8 Nights | 9 Days: Splendors of Kenya Safari

JAMBO – KARIBU!! Twiga Tours representatives will warmly meet you upon arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International airport with our traditional, unique & special welcome (champagne, hot/cold towels and presentation of authentic safari hats and souvenirs). Our driver guide will help you load your luggage in the vehicle and transfer to the Nairobi hotel for an overnight stay.

Meals: LDBB
Accommodation: Sarova Panafric Hotel

After breakfast, you will be assisted to check out. Our guide driver will help you load your luggage into the safari land cruiser then drive north through the rich agricultural and hilly mosaic of small farms, coffee plantations and pineapple to Aberdares National Park. Arrive to the ground serving hotel – the Country Club for lunch. In the afternoon transfer to your overnight Tree lodge built deep in the forest. Enjoy game viewing at the floodlit water hole and salt lick from the comfortable lounge areas or from your room at any time of night such as the savannah elephant, rhino, Cape buffalo, bush bucks, giant forest hogs, Sykes monkey, leopard, and the rare bongo. A ground level bunker provides excellent photographic opportunities and takes you closer than you would believe possible to the wildlife. A warm jacket/sweater is highly recommended. Dinner and overnight at your hotel.

Please note:  Pack an overnight bag, the rest of the baggage to be left at the Country Club in safe deposit.

Meals: LDBB
Accommodation: The Ark

Amka! Wake up! After breakfast we depart north via Nanyuki for the Samburu Game Reserve set in the rugged, semi-arid northern region of Kenya, with a spectacular scenic landscape. Arrive in time for lunch, a short siesta then head for an afternoon game viewing drive.

The water of the great Ewaso Nyiro River, dotted with doum palms meanders through the reserve giving it an oasis setting and draws wildlife in great numbers to its banks. The verdant riverine forest is a stark contrast to the arid thorn studded plains. Samburu is visited by large herds of Elephants, drawn by the promise of water. In the dry season, the elephants use their tusks to dig deep into the dry river beds, unearthing precious water. These waterholes then become a focal point for other games. The Samburu region is the best place to find several endemic Northern species; including the Gerenuk (twiga gazelle) due to her long neck, the beisa Oryx, the reticulated giraffe, the Somali ostrich and Grevy’s Zebra. Samburu is also an ornithological paradise, home to many birds including local species such as the Palm Nut Vulture and the Vinaceous Dove. Leopards are often seen at dusk.

The Samburu culture is a truly fascinating one, sharing a great deal of ancestral and linguistic ties to the Maasai. The entire Samburu region is a place of breath-taking and magical beauty, a place where the vision of a deep red sunset silhouetting the doum palms along the river as a leopard emerges to hunt brings the perfect end to a day on safari.

Enjoy dinner and overnight at your lodge/camp.

NOTE:

For guests staying at Sarova Shaba Game Lodge the game drives will be done in the Shaba National Reserve
For guests staying at Elephant Bedroom Camp the game drives will be done in the Samburu National Reserve

Enjoy morning and afternoon game viewing drives. Leopards are often seen at dusk. The Samburu culture is a truly fascinating one, sharing a great deal of ancestral and linguistic ties to the Maasai. The entire Samburu region is a place of breath-taking and magical beauty, a place where the vision of a deep red sunset silhouetting the doum palms along the river as a leopard emerges to hunt brings the perfect end to a day on safari.

Enjoy meals and overnight at our camp.

OPTIONAL ACTIVITY: Visit to a Samburu Manyatta to see how the tribe lives in this harsh surrounding.

NOTE:

For guests staying at Sarova Shaba Game Lodge the game drives will be done in the Shaba National Reserve
For guests staying at Elephant Bedroom Camp the game drives will be done in the Samburu National Reserve

After breakfast depart south on a scenic drive towards Mt. Kenya, short game viewing on route, arriving at your Sweetwaters Serena Camp in time for lunch. Later in the afternoon, proceed on an afternoon game viewing drive within the reserve famous for plenty of plains games and the big five. It is also home to the endangered Chimpanzee and the Rhino Sanctuaries.

Return to the lodge/camp for dinner and overnight.

Meals: LDBB
Accommodation: Sweetwaters Serena Camp

After breakfast depart for Lake Nakuru National Park, to arrive for late lunch. Afternoon proceed on a game viewing drive circumventing Lake Nakuru. The lake is situated in the heart of the Rift Valley and is one Kenya’s most famous soda lakes. A major feature of this park is the bird life and it is world renowned as the home for millions of Flamingos. A rhino sanctuary also provides the opportunity to see the greatly endangered black rhino.

Return to the camp/lodge for dinner and overnight.

After breakfast, you will depart for Kenya’s famous game reserve. You start the day venturing through the Great Rift Valley traveling to the northernmost extension of the Serengeti Plains and one of the richest wildlife Game Reserves, the Masai Mara. It is perhaps the only region left in Kenya where the visitor may see animals in the same super-abundance as existed a century ago.

Arrive for a late lunch at your lodge/camp. Enjoy an afternoon game viewing drive in this vast and expansive Reserve teaming with game. Be on the look-out for the ‘big five’ Mara is famous for and the most sought after in the early 20th century when Kenya was a hunters’ paradise. These include the lion, Cape buffalo, the savannah elephant, black rhino and the elusive leopard. The vast savannah grasslands as far as the eye can see is home to impalas, Maasai giraffes, cheetah, waterbucks, warthogs, Thompson & grand gazelles, topis, the migrating wildebeests, thundering herds of zebra among many others.

You return late in the evening to freshen up prior to dinner and overnight at the lodge/camp.

Amka! Wake up for an early morning breakfast and a full morning’s game viewing drive to return for lunch. After lunch continue with the afternoon game viewing as you return to the lodge for dinner and overnight.

OPTIONAL ACTIVITY:

Today’s adventure begins just before dawn. Flames from the hot air balloon burners light the darkness as the crew inflate their craft. The first, pink tongues of sunlight flicker across the skies and the hot air balloon fills then rises. Suspended in a basket beneath the rainbow-coloured canopy, you’re off for a game-viewing adventure with an entirely different perspective.

Apart from the occasional hiss of the burners, a lion’s roar, elephants crashing through the bush, baboons perched in the tips of the trees startled and screeching to see something above them, the flight above the Masai Mara plains is magically silent. At the end of the flight, the passengers are treated to a champagne breakfast in the bush. The finishing touch to the flight is a game drive back to the camp, and the possibility of seeing the same pride of lions, or herd of elephants that had been viewed while ballooning.

A flight certificate is issued on completion of the balloon safari. Back at Camp enjoy a sumptuous lunch and a well-deserved rest.

This morning you will enjoy our breakfast then check-out. Unbelievable but true, our good bush moments have come to an end. We bid farewell to our wonderful lodge manager and his team then you will depart back to Nairobi. Not empty handed though. With us are photographs – a capture of the special moments we have had on this tour to immortalize the experience.

Our guide driver will drop you at the Jomo Kenyatta International airport for your onward flight.