The Mara, Amboseli, Tsavo. Book the right one.
Which Mara safari earns three days and which wastes them on the road. Whether Amboseli really shows you Kilimanjaro. What a game drive costs before an onward flight. Every tour in Kenya, reviewed.
Six parks decide what a Kenyan safari feels like.
The Mara for big cats and the herds. Amboseli for elephants under Kilimanjaro. Tsavo for red dust and room to breathe. Nakuru for rhino and pink shallows. Naivasha for hippos and a bike ride through Hell’s Gate. And Nairobi National Park, where the game drive has office towers on the horizon.
A Kenyan safari runs from a morning game drive to a week under canvas.
Three brackets, and the difference between them is mostly the number of nights you sleep inside a park rather than the quality of the day.
Half-day game drives in Nairobi National Park, the Giraffe Centre and the elephant orphanage, city walks, a Hell’s Gate bike ride.
The long day trips: Amboseli and back in a day, Lake Nakuru, a Wasini dhow with lunch, Mombasa and Fort Jesus.
Multi-day safaris. Three days in the Mara, the Nakuru and Naivasha loop, camping or a lodge, a Mount Kenya climb.
How many days the Mara really needs.
All 91 Maasai Mara tours →
Nairobi to the Mara is five to six hours on the road, so a single day spends most of itself driving. Three days is the shortest version that buys two full game drives. Everything above that buys dawn, dusk and the quiet in between.
Three days, a shared vehicle, fixed departures
You join a group in Nairobi, share the 4x4 and the camp, and pay the lowest price the Mara offers for two full game drives.
Four days, tents, the Mara and Lake Nakuru
Two parks on one road trip, nights in a camp outside the reserve, and enough time to sit still while a pride wakes up.
Your own 4x4 and a lodge with a pool
One vehicle for your party means you stop when you want, stay at a sighting as long as it holds, and sleep in a lodge rather than a tent.
The days out travellers in Kenya book most.
Every Kenyan review →From a $23 walk through central Nairobi to three days in the Mara, these are the most popular bookings in the country and what makes each one worth its day.
1
Nairobi National Park Half-Day Tour; Free Wi-Fi connection
Review of Nairobi National Park’s half-day safari, with wildlife, skyline views, hotel pickup, guide tips, costs, and practical drawbacks.
From · $45
Read our review →2
National Park & Optional Elephants & Giraffe Center
from $80
3
NAI NAMI: Nairobi Storytelling Tour with Street Children
from $45
4
Nairobi National Park Half-Day Game Drive
from $36
5
Historic and Modern Highlights Walking Tour
from $23
6
Safari Tour; Nairobi National Park
from $43
7
3 Days Masai Mara Group Joining
from $540
8
Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center Tour with Options
from $35
Nairobi is where the safari starts, and a good day in its own right.
Almost every Kenyan safari leaves from here, which is why so much of this site says Nairobi. Give the city a morning of its own: lions on the plain with office towers behind them, orphaned elephants at eleven, giraffes at eye level after lunch.
Kenya keeps its rarest animals within a day of the capital.
Orphaned elephants, one of the last Rothschild’s giraffe herds, rhinos with armed keepers. These are working conservation projects that open to visitors at fixed hours, and they are why a Nairobi stopover is worth extending.
The Orphan Elephants
The Sheldrick nursery sits inside Nairobi National Park and raises calves whose herds were lost to poaching or drought. It opens to visitors for a single hour late in the morning, while the keepers bring the babies in for milk and a mud bath and tell you where each one was found. Fostering a calf buys a second, much quieter visit in the evening.
- 1Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center Tour with Options★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 457 reviews
- 2Nairobi National Park, Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Centre★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 365 reviews
- 3Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 235 reviews
The Rothschild’s Giraffes
A breeding centre in the Karen suburb for the Rothschild’s giraffe, one of the rarest subspecies left in the wild. A raised timber platform puts you level with their heads, you hold out a pellet, and a very long grey tongue takes it. Warthogs work the ground underneath for whatever falls.
- 1National Park & Optional Elephants & Giraffe Center★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 874 reviews
- 2Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center Tour with Options★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 457 reviews
- 3Nairobi National Park, Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Centre★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 365 reviews
The Last Northern Whites
Ol Pejeta on the Laikipia plateau guards the last two northern white rhinos on earth, alongside the largest black rhino population in East Africa and a sanctuary for chimpanzees rescued from the trade. It is a long day out of Nairobi, and the only place in the world this particular story can be seen.
- 1Ol Pejeta Conservancy Day Tour from Nairobi★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 18 reviews
- 2Day Tour to Ol Pejeta Conservancy★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 16 reviews
- 3Day trip to Ol Pejeta conservancy from Nairobi★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 14 reviews
Kenya does not end at the Mara. It ends at the Indian Ocean.
Diani’s sand is why people extend the trip: wide, white and an hour’s flight from Nairobi. Behind it sit Mombasa’s old town and Fort Jesus, the dhows that run out to Kisite for snorkelling, and Watamu’s marine park up the road.
Four things in Kenya that will not wait for you.
Most of Kenya can be arranged from a Nairobi hotel the evening before. These four run on baskets, permits, weather windows and a calendar that does not care when your flight lands.
- 01Maasai Mara: Hot Air Balloon Safari & Champagne BreakfastOne sunrise flight a day over the Mara and a fixed number of baskets. In the herd season they are gone weeks ahead.
- 02Climbing Mount Kenya 5 Days Via Chogoria RoutePoint Lenana is a four- or five-day walk with park fees, a licensed guide and acclimatisation nights that cannot be compressed.
- 033 Day Maasai Mara & Migration safariThe herds are in the Mara roughly July to October. Camps inside that window fill first and price accordingly.
- 04Private Day Tour Amboseli National Park, View Mt. Kilimanjaro 4*4Kilimanjaro clears over Amboseli at dawn and again at dusk, and hides behind cloud in between. The early departures are the ones that sell out.
The long rains change the roads, not the animals.
April and May are the wettest months and November brings the short rains. Game drives still run; the murram tracks just get slower and the parks empty out. Give the wet afternoons to Nairobi instead: a coffee farm above the city, the Karen Blixen house, the national museum, an afternoon at Bomas.
By place — park, city, coast
Maasai Mara91 tours
Amboseli34 tours
Nairobi National Park39 tours
Lake Nakuru53 tours
Lake Naivasha37 tours
Tsavo16 tours
Diani Beach28 tours
Mombasa34 tours- Every place in Kenya →
By experience — game drive, gorge walk or dhow?
The circuit most first trips to Kenya follow.
Nairobi
Amboseli
Lake Nakuru
Diani BeachThe newest Kenya tour reviews.
The rest of the new reviews →
4-Days Best Wildlife Safari: Amboseli, Tsavo West & Tsavo East Private Safari
Read our review →
Amboseli Wildlife Day Tour And Masai Village Visit
Read our review →
Half Day Private Tour in Nairobi National Park with Admission
Read our review →
Trip from Nairobi to Muranga with Waterfall Hike and Picnic
Read our review →
Visiting the Nairobi Elephant Orphanage Tours and Tickets
Read our review →
6 Days Kenya Masai Mara,Lake Nakuru & Amboseli Wildlife Safari
Read our review →
5 Days Maasai mara, Lake Nakuru, samburu private lodge safari
Read our review →
Shimba Hills: Game Drive, Waterfall Hike, and Lunch
Read our review →
Kisite Marine Park Dhow & Snorkeling with Lunch
Read our review →