Kenya · Budget
A 9-day budget safari through the Maasai Mara, Nairobi, Lake Naivasha, Amboseli and 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.
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 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
The journey begins with a day in Nairobi. Which of the city’s sights the day includes is agreed with you when you book. Nairobi has a national park about ten kilometres from the city centre, where lions and rhinos roam within sight of the skyline, as well as the Karen Blixen Museum at the foot of the Ngong Hills and the Giraffe Centre, which breeds Rothschild giraffes for release across Kenya.
Nairobi → Maasai Mara
The 4×4 Land Cruiser leaves Nairobi for the Maasai Mara, the reserve that gives the safari its first and most famous stop. Miti Mingi Eco Camp is the base here, and an afternoon game drive is a chance to see the reserve’s open grassland for the first time. With a full day to follow, there is no hurry to see everything at once, and a first drive, where time allows, is a good way to read where the animals are gathering.
Maasai Mara
In the migration months, from about June or July to November, the Mara River is the place many visitors hope to be, and the Conservancy asks those watching to stay quiet, keep back from the crossing point and never block moving herds. Crossings are frequent in season but impossible to predict. Outside migration time the reserve is calmer but no less rewarding, and a full day lets you find its lions, elephants and giraffes at your own pace.
Maasai Mara → Lake Naivasha
Leaving the Mara, the journey heads north-east to Lake Naivasha in the Rift Valley, where Leisure Apex is the night’s stop. Naivasha is a Ramsar-designated freshwater lake, unlike the alkaline lakes nearby, and its shores are fringed with papyrus and lakeside grassland. Close by are Hell’s Gate, a park of cliffs, gorges and geothermal features reached along Moi South Lake Road, and Mount Longonot, a young volcano on the Nairobi–Nakuru highway.
Lake Naivasha → Amboseli
A long drive south takes the journey from the Rift Valley to Amboseli, where it enters through one of the park’s two main gates from the Nairobi side, Iremito or Meshanani. The scenery dries as you go, and the first view of the Amboseli plains, with Kilimanjaro beyond them if the sky is clear, is one of the great arrivals in Kenya. The night is at Nyati Safari Camp, the property our catalogue names for Amboseli.
Amboseli
A full day in Amboseli gives time to see how its water shapes everything: swamps sustain the elephants, buffalo and birds, while the open plains around them are dry and dusty. Observation Hill offers a wide view across both, and the park’s birdlife, over 400 species, is at its richest around the marshes. Kenya Wildlife Service calls Amboseli one of Africa’s premier places for close encounters with large elephant herds.
Amboseli → Tsavo
From Amboseli the journey heads for Tsavo, where Tsavo East and Tsavo West together form a conservation area of around 22,000 square kilometres. Which of the two parks this journey visits has not yet been confirmed and is set out in your quotation. For context only: Kenya Wildlife Service lists a road from Amboseli to Tsavo West through Kimana Gate, and describes Tsavo West as hilly and volcanic, with Mzima Springs and viewpoints such as Poacher’s Lookout and Roaring Rocks, while Tsavo East is drier bushland cut by the Galana River.
Tsavo
A day in Tsavo is a day of space. Tsavo East, established in 1948, is Kenya’s largest national park, and Tsavo West its second-largest; between them they hold the red-dusted elephants for which the area is known, crossing semi-arid plains under huge skies. Remote country with little light pollution also makes for memorable night skies after dark. The Nairobi–Mombasa highway and the railway run between the two parks, which is why the area is easier to reach than its wildness suggests.
Tsavo → Nairobi
The last morning in Tsavo is a chance to think about the stories the land holds: the man-eating lions that halted the building of the Kenya–Uganda Railway in 1898, and the First World War fighting that took place in this bush. After a final look at the park, the journey returns to Nairobi along the highway, ending a nine-day safari that began in the capital and travelled through grassland, lake and dry southern country.
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 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
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.
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).
Big Time pick
Amboseli · Lake Naivasha · Maasai Mara
Accommodation is in lodges.
Tell us your dates, who is travelling and anything you would like to change. Our team will tell you what this journey can include.
