7 Days Kenya Budget Camping Safari — Nakuru, Mara, Amboseli, Tsavo

Overview

Highlights

• ✦Four flagship Kenya parks in seven days
• ✦Maasai Mara, Amboseli, Tsavo East and Lake Nakuru
• ✦Real camping at well-run public campsites
• ✦Fresh meals cooked by a dedicated camp chef
• ✦KPSGA-certified driver-guide throughout
• ✦Small group (maximum 6 guests)
• ✦Best-value comprehensive Kenya camping circuit
• ✦Wildebeest migration in season (July–October)

Day-by-day itinerary

1. 1

   Nairobi → Lake Nakuru (camping)

   Nairobi → Lake Nakuru

   After breakfast at your Nairobi hotel, your professional driver-guide collects you in a private 4x4 Land Cruiser around 8am for the scenic three-hour drive northwest, descending the dramatic escarpment that drops 600 meters into the Great Rift Valley. You stop at the Rift Valley viewpoint to photograph the Aberdares and the perfect cone of Mount Longonot before continuing to Lake Nakuru National Park — Kenya's bird-watching capital and a thriving rhino sanctuary. After lunch at your lodge, you embark on your first afternoon game drive in search of the rare white rhino, Rothschild's giraffe, defassa waterbuck and the enormous flocks of greater and lesser flamingos that turn the lake's edge a vivid pink. Sunset over Baboon Cliff is unforgettable. Return to the lodge for dinner and overnight, ears tuned to the night calls of the African bush.

   Meals: L, D · Stay: Punda Milias Campsite or similar

2. 2

   Lake Nakuru → Maasai Mara

   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: Riverside Camp Mara or similar

3. 3

   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 2

4. 4

   Maasai Mara → Nairobi → Amboseli

   Maasai Mara → Amboseli

   Collect from your Nairobi hotel after breakfast for the four-hour drive south on the Mombasa highway, then off the tarmac onto red murram into Amboseli National Park — the legendary park where elephant herds amble beneath the snow-capped silhouette of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak. After lunch at your lodge, head out on the afternoon game drive. Amboseli's open plains, swamps and dust-bowls offer some of the best elephant viewing on the continent — the matriarchs here are among the most studied in the world, with families known by name to researchers. You will also see hippo pods at Enkongo Narok swamp, Maasai giraffes browsing acacia, plains zebra in their hundreds, hyena, jackal, wildebeest and over 400 bird species. Return to the lodge for sundowners on the verandah and dinner with Kilimanjaro glowing pink at dusk.

   Meals: B, L, D · Stay: Kimana Campsite or similar near Amboseli

5. 5

   Amboseli — Full day with Kilimanjaro views

   Amboseli National Park

   Today is a full Amboseli day timed around Kilimanjaro. Pre-dawn coffee, then out by 6am to catch the mountain at its clearest — its glaciers blushing rose, then white, then dazzling in the rising sun before cloud builds by 10am. Drive the swamp circuit where elephant families wade chest-deep through the green wallows, climb Observation Hill for a panoramic view, and watch the resident hippos in Enkongo Narok. Return to the lodge for late breakfast and a long lunch. The afternoon drive heads to the western plains for hyena clans, jackal and serval. Optional cultural walk to a Maasai manyatta in the buffer zone — the Maasai of Amboseli are some of the most traditional in Kenya. Sundowners on the lodge verandah as Kilimanjaro reappears in the cool evening air.

   Meals: B, L, D · Stay: Same as Day 4

6. 6

   Amboseli → Tsavo East

   Amboseli → Tsavo East

   Cross the famous Tsavo Bridge — site of the 1898 man-eating lion drama — and enter Tsavo East National Park, the larger and wilder of the two Tsavos. After lunch you head out on the afternoon game drive across the open Aruba plains and along the Galana River, where Tsavo's red elephants gather in herds of fifty and more, and where you may spot the rare hirola antelope, fringe-eared oryx and gerenuk standing on hind legs to browse acacia. The Yatta Plateau — at 290 km the world's longest lava flow — runs as a dark wall along the western horizon. Sundowners on the riverbank and dinner at your lodge, with the night chorus of hyena, fiery-necked nightjar and distant lion roars rolling across the savanna.

   Meals: B, L, D · Stay: Ndololo Public Campsite

7. 7

   Tsavo East → Nairobi

   Tsavo East → 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
• • Headlamp or torch
• • Sleeping bag liner
• • Earplugs
• • Quick-dry travel towel

Frequently asked questions