7 Days Maasai Mara Lake Naivasha and Amboseli Safari

On arrival at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, complete immigration and collect your luggage before meeting your local representative in the arrivals area. Transfer to your Nairobi hotel, where you can check in and settle into your room after your journey.

The rest of the day is free to rest at the hotel. Enjoy a quiet afternoon in the lounge or gardens, or use the hotel facilities if you arrive early enough. Your safari briefing introduces the route, the next morning’s departure and the places you will visit with your guide.

In the evening, have dinner at the hotel or choose a nearby restaurant, depending on your arrival time. Settle in for an overnight stay in Nairobi before the wildlife journey begins.

Meal plan: Breakfast only where included in the confirmed arrival-night booking; lunch and dinner at own expense unless quoted.

After breakfast, meet your safari guide and depart for the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Travel through the Great Rift Valley, stopping at a viewpoint to admire the escarpment and take photographs. Continue through Narok and into open countryside, passing rural settlements and grazing herds along the way.

Arrive at your camp or lodge for lunch, check in and enjoy a short rest before your first game drive. The afternoon brings your first close look at the Mara’s rolling grasslands, scattered acacia trees and seasonal streams.

Head out with your guide to look for elephants, giraffes, zebras, buffaloes and antelopes. Watch the edges of tall grass and shaded areas as your guide searches for lions, cheetahs and other predators. Pause at sightings to observe the animals’ behaviour and take photographs.

Return to your camp or lodge before darkness for dinner and an overnight stay.

Meal plan: Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

After an early breakfast, leave camp with a packed lunch for a full day in the Maasai Mara. Explore the open plains while the morning is still cool, looking for lions returning from a night’s hunting, cheetahs scanning the grasslands and elephants moving between feeding areas.

Continue through different sections of the reserve, pausing beside herds of zebras, wildebeest, buffaloes and gazelles. Your guide will explain the relationships between the grazing animals, predators and the landscape, with time to watch behaviour rather than hurry from one sighting to another.

Stop for a picnic lunch at a designated place, then continue your game drive through the afternoon. During the migration season, your guide may focus on areas used by the moving herds; their location and any river crossings depend on natural conditions.

Return to camp before dusk, freshen up and enjoy dinner. Spend the evening relaxing and discussing the day’s wildlife encounters.

Meal plan: Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

After breakfast, depart for Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley. Travel through changing farmland and lakeside countryside, arriving at your accommodation for lunch and a short break.

In the afternoon, take a boat trip on the lake with a local boat guide. Glide past papyrus beds and along the shoreline, looking for hippos from a safe distance, African fish eagles perched in trees, kingfishers and other waterbirds.

Continue with a guided walk on Crescent Island. Follow the walking trails through open grassland, where giraffes, zebras, waterbuck and other antelopes may be seen grazing. Being on foot gives you a different perspective on the landscape after several days of vehicle safaris.

Return to your lakeside lodge in the late afternoon. Enjoy time to relax in the grounds before dinner and an overnight stay. The boat outing and walk are timed around weather and local access conditions.

Meal plan: Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

After breakfast, depart for Amboseli National Park. Travel across changing countryside toward the plains below Mount Kilimanjaro, with a comfort stop along the way. As you approach the park, the landscape opens into dry grassland, acacia woodland and wetlands.

Arrive at your lodge or camp, have lunch and take a short rest. In the afternoon, set out on a game drive through the park’s open plains and marsh areas, where elephant families often gather to feed and drink.

Look for buffaloes, zebras, wildebeest and giraffes, as well as hippos and waterbirds around the wetter areas. Your guide will stop for wildlife photographs and, when the clouds clear, views of Kilimanjaro rising beyond the park.

Return to your accommodation before evening for dinner and an overnight stay.

Meal plan: Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Begin with an early game drive, when the air is cool and Kilimanjaro may be visible above the plains. Watch elephant families walking toward the marshes and look for lions or hyenas before they settle into shade. Return to the lodge for breakfast if you set out before eating.

Continue exploring Amboseli’s contrasting habitats, from dusty open ground to green wetlands fed by underground water from the mountain. Watch buffaloes and hippos around the marshes, and look for crowned cranes, herons and other waterbirds beside the pools.

Return to your lodge for lunch and a break during the warmest part of the day. Later, head out for another game drive, allowing time to stop beside elephant herds and observe the interactions between adults and calves.

As the afternoon light softens, enjoy the park’s broad landscapes and any clear mountain views. Return to the lodge for dinner and another overnight stay in the Amboseli area.

Meal plan: Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

After breakfast at Amboseli, meet your guide and begin the road journey back to Nairobi. Enjoy a final view of the surrounding landscape as you leave the safari region, with a comfort stop along the route.

Continue through rural towns and farmland toward the capital. Your guide will arrange the journey around your confirmed drop-off and flight time, with a lunch stop or packed meal where included in the booking.

On reaching Nairobi, transfer to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for your onward flight, or to the city drop-off point stated in your arrangements. Say farewell to your guide at the end of your Kenya safari.

Meal plan: Breakfast; lunch where included in the confirmed safari package. Dinner is not included unless quoted.