Kenya · Budget · Big Time pick
A 6-day budget safari through the Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru and Amboseli. Budget nights at Miti Mingi Eco Camp (Maasai Mara), Buraha Zenoni (Lake Nakuru) and Nyati Safari Camp (Amboseli).
Price per person
Places as named in the journey title. Nights in each are set out in your itinerary.
Starts in Nairobi · finishes in Nairobi
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
The safari begins in Nairobi with the drive to the Maasai Mara in a 4×4 Land Cruiser. Miti Mingi Eco Camp is the base, with a first game drive in the afternoon if the drive in allows. Six days ahead make it easy to relax into the pace of a safari, and the Mara is the right place to start: its open plains give a clear sense of how animals use the land, from the grazing herds to the predators that shadow them, before the journey moves on to lakes and mountain views.
Maasai Mara
Which Mara you see depends on the month. When the herds are in, usually from June or July until November, the plains move with wildebeest, zebra and gazelles. Before they arrive, the Mara Conservancy describes red oat grass moving in the wind, elephants and giraffes, a topi standing on a termite mound and lions waiting out the heat beneath the acacias. Not every wildebeest is a visitor: the reserve once had its own resident herds from the Loita Plains, now much reduced as farming has narrowed their routes.
Maasai Mara → Lake Nakuru
Leaving the grasslands, the Land Cruiser heads to Lake Nakuru, one of the Rift Valley lakes and a park of rocky escarpments, acacia woodland and grassland around a semi-alkaline lake. Arriving in the afternoon, there may be time for a first drive along the lake shore before the night at Buraha Zenoni. The lake’s birds are what first earned it protection, in 1961, and it remains a fine place to see waterbirds, though their numbers vary from season to season.
Lake Nakuru → Amboseli
This is the longest travelling day of the journey, from the Rift Valley to Amboseli in the south. An early morning in Lake Nakuru National Park gives a chance to look for its black and white rhinos before setting off. Kenya Wildlife Service lists two road approaches to Amboseli from the Nairobi side, through Emali and Iremito Gate or through Namanga and Meshanani Gate, and the evening ends at Nyati Safari Camp, the camp our catalogue names for Amboseli.
Amboseli
Amboseli is one of the best places in Africa to spend time with large elephant herds, and a full day here lets you watch family groups move between the plains and the swamps where they drink and feed. Kilimanjaro, across the border in Tanzania, forms the backdrop when the weather allows. The park is also one of Kenya’s Important Bird Areas, with over 400 recorded species, so the swamps reward anyone who enjoys birds as much as big game.
Amboseli → Nairobi
A last morning in the park brings one more chance of Kilimanjaro rising behind the plains, weather permitting, and one more look at the herds makes a fitting end to the safari. The road then leads north-west, back towards Nairobi, where the journey ends. Over six days the journey has crossed grassland, Rift Valley escarpment and the swamps and plains of the south, a cross-section of Kenya that few shorter itineraries can match.
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
Big Time pick
Maasai Mara · Lake Nakuru · Lake Naivasha · Amboseli
Budget nights at Miti Mingi Eco Camp (Maasai Mara), Buraha Zenoni (Lake Nakuru), Leisure Apex (Lake Naivasha) and Nyati Safari Camp (Amboseli).
Maasai Mara · Nakuru · Naivasha · Amboseli · Tsavo East
Budget nights at Miti Mingi Eco Camp (Maasai Mara), Buraha Zenoni (Lake Nakuru), Leisure Apex (Lake Naivasha) and Nyati Safari Camp (Amboseli), with camp or lodge stays at the other stops.
Samburu · Nakuru · Bogoria/Baringo · Maasai Mara · Amboseli
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.
Tell us your dates, who is travelling and anything you would like to change. Our team will tell you what this journey can include.
