7 Days Amboseli, Tsavo East
& Maasai Mara Private Safari

Your driver meets you at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and takes you to your hotel in Nairobi. This is your arrival and rest day — no driving to any park. In the evening your guide will go through the safari plan with you, answer any questions and make sure everything is set for an early start the next morning.

If you arrive early enough, you can visit the Giraffe Centre or the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, both within Nairobi. Optional and charged separately.

Depart Nairobi early morning and drive southwest through the Great Rift Valley to the Maasai Mara National Reserve. The drive takes around 5 to 6 hours and passes through Narok town and some good scenery along the escarpment. You arrive at your lodge in time for lunch.

After lunch and a short rest, head out for your first afternoon game drive in the Mara. Lion, elephant and buffalo are commonly seen on the first drive. The Mara has one of the highest densities of predators in Africa, so the chances of good sightings are very high from day one.

A full day in the Maasai Mara with morning and afternoon game drives. Start early — predators are most active at dawn. You will spend the morning covering different parts of the reserve looking for lion, cheetah and leopard. Your guide knows the territory well and knows where the animals have been spotted recently.

In the afternoon, head to the Mara River. Between July and October this is where you may witness wildebeest crossing as part of the Great Migration. Even outside migration season, the river has hippos, crocodiles and plenty of birdlife. A sundowner on the plains ends the day before returning to the lodge for dinner.

Start with a final morning game drive in the Maasai Mara (optional) before breakfast and check-out. You then drive east to Amboseli National Park, a journey of around 5 hours. The road takes you through small Maasai towns and open savannah country with views of Kilimanjaro appearing as you get closer to the park.

Arrive at your Amboseli lodge in the late afternoon. If time allows, a short evening game drive inside the park gives you your first look at the Amboseli landscape — flat open plains, swamps and the enormous elephant herds this park is famous for, all with Kilimanjaro rising behind them.

Get up early for the sunrise game drive. Early morning is when Kilimanjaro is most likely to be clear of cloud and the light is perfect for photography. Amboseli has some of the largest elephant herds in Kenya — it is not unusual to see groups of 50 or more elephants moving together across the plains with the mountain directly behind them.

Spend the day exploring the park's different habitats — the open plains, the swamps fed by underground water from Kilimanjaro and the acacia woodlands. Alongside elephants, you can expect to see lion, cheetah, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and a wide variety of water birds around the swamps. Afternoon game drive before returning to the lodge for dinner.

After breakfast and check-out, drive east to Tsavo East National Park. Amboseli and Tsavo share a border so this is a short transfer of around 2 to 3 hours. You enter the park through the Tsavo Gate and start game driving immediately on the way to your lodge.

Tsavo East is Kenya's largest national park and has a very different feel from the Mara and Amboseli — drier, more remote and less visited. The red elephants here are unique — they cover themselves in the park's red volcanic soil and it is one of the most striking wildlife sights in Kenya. In the afternoon, drive along the Galana River where you can find hippo, crocodile, waterbuck and excellent birdlife.

One final morning game drive in Tsavo East (optional) before breakfast and check-out. You then drive back to Nairobi on the Mombasa highway, arriving in the early afternoon — around 3 to 4 hours depending on traffic. Your driver drops you at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in time for your evening flight home.

If your flight is the next day, we can arrange an extra night in a Nairobi hotel. If you have time before your flight, a stop at the Nairobi Giraffe Centre or Karen Blixen Museum can be arranged on the way. Just let us know when booking.

After your chosen Nairobi activity or lunch, continue to the airport for your departure flight. We recommend allowing enough time for traffic and airport check-in, especially for international flights.