Tanzania’s wildlife is as rich and bountiful as any place’s on earth, but there are a couple of other things that command our attention: the country’s gentle people and its great soaring landscapes—exceptional, even for a continent as vast and soaring as Africa.

Flying into the northern town of Arusha, we have a night to recover from jet lag, then we’re off by plane to Lake Manyara’s Tree Lodge, a welcoming and uniquely beautiful spot where our chalets are cradled in the boughs of mahogany trees. From there we’re whisked off to the fascinating Serengeti National Park. To the Maasai, it is Siringutu, “the place where the land moves on forever.” Our tented camp here gives us our first real taste of safari life, which the great H. M. Stanley extolled as “the sweet and novel pleasure of indifference to all things earthly outside camp, which is one of the most exquisite and soul-lulling pleasures a mortal can enjoy.”

After some spectacular game viewing, we’re off to the quintessential Lost World of the Ngorongoro Crater. Our lodge is perched on the crater rim, with breath-stopping views of the caldera’s 100-squaremile floor, rich with nearly every prominent East African species. Then back to Arusha, reluctantly, for our flights home.

Day 1: arrive in Arusha • Day 2: fly to Lake Manyara • Day 3: Lake Manyara • Day 4: drive to the Ngorongoro Crater, Ngorongoro Crater Lodge • Day 5: Ngorongoro Crater, Ngorongoro Crater Lodge • Day 6: fly to the Serengeti, Under Canvas • Days 7 & 8: Serengeti National Park, Under Canvas • Day 9: fly to Kilimanjaro Airport, then onward.

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