paced for travellers who would rather see less and see it well. Morning drive with a focus on the predator territories the guide has been watching for the week — Tarangire holds a strong lion population in the dry months, and the leopard viewing along the river courses is more reliable than the more famous reserves. Midday break at camp during the flat light. Afternoon drive timed for golden hour, with sundowners set up on a granite outcrop your guide has been saving for the right evening. Dinner under the stars if the weather is clear.

4. Day 4

   Fly to the Ngorongoro Crater rim, descend for a half-day on the crater floor

   Short light-aircraft hop to a crater-rim airstrip. Descend into the crater for a half-day on the floor — lion, black rhino, hyena, the full predator cast, and the density of game that a 260-square-kilometre bowl produces in a single afternoon. Lunch set up on the crater floor, then ascend to the rim in the late afternoon. The night is spent on the rim, with the volcanoes on the horizon and the crater below. The rim itself is part of the experience — most operators treat it as a transit corridor. We do not.

5. Day 5

   Drive to the highlands, optional Olduvai Gorge, afternoon on the rim

   A slower day. Optional morning visit to Olduvai Gorge with a private guide from the museum, for guests who want the human-history layer. For guests who would rather have the morning off, brunch on the rim and a long lunch at the lodge. Afternoon walk on the rim trail if the weather is clear, or a quiet hour in the lodge library. The 7-day itinerary is paced against the exhausting version of the trip explicitly — there is no day on this schedule where the demand on the traveller exceeds what we would run for a member of our own family.

6. Day 6

   Private charter to Zanzibar, sundowners on the north coast

   The hinge of the trip. A private charter from a central-Serengeti airstrip (a short repositioning flight from the crater rim) directly to Zanzibar's own landing strip. Ninety minutes, no connection through Arusha, no regional terminal, no waiting. Met on arrival by the island team and driven to a private residence on the north coast. Sundowners on the property, dinner with a private chef, and the first night of what the safari was the preparation for. The bush-to-island handover is the moment the trip shifts register, and it is the part of the package that the wrong operator gets wrong.

7. Day 7

   Zanzibar — Stone Town, dhow charter, or full resort day

   The final day is shaped by the traveller. Some guests want a private morning in Stone Town with a Zanzibari historian in his family home and lunch on a rooftop overlooking the old harbour. Some guests want a private dhow charter to a quiet reef with a full day on the water and a beach lunch. Some guests want nothing at all, and the day is spent at the property. The package does not pre-assign the seventh day. The trip closes with a private transfer to Zanzibar airport in the late evening, in time for an international departure the next morning, or with an extra night at the property if the international flight is the day after.

What Shapes the Cost

The line items behind a 7-day package

A 7-day Tanzania safari and Zanzibar package with Bobby Safaris starts around USD $14,500 per person for two travellers in peak season. The number moves with five variables: camp grade, season, the routing on the Zanzibar transfer, the activities on the island, and the party size. Below is the honest breakdown of where the figure comes from — the parts an operator will not usually publish, and the parts that the brochure version of the package does not include.

• Camp grade on the safari leg. The 7-day framework uses one camp per zone — one in Tarangire, one on the crater rim, one in the Serengeti. Permanent luxury lodge, mobile camp, or ultra-premium tented suite is the variable that moves the line the most. Don selects each camp from a small set of properties he has visited repeatedly across decades of operating inside these parks.
• Season. Peak season (June through October and December through February) is the most expensive window and the most reliable for wildlife. Shoulder season (March, early June, November) is 15 to 25 percent lower. The long monsoon (late March through May) is the one window to avoid for the Zanzibar leg specifically.
• Private charter to Zanzibar. A private charter from a Serengeti airstrip directly to Zanzibar's landing strip is the single most-asked-about line item. It adds roughly $4,500 to $6,500 per leg over a scheduled domestic connection. The scheduled route requires a connection through Arusha and the regional terminal; the private charter is ninety minutes, door to door, on your schedule. For a serious 7-day trip, the private charter is not an upgrade — it is the correct way to begin the island portion.
• Zanzibar property and activities. The right Zanzibar property after a high-intensity Northern Circuit is a private residence or small boutique on the north coast with a private pool and a chef. Private dhow charter to a quiet reef runs around $1,200 to $1,800 for a full day. A private Stone Town morning with a Zanzibari historian runs around $650. A deep-sea day is roughly $2,200 for the boat and crew.
• Party size. Two travellers is the most efficient size for the 7-day shape — single-occupancy supplements at most camps run 30 to 50 percent on the per-person rate. Three or four travellers in a single vehicle keeps the per-person cost roughly flat; five or more usually requires a second vehicle and a second guide, which moves the per-person figure up by 15 to 25 percent.

Why the Single-Desk Approach

One operator, one brief, one trip

The international luxury travel market treats a Tanzania safari and a Zanzibar stay as two products. Booking them separately — a safari from a South Africa-based wholesaler, a Zanzibar villa from a UK travel agent, a private charter from a third — produces a 15 to 25 percent markup on each leg, three separate handovers, and a trip that does not feel designed. The single-desk approach is what makes the 7-day itinerary feel like one trip. Don reads the brief, the camp selection, the routing, the Stone Town access, and the dining arrangements before anything is confirmed. The package is the framework; every element can be reshaped to match the dates, the party, and what the trip is meant to deliver.

For a first Tanzania trip, the 7-day safari-and-Zanzibar package is the strongest shape the country offers. It is long enough to do the Northern Circuit properly, short enough to commit to without rearranging a year, and shaped so the safari leg and the island leg reinforce each other. Don has been designing this exact trip for four generations. It is the one he would design for a member of his own family visiting from abroad.