21 Day Guided Motorcycle Tour Across Kenya and Tanzania

Daily itinerary

Day 1: Arrival - Nairobi

You will be picked up from the airport by your driver and brought to the hotel on the south side of the big city. This is a good location to start the tour in order to avoid riding through the busy city traffic on the first day.

Day 2: Nairobi - Longido (196 kilometers / 121.79 miles)

After the tour leader's briefing, you will proceed south. You follow the busy Mombasa road for a short while and then turn right towards a much quieter road. This road brings you to the busy border town between Kenya and Tanzania. It will be later in the afternoon once you have cleared all formalities and are riding in Tanzania towards the first small town called Longido. Accommodation is very basic today, but you are staying in the best hotel in town.

Day 3: Longido - Mto Wa Mbu (185 kilometers / 114.95 miles)

Only the first few kilometers in town to the turnoff are on an asphalt road today, as the rest is gravel. Once you are on the gravel roads, the landscape changes into wilderness, and there are no more villages apart from a few small houses. You will see the first giraffes moving through the bushes. Small pockets of sand can make these routes a bit challenging at times. You will have a simple lunch in a small Masaai town before you get a beautiful view of Mount Lengai, the sacred Masaai Mountain.

After the turnoff to the south, you will see the outside wall of the Ngorogoro crater. Just before you reach your destination, you will have a challenging track through dense forests and open plains. Mto Wa Mbu is translated into Musquuito River. It is a nice, busy town close to the entrance gate to the Ngorongoro and Serengeti.

Day 4: Mto Wa Mbu - Lake Eyasi (78 kilometers / 48.47 miles)

The first half an hour will be on an asphalt road, twisting your way through the park. Then you turn left towards the south on a dirt road. It is a bumpy, dusty ride, but with nice views over the farm fields. Halfway through the day, you will turn off and follow a small track. The car is not able to follow. You meet again on the main road. Just before your destination, you visit the village of the Hadza tribe. This is a unique tribe, and since the San in Namibia have lost this part of their culture, the Hadza are the only original hunting tribe left in Africa.

You will visit their villages, see how they live, and let them teach you how to hunt in the wild. They speak their own unique language with the very distinguished clicking sound. It is impressive to see how their culture has survived and how they have lived for many generations. You stay at a basic hotel in the town of Gorpa.

Day 5: Lake Eyasi - Babati (214 kilometers / 132.97 miles)

For the first bit, you follow the same road as you came from yesterday and enjoy a coffee stop at Karatu. From Karatu, you take another dirt road south again and wind through the hills, enjoying beautiful views. In Mbulu, you will have lunch followed by the most beautiful road of the day. The road follows the top ridge of the mountain, and sharp bends bring you down the edges of Lake Burungi. You enjoy spectacular views during your descent, but have to be careful during the ride since the curves can be bad in some places. After reaching the flatlands again, it is not far to the busy bustling Babati township.

Day 6: Babati - Arusha (170 kilometers / 105.63 miles)

You start the day with an optional canoe trip over Lake Babati. Be careful not to fall out of the canoe because the lake is full of crocodiles! After this trip, you proceed to the big town of Arusha over recently asphalted roads. Arusha is the main town in the north of the country.

Day 7: Arusha - Orkesumet (191 kilometers / 118.68 miles)

To avoid the busy main road, you ride deep into the bush. You will have a full day of gravel roads, passing small villages where life has been standing still for decades. The town where you stop for the day is just like that, and the accommodation is very basic.

Day 8: Orkesumet - Mambo (185 kilometers / 114.95 miles)

Another day in the bush. You take the gravel roads until you hit the main Arusha - Dar highway. You cross the road and start your ascent up the Usambara Mountains. The sharp bends are sometimes tricky, so stay focused but also take time to admire the impressive views, which become more impressive after every turn upwards. After reaching the top, you arrive in a completely different part of Tanzania. It is cool, windy, and very green. It is a short dirt road ride to your hotel at the edge of a cliff with magnificent views over the plains to the south.

Day 9: Mambo

In this beautiful place, you will have a rest day. You can just relax or go on a few-hour trek with a local guide to see the small villages and the dense forest. You can also go for a short ride in the surrounding mountains.

Day 10: Mambo - Same (141 kilometers / 87.61 miles)

You descend through a different route with stunning views and some tricky bends. When you reach the foot of the mountains, you follow a dirt track through the bushes and past a dammed lake. You pass small Masaai settlements and a few small towns. There are only a few kilometers of asphalt on today’s route. You pass the Mkomazi National Park on your right-hand side, and you may see some wildlife at the roadside. This park is connected with the huge Tsavo parks in Kenya. Before reaching Same, you follow a beautiful track through the eastern Para mountains. You stay overnight in the small town of Same.

Day 11: Same - Day trip to Mkomazi

Same is not far from the Mkomazi National Park. This park is connected to Tsavo National Park on the Kenyan side of the border. Mkomazi is famous for its rhino population. You can use this day to take a safari in this park. Since it is out of the way for most tourists, there will not be as many safari cars around.

Day 12: Same - Marangu (157 kilometers / 97.56 miles)

You start with a short hour of asphalt riding before you turn towards the Para mountains again and follow dirt tracks through the hills. You ride very close to the Kenya border. Close to Maragnu, you come to the main road again. Marangu is at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. If you rise early tomorrow, you may see a cloudless sky. Before reaching Marangu, you need to climb a little bit, and within this short ride, you will see the nature become greener and greener.

Day 13: Marangu - Emali (165 kilometers / 102.53 miles)

In the morning, you ride a winding road through the mountains with some challenging dirt tracks that bring you down to the border town of Loitokitok. After formalities, you are back in Kenya, and you follow a nice road to the town of Emali.

Day 14: Emali - Matuu (170 kilometers / 105.63 miles)

This area is seldom visited by tourists. You cross through plantations, use small bridges, and pass lively villages. All roads in this area are dirt roads, even if they are the main roads. This is the real countryside of Kenya. You stay in a small village, but at a nice guesthouse.

Day 15: Matuu - Mount Kenya (206 kilometers / 128.09 miles)

You are just south of Mount Kenya, the highest mountain in Kenya. It is the little brother of Kilimanjaro. You move north on the western side of the mountain and have lunch in a small mountain town. Just before you reach your hotel, you enter a small track through dense jungle at the foot of the mountain. You will stay overnight in a tiny village in a family-run basic guesthouse.

Day 16: Mount Kenya - Molo (230 kilometers / 142.92 miles)

In the morning, you start with another small track through the jungle. After hitting the main road again, you will stop at the equator signpost. After this photo op, you follow a large dirt road through a deserted part of the country. You will see many camels on the way. After lunch, you are back on the main road and follow this through the beautiful mountain area. At Nakuru, you have a little bit of highway and optional jungle tracks just before you finish in Molo.

Day 17: Molo - Maasai Mara (238 kilometers / 147.86 miles)

Today is another adventurous day. You will swindle around the main road southwards, and you will explore tracks and paths only used by the Maasai people and wildlife. Again, there will be a track where you will depart from the support car. You will notice that the landscape changes into dry hills and there is less human activity. However, there are more animals along the way now. You will stay at a nice camp near the national park.

Day 18: Maasai Mara

You are not allowed to live in a national park. It is hardly fenced. Apparently, that is enough for a rich animal life. The landscape in the Maasai Mara is splendid. You leave the motors partly at rest and take an optional car safari. You will be encountering large herds of buffalo, wildebeest, zebras, and antelopes. You will also see giraffes and lions crossing or walking on the road. You can ride around until late in this magnificent wild park of Kenya. There is an option for Motor safaris too! Take enough power and memory cards for your camera because it is really beautiful. This is the real safari experience.

Day 19: Maasai Mara - Lake Naivasha (200 kilometers / 124.27 miles)

You leave early to spin the wheels of your motorbikes again. In the morning, there are a lot of games along the road. You will follow a long dirt road to reach the asphalt in Narok. Then you enter green country again - the green highlands. You make your way to Lake Naivasha. The lake and its surroundings are rich in natural bounty, and the fertile soils and water supply have made this one of Kenya’s prime agricultural regions. You can find many (Dutch) flower farmers here. You stay at the lake.

Day 20: Naivasha - Nairobi (154 kilometers / 95.69 miles)

This is your last, but not the least day. You start with an optional boat ride, enjoying the bird activity, and visiting the hippo pool. Then you start the engines again. You will ride on a mix of asphalt, spectacular tracks, and dirt roads towards Nairobi. You will pass Mount Suswa Conservancy and ride around the Ngong Hills Natural Reserve. The closer you reach Nairobi, the busier it becomes with air pollution, traffic jams, high buildings, and people on the move. On arrival at Nairobi, you enjoy a well-deserved drink to celebrate and share your memories.

Day 21: Nairobi - Departure

Depending on the time of your flight, you either leave very early or will have the day to explore Nairobi: to visit the Maasai Market, Nairobi National Park, one of the big malls, or just relax in the hotel.

About the tour

You start in the capital city, Nairobi, and ride directly into Tanzania. You ride small tracks through the bush to find the last remaining hunter tribe in Africa. Afterward, you jump in a canoe to find crocodiles and hippos. You ride steep passes into the Usambara mountain range. And before you turn back to Kenya, you ride around the mighty Kilimanjaro mountain. In Kenya, you visit Kilimanjaro’s little brother, Mount Kenya, before you ride through the narrow bush to the Maasai Mara for a big five safari.

Motorbikes

• Kibo 250 cc

Difficulty and off-road

The altitude reached during this tour through Kenia and Tanzania is not really worth mentioning. Daily distances are not very long. There is enough time for photo opportunity stops on the route and for visits to villages. This tour is suitable for all healthy motorcyclists. You ride on asphalted main roads and frequently follow a variety of narrow routes off the beaten track. About a third of the route is on unpaved roads. These vary from hard-packed gravel roads to small dirt tracks in thick bush. The unpaved roads are not difficult, but they recommend having basic off-road skills. The motorcycles are light and maneuverable all-terrain bikes.

Skill level(s) required for this tour: intermediate and advanced

Intermediate:

• Can ride for 3-4 hours
• Average riding experience
• Little assistance required
• Comfortable with extreme curves and leans
• Average experience with unsurfaced roads
• Steep ascents and descents

Advanced:

• Can ride for 5-6 hours
• Extensive riding experience
• Assistance on demand (if required)
• Experienced with riding a variety of motorcycles
• Comfortable with any terrain and weather conditions