11-Day Grand Kenya Safari – Tsavo Amboseli Samburu and the Mara

Your grand Kenya safari begins with an early morning departure from Nairobi on the A2 highway, driving north through Mount Kenya’s forested foothills and across the equator. The six-hour journey transforms the landscape from green highlands to the rust-coloured semi-arid plains of Samburu. Arrive at Samburu National Reserve for lunch at your riverside camp before your first afternoon game drive along the Ewaso Nyiro River. Your expert guide introduces you to the legendary Samburu Special Five, locating reticulated giraffe, Grevy’s zebra, and the long-necked gerenuk in their element among the acacia and doum palm landscape. Return to camp for dinner under a sky blazing with stars in the clear northern night.

A full day in Samburu allows morning and afternoon game drives through the reserve’s diverse semi-arid habitats. The morning drive follows the Ewaso Nyiro River where large elephant families bathe and play, and leopards rest in the riverside canopy. Your guide tracks the remaining Special Five members across the open plains and volcanic outcrops before returning to camp for a midday lunch. The afternoon drive ventures into different sectors of the reserve, watching for Beisa oryx, Somali ostrich, and the elusive wild dog that occasionally moves through the reserve. The dramatic landscape of red earth, volcanic rock, and ancient doum palms creates stunning photography at every turn of the afternoon light.

Depart Samburu after breakfast and drive south through the central highlands to Laikipia County and Ol Pejeta Conservancy. The four-hour scenic drive offers views of Mount Kenya and the fertile Laikipia plateau before arriving at this 90,000-acre highland sanctuary. After lunch, an afternoon game drive introduces you to Ol Pejeta’s remarkable wildlife community including lion, cheetah, elephant, and buffalo. The highlight is a deeply moving visit to the northern white rhino enclosure where Najin and Fatu, the last two of their subspecies on Earth, are protected by 24-hour armed rangers. Your guide shares the full conservation story and the scientific work underway to preserve their genetic heritage.

Dedicate a full day to Ol Pejeta Conservancy with morning and afternoon drives through its highland wilderness. Morning begins at Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, the only facility in Kenya caring for rescued chimpanzees, offering a fascinating insight into primate rehabilitation. The game drive continues through open grasslands where black rhinos move through the highland bush and cheetah scan the plains from elevated ground. Ol Pejeta’s healthy lion population is frequently seen in the morning hours, and the afternoon drive explores the conservancy’s varied habitats before an optional night game drive reveals the nocturnal world after dark.

Depart Ol Pejeta after breakfast and drive south through Nairobi and continue to Amboseli National Park at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. The combined journey of approximately six to seven hours with a Nairobi lunch stop delivers you to Amboseli in the afternoon, where Africa’s highest peak rises majestically above the savannah. An afternoon game drive immediately immerses you in Amboseli’s most iconic experience: massive elephant families moving freely across the open plains with Kilimanjaro as a breathtaking backdrop. The park’s permanent swamps attract hippos, pelicans, and flamingos, while lions patrol the acacia woodland edges as the last golden light of the day illuminates the mountain.

A full day in Amboseli National Park provides morning and afternoon game drives through this legendary park’s diverse habitats. The early morning drive is the best time to photograph Kilimanjaro before clouds build around the summit, and large elephant herds move through the swamp margins in the cool dawn light. Your guide navigates to Observation Hill for panoramic 360-degree views of the entire park before exploring the park’s south and west sectors. The afternoon drive focuses on predator activity, with lion, cheetah, and hyena commonly encountered across the open grasslands as the day’s heat brings wildlife to the park’s permanent water sources.

After breakfast, drive west from Amboseli toward Tsavo West National Park, a journey of approximately two to three hours through the rolling plains of southern Kenya. Tsavo West is famous for its dramatic volcanic scenery, and you arrive at your lodge in time for lunch before the afternoon game drive. The highlight of Tsavo West is the Mzima Springs, a series of crystal-clear pools fed by underground rivers from Kilimanjaro where hippos wallow in extraordinary clarity and massive Nile crocodiles patrol the submerged logs. Rhinos, lions, and cheetah are present throughout the park’s volcanic landscape of ancient lava flows and rocky kopjes.

Spend a full day exploring Tsavo West National Park on morning and afternoon game drives through its diverse volcanic landscape. The morning drive covers the Ngulia Hills where leopards inhabit the rocky terrain and Tsavo lions, famous for their manelessness, patrol the open bush. Your guide visits Poacher’s Lookout, a rocky escarpment offering panoramic views across the vast Tsavo wilderness toward Kilimanjaro. The afternoon drive focuses on the volcanic lava flows of the Chaimu Crater area and the riverine habitats along the Tsavo River where large herds of buffalo and elephant gather. Bird diversity is outstanding throughout Tsavo West, with over 500 species recorded including the remarkable Fischer’s starling and Somali bee-eater.

Depart Tsavo West and drive east through the Tsavo corridor to Tsavo East National Park. The drive takes approximately one to two hours and crosses the iconic red-earth plains where the two Tsavo parks meet. Tsavo East is Kenya’s largest national park, an immense wilderness of open semi-arid savannah, the seasonal Galana River, and vast elephant herds whose skin turns brick-red from rolling in the iron-rich soil. After lunch, the afternoon game drive takes you across the endless open plains of Tsavo East, where the flat terrain provides extraordinary visibility and superb opportunities to photograph the enormous Tsavo elephant herds with the blue ridge of the Yatta Plateau as backdrop.

A full day in Tsavo East delivers morning and afternoon game drives across this vast and wild national park. The morning drive follows the Galana River, a permanent water source attracting lion, leopard, buffalo, and crocodile throughout the dry season. Lugard’s Falls, a dramatic series of rapids and potholes carved by the river into ancient rock, is a spectacular natural feature worth visiting. The afternoon drive explores the open savannah where cheetah are regularly spotted on termite mounds and the Tsavo lion prides, sometimes numbering over twenty individuals, rest in the sparse shade. The extraordinary scale and wildness of Tsavo East creates a profoundly different safari atmosphere from Kenya’s more intimate parks.

Enjoy a final breakfast at the Tsavo East lodge before checking out for the drive back to Nairobi. The journey of approximately four to five hours follows the main A109 Mombasa Road through the Athi Plains, offering final views of the Tsavo wilderness and passing through the outskirts of Nairobi National Park before reaching the city. You arrive in Nairobi by early afternoon, completing an extraordinary eleven-day grand safari that has taken you through six of Kenya’s greatest wildlife destinations from the northern frontier to the southern plains, revealing the full magnificent breadth of Kenya’s natural heritage.