How to plan a Kenya safari

A Kenya safari has perhaps six real decisions in it. Everything else is detail that follows from them. Take them in this order and the trip designs itself; take them out of order and you spend weeks comparing camps that were never going to work for your dates.

Decide when, before you decide where

Your dates determine more than anything else you will choose. They set what the wildlife is doing, how much the same camp charges, how busy the parks are, and whether the roads in some areas are usable at all.

If your dates are fixed by school holidays or leave, accept that and plan around them — there is a good Kenya trip in every month of the year, but they are different trips. If your dates are genuinely flexible, that flexibility is worth real money and a noticeably better experience, and it is the first thing to tell us.

The full month-by-month breakdown, including what the coast is doing at the same time, is in our best time to visit Kenya guide.

Work out how many nights you really have

Count nights in Kenya, not days of leave. A "ten-day trip" from Europe or North America is usually seven or eight nights on the ground once you subtract the flights.

Then subtract the arrival night. Flying overnight, landing in Nairobi in the morning and connecting straight onto a light aircraft to the Mara is possible, and people who do it spend their first game drive asleep. We build in a Nairobi night on almost every itinerary for this reason.

What you have left is your real safari budget in nights. Here is roughly what each amount buys:

Choose two or three parks, not five

The single most common mistake is too many parks. Every move costs you half a day at minimum, plus a flight or a long drive, plus the price of the transfer. Five parks in ten days means you spend a third of your holiday in transit and never get past first impressions anywhere.

Choose for contrast rather than coverage. Grassland and big cats in the Mara, then elephants and a mountain in Amboseli, is a far better week than three grassland parks in a row. Pair differently:

• Grassland and predators — Masai Mara
• Elephants and mountain views — Amboseli
• Dry northern species — Samburu
• Walking, riding and rhino — Laikipia or Ol Pejeta
• Rift Valley lakes and forest — Lake Nakuru
• Space and red dust, near the coast — Tsavo

Pick one from the first two groups and one from further down, and you have the backbone of a very good trip.

Set a budget per person per night

Safaris are quoted per person per night, all in, and thinking in those terms makes everything else comparable. A total trip budget hides the trade-off you are actually making, which is between nights and nightly standard.

Indicative planning ranges only, per person per night sharing, for a fully inclusive safari — accommodation, meals, park and conservancy fees, guiding, and transport between parks. They are what we see in the market, not a quote and not an official tariff. Your quote will be exact and itemised. International flights are not included.

If you are between two bands, our advice is almost always to take fewer nights at the higher one rather than more nights at the lower. Five good nights beat seven mediocre ones, and the fixed costs — international flights, transfers, the Nairobi night — are the same either way.

The full breakdown of where the money actually goes is in our Kenya safari cost guide.

Reserve, conservancy or private land

This decision affects your daily experience more than the camp does, and most first-time visitors have never heard of it.

Neither is better in the abstract. A conservancy is quieter and more flexible; the reserve is cheaper and is where the crossings happen. Plenty of good Mara itineraries do a couple of nights of each.

Flying versus driving

Driving keeps your guide and vehicle with you throughout, costs less, and shows you the country between the parks — which on the Rift Valley escarpment road is genuinely worth seeing. It also costs you time: Nairobi to the Mara is five to six hours, and Nairobi to Samburu much the same.

Flying costs more per person but buys back whole days. On a trip of a week or less, one flight is often the difference between two parks done properly and three done in a rush.

Most well-built Kenya itineraries do both: drive the short, scenic legs and fly the long ones. If you are prone to motion sickness, note that light aircraft into the Mara can be bumpy in the middle of the day — morning flights are usually smoother.

Choose the camp last

By the time you have settled dates, nights, parks, budget and land type, the list of camps that fit is short — often ten or fifteen rather than four hundred. That is the point. Choosing the camp first and working backwards is how people end up in the wrong part of the Mara in the wrong month.

When you do choose, the things that actually matter are: how many tents (fewer means fewer vehicles at your sightings), whether your guide is assigned to you or shared, how far the camp is from where the animals currently are, and whether the vehicle is shared with strangers or yours alone.

The five mistakes we see most often

1. Too many parks. Covered above, and worth repeating. Two parks in a week, three in ten days.
2. Connecting straight from a long-haul flight. One night in Nairobi costs little and saves your first day.
3. Booking the migration months without booking early. The good small camps in the Mara sell out six to twelve months ahead for July to October.
4. Budgeting for the safari but not the extras. Tips, balloon flights, drinks outside the inclusions and the odd private transfer add up. Allow a margin.
5. Treating a river crossing as the point of the trip. They cannot be promised. Plan a trip you would be glad of even if you never saw one, and treat a crossing as the bonus it is.

Get a plan built around your dates