8 Days Samburu, Aberdare, Lake Nakuru & Maasai Mara Classic Kenya Safari

Overview

Highlights

• ✦Samburu's 'special five' — species found only in northern Kenya
• ✦Treetop lodge night in the Aberdare montane forest
• ✦Both white and black rhino at Lake Nakuru National Park
• ✦Three nights in the Maasai Mara during prime game-viewing time
• ✦Cross the equator at Nanyuki (photo stop and certificate)
• ✦Optional Mount Kenya foothills cultural visit
• ✦Three distinct ecosystems in a single safari
• ✦KPSGA-certified driver-guide and private 4x4 throughout

Day-by-day itinerary

1. 1

   Nairobi → Samburu National Reserve

   Nairobi → Samburu

   Depart Nairobi after breakfast for the six-hour drive north, climbing past Mount Kenya's snow-capped peak and crossing the equator at Nanyuki (photo stop at the official equator sign with a demonstration of how water spins differently on each side). Continue down into the arid Samburu landscape — northern Kenya's frontier country, semi-desert dotted with doum palms, baobabs and termite cathedrals. After lunch at your Samburu lodge on the banks of the Ewaso Ng'iro River, take an afternoon game drive in search of Samburu's "special five" — Grevy's zebra with its narrow stripes, reticulated giraffe, Beisa oryx, gerenuk and the long-necked Somali ostrich — none of which are found in Kenya's southern parks. Elephants come to drink at the river at sunset. Dinner and overnight at the lodge.

   Meals: L, D · Stay: Samburu Sopa Lodge or Ashnil Samburu Camp

2. 2

   Samburu — Full day game drives

   Samburu National Reserve

   A full day in Samburu with morning and afternoon game drives along both banks of the Ewaso Ng'iro. The river is the lifeline of this dry land and concentrates wildlife in spectacular numbers. Track lion prides through the doum palm forests, look up into the river's tall acacias for leopards (Samburu has one of the highest leopard densities in Kenya), and watch elephant family bath time at the river's edge. The Samburu and Buffalo Springs ecosystems together support over 450 bird species, including the vulturine guineafowl with its electric-blue breast and the rare Somali bee-eater. Optional cultural visit to a Samburu manyatta — the Samburu are northern cousins of the Maasai and share many traditions. Sundowners on a riverbank kopje, gin and tonic in hand, as elephants drink fifty meters away.

   Meals: B, L, D · Stay: Same as Day 1

3. 3

   Samburu → Aberdare Treetop Lodge

   Samburu → Aberdare

   After breakfast and a final Samburu game drive en route, drive south back across the equator and up into the misty highlands of the Aberdare range — a different Africa entirely, a cool emerald world of bamboo forest, waterfalls and mountain moorland rising to over 13,000 feet. Lunch at the Aberdare Country Club, then a short transfer to one of the famous treetop game-viewing lodges — The Ark or Treetops — built directly over a forest waterhole and salt-lick. From your room balcony and the lodge's viewing decks you watch through the night as elephant, buffalo, bushbuck, giant forest hog, white-tailed mongoose and even the rare bongo come to drink and lick the mineral-rich earth. A bell rings whenever a new species arrives — sleep with one ear open. Dinner and overnight in the forest canopy.

   Meals: B, L, D · Stay: The Ark or Treetops

4. 4

   Aberdare → Lake Nakuru National Park

   Aberdare → Lake Nakuru

   After early breakfast and the morning game-viewing on the lodge decks, descend the mountain back to the Aberdare Country Club where your driver-guide is waiting. Continue west across the floor of the Rift Valley to Lake Nakuru National Park, arriving for a late lunch. Spend the afternoon on a long game drive in this rhino sanctuary — Lake Nakuru is one of the best places in Kenya to see both white and the rare black rhino, often within meters of the road. Climb Baboon Cliff for the iconic panorama of the lake, its alkaline waters fringed with pink flamingos and circling pelicans. Look out for the resident lions that famously climb the yellow-bark acacia trees here. Dinner and overnight at your Lake Nakuru lodge.

   Meals: B, L, D · Stay: Lake Nakuru Sopa Lodge

5. 5

   Lake Nakuru → Maasai Mara via Lake Naivasha

   Lake Nakuru → Maasai Mara

   Depart Lake Naivasha after breakfast for the five-hour drive south through Narok and Maasai country to the Maasai Mara National Reserve — 1,510 square kilometres of golden savanna pressed against Tanzania's Serengeti. Lunch is served at your safari lodge inside or adjacent to the reserve. By 4pm you are back in the Land Cruiser for your first Mara game drive, when the savanna's prides emerge from rest. Lions sprawl on rock outcrops, cheetahs scan the plains for Thomson's gazelle, and elephant herds crest the horizon in gold dust. From July to October the wildebeest migration thunders across these plains — over 1.5 million animals in the world's last great mammal migration. Dinner around the campfire and overnight at your Mara camp or lodge, the night air rich with the smell of woodsmoke and wild sage.

   Meals: B, L, D · Stay: Mara Sopa Lodge or Ashnil Mara Camp

6. 6

   Maasai Mara — Full day game drives

   Maasai Mara National Reserve

   Today belongs to the Mara. After early coffee, head out at 6am for the dawn game drive when the big cats are still hunting — the diamond hours when leopards descend from sausage trees and lions finish their kills. You return to the lodge around 10am for a full breakfast and a few hours of leisure: swimming pool, spa treatment, a lazy verandah read or laundry turnaround. After lunch, set out again at 4pm for the golden-hour drive. Between July and October your guide will track radio reports of wildebeest crossings at the Mara River, where Nile crocodiles wait — one of the most dramatic wildlife spectacles on Earth. An optional sunrise hot-air balloon safari can be arranged at $450 per person, ending with a champagne bush breakfast cooked beside your landing site. Dinner and overnight at the lodge.

   Meals: B, L, D · Stay: Same as Day 5

7. 7

   Maasai Mara — Full day with cultural visit

   Maasai Mara National Reserve

   A second full Mara day allows you to explore corners of the reserve missed yesterday — the Mara Triangle in the west, the Talek River area, or Musiara Marsh where the legendary Marsh Pride lives. Mid-morning, your guide can arrange an authentic visit to a Maasai manyatta where you are welcomed with the traditional adumu jumping dance, learn how the Maasai light fire by friction, and tour the dung-and-stick houses. The visit fee directly supports the community. Return to the lodge for lunch, then a final golden afternoon drive — many travelers see their best wildlife on this fifth-day drive when guides know exactly where the prides have settled. Dinner and overnight under a Mara sky that holds more stars than you have ever seen, the distant whoop of hyena drifting across the plains.

   Meals: B, L, D · Stay: Same as Day 5

8. 8

   Maasai Mara → Nairobi

   Maasai Mara → Nairobi

   Breakfast and a final short Mara game drive en route out of the reserve — last chances for cheetah cubs, hippo pods and elephant herds at the river. Around 10am you begin the drive back to Nairobi, stopping at a roadside curio market where Maasai women sell beaded jewellery, hand-carved soapstone and wood. A hot lunch is served at a highland restaurant overlooking the Rift Valley before the final stretch through tea-country green to the city. You arrive in Nairobi between 4pm and 5pm. We can drop you at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for international flights, transfer you to Wilson Airport for a Mombasa or Zanzibar coastal extension, or back at your Nairobi hotel. End of safari — but very much, we hope, the start of a lifelong love of East Africa.

   Meals: B, L · Stay: N/A (departure)

What to bring

• • Lightweight neutral-color clothing (khaki, olive, beige)
• • Warm fleece for cool early morning game drives
• • Sun hat and sunglasses with UV protection
• • High-SPF sunscreen and lip balm
• • Insect repellent (DEET)
• • Comfortable walking shoes and sandals
• • Swimsuit for lodge pools
• • Binoculars (8x42 ideal for safari)
• • Camera with telephoto lens (200mm or longer)
• • Spare batteries, memory cards, power bank
• • Refillable water bottle
• • Small daypack
• • Anti-malarial prophylaxis (consult your doctor)
• • Copies of passport and travel insurance

Frequently asked questions