10-Day Kenya Grand Safari Itinerary

You’re met on arrival at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and transferred to the Hilton Garden Inn, Nairobi, where you’re booked for one night on a bed & breakfast basis — a comfortable start before the journey west begins tomorrow morning.

You depart at 7:30am, driving west out of Nairobi and down the Mai Mahiu escarpment into the Great Rift Valley — the road passing the old Catholic chapel built by Italian prisoners of war in 1942. Continuing west through Kenya’s agricultural heartland, you pass through Narok town and into Maasai country, arriving at Sentrim Mara Camp in time for lunch and check-in.

The Masai Mara is one of the eight wonders of the world — home to the Big Five and the stage for the greatest wildlife migration on Earth. Between July and October, an estimated two million wildebeest, hundreds of thousands of plains zebra, and countless gazelles pour across the Mara River from Tanzania’s Serengeti. An afternoon game drive follows. Dinner and overnight at Sentrim Mara Camp, full board.

A full day given over to the Mara — morning and afternoon game drives in pursuit of the Big Five across the reserve’s iconic grasslands. All meals and overnight at Sentrim Mara Camp, full board.

After breakfast in the Mara, you drive back through the Great Rift Valley to Lake Elementaita Sentrim Lodge for lunch and check-in. The afternoon carries you to nearby Lake Nakuru National Park for a game drive — one of Kenya’s most famous wildlife sanctuaries, with a thriving rhino population and extraordinary birdlife: pelicans, cormorants, kingfishers, and hosts of other species crowd the lake’s shores.

Lake Nakuru is also home to the endangered Rothschild’s giraffe, one of the rarest large mammals in Africa. Dinner and overnight at Lake Elementaita Sentrim Lodge, full board.

After breakfast at Lake Elementaita, you drive into Nairobi for lunch before continuing south-east toward Amboseli National Park, arriving at Sentrim Camp Amboseli at the foot of Kilimanjaro as the afternoon light softens. Dinner and overnight at camp, half board.

Amboseli lies in Loitoktok District, covering 392 km² of semi-arid scrubland sustained by two natural swamps fed by underground rivers flowing from Kilimanjaro itself. Recognised by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve, it is nicknamed the “Home of the African Elephant” for its exceptionally large herds, and is home to over 400 bird species.

A full day in Amboseli — morning and afternoon game drives with Kilimanjaro on the horizon throughout. All meals and overnight at Sentrim Camp Amboseli, half board.

After breakfast in Amboseli, you drive through the rugged volcanic landscapes of the Chyulu Hills and across the extraordinary Shetani Lava Flow — a vast river of solidified black lava — before arriving at Kilaguni Serena Safari Lodge in Tsavo West in time for lunch and check-in.

An afternoon game drive takes you to Mzima Springs, one of Kenya’s most extraordinary natural features: an ancient spring producing an estimated 258,000 litres of crystal-clear fresh water every minute, forming a pool home to hippos, Nile crocodiles, and fish visible from an underwater glass viewing tank. Dinner and overnight at Kilaguni Serena Safari Lodge, full board.

After breakfast in Tsavo West, you drive across into Tsavo East, arriving at Ashnil Aruba Lodge in time for lunch and check-in. An afternoon game drive carries you into one of East Africa’s most iconic safari environments.

Tsavo East spans 13,747 km² — a vast semi-arid wilderness famous for its dust-red elephants, whose colouring comes from iron-rich laterite soil. The Galana River cuts through the park, lined with doum palms, and sustaining crocodiles, hippos, and some of the largest elephant bulls in Kenya. Dinner and overnight at Ashnil Aruba Lodge, full board.

A full day in Tsavo East — morning and afternoon game drives that include a visit to Lugard Falls, a dramatic series of rapids on the Galana River where the water carves through ancient volcanic rock. All meals and overnight at Ashnil Aruba Lodge, full board.

After breakfast in Tsavo East, you’re driven to the train station outside the park and board the scenic rail service for a four-and-a-half-hour journey back to Nairobi — one of the most memorable ways to close a Kenya safari, watching the landscape transition from Tsavo’s dry wilderness to the green outskirts of the capital. Day rooms are reserved at the Hilton Garden Inn, Nairobi, before your transfer to JKIA for your homebound flight.