Three countries. Endless possibility.
From the savannah to the mountains and the rainforest, discover the places that make East Africa extraordinary — each with the journeys that visit it.
Where would you like to begin?
What draws you?
Wildlife moves freely, and sightings depend on season and conditions. They are never guaranteed.
The great migration
Wildebeest and zebra in their hundreds of thousands: usually in the Maasai Mara from June–July to November, and calving around Ndutu from late December to April.
Mountain gorillas
Bwindi protects about 459 mountain gorillas — almost half of those left in the world.
Rhinos
Kenya’s first government-managed rhino sanctuary at Lake Nakuru, the last two northern white rhinos at Ol Pejeta, and rhinos within sight of Nairobi.
Elephant country
Amboseli’s herds beneath Kilimanjaro, more than 3,000 elephants in Tarangire, and the red-dusted giants of Tsavo.
Mountains
Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak at 5,895 m, and Mount Kenya, its second-highest.
Remote wilderness
Uganda’s most remote park at Kidepo, Ruaha’s vast wilderness, and boat safaris on the Rufiji in Nyerere.
16 places in Kenya.
Nairobi
Kenya · 3 journeys
Kenya’s capital, with a national park on its edge, a giraffe conservation centre and museums that tell its story.
Nairobi National Park
Kenya · 1 journey
Kenya’s first national park, on the edge of the capital: open plains with lions and rhinos, and the Nairobi skyline on the horizon.
Maasai Mara
Kenya · 37 journeys
Long grass plains, the Mara River and, in most years, the great wildebeest herds that spill over from Tanzania’s Serengeti.
Lake Nakuru
Kenya · 30 journeys
A Rift Valley lake inside a fenced national park — Kenya’s first government-managed rhino sanctuary, and a long-protected haven for waterbirds.
Lake Naivasha
Kenya · 15 journeys
A freshwater Rift Valley lake fringed with papyrus, with hippos on its grassy shores and two Kenya Wildlife Service parks — Hell’s Gate and Mount Longonot — close by.
Amboseli
Kenya · 17 journeys
Open plains, swamps and big elephant herds, with Kilimanjaro rising across the border as the backdrop.
Samburu
Kenya · 9 journeys
Northern Kenya’s dry-country reserve along the Ewaso Nyiro river — elephants, doum palms and the rare “Samburu Five”.
Tsavo
Kenya · 2 journeys
Two vast parks of red earth, lava and springs — Tsavo East and Tsavo West together form one of Africa’s largest wildlife landscapes.
Mount Kenya
Kenya · 7 journeys
Africa’s second-highest mountain: an ancient extinct volcano of glacier-clad peaks, moorland, high tarns and forested slopes.
Lake Bogoria
Kenya · 3 journeys
Kenya’s deepest alkaline lake, ringed by hot springs, geysers and the Rift Valley escarpment, where lesser flamingos can gather in their hundreds of thousands.
Lake Baringo
Kenya · 3 journeys
Guide in preparation: see the journeys that visit it.
Aberdares
Kenya · 2 journeys
A cool, misty volcanic range on the eastern wall of the Rift Valley — forest, moorland, waterfalls and elephants emerging from the trees.
Ol Pejeta
Kenya · 3 journeys
A Laikipia conservancy that grew from a cattle ranch into a rhino stronghold — home to the last two northern white rhinos on earth.
Kakamega
Kenya · 1 journey
Kenya’s only tropical rainforest — the last fragment of the Guineo-Congolian forest that once stretched across Central and West Africa.
Lake Victoria
Kenya · 1 journey
Kenya’s shore of Africa’s largest freshwater lake, around Kisumu — an island park, impala and long lake views.
Taita Hills
Kenya · 1 journey
Guide in preparation: see the journeys that visit it.
11 places in Tanzania.
Arusha
Tanzania · 1 journey
The gateway to northern Tanzania, and a national park of forest, lakes and Mount Meru on its doorstep.
Tarangire
Tanzania · 5 journeys
Baobab country along the Tarangire River, with one of Africa’s highest concentrations of elephants in the dry season.
Lake Manyara
Tanzania · 11 journeys
A compact park at the foot of the Rift Valley escarpment: groundwater forest, a soda lake and lions that rest in the trees.
Ngorongoro
Tanzania · 17 journeys
A collapsed volcano, about 20 kilometres across, whose crater floor holds an extraordinary concentration of wildlife — including all of the Big Five.
Serengeti
Tanzania · 16 journeys
The plains of the great migration: more than a million and a half wildebeest, zebra and the predators that follow them, across one of Africa’s most famous parks.
Ndutu
Tanzania · 2 journeys
Short-grass plains and soda lakes on the edge of the southern Serengeti, where the migrating herds gather to give birth.
Mount Kilimanjaro
Tanzania · 6 journeys
Africa’s highest mountain and the world’s tallest free-standing peak — a climb of five to eight days, depending on the route.
Zanzibar
Tanzania · 5 journeys
Guide in preparation: see the journeys that visit it.
Nyerere
Tanzania · 1 journey
Created from part of the great Selous landscape: a park of rivers, lakes and miombo woodland, and one of Africa’s key strongholds for wild dogs.
Mikumi
Tanzania · 1 journey
Open savannah on the Mkata floodplain, and one of Tanzania’s most accessible parks from Dar es Salaam.
Ruaha
Tanzania · 1 journey
A vast, remote park in south-central Tanzania, known for its greater kudu, big buffalo herds and the crocodiles of the Great Ruaha River.
4 places in Uganda.
Bwindi
Uganda · 2 journeys
An ancient, mist-covered rainforest in south-western Uganda that shelters almost half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas.
Queen Elizabeth National Park
Uganda · 2 journeys
Uganda’s most popular savannah park, straddling the equator beneath the Rwenzori Mountains — with the Kazinga Channel and the tree-climbing lions of Ishasha.
Murchison Falls
Uganda · 1 journey
Uganda’s oldest and largest conservation area, where the Victoria Nile forces through an eight-metre gorge and plunges into the Devil’s Cauldron.
Kidepo
Uganda · 1 journey
Uganda’s most remote park: golden savannah in the semi-arid valleys of Karamoja, ringed by distant mountains.
Before you choose.
Kenya’s seasons
Long rains around March–May and short rains around October–December, according to the Kenya Meteorological Department.
Tanzania, park by park
The Serengeti’s dry season, Ndutu’s calving months and Tarangire’s peak — from the park authorities’ own advice.
Uganda’s primates
Gorilla and chimpanzee rules are set by the Uganda Wildlife Authority and change over time.
Sources
- Mara Conservancy (Mara Triangle, Maasai Mara National Reserve): Wildebeest migration (opens in a new tab)
- Tanzania National Parks: Serengeti National Park (opens in a new tab)
- Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority: Ndutu Plains (opens in a new tab)
- Uganda Wildlife Authority: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (opens in a new tab)
- Kenya Wildlife Service: Lake Nakuru National Park (opens in a new tab)
- Ol Pejeta Conservancy: Wildlife conservation (opens in a new tab)
- Kenya Wildlife Service: Nairobi National Park (opens in a new tab)
- Kenya Wildlife Service: Amboseli National Park (opens in a new tab)
- Tanzania National Parks: Tarangire National Park (opens in a new tab)
- Kenya Wildlife Service: Tsavo East National Park (opens in a new tab)
- Tanzania National Parks: Kilimanjaro National Park (opens in a new tab)
- Kenya Wildlife Service: Mt. Kenya National Park (opens in a new tab)
- Uganda Wildlife Authority: Kidepo Valley National Park (opens in a new tab)
- Tanzania National Parks: Ruaha National Park (opens in a new tab)
- Tanzania National Parks: Nyerere National Park (opens in a new tab)
- Kenya Meteorological Department: Seasonal forecast (March–May “Long Rains”; October–December season) (opens in a new tab)
- Tanzania National Parks: Tarangire visitor guide (opens in a new tab)
- Uganda Wildlife Authority: Kibale National Park (opens in a new tab)
Facts on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. Park rules, fees and conditions change, so always check the latest before you travel.
Not sure where to start?
Tell us what you would love to see and when you can travel, and our team will suggest the places that suit you.