Essential Kenya 2027

Overview

Team 399 proudly partners with Origins Safaris for our Kenyan tours and Primate Safaris for our Rwanda extension.

Our essential Kenya expedition is a small group trip of what we think are the Kenya parks you have to experience at least once.

We take up to 7 guests across three extended Toyota Land Cruisers plus Gina and I and our local guides. Everyone gets their own row.

We start out in Nairobi where our concierges meet you at the jetway and wisk you through passport control and customs to your waiting vehicle. It is a short drive to the Four Points by Sheraton Nairobi Airport. After checking in settle down of a comfortable night's sleep.

We hit the ground running the next morning as we head toward Amboseli National Park and world famous Mt. Kilimanjaro. This smaller park has both the harsh pan of drying Lake Amboseli combined with swamps and savannah. Big cats are around along with many species of megafauna, but the elephants...the elephants walking out across the harsh desert at night toward Kimana or the Chyulu Hills and then returning in the morning is one of nature's great spectacles.

After three nights in Amboseli we board a bush plane for the ride back to Nairobi and then on to Ol Pejeta Conservancy. This is the best place to see rhinos that we have found. They are at the watering hole outside of your luxury tented lodge. Fall asleep to lions and zebras in the distance. Lions and hyenas are all here in abundance along with a panoply of exceptional bird life and giraffes. We schedule a private audience with Fatu and Najin, the last two living northern white rhinos, see the Jane Goodall chimpanzee rescue and visit Baraka over the course of three days.

From Ol Pejeta we drive southwest over the Aberdare Highlands before settling in to Lake Nakuru National Park for an overnight rest. The wildlife drive in the afternoon and evening shows you the endangered Rothschild's giraffe, more rhinos, hyenas and the gorgeous stands of yellow acacia trees in the fading light. Baboons frequent these trees along with the occasional leopard and lion. Bird life abounds along the shore of Lake Nakuru.

From Lake Nakuru we drive further southwest to Maasai Mara National Reserve. We spend three nights at the intimate Entim Camp above the River Mara. Fall asleep in the Kenyan wilderness as hippos serenade you. We take wildlife drives throughout the Maasai Mara, taking in the multitude of life that Mother Nature reserves for this magical corner of the world.

We finish up across the River Mara in the Mara Triangle Conservancy. Part of the Maasai Mara ecosystem there are far fewer people here for even more intimate wildlife encounters. We have two nights here.

On our last day those taking our RWANDA GORILLA EXTENSION take a chartered flight to Nairobi and then on to Rwanda while those heading home take a later flight back to Nairobi. We have a day room waiting for you again at the Sheraton so you can rest up before we take you to the airport.

You don't have to worry about a thing from the time you land in Nairobi until the time you fly out of Nairobi.

February 27 - 28

Depart home, arriving at Jomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi on February 28. We escort you to the Four Points by Sheraton for a restful night.

March 1 - 3

We head to Amboseli National Park, arriving by lunch. After check-in at the Amboseli Serena we take our first full wildlife drive in the afternoon. We take morning and evening wildlife drives for the next three full days enjoying elephants, buffalo, hyenas, lions, birdlife and the stunning backdrop that only Mount Kilimanjaro can offer. Lodging at Amboseli Serena.

March 4 - 6

After a flight to Ol Pejeta we check-in to your tented lodge at Sweetwaters Serena. We spend the next 3 days in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy enjoying all manner of wildlife with Mount Kenya in the background. You will meet Fatu, Najin, Baraka and visit the chimpanzee sanctuary here. Lodging at Sweetwaters Serena.

March 7

We take a morning drive to Lake Nakuru National Park where we enjoy three wildlife drives among towering yellow-barked acacias. The highly endangered Rothschild's giraffe, hyenas, rhinos, primates, buffalo, bird life and more abound within the easy drives of this smaller national park. Lodging at Sarova Lion Hill.

March 8 - 10

We spend 3 days roaming across the Mara. We generally return to Entim Camp for lunch, but can take lunch to go further afield. We have time to follow leopard or cheetah sightings, linger with lions or simply listen to birds. Returning to camp each evening for a gourmet dinner, we drift asleep to hippos serenading us from the Mara River below. Lodging at Entim Camp.

March 11 - 12

We move across the Mara River to the quieter Mara Triangle for our last two days. The roam as far south as the Tanzanian border. All of the Maras's iconic wildlife is here in a more intimate setting with fewer vehicles. We have generally had our best leopard and cheetah sightings here. Lodging at Mara Serena.

March 13 - 14

Sadly, our time in Kenya is at an end. We take a short drive to the airfield for a flight back to Nairobi. Those heading home have a deluxe day room at the Four Points Sheraton while those choosing the RWANDA GORILLA EXTENSION go straight to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for the mid-day flight to Kigali.