10-Day Kenya's Grandeur Safari

Karibu Kenya! On arrival at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, your Gip Adventure representative will be waiting in the arrivals hall to welcome you and help with your luggage. After a short briefing you are driven to your hotel in Nairobi to check in, freshen up and rest after your flight.

Depending on your arrival time, the rest of the day is yours to relax. In the evening your guide will run through the safari ahead, answer your questions and make sure you have everything you need for an early start tomorrow. Dinner and overnight in Nairobi.

Leave Nairobi early and head north through the fertile farmland of the central highlands, passing the slopes of Mount Kenya and stopping to cross the equator at Nanyuki, where you can watch the famous water demonstration. The landscape then changes dramatically as you descend into the hot, dry country of the north, a total journey of around 5–6 hours.

Arrive in Samburu National Reserve in time for lunch and a short rest. In the late afternoon, set out on your first game drive along the palm-fringed Ewaso Ng'iro River, where elephants come to drink and bathe and crocodiles bask on the sandbanks. Dinner and overnight in Samburu.

Begin with an early game drive while the air is still cool, following the river in search of elephants, big cats and the rare northern species that make this reserve so special: the gerenuk standing on its hind legs to browse, the beisa oryx with its rapier horns and the boldly striped Grevy's zebra.

In the afternoon, visit a Samburu village near the reserve. The Samburu are close cousins of the Maasai, and their warriors, dressed in red cloth and bright beadwork, will share songs, dances and stories of a pastoral life tied to cattle, camels and the land. Return for a sunset game drive before dinner and overnight in Samburu.

Leave Samburu after breakfast and climb back towards the cooler Laikipia plateau, recrossing the equator on the way to Ol Pejeta Conservancy, around 3 hours' drive. On a clear day the snow-streaked peaks of Mount Kenya fill the skyline.

In the afternoon, visit the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, the only place in Kenya to see chimpanzees, which gives a lifelong home to animals rescued from the illegal wildlife trade. Continue with a game drive in search of rhinos, lions and elephants before dinner and overnight at Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

Enjoy a final early game drive at Ol Pejeta, then return for breakfast before driving to Lake Nakuru National Park, around 4 hours. Along the way, stop at Thomson's Falls in Nyahururu, where the Ewaso Narok River tumbles over a 70 m drop, before the road winds down into the Rift Valley.

In the afternoon, explore Lake Nakuru on a game drive. Drive up to Baboon Cliff for a superb view over the lake and its pink fringe of flamingos, then search the grassland and woodland for rhinos, buffalo, lions and Rothschild's giraffes. Dinner and overnight at Lake Nakuru.

After an early breakfast, and perhaps a final short game drive along the lakeshore, leave Lake Nakuru and drive south-west through Narok, the last town before the Mara, to the Masai Mara National Reserve, around 5–6 hours. The scenery opens up as you go, with Maasai herders and their cattle on the rolling plains.

Arrive at your camp in time for lunch, then head out on an afternoon game drive across the spotted plains that give the Mara its name. Lions, elephants, giraffes, topis and herds of plains game are everywhere, and the golden late-afternoon light is the perfect introduction to Kenya's most celebrated reserve. Dinner and overnight in the Masai Mara.

Spend a full day exploring the Masai Mara with a picnic lunch, so you can travel further and stay out with the animals when the action unfolds. The reserve borders Tanzania's Serengeti and forms the northern part of the same great ecosystem, and from around July to October it hosts the Great Wildebeest Migration, when over a million wildebeest, zebras and gazelles graze its plains.

If the herds are here, your guide will head for the Mara River in the hope of witnessing a crossing, as wildebeest plunge into the water past waiting Nile crocodiles. At any time of year, the Mara is a Big Five haven, with lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants and buffalo all regularly seen. Dinner and overnight in the Masai Mara.

After a final morning game drive in the Masai Mara and breakfast at camp, drive back through Narok and down into the Great Rift Valley to Lake Naivasha, a journey of around 5 hours with a lunch stop on the way.

In the late afternoon, take a boat safari on Lake Naivasha, one of the few freshwater lakes in the Rift Valley, to see pods of hippos, pelicans, cormorants and the African fish eagle, with the extinct volcano of Mount Longonot on the skyline. Dinner and overnight at Lake Naivasha.

After breakfast, leave the Rift Valley and drive back through Nairobi and south across the plains of Maasailand to Amboseli National Park, a long journey of around 6–7 hours with a lunch stop on the way. As you near the park, Kilimanjaro begins to rise above the horizon.

Arrive in the late afternoon in time for a short game drive as the elephants make their way back from the swamps, the mountain glowing behind them in the evening light. Dinner and overnight in Amboseli.

Enjoy a final early-morning game drive in Amboseli, when Kilimanjaro is most often clear and the elephants are moving out of the woodland towards the swamps. Return to your lodge for breakfast and check out.

Drive back to Nairobi, around 4–5 hours, with a lunch stop on the way. On arrival you are transferred to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for your onward flight, or to a city hotel if you are staying on. Kwaheri, and thank you for travelling with Gip Adventure.