8-Day Kenya Safari (Amboseli, Nakuru, Mara)

Your Kenyan adventure begins the moment you land at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, where our team greets you with a warm welcome and a friendly face. You are transferred through the leafy suburbs of Kenya's capital to your hotel, where the afternoon is free to unwind at around 1,800 m above sea level, in Nairobi's famously mild climate.

Before dinner your driver-guide will brief you on the days ahead, from road conditions to what to pack in your day bag. Enjoy a relaxed first evening and an early night: the wild country beyond the city is waiting. Overnight in Nairobi.

Leave the city behind after breakfast and head south towards Amboseli National Park, a scenic drive of around 4–5 hours through Maasai country dotted with acacias and grazing cattle. You may stop at a roadside craft market along the way to stretch your legs.

After checking in and enjoying lunch, head out on your first game drive. Amboseli is one of the best places in Africa to watch elephants at close quarters, and the late-afternoon light, with Kilimanjaro rising behind the herds, is pure magic for photographers. Return to your lodge for dinner and overnight in Amboseli.

Start early, when the air is clearest and Kilimanjaro most often reveals its snow-capped summit. Spend the day exploring Amboseli's varied habitats, from the dusty plains and acacia woodland to the lush swamps of Enkongo Narok and Longinye, where elephants wade belly-deep and pelicans and herons crowd the shallows.

Climb Observation Hill for a sweeping view over the swamps, the plains and the seasonal Lake Amboseli, an ideal spot to take in the scale of the park. After a picnic lunch or a midday break at your lodge, continue game viewing until sunset. Dinner and overnight in Amboseli.

After an early breakfast and a last look at Kilimanjaro, leave Amboseli and drive back north through Nairobi and down into the Great Rift Valley, a long but scenic journey of around 6–7 hours with a lunch stop along the way. As the road descends, the views over the valley floor, the volcanic cone of Mount Longonot and the shimmering waters of the lake are spectacular.

Arrive at Lake Naivasha in the afternoon. If time allows, take a stroll in the grounds of your lodge, where colobus monkeys, waterbuck and even giraffes are often seen, and listen for the cry of the African fish eagle over the water. Dinner and overnight at Lake Naivasha.

Start the day on Lake Naivasha with a boat safari among pods of hippos and papyrus beds, watching African fish eagles swoop for fish, then step ashore on Crescent Island to walk among giraffes, zebras and wildebeest. Afterwards, continue north along the Rift Valley to Lake Nakuru National Park, around 1–2 hours.

After lunch, enjoy an afternoon game drive in this compact Rift Valley park. Lake Nakuru shelters more than 100 black and white rhinos and the endangered Rothschild's giraffe, while flamingos and pelicans gather along the shore. Drive up to Baboon Cliff for a superb view over the lake before dinner and overnight at Lake Nakuru.

After an early breakfast, and perhaps a final short game drive along the lakeshore, leave Lake Nakuru and drive south-west through Narok, the last town before the Mara, to the Masai Mara National Reserve, around 5–6 hours. The scenery opens up as you go, with Maasai herders and their cattle on the rolling plains.

Arrive at your camp in time for lunch, then head out on an afternoon game drive across the spotted plains that give the Mara its name. Lions, elephants, giraffes, topis and herds of plains game are everywhere, and the golden late-afternoon light is the perfect introduction to Kenya's most celebrated reserve. Dinner and overnight in the Masai Mara.

Spend a full day exploring the Masai Mara with a picnic lunch, so you can travel further and stay out with the animals when the action unfolds. The reserve borders Tanzania's Serengeti and forms the northern part of the same great ecosystem, and from around July to October it hosts the Great Wildebeest Migration, when over a million wildebeest, zebras and gazelles graze its plains.

If the herds are here, your guide will head for the Mara River in the hope of witnessing a crossing, as wildebeest plunge into the water past waiting Nile crocodiles. At any time of year, the Mara is a Big Five haven, with lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants and buffalo all regularly seen. Dinner and overnight in the Masai Mara.

Enjoy a relaxed breakfast with the sounds of the bush around you, then say goodbye to the Mara and begin the drive back to Nairobi, around 5–6 hours. Game viewing continues as you leave the reserve, so keep your camera ready until the very last moment.

After lunch on the way, continue to Nairobi, where you are dropped at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for your departure flight or at your hotel if you are extending your stay. Kwaheri, and thank you for travelling with Gip Adventure.