Kenya's two great icons in one week
Nairobi · Masai Mara (3 nights) · Amboseli (3 nights)
The Kenya Classic
Big cats on the Mara plains, elephants under Kilimanjaro, and a bush flight between them
Nairobi · Masai Mara (3 nights) · Amboseli (3 nights)
Big cats on the Mara plains, elephants under Kilimanjaro, and a bush flight between them
8
Days / 7 nights
2
Parks & reserves
$8,500
From, AUD pp
Fly between parks from Wilson Airport
Getting around
This is a sample itinerary, not a package. Every lodge, day and park can change. Get in touch and we design your trip from scratch.
An example itinerary, built to flex
This is the Kenya trip we'd build for a first visit: three full nights in the Masai Mara for the big cats, three under Kilimanjaro in Amboseli for the elephants, and scheduled bush flights from Nairobi's Wilson Airport stitching it together so you spend your days watching wildlife, not crossing the country by road.
We design and oversee every Kenya trip personally, and the ground is run by hand-picked Nairobi partners we know and trust. One practical note before you pack: the bush flights carry a 12kg soft-bag luggage limit, so duffels in, hard suitcases out. We cover all of this in your pre-departure pack.
Day by Day
Here is the trip as it stands. Every day of it can move, stretch or swap, this is a starting point, not a fixed package.
Day 1
Met at Jomo Kenyatta and transferred to your hotel on the edge of Nairobi National Park. If you land early enough, the Giraffe Centre or the Sheldrick elephant orphanage make a gentle first afternoon before the safari proper begins.
Overnight
Day 2
A short hop to Wilson Airport, then a scheduled bush flight of around 45 minutes drops you onto a Mara airstrip mid-morning. Your driver guide meets you at the plane and the game viewing starts on the drive to the lodge. Remember the 12kg soft-bag limit on these flights.
Overnight
Day 3
The Mara holds one of the densest big-cat populations in Africa year-round, so lion, cheetah and leopard are the daily business here whatever month you travel. If you come between mid-July and October you add the river crossings on top: the herds push north across the Mara River with the peak in August and September, then start streaming back south from late September into October.
Overnight
Day 4
Out before sunrise while the cats are still hunting, back for a long lunch, out again as the light turns gold. A dawn hot-air balloon flight over the plains is an option here, and so is time in a Maasai village. The Mara is the same river system that feeds the northern Serengeti, one ecosystem across two countries.
Overnight
Day 5
A morning bush flight connects you through Wilson Airport to Amboseli, and by afternoon you're on a game drive with Kilimanjaro filling the horizon. This is Kenya's great elephant park, famous for its big tuskers and the long lines of herds walking the dust flats to the swamps.
Overnight
Day 6
Kilimanjaro shows itself most reliably at dawn and dusk, so the day is built around those windows: an early drive among the herds while the summit is clear, a quiet middle of the day at the lodge, then Observation Hill and the swamps as the light softens.
Overnight
Day 7
A final full day among the elephants. Beyond the herds, Amboseli turns up buffalo, hippo in the swamps, giraffe on the plains and superb birdlife around the springs. Sundowners with the mountain behind you close out the safari properly.
Overnight
Day 8
A relaxed breakfast, then the bush flight back to Wilson Airport and a transfer across to Jomo Kenyatta for your flight home. Or keep going: Zanzibar's beaches and the Tanzanian side of the ecosystem are both an easy connection from Nairobi.
Depart
Fly home, or on to Tanzania or Zanzibar
Where You Sleep
Lodges flex with your dates, your group and the season. If something is full or you fancy a step up at one stop, we swap it and re-cost on the spot.
The Investment
Twin share, excluding international flights. That works out around AUD $1,200 per person per night, all-inclusive on safari.
What's included
Not included
A word on why Kenya costs what it does: Mara reserve fees are among the highest in Africa at around USD $200 per person per day, and conservancy fees run roughly USD $90 to $110 a night, money that goes to protecting the land and keeping vehicle numbers down. From-pricing is a starting anchor on a two-person sharing basis. Every Kingse quote is built live against the day's lodge, park and flight rates for your exact dates and group, never from a brochure.
Get this costed for your datesAdd the beach
Round the safari off on the Indian Ocean. Zanzibar is a short flight from Nairobi, and a few nights of warm water, spice tours and Stone Town wandering is the natural exhale after a week in the parks. We build the flight, transfers and beach stay into the same quote.
Pairs Well With
The Mara and the Serengeti are one ecosystem split by a border. Plenty of travellers do Kenya one year and Tanzania the next, or join them in a single longer trip.
Tell us your dates and how many of you there are, and we'll build this exact trip around them, or tweak it however you like. No obligation, no pressure, just a real quote built live.
Start Planning