Three Kenyas. Seven days.

Into the Elephant Country

Fly-In · Amboseli · First Game Drive

Private transfer to Wilson Airport for the 7:30am flight to Amboseli — 35 minutes in the air. From the window, the Rift Valley escarpment, then the dry plains of Amboseli below, and already the white peak of Kilimanjaro visible on the southern horizon. Met at the airstrip and transferred to Tortilis Camp by the camp’s vehicle. Tortilis is one of Amboseli’s finest properties — named after the tortilis acacia trees that surround it, with unobstructed views of Kilimanjaro from the camp.

Morning at leisure, lunch, then out at 3:30pm for the first game drive. The Amboseli elephant herds are extraordinary — large family groups, habituated to vehicles, close enough to photograph without a zoom. Return by dusk for dinner.

Full Day in Amboseli

Game Drive · Kilimanjaro Views · Birdlife · Sundowner

Early morning game drive at 6:15am — the best light, the mountain clearest before the day’s heat builds cloud around the summit. Drive to the Kilimanjaro viewpoint: elephants on the dusty plain, the snow-capped peak above them, the light gold and pink as it rises. This is the photograph that defines Amboseli. Return for late breakfast.

Morning at leisure — Tortilis has a swimming pool, and the camp offers guided nature walks as an optional activity. After lunch, an afternoon game drive. Amboseli’s 400+ bird species are extraordinary — hammerkops, kingfishers, pelicans, over 40 raptor species. Optional sundowner at a scenic spot as the sun drops behind the Ngong Hills.

North to the Ewaso Nyiro

Fly-In · Samburu · Northern Specials

Early breakfast and check out, transfer to the Amboseli airstrip for the 8:10am flight back to Nairobi Wilson, then onward to Samburu — arriving by 10:30am. The landscape changes dramatically on the approach: the dust and open plains of the south give way to semi-arid scrubland, rocky hillsides, and the vivid green ribbon of the Ewaso Nyiro River cutting through it.

Samburu Intrepids Camp sits on the river bank inside the reserve — crocodile and hippo in the water below the camp, doum palms lining the banks. Arrive, settle in, lunch. Afternoon game drive at 3:30pm: first encounters with Samburu’s Northern Specials, the species that make this reserve unlike anywhere else on the circuit.

The Northern Specials

Game Drives · Grevy’s Zebra · Reticulated Giraffe · Gerenuk

The full day to learn Samburu’s particular rhythms. Early morning game drive focused on the Northern Specials — the Grevy’s zebra with their narrow pin-stripe pattern and large rounded ears, completely different from the plains zebra you saw in Amboseli. Reticulated giraffe, the most strikingly patterned of all giraffe subspecies. Gerenuk — the giraffe gazelle — standing on hind legs to browse. Beisa oryx with their dramatic straight horns. Somali ostrich. These species are found in Samburu and the northern parks; you will not see them in the Mara or Amboseli.

The Ewaso Nyiro River itself is wildlife-rich: crocodile basking on the banks, elephant crossing, vervet monkeys in the doum palms. Afternoon game drive, then back to camp for the last Samburu evening.

Into the Mara

Fly-In · Masai Mara · First Game Drive

Fly from Samburu to the Masai Mara — landing on the airstrip inside the reserve. The scale of the Mara hits immediately: endless golden plains, acacia silhouettes, the horizon impossibly far away. Mara Explorer Camp is a small boutique property — 10 tents — inside the reserve itself, which means you are in the wildlife rather than looking at it from outside.

Afternoon game drive: the Mara’s resident wildlife is extraordinary year-round — lion prides, leopard in the fig trees, cheetah on the open plains, elephant, buffalo, giraffe, huge herds of plains game. July to October the Great Migration arrives: over a million wildebeest and zebra, the Mara River crossings, the predator action. In all seasons, the Mara delivers.

Balloon Dawn

Hot Air Balloon · Champagne Breakfast · Afternoon Game Drive

Collected from camp at 5:30am — before full dark. Driven to the balloon launch site. The balloon inflates slowly, the basket fills, and then you’re up — rising silently above the savannah as the sun breaks the horizon. An hour floating over the Mara Triangle: herds below, the river catching the light, lion cubs moving through the grass, the silence broken only by the occasional burst of the burner. Land in the bush for a champagne breakfast on the plains.

Return to camp. The rest of the morning at leisure or an optional visit to a nearby Maasai village — a genuine and informative hour learning about the manyatta huts, the traditions, the cattle economy. Afternoon game drive until dusk: the Mara’s last evening.

Farewell to the Mara

Final Game Drive · Fly-Out · Nairobi

Relaxed breakfast after a final morning game drive — one last circuit of the reserve before the 10:30am flight back to Nairobi. Land at Wilson Airport where your driver is waiting for transfer to your hotel or JKIA for your international departure. You leave with three entirely different Kenyas behind you — the dust and the mountain, the river and the northern specials, the golden plains and the balloon dawn.