Kenya & Tanzania · Budget
A 13-day budget safari through the Maasai Mara, Nakuru, Amboseli, Manyara, the Serengeti and Ngorongoro. Budget nights at Miti Mingi Eco Camp (Maasai Mara), Buraha Zenoni (Lake Nakuru) and Nyati Safari Camp (Amboseli), with camp or lodge stays at the other stops.
Price
Price on request
Places as named in the journey title. Nights in each are set out in your itinerary.
Starts in Nairobi · finishes in Arusha
The route, days and named stays are as planned. What is included at each stop, from food, park fees and drinking water to room types, permits and border arrangements, and any camp or lodge not named here, is set out in your written quotation. Game drives on travel days depend on arrival and departure times, timings can change with road and park conditions, and wildlife sightings are never guaranteed. Photographs illustrate each day’s destination; they are not pictures of a particular departure.
Nairobi → Maasai Mara
Your safari opens with the morning drive from Nairobi to the Maasai Mara, where Miti Mingi Eco Camp, our catalogue’s camp for the Mara, is home for the first three nights. The 4×4 Land Cruiser aims to arrive in time for an afternoon game drive. With so many days ahead, this first outing is a chance to get used to the rhythm of safari life, with early starts, long drives and the patience that the best sightings demand.
Maasai Mara
The first full day can explore the reserve’s grassland, which the Mara Conservancy describes, before the herds arrive in June, as red oat grass moving in the wind, with elephants and giraffes, a topi on a termite mound and lions waiting out the heat beneath the acacias. In migration season the same plains carry columns of wildebeest and zebra instead. The day’s route depends on the season and the most recent sightings.
Maasai Mara
A second full day can take in the Mara Triangle, which the Mara Conservancy runs within the Maasai Mara National Reserve. The Conservancy counts around 1.2 million wildebeest in the migration, travelling with zebra, eland and Thomson’s gazelle, and its account of their route runs from the Sand River towards Look-Out Hill and down to the Mara River. Whatever the month, two full days here allow time for long, quiet sightings.
Maasai Mara → Lake Nakuru
After three nights on the Mara plains, the journey turns north-east to the Rift Valley and Lake Nakuru. The park is reached from the Nairobi–Nakuru highway through Lanet Gate, Nderit Gate or the Main Gate near Nakuru City, and Buraha Zenoni, which our catalogue names for this stop, is the base for the night. Arriving in the afternoon, there may be time to drive along the lake shore before dark.
Lake Nakuru → Amboseli
Where time allows, an early game drive in Lake Nakuru National Park looks for the black and white rhinos that the park, fenced since 1986, protects. Then the Land Cruiser makes the long transfer south to Amboseli, a day that crosses much of the country. Arriving at Nyati Safari Camp, the camp our catalogue names for Amboseli, there is time to rest before a full day among the elephants.
Amboseli
A full day in Amboseli, a park gazetted in 1974, follows the elephants between the plains and the swamps. Observation Hill, known locally as Nomatior, gives a panoramic view across the park and carries cultural history linked to the Ndorobo community, and it is a good place to see how the green swamps sit within the dry plains. Light aircraft use Kimana airstrip, and a road links Amboseli with Tsavo West through Kimana Gate.
Amboseli → Kenya–Tanzania border → Arusha
Today the journey moves from Kenya into Tanzania. The quotation names the crossing point, and travellers should check entry requirements for their nationality on official sites before the trip, since they change from time to time. On the Tanzanian side, the day ends in the north of the country, in the Arusha area, and with the parks of the northern circuit ahead.
Arusha → Lake Manyara
From Arusha, the journey travels west to Lake Manyara National Park, which sits at the base of the Great Rift Valley escarpment just south of Mto wa Mbu. Groundwater forest grows at the foot of the escarpment and gives way to the shore of the soda lake. TANAPA advises keeping food secure from baboons and monkeys at picnic sites, and notes that some routes may close temporarily in the rains.
Lake Manyara → Serengeti
A morning in Lake Manyara National Park is a chance to look for its blue monkeys, bushbuck and tree-resting lions before the drive over the highlands to the Serengeti. The Serengeti has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981, and Tanzania National Parks manages it as part of a far larger ecosystem shared with the Maasai Mara you saw a week ago. Arriving in the afternoon, there may be time for a first game drive.
Serengeti
Two full days in the Serengeti are a luxury of time, and the first can be spent finding out where the herds are. TANAPA explains that the herds follow the rain, so their position varies from year to year; in the dry months of June to October the migration is the focus, and in January and February the calving season draws the herds south to Ndutu. Wherever they are, the day is planned around the best chances of seeing them.
Serengeti
The second full day can turn to the Serengeti’s other inhabitants: the lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo and rhinos that TANAPA lists among the park’s residents, and the more than 500 bird species, from ostriches to eagles. Guides in the park must be certified, and drones are not allowed without special permission. A long day out on the plains, with time to wait at a promising spot, is one of the great pleasures of a safari this length.
Serengeti → Ngorongoro
Where time allows, a morning drive in the Serengeti is followed by the journey back to the Ngorongoro highlands and the rim of the crater. The name Ngorongoro comes from the Maasai phrase “orgirra le kkorongorro”, meaning “big bowl”, and looking down from the rim at the end of the day shows why. The NCAA notes that lodges, special campsites and a public campsite are found on and near the rim.
Ngorongoro Crater → Arusha
The last day is spent on the crater floor, among elephants, buffalo, rhinos, lions and leopards, in a caldera that formed about 2.5 million years ago. After the game drive, the Land Cruiser climbs out of the crater for the journey back towards Arusha, ending thirteen days that took in six parks in two countries. The safari finishes in Arusha, and onward travel, whether to an airport or back to Nairobi, is arranged with you.
Like the shape of these days? Tell us your dates and who is travelling, and our team will set out the stays, meals and inclusions in a written quotation.
Maasai Mara · Budget
Lake Nakuru · Budget
Amboseli · Budget
Other stops: overnight at a camp or lodge. The camp or lodge is discussed with you during planning and confirmed with your itinerary, subject to availability. How accommodation works on our safaris
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Lodge accommodation, with Buraha Zenoni (Lake Nakuru).
Tell us your dates, who is travelling and anything you would like to change. Our team will tell you what this journey can include.
