From Savannah to Sea is a ten-day Kenya Tanzania Zanzibar safari that crosses the two greatest wildlife ecosystems in Africa and finishes on an Indian Ocean beach. The Maasai Mara, the Serengeti and Zanzibar: one continuous journey, three international borders handled for you, no backtracking.
This is the flagship. It is also the itinerary that makes the most sense of the flying, because the Mara and the Serengeti are the same ecosystem divided by a line on a map, and seeing both is a genuinely different experience from seeing either alone.
One Ecosystem, Two Countries
The Mara and the Serengeti are not two destinations that happen to be adjacent. They are one plain, and the migration moves across the border twice a year without acknowledging it. A Maasai Mara Serengeti safari lets you follow that movement rather than watch one end of it.
The practical difference is scale. The Mara is intimate and densely stocked, and you learn its drainage lines and prides in three days. The Serengeti is vast to the point of disorientation, with plains that run past the horizon in every direction and a different quality of silence.
- Cross-border flights handled end to end. Mara to Serengeti via Kogatende, immigration cleared airside.
- Private vehicle and guide in each country, with the handover managed for you.
- Camps positioned for the season, moved to follow the herds rather than fixed to a postcode.
- A beach finish, so the trip ends in recovery rather than exhaustion.
The Timeless Plains of the Maasai Mara
Three nights open the journey in the Maasai Mara, staying either inside the national reserve or in one of the private conservancies on its boundary. The conservancies permit off-road viewing and night drives; the reserve puts you in the heart of the classic Mara. You choose, and we will talk you through both.
This is where the trip finds its rhythm. Dawn drives while the light is still cold and the cats are still moving. Long breakfasts taken in the grass. Afternoons following whatever the morning turned up, and evenings that end on a rise with a drink and a view of the whole plain.
Across the Endless Serengeti
A short flight south crosses into Tanzania and lands you in a landscape of a different order of magnitude. The Serengeti runs to nearly fifteen thousand square kilometres, and the camps here sit in low-density concessions far from the main circuits.
Three nights allow real depth: the kopjes where lion prides shelter through the heat, the river lines that hold leopard, and, between June and October, the herds themselves, hundreds of thousands of animals moving as one body across open ground.
A dawn balloon flight is optional and, on this leg in particular, worth it. Nothing at ground level conveys the scale of the plains the way a thousand feet does. It is followed by a champagne breakfast set out in the bush.
The Shores of Zanzibar
Four nights on the island close this luxury safari and beach holiday. After six days of early starts, the shift is abrupt and entirely welcome.
The resort is ultra-luxury beachfront, chosen for water that swims well at most tides. Days are unstructured by design. Spa treatments, reef snorkelling at Mnemba, a dhow at sunset, or Stone Town for a morning of spice markets and Omani architecture.
Or none of it. By the second day most guests have stopped scheduling anything, which is the correct response.
What Is Included
- Nine nights of accommodation as described: six on full board on safari, four on half board on the coast
- All flights: Nairobi to the Maasai Mara, Maasai Mara to the Serengeti, Serengeti to Zanzibar
- All park, reserve, conservancy and concession fees in both countries
- Private 4×4 vehicle and professional guide on both safari legs
- Two game activities daily, including night drives where permitted
- All meals on safari
- All airport transfers and cross-border immigration assistance
- Bottled water and emergency evacuation cover
What Is Not Included
- International flights, Kenyan travel authorisation and Tanzanian visa
- Travel insurance, which is a condition of booking
- Lunches and dinners outside the resort on Zanzibar
- Premium wines, champagne and imported spirits
- Optional activities: balloon flights, diving, Stone Town tours, spa treatments
- Gratuities for guides, camp and resort staff
When to Travel
July to October is the window this Kenya Tanzania Zanzibar safari was built for. The migration is in the northern Serengeti and the Mara, river crossings are possible on both sides of the border, and Zanzibar is dry with calm seas. It books ten to twelve months ahead.
January to March is the strong alternative. Calving season on the southern Serengeti plains brings extraordinary predator activity, the coast is hot and clear, and camps are noticeably quieter.
April, May and much of November fall in the rains. Some camps close and coastal weather is unreliable.
Planning Your Kenya Tanzania Zanzibar Safari
This 10 day East Africa safari is quoted for your dates, your party size and your pace. Send us your travel window and we will return a full costing with camp and resort options within one working day.
Prefer a shorter trip or a single country? See our full range of tour packages, or read the Tanzania National Parks Authority guidance on park fees and regulations.
