A great mix of Kenya’s best game-viewing destinations, this overland safari sits you comfortably in a specially-adapted 4X4 vehicle complete with large windows and a pop-up roof. You are in the safe hands of a professional guide to drive you between destinations, conducting game drives in the wildlife reserves as well as introducing you to the cultural side of the landscape. Accommodation, after a first night in a Nairobi hotel, takes the form of authentic tented camps or thatched cottages with their own bathroom. Set in areas of rich wildlife, these camps blend the wilderness with home comforts: solar power provides the lighting and there are swimming pools and sun loungers, too. Wi-Fi and cellular phone reception is generally available at camp, even in the wilder locations.
Your safari opens with the arid northern savannahs of the Samburu National Reserve where you will be on the lookout not just for the usual heavyweights such as elephant, buffalo and lion but also for Samburu’s more unusual animals that do not occur in Kenya’s more familiar reserves. These include the curious long-necked gerenuk, the beisa oryx, Somali ostrich, reticulated giraffe and Grevy’s zebra.
Then it is on to Lake Nakuru, one of the Rift Valley’s most famous lakes and – when conditions are right – home to tens of thousands of flamingos that turn the water pink with their vivid feathers. The Masai Mara makes up the triumvirate, the country’s flagship reserve and stage for the Great Wildebeest Migration between July and November but a highly rewarding game-viewing destination at any time of year.
It is a tour ideal for travellers with limited time and budget who want to see the best of Kenya. It is also a tour suitable for families with older children: there is plenty to see and do and there are family accommodation units available (there are, however, also long journeys by road and several of the camps – and their swimming pools - are not fenced).