Kenya: Masai Mara, Lake Naivasha and Lake Nakuru for three generations

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Nairobi

   Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to your hotel in Nairobi

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Welcome dinner at about 6 pm
   • Nuit : Nairobi
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO), south-east of the city, at any time of day. A driver meets your family in the arrivals hall and takes you to the hotel, which we choose on Nairobi's quieter south-western side, near Karen and Langata, so the next day's visits are minutes away; allow up to an hour, because traffic can be slow. Nairobi sits at about 1,700 m, so evenings are cool even though it is close to the equator. The rest of the day is for sleeping off the flight or sitting by the pool. At about 5 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing: how game drives work, how we seat the vehicles so every child has a window, and how to pack a soft bag for the small plane. Then we sit down early, at about 6 pm, to a welcome dinner, with grilled nyama choma and simpler dishes for children who want them.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the late-afternoon briefing

   

2. Jour 2 : Baby elephants and giraffes

   Nairobi to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust nursery, then the Giraffe Centre in Langata

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Nairobi
   Détail du jour 2

   A slow breakfast, because this is a day for getting over the flight. Late in the morning we drive a short way into Nairobi National Park to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's elephant nursery for its one-hour public visit (currently 11 am to noon), when the keepers bring the orphaned calves out for their milk bottles and a mud bath and tell how each one was rescued. Children stand at the rope a few metres away, and grandparents can watch from the shade. Visits are booked ahead, and we do that for you. Lunch is at a garden restaurant in Karen. In the afternoon we visit the Giraffe Centre in Langata, where the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife breeds Rothschild's giraffes, a rare subspecies, and you feed them from a raised platform at head height. Then it is back to the hotel by mid-afternoon for the pool and an early night. Dinner is free, so each family can eat at the hotel when it suits.

   Compris

   • Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant nursery public visit
   • Lunch in Karen
   • Giraffe Centre, Langata

   Activités en option

   • Karen Blixen Museum, the farmhouse of the author of Out of Africa, a few minutes from the Giraffe Centre

   Option plus facile : Watch the giraffes from the garden below the platform, or return to the hotel after lunch.

   Option plus active : Add the Karen Blixen Museum after the Giraffe Centre.

   Temps libre : From mid-afternoon free at the hotel pool

   Activité : About 1 hour of driving in short hops; both visits are on level ground.

   

3. Jour 3 : Fly to the Masai Mara

   Nairobi Wilson Airport to a Mara airstrip by light aircraft, then a conservancy camp

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Masai Mara
   Détail du jour 3

   After breakfast our driver takes us about 30 minutes to Wilson Airport, Nairobi's small-plane airport, with main bags left in store at the hotel. A scheduled light aircraft flies us to an airstrip in the Mara in about 45 to 60 minutes, sometimes with a stop at another strip on the way, and children usually have their faces to the window as the city gives way to farms and then open plains. The camp's guides meet the plane, and the short drive to camp is often a first game drive in itself. Our camp sits inside a conservancy bordering the Masai Mara National Reserve, on land leased from Maasai families, where the number of vehicles at a sighting is capped. Lunch, then the middle of the day is for settling into the family tents and resting. At about 4 pm we head out for the first drive, back at camp as the light goes, and dinner is early.

   Compris

   • Transfer to Wilson Airport
   • Scheduled light-aircraft flight from Nairobi to the Masai Mara
   • Lunch and dinner at camp
   • Late-afternoon game drive in the conservancy
   • Conservancy fees

   Option plus facile : Stay in camp and join the drives from tomorrow.

   Temps libre : Middle of the day free at camp

   Activité : Flight times are set by the airline and confirmed with your final itinerary. Soft bags of about 15 kg per person.

   

4. Jour 4 : A conservancy day at the family's pace

   A full day in the Mara conservancy

   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Masai Mara
   Détail du jour 4

   Early risers go out on the dawn drive at about 6:30 am, when lions and hyenas are often still on the move, while anyone who wants to sleep in joins a second drive after breakfast. Conservancy rules let guides leave the track to follow an animal, so children see it close without a ring of vehicles round it. The middle of the day is for rest, a book on the veranda or the pool where the camp has one. In the late morning the camp's Maasai guides take older children and adults on a bush walk of up to two hours to read tracks and droppings, while younger children, who are usually too young for walks under camp rules, get a session close to camp on footprints, the plants herders use as medicine and beadwork. After afternoon tea we go out again for the late drive and stop on a rise for a sundowner, with juice for the children, before an early dinner.

   Compris

   • Dawn or after-breakfast game drive in the conservancy
   • Bush walk with Maasai guides for guests of 12 and up, or a camp-side session for younger children
   • Late-afternoon game drive with a sundowner
   • All meals at camp

   Activités en option

   • Hot-air balloon flight at sunrise with a bush breakfast, where the operator accepts children (price confirmed at booking)
   • Night drive with a spotlight, where the conservancy allows it (price confirmed at booking)

   Option plus facile : Skip the dawn drive, take the after-breakfast drive and rest in camp until the late drive.

   Option plus active : Take both morning drives, the bush walk and the night drive.

   Temps libre : Middle of the day free at camp

   Activité : Each drive lasts 2 to 3 hours on bumpy tracks. The bush walk is about 2 hours at a slow pace; minimum ages are set by the camp.

   

5. Jour 5 : Into the Masai Mara National Reserve

   From the conservancy into the Masai Mara National Reserve and out to the Mara River

   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Masai Mara
   Détail du jour 5

   Today we drive into the Masai Mara National Reserve itself, with the reserve fee included. We leave after breakfast, at about 7:30 am, and work across the open grassland towards the Mara River, stopping wherever something is worth waiting for. The river holds hippos and large Nile crocodiles all year. From about July to October in most years the great herds of wildebeest and zebra are here from Tanzania's Serengeti, and some groups cross the river; when and where they cross changes daily, so a crossing is a chance, not a promise. Outside those months the reserve still has its resident lions, elephants, buffalo, cheetahs and plains game. Lunch is a picnic in the shade near the river, and we are back at camp by about 2 pm, out of the afternoon heat, for a rest and the pool. Those who want more stay out all day in a second vehicle and return at sunset.

   Compris

   • Half-day game drive in the Masai Mara National Reserve, reserve fee included
   • The Mara River and its hippo pools
   • Picnic lunch in the reserve
   • Dinner at camp

   Option plus facile : Stay in the conservancy for a shorter morning drive and lunch at camp.

   Option plus active : Stay out for the full day in the reserve and return to camp at sunset, when enough guests choose it to fill a vehicle.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free at camp

   Activité : About 6 hours in the vehicle with stops, on rough tracks. The full-day option is about 10 hours.

   

6. Jour 6 : Back over the Rift Valley to Lake Naivasha

   Mara airstrip to Nairobi Wilson Airport by light aircraft, then the Rift Valley escarpment and Lake Naivasha

   • Environ 2.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Lake Naivasha
   Détail du jour 6

   A short last drive for anyone who wants it, then breakfast and the morning flight back to Wilson Airport, about 45 to 60 minutes. Our driver meets the plane with your main bags and we head north-west out of Nairobi on the A104, past the tea gardens around Limuru, to the edge of the Rift Valley escarpment. We stop at a viewpoint where the valley floor opens out far below, with the cone of Mount Longonot standing over the plain, then drop down to Lake Naivasha, about two and a half hours from Wilson with the stop. Lunch is at our lodge on the shore, and the early afternoon is for the pool. At about 4 pm, when the heat has gone, a local boatman takes us out to watch the hippos at a safe distance, then lands us on Crescent Island, a private sanctuary with no large predators, where we walk among giraffes, zebras and wildebeest with a local guide. Dinner at the lodge is early.

   Compris

   • Scheduled light-aircraft flight from the Masai Mara to Wilson Airport, Nairobi
   • Rift Valley viewpoint on the escarpment
   • Lunch and dinner at the lodge
   • Boat trip on Lake Naivasha
   • Guided walk on Crescent Island

   Option plus facile : Stay on the boat and skip the Crescent Island walk.

   Temps libre : Early afternoon free at the lodge pool

   Activité : About 2.5 hours on tarmac, broken at the viewpoint. The Crescent Island walk is about 1.5 hours on flat, open grass. Swimming in the lake is not allowed because of the hippos.

   

7. Jour 7 : Rhinos at Lake Nakuru, then the pool

   Lake Naivasha to Lake Nakuru National Park and back

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Lake Naivasha
   Détail du jour 7

   We leave after breakfast at about 7:30 am and drive about an hour and a half north through Gilgil to Lake Nakuru National Park in our own vehicles, at most 6 guests in each, so every child has a window and can stand under the pop-up roof. The park was fenced in the 1980s as a sanctuary for rhinos, and it is one of the most reliable places in Kenya to see both black and white rhinos. Rothschild's giraffes, buffalo, waterbuck and big troops of olive baboons are common; lions are possible but never promised, and flamingo numbers swing widely since the lake rose. We drive up to Baboon Cliff for the view over the whole lake, then head back to Naivasha for a late lunch at the lodge. The afternoon is free for the pool, a nap or the lodge gardens, and the farewell dinner is early, at about 6 pm.

   Compris

   • Morning game drive in Lake Nakuru National Park, park fee included
   • Baboon Cliff viewpoint
   • Lunch at the lodge
   • Farewell dinner

   Activités en option

   • Cycling through the gorge in Hell's Gate National Park in the afternoon, for older children and adults (price confirmed at booking)

   Option plus facile : Stay at the lodge for the morning and enjoy the pool and gardens.

   Option plus active : Cycle in Hell's Gate National Park in the afternoon, one of the few Kenyan parks where you may ride among the animals.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free at the lodge

   Activité : About 1.5 hours each way on the road, plus about 3 hours of game driving inside the park.

   

8. Jour 8 : Back to Nairobi and home

   Lake Naivasha to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   Détail du jour 8

   A slow breakfast by the lake, a last look at the hippos and the fish eagles, and time to repack. We leave the lodge at about 10:30 am and drive back up the escarpment and round the edge of Nairobi to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, about 110 km and two and a half to three hours depending on traffic, with a stop on the way for a stretch and a snack. Your guide sees your family to the terminal and checks your flight before saying goodbye. Book a flight leaving after about 5 pm. If yours leaves earlier, we start straight after an early breakfast, or arrange a transfer to a Nairobi hotel the night before on request. Families who want more time can add nights at the coast or in Nairobi; ask us when you book.

   Compris

   • Drop-off at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)

   Temps libre : Morning free at the lodge

   Activité : Book a flight leaving after about 5 pm.

Faune et météo : June to October is the long dry season and lines up with the July and August school holidays: cool mornings, short grass, and in most years the wildebeest and zebra herds are in the Mara from about July to October, with more vehicles in the reserve. January to March, including March break, is warm and dry, with resident game, young animals and fewer vehicles. April and May bring the long rains, so we do not run then. Lake Nakuru's flamingo numbers swing widely from year to year since the lake rose.

• Nairobi2 nuits
• Masai Mara3 nuits
• Lake Naivasha2 nuits