You are collected in Arusha and driven to the airstrip for the short flight into the Serengeti. The plains open beneath you almost immediately, and you land an hour later in the middle of them, where your guide and private 4x4 are waiting. Lunch, then the whole afternoon is a game drive through the Seronera valley — the richest big-cat country in the park, where lion lie out on the granite kopjes and leopard drape themselves in the sausage trees. Dinner and your first night under the Serengeti sky.

A pre-dawn starts for the finest hour of the whole trip. You lift off as the sun comes up and drift low and almost silently over the plains, watching the herds move beneath you and the shadow of the balloon run across the grass. You land to a champagne breakfast laid out in the bush, tables and linen and all, in the middle of nowhere. Afterwards the day is yours to game drive at your own pace, or to do very little at all. Dinner and overnight in the Serengeti.

An early breakfast, because today covers some ground. We game drive our way out of the Serengeti rather than simply driving it, crossing the plains as they roll south. By early afternoon we reach the crater and descend six hundred metres to the floor. The Ngorongoro Crater is an intact volcanic caldera whose wildlife never leaves: black rhino, big-maned lion, elephant, buffalo, and flamingo in their thousands. We climb out in the evening and drop down the far side to the Rift Valley escarpment above Lake Manyara. Dinner and overnight on the escarpment.

A short morning drive down to Tarangire, the elephant park, where the dry season draws enormous herds to the river and the baobabs stand a thousand years old on the plains. You game drive through the river valley for the last time, and then, at the airstrip inside the park, you swap the 4x4 for a small plane. Two hours later you are landing on Zanzibar, where the air is thick and warm and smells of the sea. You are met and transferred to your hotel. The safari is over. The rest is yours.

The morning is yours. Around eleven we collect you for Stone Town — a coral-stone maze of alleyways, carved doors and Omani balconies, where Africa, Arabia and India have been colliding for a thousand years. We walk it slowly, because that is the only way it works. Afterwards we drive out to a spice farm, where the cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and vanilla that made this island rich still grow, and you taste and smell your way through them. Back at your hotel by late afternoon, with the beach and the evening ahead of you.

Nothing at all is scheduled until the evening, and that is the point. Sleep late. Eat breakfast slowly, looking at the water. The tide here goes a very long way out and comes a very long way back in, and watching that happen from a chair with a cold drink is a legitimate use of a day. Then, as the light softens, we take you out on a traditional dhow, sailing off the coast under a canvas sail while the sun goes down. It is the way this island ought to be seen.

A last slow morning by the sea, with nothing in the diary and nothing to be up for. Swim. Eat breakfast looking at the water. Walk the beach one final time, which everybody puts off for as long as they can. Depending on your flight, there may be time for lunch before we collect you and transfer you to Zanzibar airport for your onward journey. Seven days: a balloon over the Serengeti at dawn, the floor of a volcano, and the Indian Ocean to finish.