tanzania

Lupita Island in Tanzania Offering Green Rates this Spring

Lupita Island, the extraordinary private sanctuary in the Rukwa region of western Tanzania, may be worth a visit this spring. From March 1 through May 31, Lupita is offering "green" rates that are one-third less than its rates during the high season.

Luxist's Ann Brenoff's piece on Lupita this past summer described Lupita as "a real life fantasy island." Indeed, the luxury resort is a fantasy island of sorts, as it is situated on Lake Tanganyika, the longest and second deepest lake in the world. Lupita Island sits amid 130 acres of unspoiled forest and grassland overlooking the myriad of islands and the clear blue waters of the lake.

Lupita offers luxurious accommodations set amidst a pristine natural habitat in Tanzania. Guests stay in eleven lavishly decorated, thatched-roof open-air living spaces (double occupancy) and two family cottages each offering breathtaking, uninterrupted views of the lake. Rooms are spacious and exquisitely appointed. The smallest rooms are 1,800 square feet and the two-bedroom, two-bath suites are 2,400 square feet. As guests relax powerful waterfall showers, bathroom walls open to nature and life's stresses simply melt away. Each room also includes bathtubs or plunge pools on either the deck or terrace, a large lounge with a bar and beautiful views of the surrounding lake and neighboring islands.

Gallery: Lupita Island in Tanzania

Tags: Africa, Firelight Expeditions, Lupita, Lupita Island, luxury travel, safari, Tanzania

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East African Safari with Abercrombie & Kent

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

The African bush is full of beauty and danger---best to leave excursion planning to an experienced professional. There are none better than Abercrombie & Kent, a luxury travel company that's been at it for half a century, now nominated for a Luxist Award in the Best Adventure Getaway category.

Established in 1962 by a British family living in East Africa, Abercrombie & Kent offers an unparalleled safari in Kenya and Tanzania. The two-week East Africa in Style itinerary starts with a flight to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya and socioeconomic hub of East Africa. After two nights there, you'll fly to Lake Manyara, where towering trees loom in front of a 2,000-foot escarpment. For the next two days, you'll see wildlife including monitor lizards, vervet monkeys, African spoonbills and pelicans.

Gallery: East African Safari with Abercrombie & Kent

Your next stop will be the Ngorongoro crater, a caldera nearly half a mile deep, formed from the core of a collapsed volcano; its prairie boast lions, elephants, hyenas and gazelles. Continue on to the Samburu and Masai Mara game reserves, where you'll meet with members of nomadic tribes and learn about their cattle-herding lifestyle. On your last day, you'll stop at the Kent family home for a final lunch before heading back to Nairobi. All the while, you'll be waited on by a personal tent butler; groups are limited to 12 people in total.

Abercrombie & Kent's East Africa in Style getaway is a spectacular opportunity, but these memories won't come cheaply. The cost, based on double occupancy, starts at $16,000 per person plus airfare. Once there, the experience is priceless.

Vote for the Adventure Getaway that you think is the best of breed. The winner will be announced on September 1st.

Tags: abercrombie and kent, AbercrombieAndKent, awards-main, best safari, East Africa, Kenya, Luxist-awards, safari, Tanzania, tanzanian-safari

Tanzania's Lupita Island, a Real-Life 'Fantasy Island'

by Ann Brenoff (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

This is my mid-summer's fantasy vacation: A stay on a spectacular 130-acre private island off Africa with open-air luxury rooms set in a pristine natural habitat. Accessible only by boat. Price: If you have to ask ... (A family cottage with two bedrooms and two baths is $2,600 a night. One bedroom units rent for $863 per person or $518 for a child sharing. Meals and water sports are included.)

Guests of Lupita Island, located on Africa's Lake Tanganyika in south western Tanzania, stay in detached, open-sided thatched-roof villas with views of Africa's second largest lake. The resort provides a variety of water sports, luxury dining, relaxation, spa services and the fact that there is a very good chance no one can reach you by cell phone. That's called a getaway vacation.

The luxury resort, which completed a major renovation in June 1010, was designed to blend in with the environment. It is surrounded by dense indigenous forest, open grassland and rocky outcrops. The Lupita Island Resort accommodates guests in a 13 luxury suites and 2 presidential suites, which have private plunge pools and the option of star beds. The plunge pools are fed by a constant flow of water through the suite resembling a soothing mountain stream.

Gallery: Lupita Island

Tags: african travel, island, Lupita, lupita island, luxury travel, tanzania

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A Black Rhino Airlift from South Africa to East Africa

by Alison Wellner (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Charity, Green

Even the most jaded traveler is thrilled by the view out the window while landing in Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, but one has to imagine that five particular passengers who were indeed on a trip of a lifetime last week were somewhat less than delighted -- not that they had much of a view.

Five endangered black rhinoceros were transported by air from South Africa's Addo Reserve to the Serengeti Park yesterday -- funded in part by Singita Grumeti Reserves, the Tanzania arm of Singita, which runs a group of ultra-luxury African safari lodges. (Other benefactors:The US Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Nduna Foundation.)The rhino relocation was part of a species preservation project over forty years in the making.

Gallery: Black Rhino Transport to East Africa

Tags: africa, conservation, preservation, rhino, Rhinoceros, safari, SouthAfrica, Tanzania

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To Mama With Love, Honoring Mom By Doing Good

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Charity

Need a last minute Mother's Day gift idea? If you are looking for a way to honor your mother (or any mother figure in your life) here's a cool way to take a digital approach. No, not an e-card, something a bit more personal. A heartspace on To Mama With Love, a social charity initiative from Epic Change. The way it works is that you donate money to Epic Chance to help build a home for orphaned children in Tanzania and then you create a heartspace for your Mama with images, words, video, anything you like. The space appears on a map on the website along with other expressions of mama love. So far there are nearly 200 mamas on the page.

Epic Change is a 501c3 US nonprofit that has helped grassroots changemaker Mama Lucy Kamptoni, who started a school in Arusha, Tanzania with money she made selling chickens. She began with just 10 students but now serves more than 411 kids and her school is currently ranked #2 in her district out of 118 schools. A video on the project is after the jump.

Tags: arusha, charity, childrens charity, epic change, tanzania

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New Sky Safari Links Four Properties By Plane

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Elewana Afrika, a group of luxury camps and lodges in Northern Tanzania, has announced a new way to see all of their four properties during one seven-night adventure. The Sky Safari package uses a private nine-seat luxury Cessna aircraft to fly guests between the properties. The package includes the flights, all accommodations, all meals, all drinks, game drives, bush walks, excursions, private airport transfers and laundry.

Arusha Coffee Lodge, Tarangire Treetops Lodge, The Manor at Ngorongoro and Serengeti Migration Camp are small camps that exist in harmony with their environment: in a coffee plantation in Arusha, adjacent to the Ngorongoro Crater within the 1,500 acre Shangri-La estate, close to the baobab and marula trees of Tarangire and alongside the Grumeti River in Serengeti.

Arusha Coffee Lodge, set on the edge of the town of Arusha, is a boutique style lodge with 30 plantation-style villas. Tarangire Treetops is located within the 85,000-acre Lolkisale Conservation Area, a private reserve bordering Tarangire National Park and guests stay in 20 comfortably furnished tree houses putting them in close proximity to other tree residents, such as owls and bush babies. The Manor at Ngorongoro has 20 cottages with open fireplaces and the main building features fireplace lounges, formal dining room, dining conservatory, bar, private wine cellar, library, home theatre, snooker room, massage room and horse stables. Serengeti Migration Camp has 20 tents overlooking the Grumeti River. Both Tarangire Treetops and Serengeti Migration Camp offer dining in the bush when weather permits. Rack rates for the full-inclusive Elewana Sky Safari start at $6,000 per person.

Tags: africa, elewana, elewana afrika, ElewanaAfrika, safari, tanzania

Sanctuary Swala, Swim While On Safari

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Sanctuary Swala Camp, part of the Sanctuary Retreats collection, has just re-opened in Tanzania and combines up close encounters with wildlife with luxury amenities. Following a $1.5 million rebuild, the camp now has 12 spacious canvas pavilions, designed around an open-plan model with large living areas, king beds and en suite bathrooms with both indoor and outdoor showers. Floor to ceiling canvas windows lead onto large private lounge decks that overlook the main watering hole which regularly draws lions, leopards and resident bull elephants.

The camp now also has a new infinity swimming pool and main dining and lounge areas that offer fine dining with views over the waterhole and valley beyond combining luxury with the excitement of the African bush. The camp is located in Tarangire National Park and is home to large herds of elephants as well as more unfamiliar animals like wild bat-eared foxes. To celebrate the opening of Sanctuary Swala Camp, 2009 rates will remain throughout 2010, and rates start at $440 per person/per night, all inclusive. A special launch offer includes a deal that lets you book two nights at Sanctuary Swala Camp and get your third night for free.

Gallery: Sanctuary Swala

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Tags: africa, safari, sanctuary swala, SanctuarySwala, swala, tanzania

Travelers' Philanthropy, Charity of the Day

by Laura Malesich (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Charity of the Day

Visiting a foreign country, especially one in the third world, often prompts one's philanthropic desires to give back to the places they explore. It's hard to distinguish which causes are worthy of your funds and which giving opportunities truly use your funds for the project intended. Travelers' Philanthropy takes the guess work out of global giving by connecting travelers or simply interested donors to causes that positively impact local communities. Currently this organization is involved with causes in Costa Rica, South America and Africa encouraging travelers to combine their love of the global community with their ability to fund important programs and initiatives. Check out the gallery below for current opportunities and the people they impact.

Gallery: Opportunities through Travelers' Philanthropy

Mara Cheetah Conservation Project in Kenya

Infierno Community Fund, supported by Rainforest Expeditions in Peru

NatureKids, supported by Nature Air in Costa Rica

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Tags: charity, costa rica, CostaRica, dominican republic, DominicanRepublic, giving, global giving, GlobalGiving, kenya, peru, philanthropy, tanzania, travelers philanthropy, TravelersPhilanthropy

Epic Change, Charity of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Charity of the Day

Epic Change has a unique philosophy toward doing good in the world. They believe that people's stories are assets that can be used as resources to improve their lives. They help people share their stories in innovative, creative and profitable ways to help them acquire the financial resources to create change in their communities. Their first project involves rebuilding and expanding Shepherds Junior, a small pre- and primary school located in Arusha, Tanzania. The school is taught in English but includes courses in the country's primary language, Swahili, and celebrates the culture and history of Tanzania. The school's goal is to give the children in the area a high quality education at an affordable price and charges less than 30% of the cost of private schools of similar quality within the area. They charge nominal tuition to most students and uses income to subsidize the costs of orphans and lower income children who attend the school. The land on which the school is based was sold to a hotel developer. Epic Change is working to help rebuild and expand Shepherds Junior in a new location adding a computer lab, library, cafeteria, playground, classrooms and solar panels for power. An acre of land has been purchased and students are currently attending school in four new classrooms. The Epic Change group and some volunteers are headed back to Tanzania this summer and future story-related projects include a greeting card line that includes pictures of the children and a post card line that includes photos by the children. Epic Change is actively looking for donations as well as volunteers to join them in helping work epic change in the lives of these children.

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Tags: africa, charity of the day, epic change, EpicChange, social entrepreneuri..., SocialEntrepreneuri..., tanzania