9-Day Signature East Africa Safari

You'll leave Nairobi after breakfast and drive north-west, dropping through the Rift Valley escarpment with wide views over the valley floor before climbing again towards Nakuru. The road passes small farming towns and tea stalls, and your guide will point out the volcanic cones and old lava flows that shaped this stretch of the valley. The drive takes roughly three to four hours with a stop along the way.

Arriving at Lake Nakuru National Park in the early afternoon, you'll head straight into an afternoon game drive around the soda lake. Nakuru is known for its dense rhino population, both black and white, and for the flamingos that gather along the shoreline in varying numbers depending on water levels. Look also for Rothschild's giraffe and buffalo grazing the acacia woodland. You'll overnight at Lake Nakuru Sopa Lodge, set on a rise above the park.

After an early breakfast you'll depart Nakuru and drive south-west towards the Maasai Mara, a journey of around five hours that takes you back through the Rift Valley and past Narok, the last major town before the reserve. The tarmac gives way to graded track as you near the escarpment above the Mara, and the descent onto the plains is one of the more dramatic transitions of the trip, with the grassland opening out below you.

You'll arrive in time for a late lunch at Mara Serena Lodge, perched on a hill with sweeping views over the reserve. In the afternoon, your guide will take you out for your first game drive on the Mara plains, where you can expect large herds of topi, zebra and Thomson's gazelle, with a good chance of lion or cheetah depending on where the pride is holding territory that week.

You'll set out at first light for a morning game drive, when temperatures are cool and predators are often still moving after a night's hunting. This is prime time to look for lion prides on the move and, with luck, a cheetah scanning the grassland from a termite mound. You'll return to the lodge for a late breakfast and some time to rest through the heat of midday.

In the afternoon your guide will drive down towards the Mara River, where hippos gather in the deeper pools and Nile crocodiles bask on the sandbanks. Depending on the season, you may catch sight of wildebeest gathering at the crossing points if the migration is in the area. The light softens through late afternoon, good for photographs, before you head back to Mara Serena Lodge for dinner.

You'll leave the Mara after breakfast for the border crossing into Tanzania, either at the Isebania route or via Sand River depending on your route that season. Border formalities take some time, and your guide will handle the paperwork while you stretch your legs. From there you continue into the Serengeti's northern reaches, an ecosystem continuous with the Mara but noticeably wilder and less visited.

Once inside the park you'll pause for a picnic lunch before continuing towards Seronera, with a game drive built into the afternoon leg of the journey. The northern Serengeti's rolling hills and riverine woodland hold good numbers of giraffe, elephant and resident lion, and this is also migration territory later in the year. You'll reach Serengeti Serena Lodge by early evening.

A full day is set aside for the Seronera Valley, the heart of the Serengeti and one of the most reliable areas in East Africa for big cat sightings. You'll head out after an early breakfast for a morning game drive through open grassland studded with granite kopjes, favoured lookout points for lion and leopard. Cheetah are also frequently seen here hunting across the short grass plains.

You'll return to the lodge for lunch and a break during the hottest hours, then go out again in the afternoon as animals become active once more. The Seronera River draws hippo, buffalo and elephant to its banks, and your guide will work the riverine strip and the surrounding plains as the light lengthens toward evening. Dinner and overnight at Serengeti Serena Lodge.

After breakfast you'll begin the drive south towards Ngorongoro, passing through the Naabi Hill gate where the Serengeti's plains give way to more broken, hilly country. The road climbs steadily onto the highland rim, and the temperature noticeably drops as you gain altitude, with forest replacing the grassland you have grown used to.

You'll stop for a picnic lunch along the way, then continue to the crater rim, arriving at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge in the mid-afternoon with views down into the caldera from the terrace. There is time to settle in and rest before dinner, with an early start planned for the following morning's descent onto the crater floor.

You'll leave the lodge before dawn for the steep descent onto the crater floor, timed to reach the grassland while the light is still low and animals are most active. Ngorongoro holds a dense concentration of wildlife within its confined walls, including black rhino, dense lion prides and, often, the last of the region's big tuskers among the elephant herds near the Lerai forest. You'll spend the morning working the crater floor before the climb back out.

After lunch you'll transfer to a nearby airstrip for a scheduled flight across the border into Kenya, landing near Amboseli. Your guide will meet you for the short road transfer into the park, with Mount Kilimanjaro often visible on the horizon as cloud cover permits. You'll settle in at Amboseli Serena Lodge in time for a sundowner.

Amboseli is best known for its elephant herds, and you'll spend the morning out among them, watching family groups move across the open plains with Kilimanjaro as a backdrop when the summit is clear of cloud, usually in the early hours before haze builds. Your guide will also look for buffalo, giraffe and the resident lion prides that use the swamp edges for cover.

After a midday break at the lodge you'll head out again in the afternoon towards the permanent swamps, where papyrus-fringed water draws elephant, hippo and a wide range of waterbirds including pelican and heron. Amboseli's dust and mineral flats give a different character to the landscape from the parks earlier in the trip, and the light over the swamps in late afternoon is particularly good for photography.

You'll have time for one last game drive early in the morning before breakfast, using the cooler hours to look for elephant and plains game one final time with Kilimanjaro at its clearest, before the day's heat builds and cloud typically rolls in around the peak.

After breakfast you'll begin the drive back towards Nairobi, crossing the Namanga border post if your route runs directly, or heading north through Kajiado on the Kenyan side, a journey of around four hours depending on road conditions. Your guide will drop you at your Nairobi hotel or transfer you directly to the airport, bringing the safari to a close.