13 Days Kenya Bush Safari & Beach Experience

Your guide meets you at your hotel or the airport and after a short briefing, departs south along the Rift Valley escarpment to the Maasai Mara. Arrive in time for lunch at your camp. Afternoon game drive from 3 pm: the first sighting of the Mara's rolling golden grasslands and the cheetahs that patrol them marks the beginning of an unforgettable Kenya circuit.

A full day in the Mara Reserve with morning and afternoon game drives. Picnic lunch beside the Mara River, where crocodiles lurk beneath the surface waiting for the migration. Lions dominate these grasslands at every turn: large prides, coalition males, and lone lionesses returning from the hunt. Cheetahs are common and leopards haunt the riverine figs.

Another full day in the Mara. Optional sunrise hot-air balloon flight over the Triangle before a champagne bush breakfast on the open plains. Alternatively, venture into the private conservancies bordering the reserve for off-road driving and a more exclusive game experience. Optional: guided Maasai village cultural visit.

An early morning game drive before breakfast, then check out and drive north to Lake Naivasha. Arrive in time for check-in and lunch. In the afternoon, board a wooden boat for a cruise across the lake to Crescent Island Game Sanctuary: a wildlife-rich peninsula where giraffe, zebra, waterbuck, wildebeest and Thomson's gazelle can be observed on foot at eye level, with no fences and no barriers. Return to shore for sundowners and dinner at your lakeside lodge.

After breakfast, check out and drive south to Amboseli National Park. The road passes through the lower Rift Valley and climbs into the shadow of the Chyulu Hills before the landscape opens onto Amboseli's dusty, elephant-rich plains. Arrive for a short game drive en route to the lodge, check in, have lunch, and your first afternoon game drive: Kilimanjaro's ice-capped summit rising above the flat grassland and elephant herds is one of Africa's most recognisable images.

A full day in Amboseli with picnic lunch boxes and unlimited game drives. Dawn in the Enkongo Narok swamp delivers the finest photography light in Africa: hundreds of elephants, Kilimanjaro turning pink, and morning mist rising from the marshes. Walk to the Observation Hill for a 360-degree panorama of the park. Afternoon drive in search of the resident cheetah families and the magnificent bull elephants whose tusks reach almost to the ground.

After breakfast, depart Amboseli and drive east to Tsavo West National Park, arriving by mid-morning for an introductory game drive. Visit Mzima Springs: a series of natural crystal-clear pools fed by meltwater from Kilimanjaro, where hippos can be seen swimming underwater through a glass-sided observation chamber and crocodiles bask on the banks. Drive through the dramatic Shetani lava fields: solidified rivers of black lava stretching to the Chyulu Hills. In the evening, transfer to Salt Lick Safari Lodge in the Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary: one of Kenya's most theatrical lodges, built on stilts above a natural waterhole that wildlife visits through the night.

An early morning game drive through the Taita Hills sanctuary before returning to Salt Lick Lodge for breakfast. Spend a moment watching the waterhole one last time as elephants and buffalo drink in the morning light, then depart for Tsavo East: Kenya's largest national park and home to the famous red elephants of Tsavo, whose distinctive colour comes from rolling in the park's iron-rich red laterite soil. Arrive for a game drive en route to the lodge and afternoon drive at 3 or 4 pm.

A full day in Tsavo East with morning and afternoon game drives. Tsavo East is wild, remote and vast: enormous herds of the distinctive red-dusted elephants, large buffalo herds, lions, leopards, and the Aruba Dam where hundreds of hippos wallow and crocodiles sun themselves on the banks. Giant baobab trees dot the landscape with their vast, ancient trunks. The park sees a fraction of Mara's visitors and feels genuinely untamed.

A pre-breakfast game drive across Tsavo East's red plains before returning to the camp for breakfast. Depart for Diani Beach on the Kenyan coast, arriving at your beach hotel by early afternoon. Check in and spend the rest of the day on the warm Indian Ocean: the transition from dust and wildlife to white sand and turquoise water is one of Africa's great contrasts.

The first of three paradise days on Kenya's most beautiful beach. Diani's powder-white coral sand, framed by casuarina and baobab trees and washed by warm clear Indian Ocean water, offers snorkelling, kayaking, sailing and deep-sea fishing. Or simply claim a sunlounger at the water's edge and let the safari dust wash away. Optional: Wasini Island and Kisite Mpunguti dolphin excursion ($100 pp).

Another day of pure relaxation. Optional morning drive to Mombasa Old Town for a guided tour of Fort Jesus (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), the Swahili Arab streets, and the Old Harbour. Back to the beach for an afternoon swim and a final Diani sunset over the Indian Ocean.

A final breakfast at the beach. Your driver meets you at the hotel for the transfer to Ukunda Airstrip for your scheduled afternoon flight to Nairobi. On arrival, your driver meets you and takes you to a city restaurant for lunch before dropping off at the JKIA Airport for your outbound international flight. End of Saringi Tours services.