Tanzania Safari Itinerary + Serengeti Seasons Review
This travel guide will focus solely on our first destination: Tanzania. There are many countries/regions in Africa where safaris are possible, but we decided to choose Tanzania mainly because it is located on the site of the Four Seasons Safari Lodge in the famous Serengeti National Park.
We have only had positive experiences at Four Seasons (see my reviews of Miami and Hawaii) and trust the brand. Once we read the thousands of positive reviews written online by previous guests of the lodge, it really was a wise choice.
We booked a 5 night stay in late January and felt it was the perfect time to enjoy the gorgeous lodge and take advantage of the hotel’s safari excursions.
Outfit Details // Lace Blouse| Sunglasses| Elephant Necklace| Gold Bar Necklace| Leather Watch| Woven Tot Bag| Sun Hat| Sandals| Headband| Beaded Bracelet
To Serengeti National Park
I won’t whitewash it. Getting to the Serengeti National Park from the USA is not easy. Nick and I booked all of our travel ourselves – flights, hotels, short trips, etc – and it was by far our most difficult adventure to plan. This was mainly due to the number of flights, some of which were only available on certain days of the week.
We found it almost impossible to fly to Tanzania in one day. I’m honestly glad that was the case as I don’t think I could have survived back to back flights and multiple long layovers. The only airline that offers direct flights to the region is AirKenya (New York > Nairobi), but we quickly removed this as an option after reading airline reviews.
Our flight itinerary: New York to Tanzania
In the end we decided on a United + Air Canada combination: Newark > Toronto > Dubai. The only reason we did this was because I was stubbornly trying to maintain my United Gold Premier status through the miles I’d earned flying business class on Air Canada (a Star Alliance airline and United partner).
If you read my Instagram story on the day we left, then you already know that our planned flight path turned into a complete dumpster fire.
Long story short: Due to internal IT issues, United significantly delayed (and ultimately cancelled) our flight to Toronto, causing us to miss our connecting Air Canada flight to Dubai, and we were scheduled to have a 1.5 day layover before our final two flights to Tanzania.
Travel FYI: After revealing our flight fiasco on Instagram, I was inundated with messages from followers who recounted similar negative experiences on United and connecting flights in Toronto on international flights. Had we known in advance the potential problems we might encounter, we would not have booked our flights in this manner. If you are considering an international flight on United or one of its partner airlines, I would be very cautious about choosing a connection in Toronto. Going forward, we will try to avoid flying United any time we are not flying directly to a location.
The situation was a nightmare. After spending a whole day at Newark airport trying to figure out a solution (during which I had 2 panic attacks), we ended up having to completely cancel our United/Air Canada itinerary and rebook a brand new, more expensive direct flight to Dubai on Emirates (which we should have booked in the first place.)
Doing so was the only way we could fly to Dubai to fly to Africa. We have strict visas that only allow us to stay in Tanzania for a specific number of days – rebooking through United and Air Canada would mean rebooking each of our hotels and applying for new visas. If it hadn’t been an Emirates flight first thing the next morning, I think we would have had to cancel our entire honeymoon.
Lots of lessons learnt. Always book a direct flight if you can, even if it means cheating on your preferred airline. This experience taught me first hand that loyalty means nothing to United or Star Alliance. As a consolation for nearly ruining our honeymoon, United gave me a pathetic $100 voucher and Nick gave me $75 …… talking about rubbing salt in the wound. ps Yes, we plan to get in touch with customer service for a higher voucher. Will share updates on Instagram if anything changes ……
Glad that didn’t get in the way! Although our honeymoon didn’t start off well, I’m happy to share that once we boarded our new Emirates flight to Dubai, everything was smooth sailing. The service was great!
Our flight itinerary: Dubai to Tanzania
To reach Tanzania we took a 5 hour AirKenya flight from Dubai to Nairobi. From there we connected to the Serengeti National Park via a small regional airline called Coastal Airways. We actually had a concierge book for four seasons and arranged our last Coastal Airways flight because the timing was so confusing. You can read more about how to get four seasons in the Serengeti on the FAQ page here.
I’ve been getting a lot of messages on Instagram asking me about small propeller planes flying to the Serengeti. Is it scary? Can you feel the turbulence? How long has it been going on?
Katie Bliss Tanzania SafariKatie Bliss Tanzania Safari
Outfit details // Quilted pullover | Twill joggers| Leather backpack| Sunglasses| Gold bar necklace| Grey trainers
A few years ago I would have been horrified by such a small plane, but to be honest I was really pleased to finally arrive in Tanzania and almost reach our destination, so much so that the circumstances of our flight really didn’t change me. You have to remember just two days ago we might have had to cancel our whole honeymoon so I was glad to get on that little plane.
Not sure if this is any consolation to anyone who is nervous about flying in such a plane, but I was pleased to find that these small planes don’t fly as high as regular planes. We could see the ground the whole time and the view was beautiful! Every time we landed there was wildlife on the runway – so bizarre! PS I believe if you fly to Kilimanjaro airport you can reach the Serengeti by car, so if you are very much against small prop planes, this is an option.
