7 Days Naivasha, Nakuru, Bogoria/Baringo, The Ark & Samburu Lodge Safari
Naivasha · Nakuru · Bogoria/Baringo · The Ark · Samburu
Lodge accommodation, with Buraha Zenoni (Lake Nakuru).
Kenya · Budget
9 Days Samburu, Nakuru, Bogoria/Baringo, Maasai Mara & Amboseli Budget Safari
A 9-day budget safari through Samburu, Nakuru, Bogoria and Baringo, the Maasai Mara and 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.
- Duration
- 9 days
- Route
- Samburu → Nakuru → Bogoria/Baringo → Maasai Mara → Amboseli
- Comfort
- Budget
- Transport
- 4×4 Land Cruiser
- Accommodation
- Miti Mingi Eco Camp, Buraha Zenoni, Nyati Safari Camp · Other stops: overnight at a camp or lodge.
Price
Price on request
The way through.
- 01Samburu
- 02Nakuru
- 03Bogoria/Baringo
- 04Maasai Mara
- 05Amboseli
Places as named in the journey title. Nights in each are set out in your itinerary.
Day by day
Your itinerary, day by day.
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.
The Ewaso Ng’iro river in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: Daniel Case (CC BY-SA 4.0) Into northern Kenya
Nairobi → Samburu
The journey starts with the drive north from Nairobi in the 4×4 Land Cruiser to Samburu National Reserve, entered through Archer’s Gate near Archer’s Post or another of the reserve’s gates. Samburu is small, about 165 square kilometres on the northern bank of the Ewaso Nyiro, but its wildlife is unlike anything further south. The afternoon’s first drive along the river is a chance to meet the elephants that make the reserve famous.
- Overnight
- Camp or lodge in Samburu, named in your quotation
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
Acacia country below rocky hills in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: "Daniel Fafard (Dreamdan)" (CC BY-SA 3.0) Palms, rocks and northern wildlife
Samburu
Samburu’s scenery is part of its appeal: doum palms along the river, bold rocky outcrops and grassland savannah dotted with acacias. A full day of drives moves through all of it, looking for reticulated giraffe, Grevy’s zebra and the other dry-country species, and for the reserve’s predators, which include lion, leopard and cheetah. For birders, hornbills, weavers, birds of prey and the vulturine guineafowl are the stars, and the river banks are often the best place to find them.
- Overnight
- Camp or lodge in Samburu, named in your quotation
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
The shore of Lake Baringo below the hills of the Rift Valley, Kenya. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: Peter Gatheru (CC BY-SA 4.0) West to Lake Baringo
Samburu → Lake Baringo
Today the journey crosses west from Samburu to the Rift Valley and Lake Baringo, a freshwater lake in Baringo County and, with nearby Lake Bogoria, a Ramsar site. Baringo is a working lake, whose tilapia and catfish fisheries support the communities on its shores, and the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute has studied it from a station here since 1990. What the stay at Baringo includes is set out in your quotation.
- Overnight
- Camp or lodge at Lake Baringo, named in your quotation
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
Flamingos feeding in the shallows of Lake Nakuru, Kenya. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: Kandukuru Nagarjun from Bangalore, India (CC BY 2.0) Hot springs of Bogoria, then Nakuru
Lake Bogoria → Lake Nakuru
Lake Bogoria is one of the most unusual places on any Kenya safari: an alkaline lake where steam rises from hot springs at Loburu and Chemurkeu, and where lesser flamingos have at times gathered in enormous numbers, though recent rises in the lake have changed their feeding habitat. The springs are close to boiling, so keep to the viewing areas. The journey then continues south to Lake Nakuru, with the night at Buraha Zenoni.
- Overnight
- Buraha Zenoni
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
Zebras on wide plains beneath a cloudy sky in the Maasai Mara. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: Big Time Safaris Lake Nakuru to the Mara
Lake Nakuru → Maasai Mara
A morning drive in Lake Nakuru National Park is the best chance on this journey to see rhinos, both black and white, in a park where they have been protected inside a fence since the 1980s. Afterwards the Land Cruiser heads south-west to the Maasai Mara, swapping the Rift Valley for the open grassland of the reserve. The night is at Miti Mingi Eco Camp, which our catalogue names for the Mara.
- Overnight
- Miti Mingi Eco Camp
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
Wildebeest walking in a line across the plains towards a band of trees in the Maasai Mara. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: Big Time Safaris The great grassland
Maasai Mara
After the northern reserve and the Rift Valley lakes, the Mara feels vast. A full day in the reserve shows the grassland at its best, with time to stop and watch rather than move on. In the migration months the herds can stretch across whole valleys; at other times the Mara’s residents hold the stage, and the Conservancy notes that the reserve once had its own herds of wildebeest from the Loita Plains, now much reduced as farming has narrowed their routes.
- Overnight
- Miti Mingi Eco Camp
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
A plains zebra grazing in Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0) The long road to Amboseli
Maasai Mara → Amboseli
This is the longest travelling day of the journey, from the Maasai Mara in the west to Amboseli in the south, near the Tanzanian border. It is a day to settle back and watch the country change from the Land Cruiser, from grassland and farmland to the dry plains of the south. Amboseli’s gates at Iremito and Meshanani are reached from Emali or Namanga, and the night is at Nyati Safari Camp, the property our catalogue names for the park.
- Overnight
- Nyati Safari Camp
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
Lesser flamingos in Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0) A day among Amboseli’s herds
Amboseli
The last full day of the safari is spent in Amboseli, where elephant families move between the plains and the swamps and Kilimanjaro rises beyond the border when the weather allows. Observation Hill, Nomatior to the local community, gives a view across the whole park, and it carries cultural history linked to the Ndorobo community. Birders can spend time at the swamps, part of one of Kenya’s Important Bird Areas.
- Overnight
- Nyati Safari Camp
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
An African bush elephant in Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Illustrative photograph. Photograph: Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0) Amboseli to Nairobi, journey’s end
Amboseli → Nairobi
After a final drive in Amboseli, if the morning allows one, the Land Cruiser makes the drive back to Nairobi. Nine days ago the journey set out for the dry north; since then it has crossed the Rift Valley’s freshwater and alkaline lakes, seen rhinos at Nakuru, spent a day on the Mara’s grassland and finished among the elephants of the south. Few journeys in the catalogue cover as many of Kenya’s landscapes.
- Meals
- Set out in your written quotation
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.
Where you stay.
Maasai Mara · Budget
Miti Mingi Eco Camp
Lake Nakuru · Budget
Buraha Zenoni
Amboseli · Budget
Nyati Safari Camp
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
Places along the way.
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Your journey begins with a conversation
Make this journey your own.
Tell us your dates, who is travelling and anything you would like to change. Our team will tell you what this journey can include.