7-Day Amboseli Tsavo Chyulu & Diani Southern Kenya Safari

Your southern Kenya safari begins with a morning drive from Nairobi southward toward the Tanzania border, passing through the agricultural lowlands before the landscape opens into the volcanic plains surrounding Amboseli. You enter Amboseli National Park from the north gate and drive through the iconic dust bowl that was once Lake Amboseli, where dried lake sediments still blow in spectacular dust devils. Check in to your lodge for lunch with views toward Mount Kilimanjaro. The afternoon game drive takes you through Amboseli’s unique swamp habitat, where springs fed by Kilimanjaro’s glacial meltwater support extraordinary concentrations of elephant, hippo, and waterbirds against the mountain backdrop.

Dedicate a full day to Amboseli National Park on morning and afternoon game drives. The early morning light on Kilimanjaro is breathtaking, and your guide positions the vehicle for spectacular photographs as elephant herds move across the dusty plains with Africa’s highest mountain behind them. Observation Hill provides panoramic views across the park’s swamps and dry lake bed where the full ecosystem is visible in a single sweeping landscape. Lion, cheetah, and wild dog are regularly encountered on the open grasslands, while the swamps attract grey crowned crane, saddle-billed stork, and a host of herons and egrets.

After breakfast in Amboseli, you drive east crossing into Tsavo West National Park via the Chyulu Gate. The transition from Amboseli’s volcanic dust plains to the lush greenery of Tsavo West is dramatic as you enter a landscape of ancient lava flows, baobab-dotted plains, and dramatic volcanic hills. A visit to Mzima Springs is the day’s highlight, where 50 million litres of crystal-clear water bubble from the lava rock, supporting hippos, crocodiles, and abundant birdlife that can be observed from an underwater viewing chamber. You arrive at your lodge for dinner and settle into the atmospheric wilderness of Tsavo West.

After a morning game drive through Tsavo West’s dramatic terrain of volcanic outcrops and savannah woodland, you drive east across the Nairobi-Mombasa railway and highway into Tsavo East National Park. The landscape shifts again as you enter Tsavo East’s vast open red-earth plains that stretch unbroken for hundreds of kilometres. The Galana River cuts a green ribbon through the red landscape and is a magnet for the park’s famous large elephant herds, which roll in the red dust until their skin turns a characteristic crimson colour. Your lodge sits in a prime game-viewing area with the Athi and Galana rivers nearby.

After breakfast in Tsavo East, you drive northwest toward the Chyulu Hills, a young volcanic range rising dramatically from the plains between Tsavo West and Amboseli. The Chyulu Hills are among the youngest volcanic mountains on Earth and their slopes support dense montane forest, lava tube caves, and some of the most spectacular views of Kilimanjaro available anywhere in Kenya. A guided nature walk through the hills reveals unique endemic plants, Shetani lava cave, and the extraordinary landscape of a still-active volcanic ridge. Overnight at a bush camp on the slopes of the hills.

After an early breakfast with sweeping views from the Chyulu Hills, you begin the scenic drive south and east to Diani Beach on the Kenya coast. The route descends through the coastal hinterland before the Indian Ocean comes into view in a flash of turquoise blue. You arrive at your beach resort in Diani for lunch, trading your safari vehicle for bare feet on white coral sand. The afternoon is free to swim in the warm Indian Ocean, explore the reef, and enjoy the transition from the African bush to one of the world’s great tropical beaches.

Enjoy a full leisure day at Diani Beach to relax, snorkel on the fringing coral reef, take an optional dhow sunset cruise, or explore the nearby Shimba Hills National Reserve for sable antelope and coastal forest elephant. After a leisurely final breakfast on the beach, you are transferred to Ukunda Airstrip or Mombasa Airport for your onward journey, concluding a magnificent 7-day southern Kenya safari that has taken you from elephants beneath Kilimanjaro to the coral coast of the Indian Ocean.