12-Day Kenya off the Beaten Track

pick up from the Airport and Transfer to a Nairobi Hotel for an Overnight

Upon arrival into Nairobi, you will be met by a representative and transferred to the domestic airport where you’ll board a light aircraft flight to Nanyuki. Your light aircraft flight is an experience in itself and you will have amazing views as you fly up towards the Laikipia Plateau. You will be met by your guide and driven to your first campsite.

Laikipia has miles and miles of unfenced wilderness, spectacular scenery and an abundance of wildlife that is on the increase and in greater numbers than anywhere else in Kenya (except the Masai Mara). Unlike the endless open plains in the Mara, Laikipia has a varied landscape of rocky outcrops, rivers, acacia woodlands, riverine forests, open plains and escarpments.

You can expect to see elephant, giraffe, buffalo, hippo, Grevy’s zebra, warthog, hyena, lion, bat-eared fox and lots of antelope species. Laikipia also has excellent leopard sightings, striped hyena, and some of the best wild dog sightings in Africa.

Main Destination: Laikipia Plateau
Accommodation: Tumaren Camp Mid-range tented camp located outside Laikipia Plateau

Meals & Drinks: Lunch & dinner (Breakfast not included)
Drinks not included

Over the next two full days, you’ll embark on an adventurous walking safari, fully supported by camels and led by experienced Masai, Samburu, and Turkana walking guides. Laikipia is one of the only places in Kenya where you can go on a walking safari using camels rather than vehicles and you’ll get to areas that vehicles cannot reach.

You’ll be walking through breathtaking landscapes, tracking animals on foot and climbing hills and rocks for phenomenal views, before reaching your next camp. You’ll typically walk for three hours in the morning and another couple of hours in the afternoon. In the afternoon, you can relax at the camp, enjoy a swim in a nearby river, or have a siesta, before going for an evening walk and sundowners. At night you’ll sleep in tents, with a hot bucket shower and long drop toilet nearby. Your evening meal is cooked over the coals and you’ll eat under the stars.

*Included in your tour’s fare.

Main Destination: Laikipia Plateau
Accommodation: Tumaren Camp Mid-range tented camp located outside Laikipia Plateau
Meals & Drinks: All meals included
Drinks not included

Today you’ll say goodbye to your guides and the camels before being driven north. You’ll notice the landscape change around you as you enter Samburu land, the driest region of the country.

For the next two nights, you’ll stay in a lodge either on the banks of the Ewaso Nyiro River in Samburu National Reserve, or in the heart of the Kalama Community Wildlife Conservancy. The conservancy is about 7 kilometre from the northern border of the Samburu National Reserve.

Leopards are often seen in the rocky outcrops surrounding the lodges and the Ewaso Nyiro River is home to Africa’s most approachable elephants.

Main Destination:
Samburu National Reserve
Accommodation: Elephant Bedroom Camp Luxury tented camp located inside Samburu NR

Meals & Drinks: All meals included
Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

Today, you’ll have a full day to explore this stunning region. You can enjoy exciting morning, afternoon and night game drives and walking safaris with professional Samburu guides.

Samburu National Reserve has a good number of lions, leopards, elephants, monkeys, and impalas as well as many wildlife species endemic to northern Kenya.

Main Destination: Samburu National Reserve
Accommodation: Elephant Bedroom Camp Luxury tented camp located inside Samburu NR

Meals & Drinks: All meals included
Drinks not included

This morning you will be driven to the wild, undiscovered northern frontier of Kenya to ‘Saruni Rhino’ in the Sera Community Conservancy.

Saruni Rhino offers the first rhino tracking experience in East Africa. Over the next two days, you’ll have the chance to enjoy an incredible walking safari tracking black rhinos, accompanied by an expert Saruni guide and a highly-trained Sera Community Conservancy ranger. They are equipped with a transmitter connected to the GPS whereabouts of the 11 rhinos throughout the vast sanctuary. This fenced in sanctuary is one of the most advanced conservation projects in Kenya.

Main Destination: Sera Wildlife Conservancy
Accommodation: Saruni Rhino Lodge Luxury lodge (with rustic facilities) located inside Sera WR

Meals & Drinks: All meals included
Drinks not included

Today you’ll have a full day for game drives and black rhino tracking in the sanctuary. You can also visit Reteti Elephant Orphanage which provides protection for orphaned and abandoned elephant calves with an aim to release them back into the wild. We also recommend a visit to Fifty Wells, ‘Kisima Hamsini’, a series of 50 springs where local pastoralists take their livestock to the water, digging up water from the wells to fill up holders and troughs.

Main Destination:
Sera Wildlife Conservancy
Accommodation: Saruni Rhino Lodge Luxury lodge (with rustic facilities) located inside Sera WR

Meals & Drinks: All meals included
Drinks not included

This morning, you will be driven to the airstrip where you’ll take a light aircraft flight to the Masai Mara. Upon arrival at the Masai Mara, you will be met by a representative and driven to your luxury safari lodge or camp where you will stay for the next three nights. This afternoon, you’ll head out on your first game drive on the plains of the Maasai Mara.

Main Destination:
Maasai Mara National Reserve

Accommodation: Kilima Camp Luxury tented camp bordering Maasai Mara NR without fences

Meals & Drinks: All meals included
Drinks not included

Over the next two days, you’ll enjoy morning and afternoon game drives in the Masai Mara National Reserve. This iconic reserve offers amazing wildlife viewing opportunities and it’s highly likely that you’ll see zebra, impala, gazelle, wildebeest, buffalo, rhino and elephant, plus lions, cheetahs and leopards.

Main Destination:
Maasai Mara National Reserve
Accommodation: Kilima Camp Luxury tented camp bordering Maasai Mara NR without fences
Meals & Drinks: All meals included
Drinks not included

After breakfast, you’ll check out of your accommodation and be driven back to the airstrip for your light aircraft flight to Nairobi.

If your international flight from Nairobi departs late in the evening, we can arrange for you to have a car and driver for the afternoon to ensure that you don’t waste the final day of your holiday. You may wish to visit the endangered Rothschild giraffes at the Giraffe Centre in Lang’ata, or you can visit the Karen Blixen Museum. You may wish to do some last minute shopping at various markets that sell African handicrafts, such as Utamaduni and the Maasai market at Galleria Mall.

Alternatively, you may wish to consider fostering an elephant via the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and then you’ll have the opportunity to visit the orphanage at 5:00 pm during the foster parents feeding time.
Your driver will transfer you to Nairobi International Airport in the evening in time to catch your flight home.

Main Destination: Nairobi (City)
Accommodation: No accommodation (End of tour)
Meals & Drinks: Breakfast (Lunch & dinner not included)
Drinks not included