7 Day Kenya Safari: Amboseli, Nakuru and Masai Mara

Nairobi to Amboseli National Park

Amboseli is elephants against Kilimanjaro when the cloud lifts — a photograph you have already seen, and then the real thing, which is slower and better. The dry lake bed, the swamps and the dust make a stage for huge families, and for hippo and waterbirds in the same frame.

We give you a full afternoon or a full day, not a tick at the gate. The mountain is shy. We wait.

Overnight: in Amboseli, with the mountain as the rumour on the horizon

Full day in Amboseli National Park

A photograph you have already seen, then the real thing, slower and better: Amboseli is elephants against Kilimanjaro when the cloud lifts. Huge families take the dry lake bed, the swamps and the dust as a stage, with hippo and waterbirds in the same frame.

The mountain is shy, so we wait. A full afternoon or a full day, not a tick at the gate.

Overnight: in Amboseli, with the mountain as the rumour on the horizon

Amboseli to Lake Nakuru

Lake Nakuru is compact and dense: both black and white rhino when they are on the rim, a soda lake that still draws flamingos when the water level is right, and forest that holds Rothschild giraffe. It is the right stop between Amboseli and the Mara, not a park you skip for the highway.

We enter in the morning, picnic or lodge lunch, then continue west. You do not go back to a Nairobi hotel in the middle of this week.

Overnight: Lake Nakuru

Lake Nakuru to Masai Mara

Cats hold territories here all year. The Masai Mara is the Kenya side of the same grassland system you may already know from the Serengeti. From August to October the herds pile onto the Mara River and the crossings become the story; the rest of the year the marsh, the resident lion and the open grass are enough.

The reserve itself does not allow walking and night drives. Conservancy nights, when we use them, add those. You travel in a private 4×4 with a Kenya driver-guide.

Overnight: in the Masai Mara, reserve or conservancy as named on the quote

Full day in the Masai Mara

A second drive when the heat breaks follows picnic or lodge lunch. Dawn in the Mara is cold, gold, and noisy with birds. The river, the marsh or a conservancy gate — whichever matches where the cats hunted overnight.

You slept in the reserve, you will sleep here again, and four days can still feel like a proper safari. This is not a Nairobi day trip.

Overnight: in the Masai Mara, reserve or conservancy as named on the quote

Masai Mara game drives

This is not a Nairobi day trip: you slept in the reserve and you will sleep here again, which is why four days can still feel like a proper safari. Dawn in the Mara is cold, gold, and noisy with birds. We work the river, the marsh or a conservancy gate depending on where the cats hunted overnight. Picnic or lodge lunch, then a second drive when the heat breaks.

Overnight: in the Masai Mara, reserve or conservancy as named on the quote

Masai Mara to Nairobi

Morning drive, then the road back to Nairobi for airport or hotel drop-off, which ends the safari.