Highlights
- Experience Maasai culture at the Maji Moto Maasai Cultural Camp
- Keep a lookout for lions at Lake Nakuru
- Spend two wildlife-filled days at the Maasai Mara Reserve
Brief Itinerary
| Day | Highlights | Overnight |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Welcome to Nairobi! | Nairobi |
| Day 2 | Nairobi Touring | Nairobi |
| Day 3 | Lake Nakuru | Nakuru |
| Day 4 | Maji Moto Maasai Cultural Camp | Maji Moto |
| Day 5 | Maji Moto Maasai "Olpul" Bush Camping | Maji Moto |
| Day 6 | Maasai Mara Wildlife Reserve | Masai Mara |
| Day 7 | Maasai Mara Safari | Masai Mara |
| Day 8 | Return to Nairobi |
Detailed Itinerary
Day 1: Welcome to Nairobi!
Arrive at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), where you will be met by a private car and transferred to your hotel.
Day 2: Nairobi Touring
Enjoy some sightseeing around Nairobi, depending on your interests, such as the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, where you an interact with elephants; the Giraffe Center, for a hands-on giraffe encounter and educational experience on giraffe conservation; and/or the Kazuri Bead Factory, established as a women’s work cooperative, this place and continues to provide quality employment for women through bead-making with local clay.
Day 3: Lake Nakuru
A private car will pick you up from your hotel to drive on to Lake Nakuru to arrive in time for lunch and an afternoon game drive.
Flanked by rocky escarpments, pockets of acacia forest, and at least one waterfall, the park is gorgeous year-round. It's home to both black and white rhinos, lions, leopards, hippos, and endangered Rothschild's giraffes. Rising water levels in 2014 forced the park's famous flamingos to flee (although a small number have returned), and the lake is now hauntingly surrounded by drowned trees. The forested area below Flamingo Hill is a favorite lion-spotting point; lionesses love to sleep in the trees, and leopards also frequent the area.
Chat with a local specialist who can help organize your trip.
Day 4: Maji Moto Maasai Cultural Camp
After breakfast, drive by private safari vehicle to Maji Moto Maasai Cultural Camp, which offers an authentic cultural experience and a way to meet local people, with opportunities to take beautiful photographs.
Enjoy local culture, wildlife, and the environment in the Loita Hills and Plains, and explore local education, health and conservation projects supported with donations from our tours. Spend time with local people to experience their lives and understand their culture, challenges, and ways they are adapting to outside influences.
Activities throughout the day could include:
- Warrior welcome and training demonstration
- Walks the Loita Hills and Plains for wildlife viewing
- Ceremonies for blessings in and around the village, and a visit with a medicine woman
- Gather medicinal plants and learn about their uses
- Daily life in the village (beading, cooking, water collection, laundry)
- Bathing at a hot spring
- Campfire, storytelling, and songs
- School and community visit
Day 5: Maji Moto Maasai "Olpul" Bush Camping
Today, trek across the plains to a forest bush campsite, where we'll construct a traditional Maasai temporary camp and sleep out under the stars. Slaughter a goat in traditional "Olpul" style, with warriors and elders, enjoying songs, stories, and blessings around the campfire. Share the ceremonial local brew, made for special occasions from aloe root, honey, and herbs.
Spend the night at the bush camp, on traditional leafy beds under the stars in sleeping bags (provided), with the protection of warriors throughout the night.
Day 6: Maasai Mara Wildlife Reserve
After breakfast, travel to Maasai Mara. The world-renowned Masai Mara National Reserve needs little introduction. Its tawny, wildlife-stuffed savannahs are familiar to anyone who has watched nature documentaries. Reliable rains and plentiful vegetation underpin this extraordinary ecosystem, and the millions of herbivores it supports. Wildebeest, zebras, impalas, elephants, Masai giraffes and several species of gazelle all call the Mara home. This vast concentration of game accounts for high predator numbers, including cheetahs, leopards and the highest lion densities in the world. Elephants, buffalo, and many other species also abound.
Day 7: Maasai Mara Safari
Enjoy more morning and afternoon game drives today, in search of the wildlife you may have missed the previous day or wish to see again.
Day 8: Return to Nairobi
Drive or fly back to Nairobi from Maasai Mara, to arrive in the afternoon.
If flying, you’ll be picked up from Wilson Regional Airport by private car to enjoy the afternoon in Nairobi, with additional touring, shopping, or dining before you transfer to the international airport for flights home. You can also add a day room in a Nairobi hotel to rest and refresh before flying home in the evening.
Map
