7-Day Kenya Safari from Nairobi: Maasai Mara, Nakuru, Naivasha & Amboseli

Pickup from your Nairobi hotel at 8:00 a.m. and drive southwest through the Rift Valley. Stop at the Great Rift Valley viewpoint for a panoramic look across the valley floor, then continue through Narok to the Maasai Mara. Arrive at Rhino Tourist Camp in time for lunch — private, self-contained tents with shower, bed, mosquito nets, and electricity available morning and evening. At 4:00 p.m., depart for a sunset game drive across the Mara Reserve. Lions and cheetahs become active in the late afternoon, and the Mara’s open grasslands offer exceptional visibility in the golden evening light. Return for dinner and overnight.

After breakfast at 6:30 a.m., depart at 7:00 a.m. for a full day inside the Maasai Mara. Your guide navigates the reserve’s western grasslands, the Mara River corridor, and the open savannah in pursuit of the Big Five — lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, and black rhino. From July to October, the Mara hosts the Great Wildebeest Migration: massive herds funnel through the reserve from the Serengeti, with Mara River crossings attended by enormous Nile crocodiles. A picnic lunch is provided inside the park, keeping you in prime game-viewing territory through midday. Return to camp for dinner and overnight.

After breakfast and checkout, drive north from the Mara to Nakuru (approximately 4–5 hours). Lunch stop en route. This is a travel day — no game drive is scheduled so that you arrive refreshed for an early 7:00 a.m. start at Lake Nakuru National Park the following morning. Dinner and overnight at Buraha Zenoni Hotel, a 3-star property within easy drive of the park gate. From Day 4 onwards, you travel on a private vehicle with your dedicated guide.

This is the most activity-dense day of the trip and requires a 7:00 a.m. departure from the hotel. Begin immediately with a 3-hour game drive inside Lake Nakuru National Park — Kenya’s premier rhino sanctuary, where both black and white rhinos are resident alongside Rothschild giraffes, leopards, lions, buffalo, flamingos, and over 400 bird species. Exit the park by 10:30 a.m. and drive south to Lake Naivasha (~1.5 hours). Stop for lunch on the way. After lunch, enter Hell’s Gate National Park for a biking safari — one of Kenya’s only parks where you can cycle alongside free-roaming wildlife. Zebras, buffalos, Maasai giraffes, and antelopes move alongside the trail through the volcanic gorge terrain. If you prefer not to cycle, the same route can be driven. Finish the afternoon with a 1-hour boat safari on Lake Naivasha — hippos surface alongside the boat, African fish eagles perch in the lakeshore fig trees, pelicans drift overhead. Check in at Hotel Chambai Safari on Moi South Lake Road, which overlooks Lake Naivasha’s acacia woodlands and is within walking distance of the lake. Dinner and overnight.

Early breakfast at the hotel, then check out at 6:45 a.m. and drive southeast to Amboseli National Park (approximately 4–5 hours). Arrive at Nyati Safari Camp at Kimana Gate in time for lunch. The camp’s spacious safari tents and stone cottages face directly toward Mount Kilimanjaro — the mountain is often clearest in the early morning and late afternoon as clouds build at midday. After a short rest, depart at 4:00 p.m. for an afternoon game drive. Amboseli’s open swampland and dry lakebed host some of Africa’s largest elephant herds alongside lions, cheetahs, hippos, zebras, wildebeest, and giraffes — all with the 5,895-metre silhouette of Kilimanjaro behind them. Return to camp for dinner and overnight.

After breakfast, spend the full day inside Amboseli National Park on a game drive with a packed picnic lunch. The park’s elephant population — numbering over 1,500 individuals — is among the most studied in Africa, tracked continuously since 1972. Family herds of 20–30 elephants move across the open plains with Kilimanjaro framing the horizon. Predators are active across the park’s varied habitats: the open dry lakebed for cheetahs and lions, the swamp edge for hippos and crocodiles, and the acacia woodland for leopards. Observation Hill offers a panoramic viewpoint across the park floor for a midday photography stop. Return to camp for dinner and overnight.

Early breakfast and checkout. Begin the drive back to Nairobi (approximately 4–5 hours) via the Mombasa highway. Drop-off at your Nairobi hotel, guesthouse, or Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.