8 Day Kenya Safari Amboseli Aberdare Samburu Nakuru & Masai Mara

Day 1: Nairobi – Drive to Amboseli National Park
Day 2: Amboseli National Park – Drive to Aberdare National Park
Day 3: Aberdare – Drive to Samburu National Reserve
Day 4: Explore Samburu National Reserve
Day 5: Samburu – Drive to Lake Nakuru National Park
Day 6: Lake Nakuru – Drive to the Masai Mara National Reserve
Day 7: Explore the Masai Mara National Reserve
Day 8: Masai Mara – Drive to Nairobi

Day 1: Nairobi – Drive to Amboseli National Park

Rise early to enjoy a delicious breakfast at your hotel. Depart by road to Amboseli National Park. There you will experience your first game drive en route to your lodge. After lunch, we venture into this beautiful national park on an afternoon game drive, which usually offers close-up photographic opportunities of the wild animals.

Amboseli is famous for close encounters with big herds of elephants. The game park is a photographer’s paradise combining close-range wildlife sightings with scenic landscapes, featuring the towering Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain.

The vegetation of the park varies seasonally with green swamps in rainy times and arid bush in dry periods, both well-suited to game viewing. Sightings include the big cats of Africa, as well as the Big Five of Africa.

Overnight Accommodation: Amboseli Serena Lodge or Ol Tukai Lodge or Amboseli Sopa Lodge
Meal Plan {Lunch & Dinner}

Day 2: Amboseli National Park – Drive to Aberdare National Park

Depart Nairobi after breakfast. Our destination today is the Aberdare National Park. We stop for lunch at an upscale restaurant in Nairobi and travel overland through plantations of coffee and tea to The Aberdare Country Club, nestled on the slopes of Mweiga Hill.

After high tea, set off for the Ark tree lodge, located in the forest on mountain slopes of the Aberdare Mountains at 7,000 feet. This outstanding lodge offers high-altitude game viewing, including animals that are rarely encountered elsewhere: giant forest hog, bush pig, tree hyrax, large spotted genet, and the elusive bongo.

Wildlife can be observed from different levels – and from outside where you can see, hear and smell everything and inside where you can sit with a cup of tea and stay warm and cosy.

You can put in a request to be awakened during the night if your favourite animals show up. A herd of elephants might be just feet away and if you are lucky, a leopard or large male Lion might put in an appearance.

Overnight Accommodation: Ark Lodge or Treetop Hotel
Meal Plan {Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner}

Day 3: Aberdare – Drive to Samburu National Park

This morning we travel by road to Kenya’s northern frontier. Wild and rugged, Samburu is fiercely beautiful with its arid savannahs watered by the lovely Uaso Nyiro River.

Samburu hosts beautiful forests, springs and rivers, offering stunning scenery. The game park is part of a lava plain that includes varied habitats, from thorn scrub, red dirt and dried river beds, to broken volcanic rock, steep hills and rocky outcrops.

Leopard sightings are also a special feature here. The Samburu area is also home to interesting people with a rich heritage, making for a colourful cultural experience.

After a rewarding day of game viewing in the vast Samburu Reserve, we return to our lodge for dinner and a relaxing evening under the stars.

Overnight Accommodation: Larsens Tented Camp or Samburu Sopa Lodge or Similar
Meal Plan {Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner}

Day 4: Explore Samburu National Reserve

Today we spend our day on morning and afternoon game drives. This region of Kenya is home to the uncommon Grevy’s zebra with huge fury ears, gerenuk antelope standing on hind legs to feed, Somali ostriches with distinct blue legs and the shy Oryx.

Elephants and crocodiles are guaranteed sightings and lions, hippos and giraffes are also found in the reserve. The bird watching is excellent, with over 365 species, including numerous varieties of weaverbirds and the martial eagle.

We overnighted at a lodge overlooking the bushveld inside the reserve.

Overnight Accommodation: Larsens Tented Camp or Samburu Sopa Lodge or Similar
Meal Plan {Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner}

Day 5: Samburu National Park – Drive to Lake Nakuru National Park

After breakfast, we proceed on a game drive on our way out of Samburu. We travel south through Kenya to Lake Nakuru National Park, stopping for lunch en route. Arriving at Lake Nakuru Park we take a scenic afternoon game drive in this compact wildlife area.

This Kenyan game park has retained its reputation as an ornithologist’s delight, with more than 400 species of bird found here. Bird species include the Great White Pelican, African Spoonbill, Yellow-billed Stork, Lesser and Greater Flamingo, and Long-crested Eagle.

Nakuru National Park surrounds the lake and was first gazetted to protect the rich bird life found here, later becoming a national park to provide sanctuary for endangered species such as the rhino.

There are about 25 white and black rhinos, one of the largest concentrations in the country. Predators are also residents of this park while Rothschild’s giraffes have been translocated into the park for safety. This small park (180 sq km) is also home to warthogs, baboons, waterbuck, buffaloes, reedbucks, zebras and the occasional leopard.

This evening at our comfortable lodge in the national park we enjoy dinner and a relaxing evening after game spotting and bird watching around the lake.

Overnight Accommodation: Lake Nakuru Lodge or Sarova Lion Hill Lodge
Meal Plan {Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner}

Day 6: Lake Nakuru National Park – Masai Mara National Reserve

Today we depart from the lodge after breakfast and travel south towards the famous Masai Mara Game Reserve, in southwest Kenya. We drive through beautiful savannah grasslands and plains of the Great Rift Valley making our way to our next overnight accommodation, in the Masai Mara.

Check-in at the lodge/ camp and lunch follow. Our afternoon game drive in this famous reserve reveals wonders.  Wherever you go in the Mara Reserve you will see an abundance of wildlife, such as Masai giraffes, baboons, warthogs, bat-eared foxes, grey jackals, spotted hyenas, topis, impala, hartebeests, wildebeest, elephants, buffaloes, zebras and hippos.

After our action-packed day of wildlife sightings on the scenic plains of Africa, we return to our tented camp for dinner.

Overnight Accommodation: Mara Sopa Lodge or Mara Serena Lodge or Siana Springs Tented Camp
Meal Plan {Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner}

Day 7: Explore the Masai Mara National Reserve

Today we enjoy an early morning and afternoon game drive. In this dream safari landscape of undulating plains scattered with acacias, we look out for the diverse and abundant wildlife of Mara. We may come across herds of wildebeest, elephants, zebras and antelopes, along with prides of lions, coalitions of cheetahs, a crash of rhinos and lone leopards.

The ultimate wildlife action here is, without doubt, the annual wildebeest exodus in July and August when millions of these grass-eaters move north from the Serengeti in search of greener grass before turning south again in October.

The Great Migration is one of the most awe-inspiring wildlife spectacles on earth! After an incredible afternoon of game viewing, we return to our lodge/ camp for overnight.

Overnight Accommodation: Mara Sopa Lodge or Mara Serena Lodge or Siana Springs Tented Camp
Meal Plan {Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner}

Day 8: Masai Mara – Drive to Nairobi

On the final day of this Kenya road safari, we get to have breakfast in the quintessential safari setting before leaving Masai Mara. We journey back to the bustling city of Nairobi city arriving mid-afternoon where you get dropped off at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport or your city hotel.

Meal Plan {Breakfast}