Itinerary · 8 days · 33 places
8 Days in Kenya
Eight days in Kenya: two days in Nairobi with the national park and elephant orphans, a stopover at Lake Naivasha with Hell's Gate and Crescent Island, then three full days in the Masai Mara with a full-day game drive, a balloon flight and a Maasai village.
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Photo: Kureng Workx · Pexels
The route on the map
The plan, day by day
Day 1Arrival in Nairobi
Arrival in Nairobi
Hotel check-in
A base in Westlands, the leafy business district in the north-west: a short walk to restaurants and bars, quiet side streets under acacias and 20 minutes to the city centre.
Village Market
Open-air shopping centre in Gigiri with a permanent Maasai craft market on the lower level, where beadwork, baskets and wood carvings are haggled over.
Day 2National park against the skyline & Karen
Nairobi National Park
Game drive in the only national park within a capital city: rhinos, giraffes and lions against the high-rise backdrop of downtown.
Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
The orphanage for elephant calves opens for just one hour a day, when the youngsters come for their milk bottles and mud bath.
Giraffe Centre
From a wooden platform you feed the endangered Rothschild's giraffes pellets at eye level.
Karen Blixen Museum
The farmhouse of the Danish author of "Out of Africa", with original furniture, a coffee drying plant and views of the Ngong Hills.
Kazuri Beads
At this women's cooperative on Mbagathi Ridge, ceramic beads are hand-rolled, painted and fired — a tour of the workshop is included.
Evening: The Alchemist
Courtyard with food trucks, live music and Nairobi's most colourful crowd on Parklands Road in Westlands.
Day 3Rift Valley and Lake Naivasha
Onward to Naivasha
Hotel check-in
Hell's Gate National Park
The only park in Kenya you can cross by bike: past zebras and warthogs to Fischer's Tower and into the narrow Ol Njorowa Gorge.
Crescent Island
Peninsula in the lake without predators, so you can explore it on foot — giraffes, wildebeest and impalas let you come within a few metres.
Boat trip to the hippos
From the jetty at Fisherman's Camp an aluminium boat takes you past groups of hippos and fish eagles that swoop for fish when called.
Evening: campfire on the lakeshore
A fire burns in the evening under the fever trees at Fisherman's Camp, while the hippos come ashore to graze.
Day 4Into the Masai Mara
Onward to the Masai Mara
Hotel check-in
First game drive on the Sekenani plains
Afternoon loop in an open 4x4 through the grassland east of the gate, where elephant families and topi antelopes graze.
Talek River
Along the Talek, crocodiles lurk in the shallows while elephants make their way down the riverbank.
Sundowner over the Mara plains
The cool box comes out on a rise as the sun sinks behind the Oloololo Escarpment.
Evening: campfire at camp
The fire crackles in front of the tent, hippos grunt in the Talek behind it — and later the askari walks you to bed by torchlight.
Day 5Full-day game drive to the Mara River
Morning game drive on the Olkiombo plains
Setting off at first light: on the closely grazed plains around the Olkiombo airstrip cheetahs hunt and lion prides return from the night.
Rhino Ridge
This long ridge offers the widest view over the Mara and is one of the last refuges of the black rhino.
Paradise Plain on the Mara River
The banks of the famous river crossing, where the wildebeest herds plunge into the water between July and October; crocodiles and hippos lie here all year round.
Lookout Hill
One of the few spots where you're allowed to get out — from the top the view stretches across the whole plain into the Serengeti.
Afternoon game drive on the Topi Plains
Open grassland full of topis, elands and ostriches, with a good chance of a leopard in the fig trees along the gullies.
Evening: starry sky over the Mara
With no light pollution at all, the Milky Way spans the camp as a broad band; the Southern Cross sits low in the south.
Day 6Balloon flight and Maasai land
Hot-air balloon flight over the Mara
Take-off in the dark near Olkiombo, an hour drifting silently over the river and the herds, followed by a champagne breakfast at white-clothed tables in the middle of the savannah.
Maasai village near Talek
Visit to a manyatta made of dung and branches: the warriors' jumping dance, fire-making with a friction stick and a look inside the low huts.
Ngama Hills
The bush-covered hills in the east of the Mara are the territory of the black rhinos, which browse here at dusk.
Sunset over the Talek plains
A last loop across the wide plain north of the river as the grass turns copper and the hyenas begin their rounds.
Evening: Maasai dances by the campfire
Warriors from the neighbouring village come to the camp and sing the adumu, leaping high into the air without a run-up.
Day 7Back to Nairobi
Onward to Nairobi
Hotel check-in
Karura Forest
City forest with red-earth paths, a waterfall and caves used by Mau Mau fighters — right among the embassies and high-rises.
Kenyatta International Convention Centre
From the helipad on the 28th floor of the round tower you can see as far as the national park and the Ngong Hills on clear days.
City Market on Muindi Mbingu Street
Colonial-era market hall: flowers and fish at the front, tightly packed stalls with carvings, kikoi cloths and beadwork at the back.
Uhuru Park
The city park with a boating lake on the edge of downtown; in the late afternoon whole families meet here.
Evening: Kilimani
Around Lenana Road are the Ethiopian restaurants and live-music bars where Nairobi stays out late.
Day 8Museum and departure
Nairobi National Museum
The Hall of Human Origins displays original finds from Lake Turkana, including the cast of Turkana Boy; the snake park is next door.
Nairobi Gallery
In the 1913 colonial government building on Kenyatta Avenue hangs the Murumbi collection of East African jewellery, textiles and maps.
Departure from Nairobi
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