7 days · 6 nights
Seven days: Masai Mara and Amboseli
Two parks, two completely different landscapes, and no day wasted in transit. The itinerary we suggest most often to people going to Kenya for the first time.
- Length
- 7 days, 6 nights
- Indicative range
- US$3,200 – 7,500 pp
- Places
- Nairobi · Masai Mara · Amboseli
- Turnaround
- Costed quote within 24 hours
The range is what this shape of trip typically costs per person sharing, land only, from simple camps at the bottom to owner-run camps and private guiding at the top. It excludes international flights and it is not a quote — your quote will be itemised and exact.
Is this your trip?
Who this itinerary suits
Who it does not suit
- Anyone who wants to walk, ride or drive at night — the national reserve and park do not allow it
- Photographers who would rather have four nights in one place than two in each
- A first safari, where variety matters more than depth
- Travellers with one week of leave and no appetite for long drives
- Couples and pairs of friends; it works for families with children over about six
Day by day
How the days actually run
Written the way we would plan it, including the travel days nobody puts in a brochure.
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Day 1
Arrive Nairobi
Land at Jomo Kenyatta, clear immigration and transfer to a hotel in the city or in Karen on the western edge. If you land in the morning, Nairobi National Park is 20 minutes away and gives you rhino and lion before you have properly unpacked.
We build in this night deliberately. Connecting straight onto a light aircraft after a long-haul flight is possible and almost always regretted.
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Days 2–4
Masai Mara — three nights
A 45-minute flight from Wilson airport puts you on a Mara airstrip before mid-morning, and you are on your first game drive on the way to camp.
Three nights gives you two full days plus two half days. In a conservancy you can add night drives and a guided walk; in the reserve during the migration months you are close to the river crossings.
This is where the trip is won or lost, and it is why we ask so carefully about whether other vehicles bother you.
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Days 5–6
Amboseli — two nights
Fly Mara to Amboseli, usually via Nairobi. By early afternoon the landscape has changed completely: dust, open pans, swamps and elephants in numbers.
Be up before dawn both mornings. Kilimanjaro is out most reliably in the first hour of light, and two mornings doubles your chances.
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Day 7
Amboseli to Nairobi and home
A morning drive, then the flight or the four-hour road transfer back to Nairobi for an evening international departure. Most long-haul flights out of Nairobi leave late, so you get a full final morning rather than a wasted one.
Make it yours
Common variations
Nothing here is a package. These are the changes people most often ask for, and all of them are straightforward.
Swap Amboseli for Samburu
Adds the northern special five and far fewer vehicles, at the cost of a longer flight and a slightly higher price.
Swap Amboseli for Laikipia
Buys you walking, riding and night drives, and works better for families with young children.
Add three nights at Diani
Turns the week into a ten-day bush-and-beach trip; the coast leg costs much less per night than the safari leg.
Next step
Have this priced for your dates
Send us the dates you are considering and we will cost this itinerary exactly — with named camps, real availability and an itemised price — rather than leaving you to guess from a range.
Our Kenya specialist replies within 24 hours.
- Named camps, checked for availability on your dates
- An itemised price, so you can see what each night costs
- An honest note on anything about your dates that will not work
Who answers
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