11 Days Kenya & Tanzania Safari

Your trip begins with a mid-morning flight from Wilson Airport in Nairobi, landing at Nanyuki around late morning. A guide meets you at the airstrip and drives you to Porini Rhino Camp, set inside the Ol Pejeta Conservancy on the plains below the slopes of Mount Kenya. The camp is small and tucked into the bush, the kind of place where you hear the wild long before you see it.

After lunch and a rest through the heat of the day, you head out on your first game drive in an open 4x4 with an expert local driver. Ol Pejeta is one of the best places in the region to look for black rhino, and elephant, buffalo, and plains game are common on the open ground. As the light softens, the bush comes alive.

You return to camp for dinner and your first night out in the bush.

You wake to the sounds of the conservancy and give the whole day to Ol Pejeta. This is private land, which means your guide can go off the main tracks and take you on foot, getting closer to the small details that a vehicle drives straight past. Morning and afternoon drives cover the open grassland where rhino, lion, and elephant range.

A guided walk lets you read tracks, learn the plants, and understand how the whole system fits together. Ol Pejeta also cares for rescued chimpanzees and protects some of the last northern white rhinos under armed guard, and your guide can tell you that story on the ground. As the sun drops you pause at a lookout for a sundowner drink.

Dinner is at Porini Rhino Camp and you spend another night under the stars.

After an early breakfast you drive to the airstrip for your flight across to the Masai Mara. Landing on the grass, you meet a new guide who drives you through the Ol Kinyei Conservancy on the way to Porini Mara Camp. The Mara ecosystem is wide and rolling, and even the transfer drive turns up wildlife on the open plains.

Once you have settled in and had lunch, you head out for an afternoon game drive across the conservancy. As dusk falls, the drive turns into a night outing with spotlights, which is the best way to look for the nocturnal animals that stay hidden by day, such as leopard, hyena, and the smaller cats. This kind of after-dark drive is only allowed on private land.

You return to camp for a late dinner and a night in the Mara.

Today you give the whole day to the wider Masai Mara National Reserve, the Kenyan half of the great Mara-Serengeti system. With a picnic lunch packed, you can range far and stay out through the middle of the day, when many other vehicles have gone back. The reserve is famous for big cats, and lion prides and cheetah on the open grass are a real chance.

Great herds of wildebeest and zebra pass through this landscape during the migration months, usually later in the year, drawing predators in behind them. You drive the plains and river lines at an easy pace, letting the sightings come to you. By late afternoon you turn back toward camp.

After another sundowner, your guide runs a night drive back to Porini Mara Camp, watching for animals active after dark, before dinner and bed.

You start before sunrise with a game drive in the private Ol Kinyei Conservancy, one of the quietest and most productive corners of the Mara. Early light is prime time for elephant, giraffe, lion, and the big herds of plains game that gather here. With so few vehicles around, a good sighting can feel like it belongs to you alone.

After a late breakfast you head out on a guided walk, slowing right down to notice the smaller plants, insects, and birds that make up the rest of the story. Lunch is back at camp during the warm hours. In the late afternoon you drive again, and as darkness comes the spotlight picks out night creatures on the move.

You head back to Porini Mara Camp for dinner and rest.

You fit in one last morning drive or walk before breakfast, then pack up for the border crossing. Around mid-morning you fly to Migori, then take a short drive to the Isebania border, where the immigration formalities are usually quick. Crossing into Tanzania on the ground gives the day a real sense of moving from one country to the next.

From the border you continue to the Tarime airstrip and board an afternoon flight to the Serengeti. You land at Seronera in the mid-afternoon and reach Nimali Central Serengeti Camp by late afternoon, in time to settle in before dark. Over the next two nights you have full board with drinks and shared game drives across the wide central plains.

Dinner is at camp and you spend your first night in the Serengeti.

Early morning is the best time in the Serengeti, when predators are still active and the light is soft and gold. You head out after a light start to look for lions on the move, and with luck the occasional black rhino that ranges the central plains. The Seronera area holds water year-round, so wildlife stays close by even in the dry season.

You come back to camp for a warm lunch and a rest through the heat, then head out again in the late afternoon as the plains cool and the animals stir. Cheetah use this open ground to hunt, and leopard often rest in the riverine trees. You end the day with drinks and snacks as the sun sinks over the savannah.

Dinner and your second night are at the Serengeti camp.

You take a morning game drive in the park, then return for breakfast and transfer to the airstrip for a late-morning flight to Lake Manyara. A camp guide meets you with a packed lunch and leads you straight into Lake Manyara National Park, a small but lovely reserve pressed between the Rift Valley wall and the lake shore.

The park is known for its birdlife, and the shallows often hold flamingos and pelicans in good numbers, along with elephant in the forest and the famous tree-climbing lions, which are seen far less often but worth watching for. After your time in the park you drive up to Tloma Lodge near Karatu, arriving in the late afternoon among coffee farms and green highland hills.

You relax, dine, and spend the night at the lodge.

After breakfast you set off around eight for a game drive down inside the Ngorongoro Crater, a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the richest wildlife habitats in Tanzania. The crater floor is a closed world of grassland, swamp, and lake, holding lion, elephant, buffalo, and one of the best chances anywhere of seeing black rhino. You enjoy a picnic lunch at the Lerai forest.

In the afternoon you climb back out of the crater and drive on toward Tarangire, reaching Nimali Tarangire in the late afternoon. The change of scenery is sharp, from the cool crater rim to the warm baobab country of Tarangire, and it sets up the last leg of the trip nicely.

Dinner and your night are at the lodge, with select drinks included.

With a packed lunch aboard, you set out after breakfast for a full day in Tarangire National Park. This is elephant country above all, and the dry season pulls big herds down to the Tarangire River, sometimes hundreds at a time. The park's old baobab trees stand over the grassland like landmarks, giving the whole place its distinctive look.

Beyond the elephants, Tarangire holds lion, leopard, giraffe, and more than five hundred recorded species of birds, so there is always something to slow down for. You drive the river valley and the surrounding woodland, breaking for your picnic in a shady spot before carrying on through the afternoon.

You return to Nimali Tarangire for your evening meal and a last night in the bush.

You have a final breakfast in camp before the scenic drive to Arusha, watching the last of the bush give way to farmland and town. There is a brief stop in Arusha to stretch and pick up anything you need, then you continue on to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your early-afternoon flight to Wilson Airport in Nairobi.

You land back in Nairobi in the mid-afternoon, where you are met and transferred across the city to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for your onward flight. It is a long day of travel, but it closes a wide loop that took in the best of two countries and both sides of the great Mara-Serengeti plains.

Meals today are as arranged with your camp before departure.