Elephant Level

Traveling "green" does not necessarily mean camping and eating granola for breakfast! An eco-safari can be luxurious too, allowing you to learn about East Africa's wildlife and culture while making little impact on the environment and a strong impact on the local communities, yet still being pampered to your heart's content!

To Eco-resorts, "eco" means Environmental and Community Orientated. The featured properties we use in Tanzania's first real eco-safari are on the cutting edge of ecotourism. They are either directly owned by the community or have been established on community tribal lands in direct negotiations with the communities, generating an alternative income for the local villages. They also are involved in wildlife conservation, often bordering national parks or areas with high density of wildlife, allowing you the chance to see game up close and personal!

Going "Eco" helps the local communities use wildlife as their natural, beneficial resource. In each of the itinerary's regions, wildlife is threatened from exploding human populations and economic growth, causing human/wildlife conflicts. In order to resolve some of these conflicts, ecotourism is a viable alternative to cattle ranching or farming. By providing a direct benefit to communities for tending to wildlife, the properties in our eco-safari help resolve and alleviate these conflicts.

Day 1 Arrive into Arusha, Tanzania either by direct intercontinental flight or from Nairobi. You will be met at the airport by your driver and guide and taken to the Il Boru Lodge for your fist night in Tanzania. Il Boru Lodge is a small, personal, very comfortable lodge catering to visitors who would like to support local community projects, such as farm irrigation schemes, education and medical facilities.

Day 2 After an early morning breakfast, fly to the magnificent Serengeti National Park, one of the largest remaining natural habitats in the world. Enjoy your first game drive en route to your private tented camp in this rich eco-system. Settle into camp over lunch before a full afternoon game drive, starting to explore the vast open plains of the Serengeti. Dinner and overnight at the camp.

Days 3-4 These two full days are spent traversing the Serengeti. Wildebeest, lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo, hyena, antelope, eagles, sunbirds, Agama Lizards and much more are all found here; enjoy your search! All meals and overnights at your private camp.

Day 5 Drive to the Tarangire National Park through the Ngorongoro Crater Highlands. Stop off at Gibb's Farm, a delightful coffee plantation estate, for lunch before arriving at the Tarangire Treetops Lodge in the late afternoon. Sundowners are taken as the sun sets over the craggy kopjes and stark branches of the park's famous baobab trees. Your lodge is magical, built out of natural old woods, thatch and canvas; the buildings surround the huge baobab trees, using the trees as a part of construction to form a truly unique experience. Dinner and overnight at Tarangire Treetops Lodge.

Day 6 Spend the day on game drives or walks with opportunities to learn about the partnership between Treetops Lodge and the villages of Lokisale, Makuyuni and Mswakini. The Lodge is located on the perimeter of the park and provides direct revenue to the villages for development of schools, water holes and medical dispensaries. In exchange, the local villages avoid farming, land clearing and hunting to ensure wildlife habitat protection. Dinner and overnight at the Lodge.

Day 7 Spend the entire day on a game drive inside the Tarangire National Park. The game here concentrates along the river, one of the few permanent water sources in the area. Tree climbing lions, elephant and wildebeest abound. Dinner and overnight at the Lodge.

Day 8 After an early breakfast, drive directly to the Western Usambara Mountains, stopping along the way for a picnic lunch. Arrive in the late afternoon and enjoy the grounds of Mullers Lodge, a community owned lodge. Learn about the local village traditions and peoples along the way, as your driver points out items of interest. Keep your eyes out for the numerous birds and wildlife; they aren't only found in the parks! Dinner and overnight at Mullers Lodge.

Day 9 Spend today gently hiking through the forest trails of these incredibly rich mountains. The Usambaras are one of the very few areas of lowland forest left in Africa; it is estimated that nearly half of its butterflies and plants are found nowhere else on earth! Rare birds are also seen here, as are elephant, buffalo, leopard and various duikers. Dinner and overnight at Mullers Lodge.

Day 10 Visit the nearby Lushoto village and spend the day with the local peoples as they introduce you to their traditions, handicrafts, foods and culture. Dinner and overnight at the Lodge.

Day 11 After breakfast, drive to Moshi town. Enjoy a dayroom at the new Impala Hotel in Moshi. Lunch and early dinner, then continue to Kilimanjaro airport for your flight home.

Includes: All meals, all accommodation, all transfers, all vehicles, driver guides, park entrance fees, domestic flights and taxes.

Excludes: International flights, tips, drinks and personal purchases are not included.

Contact Melinda Rees for more information on this safari.

Why travel with us? Because Eco-resorts is changing the world-one journey at a time.

Animals and people both need land. Ecotourism provides an alternative income for the people, leaving space for the migratory animals. Eco-resorts actively supports the villages and projects that are protecting East Africa's environment and culture.

We develop self-help eco-projects, which promote wildlife conservation. We also educate both our consumers and our partner camps with two free ezines. We use renewable energy products, reduce paper and plastic consumption in our office and have left the natural vegetation unscathed, resulting in duiker and monitor lizards visiting the office!

We donate 10% of all post-tax profits to fund community and/or conservation projects. Community projects are operated with the local villagers as the operators and managers; Eco-resorts provides advice and guidance when requested, but abides by local beliefs and traditions.

Our current projects include:

- The Children of the Rising Sun Orphanage, which provides accommodation, meals, medicine and schooling for 28 street-children. Our goal is to have a vocational job-training center operational at the home, for the kids and local villagers.

- The Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve, the last remaining tract of coastal lowland forest in Kenya, which provides the only refuge for several endemic birds and mammals, such as the golden-rumped elephant shrew and the Sokoke Pippet. Designated as one of Conservation International's 26 global bio-diversity hotspots (www.conservation.org) and surrounded on all sides by an ever increasing human population, the Forest is in danger of disappearing as trees are cut for carvings, land cleared for subsistence farming and animals trapped for food.

Eco-resorts hopes to ensure that the local villagers become the greatest supporters of the Forest. One of the many projects in the Forest trains the local villagers to breed forest butterfly species for export to the live butterfly market.

With two local butterfly farms already in operation, over 400 people in the area bordering the Forest now have an income that relies upon the continued health of the Forest. Our goal is to employ another 100 people.

Please contact melinda@eco-resorts.com for more detailed information on our ezines and the Eco-resorts community and wildlife conservation projects that your eco-adventure safari will support. Help us make a difference!