On arrival at Nairobi Airport International Airport, you will be met by a local representative and transfer to your hotel. Your guide will meet you at the hotel this evening to introduce herself and provide a rundown of the schedule and be available for any questions you may have. Dinner tonight is at your own account.
An early start means that you will collect a breakfast pack from the hotel before being met at and transferred to Nairobi Train Station. The train departs at 08h00 and arrives at Voi Train Station, the closest station to Tsavo East at 12h05 where you will be met by your driver to begin a game drive in Tsavo East National Park enroute to your camp. After lunch, enjoy an afternoon game drive ending with a sundowner. (BLD)
Kenya Railway Journeys – Please be aware that there is limited assistance on the Kenya Railway for boarding, disembarking or help with luggage. At both Nairobi and Mombasa boarding is level, directly from platform to carriage, but at the country stops you are required to navigate narrow stairs down to the platform and can be tricky with baggage. Seating is reserved and a valid passport is required to book the service and you will need to show your identification when entering the main train stations prior to departing. The train is kept clean during the journey and you are welcome to take food and non-alcoholic beverages on board with you but there is a dining car for first class passengers to purchase refreshments.
Day 3 - Tsavo East National Park
Enjoy a day of game drives in the Tsavo East National Park. (BLD)
Tsavo East National Park –
A national park in Kenya with an area of 13,747 km2. It was established in April 1948 and covers a semi-arid area previously known as the Taru Desert. Together with the Tsavo West National Park, it forms an area of about 22,000 square kilometres. The Tsavo River flows west to east through the national park, which is located in the Taita-Taveta County of the former Coast Province.
The sight of dust-red elephant wallowing, rolling and spraying each other with the midnight blue waters of palm-shaded Galana River is one of the most evocative images in Africa. This, along with the 300 kilometre long Yatta Plateau, the longest lava flow in the world, make for an adventure unlike any other in the Tsavo East. The park forms the largest protected area in Kenya and is home to most of the larger mammals, vast herds of dust –red elephant, Rhino, buffalo, lion, leopard, pods of hippo, crocodile, waterbucks, lesser Kudu, gerenuk and the prolific bird life features 500 recorded species.
Day 4 – Tsavo West National Park
After breakfast, you will drive to Tsavo West National Park with a game drive en-route. Visit the Mzima Springs and then you will continue to your camp for lunch. Enjoy an afternoon game drive. (BLD)
Tsavo West National Park –
“Land of Lava, Springs, Man-Eaters & Magical Sunsets”
From the sight of fifty million gallons of crystal clear water gushing out of from the under parched lava rock that is the Mzima Springs to the Shetani lava flows, Tsavo West is a beautiful, rugged wilderness. The savannah ecosystem comprises of open grasslands, scrublands, and Acacia woodlands, belts of riverine vegetation and rocky ridges including the Poacher’s Lookout where visitors can see the teeming herds in the plains below. Tsavo West offers some of the most magnificent game viewing in the world and attractions include elephant, rhino, Hippos, lions, cheetah, leopards, Buffalos, diverse plant and bird species including the threatened corncrake and near threatened Basra Reed Warbler.
Accommodation: 1 night Severin Safari Camp.
Being very close to the wonderful Kenyan nature, experiencing dawn and dusk with its astounding array of colours, listening to the voices of the wilderness, being one with yourself – the Severin Safari Camp offers all that and much more. In the heart of Tsavo West National Park they have created a place which reflects their deep bond with the country. In the camp amidst the African wilderness, our guests will experience a unique combination of adventure, recreation and wellness, a very individual service and culinary delicacies.
The Camp is constructed in an elegant natural design. The tents and suites are designed with wooden furniture in a traditional African style. Light and warm colours make for a cosy, familiar atmosphere. Each of the 27 tents and suites offer the view over the beautiful African landscape with its wild animals which all come to use the water holes without constraint both during the day and night.
Day 5 - Elerai Conservancy
This morning after breakfast, you will continue your journey with a game drive en-route to the Elerai Conservancy. Arrive in time for lunch followed by an afternoon with the Masai ladies for a bead making class. (BLD)
Accommodation: 2 nights Elerai Camp (or similar).
Elerai Camp is located in a quiet, unspoilt, unique setting on a 5000 acres private conservation area 12kms south east of Amboseli National Park at the foot of Africa’s largest mountain, Mt Kilimanjaro. The camp looks over Amboseli National Park and Mt Kilimanjaro, giving you what is arguably the best location of any camp in the area.
The camp offers 12 tents and 5 suites. Each tent has its own en-suite bathroom with solar hot showers and a toilet with a view. Raised cedar wood floors, acacia poles and makuti (thatch) roofing complement the surrounding environment. Large balconies with relaxing day beds combine to offer the perfect place to lie as you take in the ambiance when relaxing.
The elegantly furnished suite rooms have large sliding doors that open out onto your own private veranda overlooking the plains below and Amboseli National Park. Elephants, giraffe’s and zebra are seen most days from the comfort of your room. Designed using natural rock and acacia wood, the bathrooms have their own naturally crafted bathtub and shower which is unique to Elerai.
Day 6 - Amboseli National Park
Enjoy a full day in the Amboseli National Park with a picnic lunch. (BLD)
Amboseli National Park –
Formerly known as Maasai Amboseli Game Reserve, is a national park in Loitoktok District in Kajiado County, Kenya. It is 39,206 ha (392.06 km2) in size at the core of an 8,000 km2 ecosystem that spreads across the Kenya-Tanzania border. The park protects two of the five main swamps, and includes a dried-up Pleistocene lake and semiarid vegetation.
The park is famous for being the best place in the world to get close to free-ranging elephants and has views of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest free-standing mountain in the world.
Amboseli National Park offers some of the best opportunities to see African wildlife because the vegetation is sparse due to the long, dry months. The protected area is home to African bush elephant, Cape buffalo, impala, lion, cheetah, spotted hyena, Masai giraffe, Grant’s zebra, and blue wild.
Day 7 - Lake Naivasha
Enjoy an early breakfast before driving via Nairobi with a stop for lunch at the Karen Blixen Coffee Gardens. You will then continue onto Lake Naivasha where you will spend an afternoon at leisure. (BLD)
Accommodation: 2 nights Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge.
Set in one hundred and fifty acres of grassland studded with Acacia bushes and trees, the resort is not only home to resident giraffe, waterbuck and both Vervet and Colobus monkeys, but it is also a night stop for the hippos when they leave the lake every night to come and trim the grass on the expansive lawns.
With Sopa’s traditional and conscientious care for the environment, they have carefully positioned all the buildings on the property so as not to fell any of the many trees there. As a result of this, they had to come up with a radically innovative and artistic design for the main public area building which now snakes its way between the trees with long and graceful curves.
It is also why you might well ask just why the two swimming pools with a children’s section and a pool complex with its bar, snack kitchen, pizzeria and health spa; tennis court; two conference halls with their four differently sized meeting areas, and stables are so widely set apart.
Day 8 - Lake Naivasha
Enjoy an early morning game drive before breakfast. After breakfast you will visit a Masai village for a bead lesson with the Masai ladies. You will return to Sarova Mara Camp for lunch. This afternoon enjoy a cooking class. (BLD)
Day 9 - Masai Mara Game Reserve
After breakfast, you will drive past the extinct Volcano of Mt Longonot and Suswa into the homelands of the Masai. The Masai Mara located on Kenya’s southern border with Tanzania, constitutes the northern stretch of the Serengeti and has the richest concentration of animals in Kenya. After lunch at your camp, you will have the opportunity to observe the unique world of the Masai Mara. (BLD)
Accommodation: 2 nights Mara Sarova Game Camp.
Sarova Mara Game Camp is located in the heart of the Masai Mara Game Reserve in South West Kenya. It is set on an elevation surrounded by two streams.
The Camp is uniquely laid out over the sprawling grounds that include rolling manicured greens, a virtual mini forest of indigenous shrubs and exotic trees, a large pond stocked with fish, mini bird sanctuary and an authentic Masai village adjoining the camp. The camp includes 20 club tents, 51 standard tents, 2 family tents, a main restaurant, bar and many bush dining options. The swimming pool has its own pool bar.
Day 10 - Masai Mara Game Reserve
Today you will spend the day game viewing. Return to your Camp for lunch followed by an afternoon cooking class with experts from the camp. (BLD)
Masai Mara National Reserve –
Located in south west Kenya it is a vast scenic expanse of gently rolling African savannah plains measuring 1510 square kilometres in area and bordering the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to the south. Masai Mara is a unique wildlife conservation haven famous for its spectacular natural diversity of wildlife and is the premier Kenya Safari location in East Africa, offering visitors numerous reasons to visit this animal paradise. Large numbers of Lions, Cheetah, Elephant, Rhino, African Buffalo, Wildebeest, Giraffe, Zebra and many more animals are found in the park in their natural habitat, unconfined and free to roam the vast Kenyan wilderness stretching for miles on end.
It is no surprise that tourists from the world over travel here to experience a Masai Mara Safari tour, more so as the reserve has been voted one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. Regarding the origin of the name, the word ‘Masai’ comes from the Maasai tribe, nomadic inhabitants of the area and the word ‘Mara’ is their word for ‘spotted’, referring to the ubiquitous flat topped acacia trees, shrubs and bushes that dot the landscape across most of the reserve.
Day 11 - Lake Nakuru National Park
Today your journey will take you straight to Lake Nakuru. The park boasts a good number of rhinos as well as a large population of leopards. Enjoy lunch at your Lodge followed by an afternoon game drive in the park. (BLD)
Lake Nakuru National Park –
Lake Nakuru is one of the Rift Valley lakes, located at an elevation of 1,754 m above sea level. It lies to the south of Nakuru, in the rift valley of Kenya and is protected by Lake Nakuru National Park.
The lake’s abundance of algae used to attract a vast quantity of flamingos that famously lined the shore. Other birds also flourish in the area, as do warthogs, baboons and other large mammals. Eastern black rhinos and southern white rhinos have also been introduced.
Nakuru means “Dust or Dusty Place” in the Maasai language. Lake Nakuru National Park, close to Nakuru town, was established in 1961. It started off small, only encompassing the famous lake and the surrounding mountainous vicinity, but has since been extended to include a large part of the savannahs. Lake Nakuru is protected under the Ramsar Convention on wetlands.
Accommodation: 1 night Lake Nakuru Sopa Lodge (or similar).
Located on a range of hills that form the western limits of Africa’s Great Rift Valley, the lodge offers spectacular views over the vastness of Africa. The lodge also overlooks Lake Nakuru and its surrounding National Park, one that is a paradise for bird watchers and wildlife lovers alike. Lake Nakuru National Park is mainly a wooded and bushy grassland with a wide ecological diversity and characteristic habitats that range from the lake waters to the escarpment and ridges.
Day 12 - End of your Kenya ‘Ladies Only’ Safari
Your day will start with an early morning game drive through the Lake Nakuru National Park. After breakfast, you will drive to Nairobi where you will enjoy a lunch at Karen Blixen Coffee Garden and then a transfer to Nairobi International Airport for your onward flight. (BL)
Please note: On day of departure we recommend booking flights around 18h00 from Nairobi.