Kenya · Budget
An 8-day budget safari through the Maasai Mara, Nakuru, Naivasha, Amboseli and 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.
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
There is a lot of Kenya ahead, and it begins with the Maasai Mara. The 4×4 Land Cruiser leaves Nairobi in the morning and reaches the reserve in time to check in at Miti Mingi Eco Camp, with an afternoon drive to follow where time allows. Over the next eight days the journey will cross from the Mara’s grassland to Rift Valley lakes and the semi-arid country of Tsavo, so this first afternoon is a chance to settle into the rhythm of a long safari.
Maasai Mara
The Mara Conservancy describes the season before the migration as one of red oat grass rippling in the wind, elephants, giraffes and lions waiting out the heat, and that resident cast is here all year. From around June or July the herds arrive, and the Conservancy counts some 1.2 million wildebeest moving through the wider ecosystem with zebra, eland and Thomson’s gazelle. A full day in the reserve leaves time to follow whichever story the plains are telling.
Maasai Mara → Lake Nakuru
After a last look at the Mara, the journey heads for the Rift Valley and Lake Nakuru. The park’s 1974 expansion brought escarpments, hills and woodland into what had begun as a lake sanctuary, and its scenery now changes at every turn. Kenya Wildlife Service records around 450 bird species, so the lake shore repays a slow look even on a short evening drive. Buraha Zenoni, named in our catalogue for this stop, is the base for the night.
Lake Nakuru → Lake Naivasha
Rhinos are the reason to be up early at Lake Nakuru, which became Kenya’s first government-managed rhino sanctuary in 1987 and holds both black and white rhinos. After any morning drive, the journey continues south to Lake Naivasha, a freshwater lake whose papyrus fringes and hippo-grazed shores the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute counts as internationally important. Evening is at Leisure Apex, the property named for this stop, with the lake’s hippos and papyrus beds close by.
Lake Naivasha → Amboseli
A long day on the road takes the journey from Lake Naivasha to Amboseli, crossing from the green Rift Valley to the drier south. It is a day for watching Kenya go by from the Land Cruiser window, and for the first sight of the plains of Amboseli as the park approaches. The night is spent at Nyati Safari Camp, the property our catalogue names for Amboseli, and if the timing allows, there may be a short first drive.
Amboseli
Kenya Wildlife Service describes Amboseli as a mix of open grass plains, acacia woodland, thorny bushland and the swamps and marshes that make life possible here. A day of drives moves between them, following the elephant herds to water and scanning the marshes for birds. Some 40 birds of prey are among the 400 species recorded, so keep an eye on the sky, and on clear days on Kilimanjaro across the border.
Amboseli → Tsavo East
Leaving Amboseli, the journey heads east to Tsavo East, which Kenya Wildlife Service records as Kenya’s largest national park, established in 1948. Its gates along the Nairobi–Mombasa highway include Mtito Andei, Voi, Bachuma and Manyani, and the park’s semi-arid bushland is known for elephants dusted red by its soil. The Galana River cuts through the bush, and the Yatta Plateau, which Kenya Wildlife Service calls the world’s longest lava flow, runs alongside.
Tsavo East → Nairobi
Tsavo is full of history as well as wildlife. In 1898 the man-eating lions of Tsavo attacked workers building the Kenya–Uganda Railway and halted construction, and the bush here also saw fighting in the First World War’s East African campaign. Where time allows, a morning drive gives a last look at the park’s wide spaces before the journey back to Nairobi, where eight days and five very different places come to an end.
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
Lake Naivasha · 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
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 · Nairobi · Lake Naivasha · Amboseli · Tsavo
Budget nights at Miti Mingi Eco Camp (Maasai Mara), Leisure Apex (Lake Naivasha) and Nyati Safari Camp (Amboseli), with camp or lodge stays at the other stops.
Maasai Mara · Lake Nakuru · Lake Naivasha · Amboseli
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.
