7 Day Kenya Safari: Tsavo West, Amboseli and Masai Mara

Nairobi to Tsavo West National Park

Tsavo West is one of Kenya’s large parks, not a roadside zoo. Nairobi to Kilaguni country is about five hours. Red-dust elephants, lava, Mzima Springs if we put it on the quote, rhino in the Ngulia area when they are using it. You get an afternoon if you left Nairobi on time. You do not get a full game day on the transfer.

A Kenya driver-guide. Lodge class camping through high-end. Super Luxury remains the Arusha contact.

Overnight: in Tsavo West, in the lodge class named on your quote

Full day in Tsavo West National Park

A full day in Tsavo West is the point of sleeping here. Shetani lava, the Tsavo River, the Chyulu outline if the cloud lifts. Lion density is not the Mara’s; space is the point. We stay out for a picnic so you are still inside when the light tilts.

Mzima Springs is a boardwalk and hippo in clear water — we add it when the clock and the quote say so, not as a free extra we forgot to mention.

Overnight: in Tsavo West, in the lodge class named on your quote

Tsavo West to Amboseli National Park

Leave Tsavo for Amboseli: three to four hours via the Chyulu / Kimana side, not a return to Nairobi. The habitat changes from lava and commiphora to the dry lake bed under Kilimanjaro. You arrive for an afternoon among elephants if the transfer holds.

Park fees for Amboseli start when you enter. Tsavo is behind you.

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 Masai Mara

Kenya’s side of the same grassland system you may already know from the Serengeti is the Masai Mara. Cats hold territories here all year. August to October, 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.

A Kenya driver-guide, a private 4×4. When we use conservancy nights they add walking and night drives that the reserve itself does not allow.

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

Full day in the Masai Mara

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.

You slept in the reserve or the neighbouring conservancy. You will sleep here again. That is the whole difference from a Nairobi day trip.

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

Masai Mara to Nairobi

A last cool game drive, then the road back to Nairobi for a hotel or airport drop-off, which ends the safari. Do not book an international departure before 21:00 unless the quote uses a Mara–Wilson flight.