Luxury Amboseli & Masai Mara Safari

Leave Nairobi quite early in the morning and drive south across the extensive Athi Plains to Tsavo West National Park arriving at Finch Hatton’ or similar luxury tented camp in time for lunch. Lying at the foot of the Chyulu Hills, one of the youngest volcanic ranges in the world, the camp has been styled to replicate the privileged safaris of the famous ‘white hunters’ of the colonial period. Denis Finch Hatton, the best-known of them all, and the model for Robert Redford’s role in ‘Out of Africa’ was renowned for the splendor of his camps, which featured cut crystal, silver-service, and superb cuisine.

After lunch, enjoy your first game drive in the magnificence of Tsavo West, which is one of the largest game parks’s in the world, before returning for relaxation, and a sumptuous silver-service dinner in the camp elegant dining room.

With a full day in the park, your options are wide. Both morning and afternoon game drives are offered (with trips to the famous Mzima Springs Hippo Pools and the Shetani Lava Flows). Tsavo offers some of the most magnificent game viewing in the world – vast herds of dust-red elephant, fat pods of hippo, giant crocodile, teeming herds of plains game, a fantasia of bird life and some magical flora. The lush, hippo-inhabited pools of Mzima Springs, fed daily by 250 million liters of water gushing from the lava flows of the Chyulu Hills, provide an oasis of green, an under-water hippo-viewing chamber, two nature trails, and some unique picnic spots. Sundowners can be taken on safari or in camp, followed by dinner.

After breakfast drive through Tsavo West to Amboseli National Park. Check into the ultra-luxurious Tortillis Tented Camp or similar, which enjoys soaring views of the legendary snows of Kilimanjaro and has its own waterhole, which attracts large amounts of animals, particularly elephant. After lunch enjoy your first game drive in Amboseli with the chance of spotting large herds of elephant and plentiful plains game against the backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro. On arrival back in camp, you may like to take a swim or visit the camp’s ‘Bush Spa’. As the sun sets, enjoy exclusive sundowners overlooking Mount Kilimanjaro, followed by dinner.

Perhaps take an early morning optional guided nature walk before or after breakfast. Alternatively take a morning game drive in the park, which is an International Biosphere Reserve featuring the dried-out lakebed of prehistoric Lake Amboseli, rolling savannah and lush green swamps. The plains offer numerous antelopes, spotted hyenas, jackals, warthogs, olive baboons, vervet monkeys and the chance of spotting a lion, leopard or cheetah. Observation Hill, a conical peak, which is easily climbed, offers stunning views of Mount Kilimanjaro. After lunch (which can be taken as a picnic lunch on safari should you prefer), take another game-drive or a guided nature walk – or both – all are inclusive. Alternatively, you have the optional visit to an authentic Maasai village with displays of dance, song and cultural pursuits. Sundowners, which can be taken on safari or in the camp’s Rondavel Bar, are followed by dinner.

After breakfast drive to Nairobi and have lunch at the world-famous Carnivore Restaurant, before taking an afternoon flight from Nairobi’s Wilson Airport to the Masai Mara National Reserve. On landing, you will be met by your safari vehicle and driver, who will take you to Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp or similar.

After lunch, relax or take a game-drive in this world-famous reserve. Offering an abundance of herbivores, the Mara makes the ideal hunting ground for Kenya’s famous ‘big cats’ and hosts her largest population of lions. It also offers the best chance of spotting a leopard in the wild. Other predators include cheetah and spotted hyena. Sundowners can be taken in camp, or in a scenic location, and are followed by dinner.

With two full days in the Mara, your options are wide. Morning and afternoon game drives are offered as well as various optional activities such as a guided nature walks or ornithological tours. Lunch can be taken ‘on safari’ if you wish, as can sundowners. Dinner is served in camp.

Historically teaming with wildlife, the Mara is famous for the large herds of elephant and buffalo that meander its plains; also for the fat pods of hippo that wallow in its mud-brown rivers. Other stars include the distinctive Masai giraffe, plum-colored topi, Coke’s hartebeest, Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelle, zebra, impala, Kirk’s dik-dik, bushbuck, waterbuck, and red duiker. The Reserve also boasts plentiful Nile crocodile, monitor lizard, baboon, vervet, blue and red-tailed monkeys, nocturnal bush babies, and tree hyrax. There are over 550 resident and migratory species of birds.

After breakfast in camp, transfer to the airstrip for your flight back to Nairobi’s Wilson Airport, where you will be met and escorted either to a city hotel or direct to the international airport (depending on your flight schedule).