The lions are forty minutes from the airport. The Mara is a different trip entirely.
Whether half a day in Nairobi National Park is enough. What a group-joining Mara safari really costs against a private Land Cruiser. Which months put the herds on the river. Reviews of every tour you can book in Kenya.
A game drive before breakfast, the elephant nursery at eleven, the Mara on Friday.
The four bookings a first Kenyan trip is built around. What each one costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The first morningNairobi National Park Half-Day Game DriveLion, rhino and giraffe inside the city boundary, and you are back in town for lunch. The cheapest way to find out whether a longer safari is for you.
02Eleven o’clockElephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center Tour with OptionsThe orphaned calves come out for milk and a mud bath once a day, in front of whoever booked a place. The giraffe platform is ten minutes up the road.
03Three days out3 Days Masai Mara Group JoiningA group-joining Land Cruiser leaves Nairobi at dawn and two nights later you have seen the Mara properly. This is the trip the rest of the week gets built around.
04Down into the Rift1 Day trip to Hells Gate and Lake Naivasha From NairobiCycling past zebra in Hell’s Gate, then a boat among the hippos on Lake Naivasha. The one day out that is not spent standing up through a roof hatch.
Kenya is not one safari. Four parks, four different animals to plan around.
What you see, what you pay and how many days you need change completely between the Mara, Amboseli, the Rift Valley lakes and Tsavo. The short version of each is below.
Nairobi, the Mara, and the parks a morning’s drive from either.
A capital with a national park inside its fence, the reserve the migration walks into, elephant country under Kilimanjaro, two Rift Valley lakes and the old Swahili coast. Six places to base a trip, and the best day out in each.
Some of Kenya happens at arm’s length, and most of that is in Nairobi.
A raised platform where the giraffes come to you, an elephant nursery on the park boundary, a walk among zebra on an island with nothing on it that bites, and an afternoon in a Maasai homestead. None of it is done standing up through a roof hatch.
The days out more travellers take than anything else in Kenya.
Every Kenyan tour we have reviewed →One half-day game drive carries more travellers than any other booking in the country. Here is what sits behind it.
1
Nairobi National Park Half-Day Tour; Free Wi-Fi connection
See rhinos, lions, giraffes, birds, and city views on a practical half-day Nairobi National Park safari with hotel pickup.
From · $45
Read our review →
2
National Park & Optional Elephants & Giraffe Center
from $80
3
NAI NAMI: Nairobi Storytelling Tour with Street Children
from $45
4
Nairobi National Park Half-Day Game Drive
from $36
5
Historic and Modern Highlights Walking Tour
from $23
6
Safari Tour; Nairobi National Park
from $43
7
3 Days Masai Mara Group Joining
from $540
8
Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center Tour with Options
from $35
Three days in the Mara, and the three ways to buy them.
Every Mara safari →
Almost every Mara trip out of Nairobi runs three days and two nights. What changes is the vehicle you sit in, how many people share it and whether the camp has canvas walls or concrete ones. The gap between the cheapest and the dearest is wider than the gap between parks.
Group joining, six to a Land Cruiser
You are pooled with whoever else booked that date, which is what keeps the per-head price down and gets the roof hatch open at dawn either way. The compromise is a middle seat and somebody else’s pickup time.
Small-group departures
A hard cap on the vehicle, usually four rather than six or seven. Everybody gets a window, the driver stops when you ask, and nobody is standing on a seat to see over a shoulder.
Budget camping safaris
Public campsites, simple tents and, on some departures, your own sleeping bag. The vehicle and the game drives are the same ones the pricier trips use.
What a day out in Kenya actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. City walks and park gates sit at one end, three nights under canvas in the Mara at the other.
Nairobi walks and museums, the giraffe platform, the elephant nursery hour and half a day in the city park.
Full days out of the capital: Amboseli and back, Hell’s Gate and Naivasha, the Rift Valley lakes, a Tsavo run from the coast.
Multi-day safaris with camps and park fees inside the price, private Land Cruisers, and the trips that fly you in.
- 13 Days Masai Mara Group Joiningfrom $540
- 23 Days, 2 Nights Maasai Mara Group Safarifrom $199
- 3Tour: Giraffe Center and Nairobi National Parkfrom $176
Nairobi is a city with lions in it, and one very full day out.
Through the gate at six for the game drive, the elephant nursery in the middle of the day, giraffes at noon and Karen Blixen’s farmhouse in the afternoon. It is the most-booked day in the country and it fits neatly between two flights.
Three things that only happen in Kenya.
Grassland and big animals turn up all over the continent. A river a million wildebeest have to get across, rhino grazing under a capital city skyline, and an orphaned elephant nursery you are let into for one hour do not.
The Mara River Crossings
From about July to October the herds that walked up from the Serengeti reach the Mara River and pile up on the bank. Nothing schedules it. They wait, sometimes for a day and a half, then one animal goes in and the rest follow through the crocodiles. Guides park and wait with them, which is why a crossing day is mostly sitting still with the engine off.
- 13 Days Masai Mara Group Joining★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 486 reviews
- 23 Days, 2 Nights Maasai Mara Group Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 394 reviews
- 35 Days Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru & Naivasha Budget Joining Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 229 reviews
Lions With a Skyline Behind Them
The park runs right up to the southern edge of Nairobi, and nowhere else on earth keeps rhino and lion inside a capital. There is a fence on one side, office towers on the horizon and passenger jets coming in low over the plain. You can be at the gate at six and back at a desk by ten.
- 1Nairobi National Park Half-Day Tour; Free Wi-Fi connection★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 878 reviews
- 2Nairobi National Park Half-Day Game Drive★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 738 reviews
- 3Safari Tour; Nairobi National Park★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 594 reviews
The Elephant Nursery
Orphaned calves are raised on the edge of the park by keepers who sleep beside them. Visitors are let in for a single hour in the middle of the day, when the elephants come out for milk and a mud bath and pay the audience no attention whatsoever. The red dust does the rest.
- 1Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center Tour with Options★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 457 reviews
- 2Nairobi National Park, Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Centre★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 365 reviews
- 3Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 235 reviews
Four Kenyan bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged from a Nairobi hotel lobby the night before. These four run on migration months, permits and a visiting hour that is exactly sixty minutes long.
- 013 Days, 2 Nights Maasai Mara Group SafariThe river crossings run roughly July to October, and the Mara camps fill for those weeks long before the herds get there.
- 02Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center Tour with OptionsThe nursery opens to visitors for one hour in the middle of the day. Miss the slot and there is no second one.
- 03Climbing Mount Kenya 5 Days Via Chogoria RouteEvery route up needs a park permit, a guide and nights spent acclimatising. Nothing about it is arranged the evening before.
- 04Hot Air Balloon Safari & Champagne BreakfastBalloons lift before first light and carry a handful of passengers each. In the crossing months the baskets are spoken for weeks out.
Kenya runs on two rains and one migration, and they set the price.
The long rains land around March to May. Tracks turn to grease, camps drop their rates and the parks empty out. July to October is dry, the herds are on the Mara and everything costs more. Between the two, January and February are hot, clear and quietly the best value of the year.
- 15 Days Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru & Naivasha Budget Joining Safarifrom $810
- 23 Days Masai Mara Group Joiningfrom $540
- 3Tsavo East Full-Day Safarifrom $200
Mombasa keeps the other half of Kenya, and it is nothing like the first.
Swahili stone streets, a Portuguese fort on the harbour, dhows out to a marine park where the dolphins run, and white sand all the way down to the Tanzanian border. Most people fly down after the parks. A few never go inland at all.
The whole coast, day by day →
By place, from the capital to the coast
By kind of day, from a game drive to a market morning
Nairobi, the Rift, the Mara, then the coast: the loop almost everybody does first.
The newest Kenyan tour reviews.
Everything else we have just added →
Lake Naivasha day tour including the crescent island
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5 Days Mount Kenya Climbing Via Chogoria Sirimone Route
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3-Day Private Tour in Tsavo West National Parks
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Private Half Day Hike to Ngong Hills from Nairobi
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Coffee farm tour, coffee roasting and tasting experience
Read our review →
Mombasa Private City Tour & Haller park Sanctuary with sea food luch
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Tsavo East 1 Day Safari, Beach To Beach In 4wd Jeep
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3 Days, 2 Nights Safari – Amboseli National Park and Tsavo West Adventure Safari
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