You will also be invited to visit the Masai market to buy any tickets and curios that you may find interesting. The money earned from the market helps keep the children in school and also provides food for the Masai people in the village.
Your Nairobi Masai day trip ends with a buffet lunch at the Sopa lodge at 1:00 pm and you start driving back to Nairobi in the afternoon to arrive at 3:00 pm. Arrive in Nairobi and drop off at your hotel after a great day on a Masai village 1-day tour.
Masai Mara Masai Village Day Tour
The Masai Mara Masai village tours are the best as they are much more authentic and they have more people. The Mara Masai villages are also located outside the park and are used by many visitors. The Masai Mara is located some 280km northwest of Nairobi. It takes longer to get to Masai Mara from Nairobi but with road travel of 5hrs.
Nairobi Masai village day tour to Masai Mara is a full-day excursion to see the Masai people. The best part of going to Masai Mara village is that you can also do a few hours of game driving in the park. Your Masai village day trip from Nairobi starts at 5:00 am and arrives at the Mara at 9:00 am. You will enter the Masai village to their traditional dances with women welcoming you.
Here you will also be welcomed into one of their traditional houses to see the internal layouts of how they have lived for years. It is amazing how people live in such small spaces but the houses also have warmth and natural air-conditioning during hot and cold seasons.
The Masai homesteads have all the houses or Manyattas built around a circular shape that surrounds the central cattle shed. The cattle shed are surrounded by thorns to keep away the lions. The outer perimeter is also surrounded by thick thorn fences that keep away the lions at night. The Masai people are very welcoming and jovial to have you as their guest. You should have in mind that the Masai village visit is a rural setting and lacks the comforts of the city, so getting some dirt or stepping on cow poop here or there is part of the whole experience.
Your Masai village guide will give you running commentary on how the Masai live and their age-old traditions. It is fantastic to hear some of the Masai folklore stories, including the warrior Moran’s.
Go for lunch at one of the local lodges in Masai Mara at 1:00 pm. You will start your drive back to Nairobi at 3:00 pm arriving back in Nairobi at 8:00 pm. Since the game drive in Masai Mara Park is not part of this tour, it is an optional choice that you may request in advance.
This is the end of your Masai Mara village day tour from Nairobi.
Book a Masai village day trip from Nairobi.
Discover Masai village tours on a layover in Nairobi NBO airport and immerse yourself in the culture of one of the most popular warrior tribes in Africa. A visit to a Masai village will bring you close to these guardians of Kenya’s wildlife; learn how they live among dangerous animals, how they dance, and how they fight. The Masai tribe ritual of manhood involved the killing of a lion until wildlife conservation put a stop to this practice not so long ago.
6 Tips to a Masai Village Layover Day Trip
- Who are the Masai People
- Masai Village Layover Day Tour Starts
- The Road Trip to Amboseli Masai Village layover tour
- Arrive at the Masai Village to Dance and Song
- Masai Village Tour on Layover at NBO; the Itinerary
- Buy a Souvenir & Support the Masai at the Village Maasai Market
- Who are the Masai People
Get lost away from civilization and meet one of the highly celebrated tribes of Kenya. The Masai have retained their cultural identities even with the onslaught of modernity and technology. Only a Masai Moran (warrior) will don his traditional tire sandals, and a red ochre braided head and wear a long red wrap-around Kikoi, but beneath it have the latest model of smartphone.
The Masai have not completely abandoned their culture at all. This has endeared them to visitors who want to see how they live in their villages. The Masai people are a warrior tribe and in the early 1800 had dominated most of the other tribes with frequent cattle raids where they would take away young women to marry the warriors and livestock from neighboring tribes like Kikuyu, Akamba, Kalenjin, and others. They at this time occupied almost half of the area now called Kenya due to their exploits.
- Masai Village Layover Day Tour Starts
Your guide will pick you up from the airport and drive towards Amboseli national park. The best Masai villages are next to the park so you need to have enough time to do the tour. You can do the Masai village layover tour only if you have more than 12 hours of layover. There are few Masai villages worth the effort near Nairobi which could be attributed to the modernization of those living near the city.
- The Road Trip to Amboseli Masai Village
The drive goes through the Kapiti plains which is the domain of the Masai tribe. You will see a lot of wildlife along the way as you drive to Amboseli. The road is awash with road signage warning you to watch out for wildlife. The Masai in fact live among all these animals and they will never hurt an animal intentionally. You will see the occasional Masai Manyatta (homestead) surrounded by a thorn fence to keep away the lions at night and secure their livestock.
Brach off into Oloitoktok road at Emali and continue southwest towards the Tanzanian border. At Kimana, branch off right into a dirt road that leads to the Kimana gate. The Masai village is located just before you get to the Amboseli Kimana gate.
- Arrive at the Masai Village to Dance and Song
The Masai women and men will welcome you with a dance and a local guide will immediately welcome you to the village. The Masai guide will explain the various aspects of their culture including birth rituals, initiation rituals into different age sets, marriage rituals, and war dances. You will have a chance to go into one of the houses which are made of sticks, earth and plastered in cow dung.
Join the Masai women or the Masai Moran in performing their respective dances. The aduma jumping dance of the Masai warriors is a favorite with most male visitors as the Masai will challenge you to match jump height. This is not an easy feat, as the Masai seem to have some levitation powers when they do the jumping dance. You will also learn how they make fire out of two sticks and dry elephant dung while watching cattle for days in the wilderness. They will teach you how to throw a spear and how to do traditional archery.
- Buy a Souvenir & Support the Masai at the Village Maasai Market
As you wind up your Masai village tour from the NBO layover, you will be invited to support the village by buying some of its souvenirs at the Masai market. This main bead jewelry is made by women and the money they make helps them keep their children in school despite frequent drought ravages that afflict the Masai.
- Masai Village Tour on Layover at NBO; the Itinerary
0600hrs: Depart from Nairobi NBO airport for Amboseli Masai village tour
0700hrs: Watch the hundreds of animals by the roadside and the Masai Manyatta dotting the plains
1000hrs: Arrive at the Amboseli Masai village at Kimana gate and start our Maasai layover tour
1200hrs: Buy some artifacts and curio items at the Masai village
1300hrs: Go for a buffet lunch at the Kibo safari camp or Sopa lodge
1420hrs: Depart Amboseli for Nairobi. Optional game drives inside Amboseli national park at an extra fee.
1800hrs: Drop off at the NBO Airport for your connecting flight after a daylong Masai village layover trip
End of your Masai village layover day tour from NBO airport.
There are other Masai villages in Masai Mara that you can visit if you have at least 2 days. We also go on Masai Mara 1 day safaris and you can go on one if you have a full day to spare as the drive is longer. Masai Mara is 280km or at least 6hrs from Nairobi. Going to Masai Mara, although far, has its advantages in that you will also do a game drive in one of the most popular and rewarding game reserves in Kenya.