Elephants in Amboseli with Kilimanjaro rising behind them

8 days, Kenya

8-Day Kenya Masai Mara and Amboseli

Elephant under Kilimanjaro, then four nights on the Oloololo escarpment above the Mara Triangle

Duration: 8 days, 7 nights
Group size: 2 to 6 guests
Physical demand: Easy
From: $6,900

About this safari

Two parks, seven nights, and every transfer flown. Amboseli gives you elephant at close range against Kilimanjaro, which is the most recognisable image in East Africa and is genuinely there for about two hours a day at either end. The Mara gives you predators in numbers that no other reserve on the continent matches for reliability. Nothing here is a long drive and nothing is a compromise.

We put you on the western side of Amboseli in a private conservancy rather than inside the national park, because the private land permits walking with a Maasai tracker and night drives, and the park does not. In the Mara we stay in the Triangle, the third of the reserve west of the Mara river, which is managed separately, does not allow off-road driving and enforces vehicle limits at a sighting. A leopard in the Triangle is watched by three cars rather than thirty. That is worth more than any lodge feature.

This is the easiest trip we run. There is no altitude, no trekking, no permit lottery and no rough road. Days start early because animals do, and the middle of the day is yours. It suits first-time safari travellers, families with older children and photographers who want long uninterrupted sessions rather than a lot of ground covered.

Highlights

Amboseli’s big bulls feeding belly-deep in the Enkongo Narok and Longinye swamps
Kilimanjaro clear at first light and again in the last hour of the day, which is when the drives are timed
Walking with a Maasai tracker and a night drive in the private conservancy, neither permitted inside the park
Four nights on the Oloololo escarpment, three hundred metres above the Mara Triangle
The Mara Triangle, where off-road driving is not allowed and vehicle numbers at a sighting are enforced
Big cats daily: resident lion prides, cheetah on the open ground and leopard along the Mara river
The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Nairobi, which opens to visitors for one hour a day
A dawn balloon flight over the Triangle floor, offered as an optional extra

Day by day

01
Arrive in Nairobi
Met at Jomo Kenyatta and driven out to the Karen and Langata side of the city, which is forty minutes on a good run and considerably longer if you land into the evening traffic. Nothing is scheduled except dinner. If you land early there is time for the Karen Blixen house or the Giraffe Centre, both fifteen minutes from the hotel.
- Nairobi, Kenya
- Hemingways Nairobi
- Dinner
02
The elephant orphanage, then the flight to Amboseli
The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust opens to the public for one hour late in the morning, when the orphaned calves come in for milk and a mud bath, and it fits neatly before the departure from Wilson. The flight south takes about forty-five minutes over the Athi plains. You are in the vehicle by mid afternoon on the western side of the park, where the elephant families move between the swamps at that hour.
- Nairobi to Amboseli National Park, Kenya
- Tortilis Camp
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
03
A full day in Amboseli
Kilimanjaro is usually clear at first light and again in the last hour before sunset, and cloud closes over it for most of the middle of the day, so the drives are built around those two windows. Mornings run out to Enkongo Narok and Longinye, where the big bulls feed belly-deep in water that comes down from the mountain underground. Amboseli’s elephants have been studied continuously since the early 1970s, and several of the older bulls have names and histories your guide will know.
- Amboseli National Park, Kenya
- Tortilis Camp
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
04
On foot in the Kitirua conservancy
The camp sits on private land outside the park boundary, and that is what allows a walk with a Maasai tracker and a night drive, neither of which is permitted inside Amboseli itself. An hour on foot changes the scale of the place completely, and you notice the tracks, the dung and the birds that a vehicle drives past. The afternoon goes back into the park for Observation Hill, the one point high enough to show you how the swamps sit inside all that dust, and the night drive runs after dinner.
- Kitirua conservancy and Amboseli National Park, Kenya
- Tortilis Camp
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
05
Across to the Masai Mara
The routing is Amboseli to Wilson, then a second aircraft west to the Mara, and depending on the day it may touch down at two or three other airstrips before yours, so the morning goes on it. You land on the Oloololo escarpment in the early afternoon. The first game drive descends the escarpment road into the Mara Triangle, which takes twenty-five minutes and is worth doing slowly for the view alone.
- Amboseli to the Mara Triangle, Kenya
- Angama Mara
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
06
A full day on the Triangle floor
Out at first light with a packed breakfast and back when you have had enough, which is how the Triangle should be worked. The Triangle is managed by a separate conservancy body from the rest of the reserve, off-road driving is not permitted and the number of vehicles allowed at a sighting is enforced, which is why the cats here behave differently. Expect lion daily, cheetah on the open ground toward the Kenya and Tanzania border, and elephant along the river line.
- Mara Triangle, Masai Mara National Reserve
- Angama Mara
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
07
Balloon, hippo pools and the escarpment ridge
The balloon lifts off before dawn from the Triangle floor and lands about an hour later for breakfast in the grass. It is the one optional extra on this trip that people consistently say they would pay for again. Afterwards there is time for the hippo pools on the Mara river, and in the late afternoon a walk along the escarpment ridge above camp with a Maasai guide, which takes in the whole Triangle and the Loita plains beyond it.
- Mara Triangle and the Oloololo escarpment, Kenya
- Angama Mara
- Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
08
A last drive, then the flight to Nairobi
One more early circuit on the valley floor, back for breakfast, then the short transfer up to the airstrip on the escarpment. The flight to Wilson takes about an hour, and crossing Nairobi to Jomo Kenyatta needs a further ninety minutes in traffic that is difficult to predict. A day room and a shower before an evening departure is easy to arrange and usually worth the money.
- Masai Mara to Nairobi, Kenya
- Departure day, no accommodation
- Breakfast

What is included

All internal flights: Wilson to Amboseli, Amboseli to the Mara via Wilson, and the Mara back to Wilson
Seven nights on full board at the lodges named in the itinerary, or comparable properties
All game drives in an open-sided 4x4, shared only with the people in your own booking
All Masai Mara National Reserve and Amboseli National Park entry fees for the days shown
The Kitirua conservancy fee, which is what allows the guided walk and the night drive
A guided bush walk with a Maasai tracker and one night drive in the conservancy
House drinks at the Mara camp, including beer, wine and soft drinks with meals
Bottled water, soft drinks and a packed breakfast on the full-day drives
Nairobi airport meet and greet and the transfers between Jomo Kenyatta and Wilson
The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust visit and its conservation donation
All conservancy levies and government taxes

What is not included

International flights to and from Nairobi
Kenya electronic travel authorisation, applied for online before you travel
Travel insurance, including medical evacuation by air from the airstrips
The dawn balloon flight over the Mara, which is charged separately per person
Drinks at the Nairobi hotel and at the Amboseli camp, and champagne or premium spirits anywhere
Tips for your guide, the spotters, the camp teams and the airport representatives
Laundry, spa treatments, telephone and anything else charged to your account

On this safari

An elephant below Mount Kilimanjaro in Amboseli

Where this safari goes

Questions about this safari

Will I actually see Kilimanjaro from Amboseli?

Often, but not on demand. The mountain is usually clear in the early morning, frequently before eight, and again briefly at sunset. By the middle of the day it is normally in cloud. Plan two nights rather than one so you get two mornings at it, and be ready before dawn on both of them.