Kenya and Tanzania: the Masai Mara, the Serengeti and Ngorongoro

1. Day 1: Arrive in Nairobi

   Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to your hotel in Nairobi

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Nairobi
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO), about 18 km south-east of the city centre. A driver meets you in the arrivals hall and takes you to your hotel; allow 45 minutes or more, because Nairobi traffic is heavy at rush hour. Have your Kenyan eTA approved before you fly, as there is no visa on arrival. If you land early, the afternoon is yours: the Nairobi National Museum and the Karen Blixen Museum are both an easy taxi ride, and your guide can tell you how to fit one in. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the days ahead: why we start early, how the window seats rotate in the 4x4s, the 15 kg soft-bag limit on tomorrow's flight, and what to have ready for the border on day 5. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner. Repack tonight, because tomorrow we fly to the Mara.

   Included

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

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   Activity: Plan to land by about 3 pm to make the briefing. If your flight lands late, your guide catches you up at breakfast.

   

2. Day 2: Fly to the Masai Mara

   Wilson Airport in Nairobi to an airstrip in the Masai Mara, then a game drive to camp

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Masai Mara
   Day 2 details

   By road the Mara is about 270 km and five to six hours from Nairobi, longer than our four-hour limit, so we fly. After breakfast it is about half an hour across town to Wilson Airport, Nairobi's light-aircraft airport, for a scheduled flight of 45 minutes to an hour, sometimes with a stop at another airstrip. The Great Rift Valley passes below. At the airstrip our Kenyan driver-guides meet us with the 4x4s: at most six guests in each, every seat a window, with a pop-up roof for standing and photos. We game drive to camp, a tented camp in or close to the Mara Triangle, the western part of the reserve, for three nights. Lunch is at camp, then a rest through the heat of the day. At about four we head out again as the light softens, over open grassland with lone acacias, looking for lions, elephants, topi and giraffe, and are back by dusk for dinner.

   Included

   • Flight from Wilson Airport, Nairobi, to the Masai Mara
   • Game drive from the airstrip to camp
   • Late-afternoon game drive in the Masai Mara National Reserve

   Easier option: Skip the late-afternoon drive and settle in at camp.

   Free time: Early afternoon free at camp

   Activity: Light-aircraft baggage limit of about 15 kg per person in a soft bag.

3. Day 3: A full day in the Mara

   Full-day game drive in the Masai Mara National Reserve, with a picnic lunch

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Masai Mara
   Day 3 details

   We leave at about 6:30 am with coffee in a flask and breakfast packed, because the first hours are when the cats are most active and the light is soft. The Masai Mara is the northern end of the same ecosystem as the Serengeti, about 1,500 square kilometres of grassland cut by the Mara and Talek rivers. From about July to October the wildebeest and zebra herds are usually here, and crossings of the Mara River are possible, though no one can say when or where the herds will cross. Your driver-guides share sightings by radio, and we wait at a crossing point only as long as the group wants. In the other months the Mara keeps its resident lions, elephants, buffalo, hippos and cheetahs all year. We picnic in the shade of a tree inside the reserve and return to camp in the late afternoon, with time for a shower before dinner. If you have booked the balloon, you lift off at dawn and join us after a bush breakfast.

   Included

   • Full-day game drive in the Masai Mara National Reserve
   • Picnic lunch in the reserve

   Optional experiences

   • Hot-air balloon flight at dawn with a bush breakfast. Booked in advance.

   Easier option: Return to camp at lunchtime with one vehicle, when the group agrees.

   Activity: A long day sitting in the vehicle, often on bumpy tracks. Bring a warm layer for the dawn start.

4. Day 4: Mara at dawn, a Maasai village in the afternoon

   Dawn game drive, then a visit to a Maasai village near the reserve

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Masai Mara
   Day 4 details

   One more early drive at first light, to a different corner of the reserve from yesterday, chosen by your driver-guides from what was seen the day before. We have coffee before we go and come back to camp at about ten for a late breakfast, then the middle of the day is free: rest in your tent, read on the deck, or watch the plains from camp. In the middle of the afternoon we drive a short way out of the reserve to a Maasai village, an enkang of homes inside a thorn fence where families keep their cattle at night. Your hosts show you their houses, explain how cattle shape Maasai life, and talk about school, land and change. The visit fee goes to the community, and the beadwork is for sale without any pressure to buy. We are back in time for a sundowner looking out over the grassland, and an early night before tomorrow's border crossing.

   Included

   • Dawn game drive in the Masai Mara National Reserve
   • Maasai village visit with a local host
   • Sundowner at camp

   Easier option: Skip the village visit and stay at camp all afternoon.

   More active option: Swap the dawn drive for a guided walk of about two hours with a Maasai guide and an armed ranger on community land outside the reserve, reading tracks, plants and birds.

   Free time: Middle of the day free at camp

5. Day 5: Across the border at Isebania, then on to the Serengeti

   Masai Mara to the Isebania border post by road, then a planned light aircraft into the central Serengeti

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Serengeti
   Day 5 details

   The Mara and the Serengeti meet, but the crossing between the two parks is closed to visitors, so the way across is the border post at Isebania, west of the reserve. By road the whole way, via Tarime and into the Serengeti, it is about 10 hours, so we plan to drive only the first part and fly the rest, on a charter we confirm when we book your dates. We leave camp after an early breakfast and drive about three and a half hours west, out through the Mara Triangle and the farming country around Lolgorien and Kehancha, with a coffee and stretch stop on the way. At the Isebania and Sirari border post your guide walks you through the Kenyan exit and the Tanzanian entry: passport, printed e-visa and yellow fever card in hand. Our Tanzanian driver-guides meet us on the far side, and we sit down to a packed lunch in the shade before a short flight from the nearest airstrip into the central Serengeti. We land in the afternoon and game drive to camp near Seronera for three nights.

   Included

   • Drive from the Masai Mara to the Isebania border post with your guide
   • Help through Kenyan exit and Tanzanian entry formalities
   • Short light-aircraft flight into the central Serengeti, subject to confirmation at booking
   • Game drive from the airstrip to camp

   Activity: The longest day of the trip: about 3.5 hours of rough road, an hour or so at the border, lunch, then the flight, so 8 to 9 hours door to door with a coffee stop and a sit-down lunch break. We accept it because it is the only way between the two parks without losing a night. If the charter cannot be confirmed for your date, we tell you before you pay whether we drive with a night near Lake Victoria or fly via Nairobi and Kilimanjaro. Keep your passport, printed Tanzanian e-visa and yellow fever certificate in your day bag. Baggage limit about 15 kg in a soft bag.

6. Day 6: Serengeti sunrise and sunset

   Dawn and late-afternoon game drives in the central Serengeti

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Serengeti
   Day 6 details

   We leave camp before sunrise, which near the equator comes at about half past six all year, with coffee in a flask and breakfast packed in the vehicle. The Serengeti covers some 14,750 square kilometres and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981. Around Seronera, in the middle of the park, the Seronera River keeps water and shade through the dry months, so the area holds resident game all year: lions resting on the granite outcrops called kopjes, leopards draped along the branches of sausage trees, and cheetahs hunting on the open grass. The early light is soft and warm, so keep your camera ready. If you have booked the optional balloon flight, you lift off at dawn and meet us after a bush breakfast. We return to camp for lunch and a rest through the heat, then head out again at about four for a late drive that ends as the sun goes down over the plains.

   Included

   • Dawn game drive with packed breakfast
   • Late-afternoon game drive to sunset

   Optional experiences

   • Hot-air balloon flight at dawn with a bush breakfast. Booked in advance.

   Easier option: Skip the afternoon drive and stay at camp.

   Free time: Midday free at camp

   

7. Day 7: A full day where the herds are

   Full-day game drive in the Serengeti, planned by season

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Serengeti
   Day 7 details

   A full day out, planned around where the animals are this month. On departures from January to March we head south towards the short-grass plains near Ndutu, about two hours away, where the wildebeest calve in their hundreds of thousands, usually peaking in February, with lions, cheetahs and hyenas close behind. In June the herds are often moving through the central and western Serengeti, and from about July to October most are in the far north and the Mara, so on those departures we stay in the centre and look for the resident predators along the rivers. Either way we take a picnic lunch, stop at a hippo pool, and give the driver-guides time to wait at a good sighting rather than rush on to the next. Vehicles stay in touch by radio, so the two 4x4s can split up and share what they find. A sundowner on the drive back closes your third evening in the Serengeti.

   Included

   • Full-day game drive with picnic lunch
   • Hippo pool stop
   • Sundowner on the evening drive

   Easier option: Return to camp at lunchtime with one vehicle, when the group agrees.

   Activity: A long day in the vehicle; the January to March run to the southern plains adds about two hours each way on rough tracks.

8. Day 8: Olduvai Gorge and up to the Ngorongoro rim

   Serengeti to Naabi Hill, Olduvai Gorge and the Ngorongoro Crater rim

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Ngorongoro
   Day 8 details

   A last game drive on the way out: south from Seronera across the open plains to Naabi Hill, the park's southern gate, where we stop for a stretch at the picnic area with a wide view over the grass. Then we leave the national park and enter the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, where Maasai herders graze their cattle alongside the wildlife. At Olduvai Gorge a small museum on the rim tells how Mary Leakey found a hominin skull about 1.75 million years old here in 1959, and how fossils and stone tools from the gorge changed the story of human origins. We have lunch there, then climb into the highlands to the crater rim at about 2,300 metres, arriving in the middle of the afternoon. The rest of the day is free. The air is cool up here and the evenings are cold, so have a warm layer ready for the view into the crater at sunset.

   Included

   • Game drive from Seronera to Naabi Hill
   • Olduvai Gorge museum
   • Lunch at Olduvai
   • Ngorongoro Conservation Area fees

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free on the crater rim

   Activity: About 4 hours of driving on rough roads, broken by Naabi Hill and Olduvai. The rim sits at about 2,300 m and is cold at night.

9. Day 9: Ngorongoro Crater at gate opening, down to Lake Manyara

   Ngorongoro Crater floor, then via Karatu to Mto wa Mbu below the Rift Valley escarpment

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Lake Manyara
   Day 9 details

   We leave the lodge in the dark with a packed breakfast and reach the descent road as the gate opens, around 6 am, so we drop to the crater floor in the morning mist among the first vehicles of the day. Ngorongoro is a collapsed volcano about 600 metres deep, with some 260 square kilometres of grassland, swamp, forest and the soda lake Magadi on its floor. Lions, hyenas, buffalo, zebra and wildebeest live here all year, flamingos often feed on the lake, and it is your best chance on this trip of a black rhino, though they are few and often far off. We eat a late breakfast at a picnic site on the floor, game drive until late morning while the crowds build, then climb out at midday. From the rim it is about an hour and a half via Karatu, down the Rift Valley escarpment to our lodge near Mto wa Mbu, arriving in the early afternoon. The rest of the day is free.

   Included

   • Ngorongoro Crater game drive from gate opening, with the crater fee
   • Picnic breakfast on the crater floor
   • Lunch at the lodge

   Free time: Afternoon free at the lodge

   Activity: The crater rim is cold at dawn: bring a warm layer and a hat.

   

10. Day 10: Lake Manyara, Mto wa Mbu and on to Arusha

    Lake Manyara National Park and Mto wa Mbu, then east to Arusha

    • Drive about 2 h
    • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
    • Stay in Arusha
    Day 10 details

    The gate of Lake Manyara National Park is a few minutes from Mto wa Mbu, so we are in early, while the forest is cool. Groundwater springs at the foot of the Rift Valley wall feed a tall forest where baboon troops sit along the track, blue monkeys move through the fig and mahogany trees, and elephants feed in the shade. Beyond it the forest opens onto grassland and a shallow soda lake, with flamingos and pelicans in some seasons. Some operators sell this drive as an extra; here it is in the price. Late morning we walk through Mto wa Mbu, Swahili for river of mosquitoes, with a local guide: the market, banana plantations and rice fields watered by streams from the escarpment, then lunch with local dishes. In the afternoon it is about two hours east to Arusha, with Mount Meru, 4,566 metres, rising ahead. A free hour at the hotel, then a farewell dinner together.

    Included

    • Morning game drive in Lake Manyara National Park
    • Village, market and farm walk in Mto wa Mbu with a local guide
    • Lunch in Mto wa Mbu
    • Farewell dinner in Arusha

    Easier option: Take the short version of the Mto wa Mbu walk, the market only, with the vehicle close by.

    More active option: Cycle the Mto wa Mbu farm loop with the local guide instead of walking it.

    Free time: Early evening free in Arusha

    Activity: About two hours on foot in Mto wa Mbu on flat, sometimes muddy paths.

    

11. Day 11: Leave from Kilimanjaro airport

    Arusha to Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO)

    • Drive about 1 h
    • Breakfast
    Day 11 details

    A slow morning after ten days of early starts. Have breakfast at the hotel, then use the free hours as you like: a walk to Arusha's central market, a coffee from the farms on the slopes of Mount Meru, or simply a rest by the pool if the hotel has one. We time your transfer to your flight. Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO) is about 50 km east of Arusha, roughly an hour by road, and on a clear day you may see the snow on Kilimanjaro as you drive. Your guide sees you to the airport and checks your flight before saying goodbye. If you are flying on to Zanzibar for the beach, there are domestic flights from JRO and from Arusha's own small airport, and our Tanzania Safari and Zanzibar trip starts in Arusha too. Book a flight leaving after about 1 pm if you want the morning free; any time works, and the transfer is included whenever you go.

    Included

    • Drop-off at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO), or at Arusha Airport for a domestic flight

    Free time: Morning free in Arusha

    Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 1 pm to keep the morning free.

    

Wildlife and weather: From about July to October the wildebeest and zebra herds are usually in the Masai Mara and the northern Serengeti, and Mara River crossings are possible. From January to March the herds calve on the southern Serengeti plains, with green grass and predators close by, while the Mara keeps its resident game. April and May bring the long rains and November the short rains, so we do not run then. Dawns are cool everywhere and cold on the Ngorongoro rim.

• Nairobi1 night
• Masai Mara3 nights
• Serengeti3 nights
• Ngorongoro1 night
• Lake Manyara1 night
• Arusha1 night