8-Day Kenya Discovery Safari | Six Parks in Eight Days

This is our first full day of game drives – enjoy as many as you please. But you can also reserve time for some relaxation time. Just tell your driver/guide how you’d like to plan your day. We’ll start with a pre-breakfast game drive – then after watching the wildlife get their breakfast, we’ll head back for ours. A mid-morning safari drive will follow and then lunch. Besides being known for its generous population of elephants, Amboseli features a great variety of wildlife and birdlife along its marshes. The park’s Observation Hill lives up to its name and we’ll drive up here to view the variety of wildlife and enjoy more vistas of the environs. Come late afternoon, we’ll head back to our safari lodge or tented camp for a relaxing evening.

This Rift Valley region is filled with nearby parks featuring all sorts of safari opportunities. This morning, we can take a walking or bicycle safari in neighboring Hell’s Gate Park, exploring the canyons and meadows, as we pedal by grazing antelope, giraffe, zebra, buffalo, and more. Now we’ll pile back into the 4 x 4 Jeep for the quick trip to Lake Nakuru National Park, home to rhinos, leopards, and even pink flamingos. The park is a pretty respite, blessed with waterfalls, acacia forests, and towering cliffs. Besides the flamingos, expect to see pelicans, cormorants, kingfishers, and ostriches along the lake’s shoreline. Delightful in its color and variety, the park also offers surprises like rare Rothschild’s giraffes ambling through its acacia woods and black and white rhinos. We’ll wind up this colorful day at our Lake Nakuru safari lodge or tented camp with dinner and plans for tomorrow’s journey to the great Masai Mara.

Let’s rise early to see the park in its full early morning splendor. You’ll soon realize you’re in a special place – the Masai Mara is easily the richest ecosystem in the region, alive with an overflowing abundance of wildlife. Be on the lookout for the many prides of lions inhabiting the reserve as well as leopards, cheetahs, and hyenas. We’ll enjoy our lunch down at the Mara River – here you’ll see crocodiles and hippos in their natural habitat. Here too, you’ll witness the wonder of the Great Migration, (July – October) an unending train of wildebeests and zebras crossing over the river from the Serengeti, in search of taller grasses. It’s an astonishing sight of nature’s profusion on display. Toward evening we’ll head back to our Mara safari lodge or tented camp.

This is a rare opportunity – two full days spent at the Maisa Mara! Talk with your guide about any special areas you’d like to revisit or perhaps explore some new aspects of the park. We offer two optional activities to enhance your safari experience: Visit with the local Maasai people in their nearby village and get to see their lifestyle closeup. Learn about their herding way of life and perhaps pick up some souvenir beadwork. For a different perspective on the Great Migration, take the optional early morning hot air balloon safari over the park. Rising with the sun, you’ll look down upon the park coming to life in the morning light and the great trains of herding wildlife stretching out to the horizon. This might be the peak of your safari week. As we wrap up another day on the great Mara plains, we’ll retire to your base for our final safari evening.