Micato Safaris, Day by Day

Your adventure begins today as you enplane for Africa.

Upon arrival in the Kenyan capital, we’ll be met by our Micato Safari Director and driven to Hemingways, a hotel that great lover of Africa would have savoured for its classic African ambience and old-school luxuries. The next day, we’ll pay a heart-sparking visit to Micato-AmericaShare’s Harambee Centre, greet Giraffa camelopardalis at the Giraffe Centre, visit the former home of Karen Blixen, author—writing as Isak Dinesen— of Out of Africa, one of the most evocative books ever written about…

We fly south this morning over the Athi Plains to the natural wonderland of Amboseli National Park. Mount Kilimanjaro, the still-glaciated monarch of Africa, presides over Amboseli, thrusting three dizzying miles above the park’s grasslands. As Peter Matthiessen wrote in The Tree Where Man Was Born, “A snow peak in the tropics draws the heart to a fine shimmering painful point of joy.” Tortilis Camp is our base for visits to Maasai villages and game drives in this almost incomparably rich…

From Amboseli we fly north to Lewa Safari Camp or Loisaba Tented Camp. Both offer vast unending views over the animal-thronged Plateau, with sightings of wandering elephants, elegant leopards, rare Grevy’s zebras, rhinos, wild dogs, and the full African roster of predators and prey (which we’ll encounter in thrilling close-up during our game drives; those gorgeous leopards sometimes use our safari vehicles as cover as they stalk). Both camps are centred in highly respected conservancies…

This morning we’ll fly over the planetary rumple of the Great Rift Valley—it makes “the Grand Canyon look like a line scratched with a toothpick,” John Gunther wrote in Inside Africa—to the Maasai Mara, the northern sector of the bigger-than-Belgium Serengeti–Maasai Mara ecosystem, unquestionably the earth’s greatest haven for large mammals, more than 70 species of which go about their business in the oceanic Serengeti–Maasai Mara grasslands. Based from equally splendid Bateleur Camp or Sir…

We fly to the Serengeti via Nairobi and Arusha, Tanzania. Three million or more large mammals—elephants, cheetahs, gazelles by the gazillions, wildebeest, zebras, giraffes “floating across the plain” (thanks, Ms. Dinesen), lions, rhinos, and going on 60 more species— inhabit the great grassland, its riverine forests, and bustling, set-piece kopjes, rock islands that pop up from the plain. We’ll spend our two Serengeti nights in either the Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti or Grumeti Serengeti…

We fly southeast from the unforgettable Serengeti to Lake Manyara – the lake that heart-stirringly erupted with thousands of flamingos in the film Out of Africa. Ernest Hemingway thought, and many of us think, – that Manyara is Africa’s loveliest lake. We’ll have splendid views of the lake during lunch at the refreshing Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge, and perhaps have time to amble, maybe catching sight of some local predators and sprightly birds. Now we make the beautiful drive across the…

After breakfast and a last look at the Edenic lands below, we’ll drive to Lake Manyara and hop on our flight to Nairobi, where we’ll have a day room at the Four Points at the Nairobi Airport, and get a bite to eat before being driven to the airport for our late flights back to the Northern Hemisphere.

Connect with your flights home and sweetly dream, perhaps, about your next Micato safari.

En route to Kenya and its capital city, Nairobi.

After landing in Nairobi, we’ll be escorted through the formalities by Micato staff and driven to Hemingways, our jet-lag soothing hotel in one of the capital’s lushest suburbs. (Just another of the many Micato Differences: amazingly quick and smooth touchdown-to-hotel transitions.) The next day we’ll mingle with the kids and elders at the Micato-AmericaShare Harambee Centre, and head over to the Giraffe Centre (where we’ll hand-feed endangered Rothschild giraffes) and the home of Karen Blixen…

It’s fitting that our first camp is in Tsavo, an archetype of all that brings us to Africa’s astounding game lands. The Big Five are in numerous residence, along with the myriad of animals and birds, almost infinite skies, long, golden reaches and million-year quiet that, as Isak Dinesen wrote, “sooth the homesick soul.” We and our Safari Director make unfailingly exciting game drives based from Finch Hattons Luxury Safari Camp, named for a man who held Tsavo close to his heart. Denys Finch…

We fly from Tsavo to the Maasai Mara, the northern reaches of the Maasai Mara-Serengeti ecosystem, the greatest assembly of wild (and wondrous) animals on planet Earth. The Mara abounds with rolling grasslands, expressive acacia trees, sweeping vistas teeming with wildlife, and the rock islands, called kopjes, that Peter Matthiessen called “magnificent, harmonious stone gardens…[revealing] the bone of Africa.” And then there is one of Africa’s common but unforgettable sights: “the cumulus…

Now south by air to the vast and fabled Serengeti, a place, wrote the great conservationist Bernhard Grzimek, “where you can feel the pulse of the Earth, the rhythm of life that has been playing out for millions of years.” Our camp, the Elewana Serengeti Explorer, the newest addition to Elewana’s superb collection of camps and lodges, sits in serene isolation on the Nyaboro Hills, overlooking the auric plains, which we roam freely, watching elephants make their mammoth rounds, cheetahs atop…

We fly to flamingo-thronged Lake Manyara, and drive up to Ngorongoro Lodge Melia, a lovely, boutiquey sanctuary brightened by original African artwork and tremendous views. And from there we hop into our safari vehicles and wend our way a couple of thousand feet up, then thrillingly down into the Ngorongoro Crater, like Manyara, gigantic evidence of Africa’s eons-long splitting apart. That tear in the earth’s surface has created the Great Rift Valley, a gargantuan parting of the ways of the…

After flying back to Nairobi, we’ll have day rooms–with full amenities– at the Four Points Nairobi Airport or the Norfolk before being escorted by our Safari Director for our late night flights home.

Connect with your flights home and sweetly dream, perhaps, about your next Micato safari.

We board our flight and enjoy the anticipation of Africa.

We’ll be met by our Micato Safari Director and whisked away to the welcoming Kempinski Villa Rosa. We’ll visit the impressive National Museum of Kenya, make a joyously inspirational visit to Micato-AmericaShare’s Harambee Centre, visit the Giraffe Centre, lunch at one of Nairobi’s most delightfully cutting-edge restaurants, and pay our respects at the home of Out of Africa‘s Isak Dinesen (who wrote as Karen Blixen; Hemingway said more than once, should have received the Nobel Prize for…

We fly north from Nairobi to the Laikipia Plateau. It’s a short, but momentous flight, taking us from Nairobi’s urban whirl to a vast, animal-abounding wilderness graced with views of the more-than-iconic Mount Kenya and the monumental clouds that seem to drift up from its 17,000-foot summit. We are, gleefully, in the Africa we’ve been carrying around in our imagination since we were children. Our haven in this marvelous world-of-its-own is the excellent Mutara Camp, set high atop a cliff…

South by air to the Maasai Mara, the northern reaches of the Serengeti–Maasai Mara ecosystem, earth’s richest wildlife habitat. Our base for explorations in the fabled Mara is the Olare Mara Kempinski, a small tented camp in the soothingly luxurious Kempinski style. Olare Mara’s tents are built on wooden platforms on the banks of the Ntiakitiak River, giving us veranda views of hippos galumphing and elephants joyously bathing in the river. And it’s a great jumping-off place for extraordinary…

“How can one convey the power of Serengeti?” asked Cyril Connolly in The Evening Colonnade. “It is an immense, limitless lawn, under a marquee of sky. . . .The light is dazzling, the air delectable; kopjes rise out of the grass at far intervals, some wooded; the magic of the American prairie here blends with the other magic of the animals as they existed before man.” The Serengeti sometimes does remind us of the American prairie, but in truth it can’t be compared with any other place on earth.…

We take a picturesque flight from the Serengeti to Lake Manyara, then drive to our base for the next three nights, the lovely Cape Dutch style cottages and suites of the Manor at Ngorongoro, set mellifluously in an Arabica coffee estate next to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. And then we’ll wend our scenic way up from the Manor to the rim of one of earth’s wonders, the great, green, animal-nurturing caldera of a once catastrophically cranky, now beneficently mellow volcano, the Ngorongoro.…

We affectionately say goodbye to the great crater and fly to Nairobi, where we’ll rest up – with our Safari Director and vehicle on call – at a full-service, meals-included day room at the Four Points with some time to shop, or just kick back and savour the first, fresh memories of a classic African safari. We will be escorted to the airport and through check-in for our late evening flights.

Connect with your flights home and sweetly dream, perhaps, about your next Micato safari.

En route to Kenya and its capital city, Nairobi.

We arrive in Nairobi and Hemingways, a quietly ravishing haven for lovers of old-style panache mixed with modern amenities and great cuisine, wonderfully set in the lush suburb of Karen. During our time in Nairobi and environs, we’ll commune with the endangered, but quite friendly Rothschild giraffes at the Giraffe Centre and visit Karen Blixen’s home, now a museum. We’ll lunch at one Nairobi’s cosmopolitan restaurants, and visit Micato-AmericaShare’s Harambee Centre.

And now we fly to the game lands of the Maasai Mara. The Mara and the Serengeti, magic names synonymous with African safari, are the northern and southern regions of a naturally defined ecosystem more than twice the size of Jamaica. Here in the north, the landscapes are greener than in the south, thanks largely to somewhat more seasonal rain. Wildlife teems and thrives in the Mara, and the Big Five rule their respective roosts with regal aplomb. Our camp is Sir Richard Branson’s Mahali Mzuri…

A short flight takes us south into Tanzania and the Serengeti. We once wrote rather controversially that the Serengeti’s skies make the Big Sky state of Montana’s skies look like Manhattan’s. But immense and extra-Montanan they are. Morning clouds so alive with sunlight that they’re almost too bright to look at directly. Soaring afternoon cumulus that seem to brush up against the stratosphere. And, of course, the animals, who, when we’re up close and personal with them, seem to be from some…

Another flight–with textbook views of the Great Rift (more on that in a moment)–brings us to two more natural marvels. We land near one of them, Lake Manyara, and drive to the tranquil Manor at Ngorongoro, set in a coffee estate on the gentle first slopes of the other marvel, the Ngorongoro Crater. In the afternoon, we can enjoy one of safari’s less-celebrated benefits–untroubled rest–or we can hop on one of the Manor’s accommodating horses, do some mountain biking, or take a dip in its lovely…

We fly back to Nairobi, where we’ll have full-amenity day rooms at the Four Points at the Nairobi Airport or the Norfolk, and after a quiet dinner, our Safari Director and staff will escort us to the airport for our late-evening flights home.

Connect with your flights home and sweetly dream, perhaps, about your next Micato safari.

Our Micato adventure begins as we board our flight.

After arrival at Jomo Kenyatta Airport, we’ll be met by our Safari Director and driven to the contemporary Kempinski Villa Rosa. We’ll meet sassy pachyderms at the Daphne Sheldrick elephant orphanage, consort with the world’s tallest terrestrial animal at the Giraffe Centre, make a pilgrimage to the home of Karen Blixen—aka Isak Dinesen, one of Africa’s supreme laureates.

We’ll tour the informative National Museum, visit the inspiring Micato-AmericaShare Harambee Centre and after lunch fly in early afternoon from Nairobi to northern Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro International Airport. We fly onward to Tarangire National Park and the Tarangire Sopa Lodge, a classic example of beautifully designed modern lodge architecture. Tarangire is an apt place to begin a wildlife safari. Home to just about all the headliner beasts, including a large and robust elephant population…

We drive from Tarangire up into the green Crater Highlands, weaving our way to the serene and view-rich O’ldeani Mountain lodge, from which we’ll make a full-day game drive into the fabled Ngorongoro Crater. As geologic masterpieces go, Ngorongoro has had quite a career. It’s been a gigantic peak, perhaps a rival of Kilimanjaro, and, after it blew its snowy top in what must have been a rather impressive explosion (our forefathers over at the nearby Olduvai Gorge, busy getting their humanoid act…

After stopping at Olduvai, the symbolic wellspring of our DNA, we drop down to the Serengeti, the known universe’s largest (and, happily for us, most wonderfully watchable) collection of illustrious mammals: elephants, giraffes, tumbling pool-fulls of hippos, elegantly slinking serval cats, zebras with incredibly muscular haunches (leading us to wonder why they were never ridden— very weak backs, that’s why), and scores of species more, all of them going about their business unconcerned by the…

We fly back to Kilimanjaro International, then to Nairobi, and on to the Kenyan section of the Serengeti– Maasai Mara ecosystem, a world treasure, one with no counterpart, anywhere. (During humanity’s tenure, the closest any place on earth has come to equaling the Serengeti’s incredible wealth of wildlife may be paleolithic Siberia, with the ancient North American Plains another contender.) The size of Vermont (with Liechtenstein thrown in for good measure), the Serengeti-Maasai Mara ecosystem…

We fly back to Nairobi in the morning for some relaxation and maybe a swim or spa visit at the Four Points at the Nairobi Airport, before being escorted to the airport for late-evening flights by our steadfast Micato Safari Director.

Connect with your flights home and sweetly dream, perhaps, about your next Micato safari.

We dream of safari while we soar through the skies, bound for Africa.

The Arusha Coffee Lodge, an old-fashioned island of quietude tucked away in a plantation, is a great place to unwind after the rigours of long flights. Arusha is only 3 degrees south of the equator, but its 4,500-foot elevation encourages floral luxuriance and gentle airs. So we’ll be more or less surrounded by enthusiastic greenery as we sit on our Plantation Suite’s veranda—perhaps after a relaxing swim—looking up at massive Mount Meru, a 14,977-foot volcanic colossus that looms beneficently…

After a breakfast topped off by some of the freshest and best coffee we’ll ever imbibe, we’ll be briefed by our Safari Director and set off on a marvelously African drive to Tarangire and our home for the next couple of nights, Tarangire Treetops. Our first experience of luxury life in the bush couldn’t be more spectacular. Treetops’ main lodge, built around a thousand-year-old baobab, is only the beginning. The lodge’s 20 famous, lovingly crafted tree houses, elevated for sweeping views of the…

The drive from Tarangire north to the Crater Highlands and the world-wondrous Ngorongoro Crater is a delight, a dazzlingly scenic game drive. We pass Lake Manyara, then begin our climb to the Crater’s rim and the reposeful Ngorongoro Lodge Melia. We’ll drive down to the crater floor for an extraordinarily rewarding full day game drive, exploring the caldera’s 100 square miles, spotting lions, elephants, black rhinos, just about all of East Africa’s faunal celebrities, and return to the lodge…

We end this short, but undeniably spectacular, safari in the Serengeti. “There is a lightening of the spirit,” Cyril Connolly wrote about the vast plain. We’re invited to a rare, deep-rootedly serene idyll. The sky is huge and blue and as pure as the day the earth was born. (And on the southern horizon, over the Crater Highlands—“That’s Ngorongoro, just behind that big green mountain,” we’ll say knowledgeably, affectionately—clouds pile up in grandly crazy towers, looking like…

After a final game drive, we’ll head back to Migration Camp for breakfast. Maybe we’re close to sighting the Little Five, and need just a little luck to complete the list. The identities of these mini-masterpieces: rhinoceros beetle, buffalo weaver, leopard tortoise (not so mini, really; they can weigh as much as three standard bowling balls), ant lion, and the extremely shy elephant shrew, which weighs not much more than an elephant’s tear. In any case, it’s time to say good-bye to the…

Connect with your flights home and sweetly dream, perhaps, about your next Micato safari.

We board our flight and enjoy the anticipation of Kenya.

Upon arrival in the Kenyan capital, we’ll be met by our Micato Safari Director and driven to Kempinski Villa Rosa, a lush contemporary hotel with rooms that blend elegant European and Pan-African furnishings with modern touches.

We fly south this morning over the Athi Plains to the natural masterpiece of Tsavo National Park. This great park occupies much of the hinterland between the Kenyan coast and Nairobi, a vast expanse of 8,000 square miles that extends to the border with Tanzania. Tsavo—we always think of it as one of the most evocative African names –is one of the largest game sanctuaries in the world, especially famous for its large population of elephants and its classic savannah and acacia woodlands. Sir…

The Laikipia Reserve came into existence in 1991 when the ranches of the Colonial era turned from farming to wildlife conservation. Since its ranch days, the plateau has reverted back to wilderness, a wildlife refuge supporting huge numbers of animals (it’s the only place to see the endangered Jackson’s Hartebeest). Other game includes lions, cheetahs, leopards, rare wild dogs, impalas, gazelles, reticulated giraffes, Grevy’s zebras (the most comely of the zebra clan), Somali ostriches, Beisa…

We fly west from Nairobi to the Maasai Mara, the northern, more verdant section of what we think of as the undisputed capital of the Animal Kingdom, the Serengeti-Maasai Mara ecosystem. Game drives in the Mara are especially fruitful, as our camp, Mahali Mzuri, is auspiciously set next to one of the Mara’s prime migration pathways. (Though the famous migration—a million and a half wildebeest, a couple hundred thousand zebras, and a slew of watchful predators—reaches seasonal crescendos, the…

We’ll have day rooms for use prior to our late night flights homeward. And during the day, we can visit the Micato-AmericaShare Harambee Centre, do some shopping, or just kick back and savour the first, fresh memories of a classic African safari before being escorted to the airport this evening.

Connect with your flights home and sweetly dream, perhaps, about your next Micato safari.

En route to South Africa.

After a late afternoon or early evening arrival in South Africa’s second-largest and most scenic and snazzy city, we’ll settle into Cape Town’s grande dame hotel, the pink, very pretty, much-loved Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel. Nelly, as it’s affectionately known, lies in the centre of City Bowl, the rocky natural amphitheatre that embraces Cape Town. During our two full days we’ll make an excursion to the Constantia Winelands for tastings and lunch–with a heartlifting visit to…

A lovely flight northward via Johannesburg delivers us to Victoria Falls, Mosi-oa-Tunya, “The Smoke That Thunders,” not the highest or the widest but the world’s grandest and most booming waterfall, a large lakesworth of water flinging itself 360 feet straight down every minute of every day, right before our delighted eyes. We have a couple of days to appreciate the Falls’ subtly shifting moods. We’ll cruise on the Zambezi River, watching elephants and giraffes enjoying their own sundowners…

We fly northeast from Zambia and Victoria Falls to Nairobi and Hemingways, a quietly ravishing haven for lovers of old-style panache mixed with modern amenities and great cuisine, wonderfully set in the lush suburb of Karen.

We fly west from Nairobi to the Maasai Mara, the northern, more verdant section of the single most salubrious wildlife habitat on this or any known planet, the Serengeti-Maasai Mara ecosystem. Game drives in the Mara are especially fruitful….Our Mara headquarters is Sir Richard Branson’s Mahali Mzuri, whose innovatively designed, yet very African tents that resemble the tents of our youth like a Gulfstream G650 resembles a Piper Cub. Mahali Mzuri is auspiciously set next to one of the Mara’s…

Now— these are thrilling safari words!— into the Serengeti, amazing in its enormity, its almost infinite skies and long, golden reaches, its million-year quiet. We’ll make far-ranging game drives on the great plain and in its riverine forests, based from the stunningly deluxe Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti, set on rocky bluffs, giving us vast, endlessly stimulating views.

A typically spectacular flight and pleasant drive deliver us to The Manor at Ngorongoro, a marvelous 10-cottage, 20-suite retreat set within a 1500- acre Arabica coffee estate adjacent to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Those of us who began African Splendour in South Africa will recognize the Manor’s elegant Cape Dutch style; those who haven’t will simply be charmed. Our three nights at the Manor are a rare idyll. We’ll enjoy a restful afternoon (or a very active one; the Manor offers…

After flying back to Nairobi, we’ll relax in full service, meals-included day rooms at the Four Points at the Nairobi Airport, have a quiet dinner, and head out to Jomo Kenyatta Airport for our late evening flights home.

Connect with your flights home and sweetly dream, perhaps, about your next Micato safari.

“The whole town,” Captain Cook wrote in 1771 about Cape Town, “may be consider’d as one great Inn fitted up for the recreation of all comers and goers.” The great voyager may as well have been writing this week: Cape Town is one of the world’s jazziest, most fascinatingly multicultural and downright beautiful cities, a magnet for discerning goers and comers from six continents. Our base is the iconic Pink Lady, the Mount Nelson, from which we will gaze up at Table Mountain, which we will summit…

We fly northeast across South Africa’s gargantuan geographies to the private Phinda Reserve’s seven distinct habitats— woodlands, grasslands, wetlands, rolling hills, rivers, seasonal marshes and pans, and a hauntingly beautiful sand forest— Africa’s last sand forest— all home to a superb wildlife medley (which includes the Big Five and 436 bird species). We’ll settle, depending on the season, into one of two outstanding camps at Phinda Private Game Reserve: either the Phinda Forest Lodge, set…

Thornybush’s setting is classically African: more than 34,000 sweeping acres on a private nature reserve sharing a fenceless border with famous Kruger National Park—so for our footloose animals, that’s no border at all. Big 5 encounters are both the standard and the standout experience here (including sightings of the endangered, marvelous-looking pangolin, well-protected in Thornybush). Set on a beautiful curve of the meandering Monwana River, Saseka Tented Camp has just nine luxurious…

The very private, very beautiful Sabi Sand Game Reserve is one of our favourite African places. Adjacent to Kruger National Park, the 240-square-mile Sabi Sand is home to all of Kruger’s famously rich roster of animals—including, of course, the Big Five—who wander freely between Sabi Sand and the much more humanly thronged national park. Our domicile in this surpassingly lovely corner of Africa is the conveniently modern (and solar-powered) Tengile River Lodge, set in a riverside forest, with…

We fly to Johannesburg, and on to full-service, meals-included day rooms at the InterContinental, whose spa and indoor pool beckon, before our Safari Director accompanies us to the adjacent — it’s only 250 feet away — international airport for our flights home.

Connect with your flights home and sweetly dream, perhaps, about your next Micato safari.

After arrival, we’ll be met and whisked out to the halcyon Saxon Hotel, Villas and Spa in Johannesburg’s verdant suburb of Sandhurst.

It’s hard to be more enthusiastic about the “vast, mesmerizing oasis” of the Okavango Delta than we are. Suffice to say—until you experience it—that the Delta is in the topmost rank of world wonders (and more sweetly accommodating than most). We fly north from Johannesburg to Maun and on to the Kadizora airstrip, where we’ll hop on a helicopter for a quick but scenically superb flight to Duke’s Camp, set in solitude deep in the beautiful braided waterways of the Northern Okavango. Our camp for…

A short morning flight takes us to what we think is one of Botswana’s best kept secrets: the Khwai Private Reserve, another Okavangan marvel. Our lodging here is Sable Alley, an inspirationally stylish camp set on its own quiet lagoon. We step out onto the veranda of Sable’s enormous (almost 600-square foot) tents to a close view of the lagoon and its medley of animal visitors. Khwai’s water- and landscapes vary dramatically: riverine forests, acacia woodlands, and the Delta’s gliding…

We fly into Zambia, and along the way we may see a dramatic sight from many miles away: silvery, towering clouds rising up from the flat brown earth. The plume of the world’s most colossal cascade, Victoria Falls. Our small, astutely designed Thorntree River Lodge is set in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, beside the Zambezi River, upstream from the Falls. We’ll make an arrival-afternoon game drive in the park (lovingly protected rhinos are headliners), or take a sunset cruise on the Zambezi. But…

Somalisa Camp is located in the middle of Hwange, in a vlei, or marshy, animal-attracting area. We arrive in the intimate camp (only seven fully modern, elegantly decorated tents) after a short flight from Victoria Falls and make the first of our eventful game drives in the cooling afternoon, perhaps after a revivifying dip in Somalisa’s aquamarine pool, often with elephants frolicking in a waterhole only yards away. Hwange is classic African bush country, and our game drives in the park are…

After a short flight to Victoria Falls—one more chance to see the rising clouds of The Smoke That Thunders—we continue by air to Johannesburg, with meals-included day rooms in the InterContinental before our evening flights home.

Connect with your flights home and sweetly dream, perhaps, about your next Micato safari.

We begin our adventure as we wing to South Africa.

After arriving at O. R. Tambo International, we’ll be escorted to the Saxon Hotel, Villas and Spa in Johannesburg’s tree-lined suburb of Sandhurst. This luxury hotel has much to be proud of but says, touchingly, that its greatest “boast” is that the late Nelson Mandela chose the Saxon as his sanctuary at which to complete his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.

Our base in the miraculous Delta is beautifully shaded Camp Okavango, tucked away in serene isolation on lush Nxaragha Island. Intimate, recently and lovingly rebuilt, the camp has many charms: unflashy luxury, great dining, and extraordinarily well-designed tents—including a two-bedroom family tent—each raised on a platform with a private deck overlooking the hippo-thronged Delta waters. Camp Okavango is notable for its variety of game-viewing experiences, from canoeing and motorboating in the…

A quick flight takes us southeastward to Gomoti Plains Camp, where the river of that name, a thick tendril of Okavango lushness, is bounded by savannah giving way to desert, offering us another exceptionally varied look at intertwined ecosystems and the charismatic animals that call them home. Because of Gomoti’s untroubled remoteness, much wildlife filming and research has been done here, of lions, elephants, buffalo, and especially of the area’s large coterie of African wild dogs, sometimes…

Another short flight takes us north to the Khwai River and Machaba Camp, designed in classic 1950s safari style, so well suited to its surroundings that animals wander down to the river insouciantly, delighting us as we watch, sundowner in hand, from our tents. And, among Moremi’s myriad charms, it gives us the chance to see the huge African night sky that ever captivated Elspeth Huxley, a sky “bristling with innumerable stars, as close-packed as the quills on a porcupine.”

Victoria Falls draws nearly universal praise, so here we’ll repeat something a good friend of ours once said: “Victoria Falls is billed as one of the world’s greatest waterfalls, but, as a matter of fact, it’s one of the world’s greatest anythings.” In other good news, we’ll be staying at the grand, colonial-era Victoria Falls Hotel, within walking distance of the incredible cataract.

We fly from Victoria Falls to Johannesburg, and on to a day room in the InterContinental at Johannesburg’s airport until our flight departure time.

Connect with your flights home and sweetly dream, perhaps, about your next Micato safari.

After a leisurely morning we’ll have an orientation lunch with our Micato Travel Director. Now we’ll delve into swirlingly colourful Old Delhi, rickshawing over to Jama Masjid, one of India’s largest and most impressive mosques (it’s one of the last monuments built by Shah Jahan, whose world-crowning glory, the Taj Mahal, we’ll soon see). We’ll visit Humayan’s Tomb (said to have inspired the eagerly inspirable Jahan), pay our respects at the Gandhi Museum, explore the British Raj’s imposing New…

A modern toll road takes us to Agra for a couple of days in the sweetly hypnotic aura of the Taj Mahal. Our base is the Oberoi Amarvilas, a scintillating Oberoi jewel. Every window in Amarvilas looks out at the Taj, less than two thousand feet away, giving us ever-changing views of humanity’s greatest artifact from our beautifully decorated, balconied rooms and from the hotel’s restaurants and expansive verandas. We’ll make early morning and evening visits to the Taj, wandering in its gardens…

A countryside drive takes us to the fabled Pink City of Jaipur. For more than half a millennium Jaipur’s Rajput maharajahs were renowned for their regal disdain for rupee-pinching. They spent, played, and built extravagantly; witness our palace, the Rambagh, home of the last of Jaipur’s rulers, Sawai Man Singh II. The Rambagh Palace, now a Taj Group property, regularly lands high on lists of the World’s Best Hotels, for its frank splendour, its traditionally noble but state-of-the-art comfy…

A morning flight takes us to lakeside Udaipur, beloved of Indians and internationals for its beauty and serenity, its intriguing temples, and its chromatic history—which we’ll experience in the flamboyant City Palace, hilltop home of Udaipur’s Mewar maharanas, who, like their Mughal suzerains, gracefully avoided all things frugal. Udaipur has a Venetian feel, with homes and palaces built by the shores of Lake Pichola, and we’ll take a sunset boatride across the lake to our lodgings, the sublime…

We drive northwest towards Jodhpur, stopping for a quiet lunch en route s and a visit to the Jain temple complex at Ranakpur before motoring up to the doors of the Umaid Bhawan Palace, fittingly the last and the largest of India’s great palaces. Umaid Bhawan sits among 26 garden acres atop Chittar Hill, overlooking the Sun City of Jodhpur. The vast palace—once the world’s largest private residence— now serves as a museum, as the home of the old ruling family, and as a uniquely stately hotel…

After flying back to Delhi, we’ll have day rooms,—and night rooms, if necessary for late flights—at the palatial Oberoi Gurgaon.

“Charming, capricious, imperial” (as John Foster Fraser wrote), Delhi is one of the world’s most intriguing mega-cities. Based from the modern, centrally located Taj Mahal Hotel, we’ll visit the imposing war memorial India Gate as well as Humayun’s Tomb (an inspiration for the Taj Mahal of 73 years later). With our Travel Director at helpful hand, we’ll wend Old Delhi’s twisting maze of streets and narrow, bustling, breathtakingly colourful byways, and visit India’s largest mosque, the imposing…

There’s much more to Agra than the Taj Mahal. The Agra Fort is a masterpiece of Mughal architecture in its own right and the city itself is vivacious and engaging (which in India means extremely vivacious, exceptionally engaging). But “emeralds, rubies, and pearls…must pass away, yet still one solitary tear would hang on the cheek of time in the form of this white and gleaming Taj Mahal,” as India’s great laureate Rabindranath Tagore wrote. Heartliftingly, almost hallucinatorily beautiful, the…

We drive in the morning to Ranthambore and the exquisite and intimate Oberoi Vanyavilas, named India’s top luxury hotel in Travel+Leisure‘s 2017 World’Best Hotels list. We come to subtly beautiful Ranthambore (thought by many to be the inspiration for Kipling’s unforgettable Jungle Book, of Mowgli and Bagheera fame) to see Panthera tigris tigris, an incandescent beast many consider the most impressive of Earth’s many trillions of sentient beings. Our chances of life-sparking sightings are very…

Residents of the entrancing Pink City are Parisian in their pride of place, and the city is the historic home of what is probably India’s most famous and flamboyantly rich ruling family. In fact, our three nights in Jaipur are spent in the Rambagh Palace, the fabulous former home of one of them, the great polo-playing, modernizing Maharajah Sawai Man Singh II. Monuments to the wealth and monumental ambition of Jaipur’s Maharajah abound: grand City Palace, where members of the family still live…

We fly to Varanasi in the morning, via Delhi. From our base at the Taj Ganges Veranasi (formerly known as the Gateway Ganges) we’ll venture out to the much-pilgrimaged site at Sarnath, where the Buddha went public for the first time after his enlightenment at nearby Bodh Gaya. But our focal point is Varanasi, in many ways the beating heart of the Hindu universe, perhaps the earth’s most supremely potent pilgrimage site. We’ll observe ancient rites on a quiet early morning boat ride on the…

A world vanguard city, Mumbai is India’s unquestioned financial and commercial hub, a gleaming magnet for India’s millions of go-getting entrepreneurs: We’ll encounter the famous dabbawallahs of Churchgate Station, who prepare and deliver upwards of 175,000 lunches a day. We may do some spirited bargaining at Chor Bazaar, or the Thieves Market, where everything and anything is available. We’ll roam the former Prince of Wales Museum, one of India’s premier art and history museums, and enjoy a…

Our days in India’s capital will be eye-openingly active. Largely a creation of the British Raj, New Delhi is magnificently planned, with spacious, tree-lined avenues and fanciful Indo-Saracenic architecture. We’ll visit Rajpath, one of the world’s most impressive civic boulevards, and—with our Travel Director’s well-practiced help—we’ll navigate Old Delhi’s twisting maze of narrow, bustling, intriguing, shop-thronged byways. We’ll pay our respects at Humayun’s magnificent Tomb, resting place…

A morning drive on a modern toll road takes us to Agra and the inimitable Taj Mahal, a structure that blurs the line between nature and art, stone and spirit, wakefulness and a wondrous dreamworld. Luckily, our Agra domicile, the fabled Oberoi Amarvilas, enjoys a dramatically apt location: its every beautifully designed window looks out at the Taj—only a couple of thousand feet away. We’ll visit the Taj in early morning and at sunset, and drive to the gardens of Mehtab Bagh for a view across…

We drive west to the Pink City of Jaipur, steeped in history and endlessly vibrant with life and colour. Our headquarters for three Jaipurian nights is the magnificent Rambagh Palace, once home to Maharajah Sawai Man Singh II, the last of Jaipur’s famously stylish and extravagant reigning maharajahs. The Rambagh is a good example of one of Jaipur’s joys: the tangibility of its past, which comes alive at the Rambagh, at the fabulously ornate City Palace, at the almost whimsical yet stunningly…

We fly southwest from Jaipur to Udaipur, beloved throughout India for its calm lakes and reposeful airs. On the shores of the main lake, Pichola, is our hotel, the scintillatingly reposeful, superbly imaginative, and downright gorgeous Oberoi Udaivilas (if you think we’re rather free with our adjectives, note that the Udaivilas was recently named planet Earth’s number one best hotel in the annual Travel + Leisure rankings). Udaipur’s City Palace is a huge but delicate wonder. Its museum and the…

After an optional yoga session and lunch at the Udaivilas, we fly to Delhi and the Oberoi Gurgaon, where we’ll have rooms available until our late night international flights.