Over 10 days this safari works through Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru and Lake Manyara, with proper beds, good food and lodges that sit where the wildlife is. 9 nights on safari, priced on request.
Maasai Mara - Nakuru - Arusha - Manyara - Ngorongoro - Serengeti
About this safari
The route opens in Maasai Mara — big cats, open plains and the northern stage of the Great Migration — and works through 4 further destinations over 10 days. It crosses between Kenya and Tanzania; the final proposal will explain the border arrangements, vehicles and guiding. Accommodation is at the mid-range standard: comfortable tented camps and established safari lodges. The balance most travellers settle on — proper beds, en-suite bathrooms and well-run lodges in good positions, without the premium that the top end of the market commands. Like every safari in this catalogue, it is priced on request rather than sold at a published rate, because park fees, permits, group size and contracted accommodation all change the figure.
Day by day
Written out in full before you book, so you can see exactly how the days are paced and where each night is spent.
Day 1
The route is drafted from Nairobi. Citrus will set out the actual meeting arrangements and first transfer in writing. Today's route runs towards Kenya's most famous reserve, and the change in country is gradual but unmistakable. Farmland gives way to grazing land, grazing land to open savannah, and the flat-topped acacias that define the Mara begin to appear on the ridgelines. Your guide will usually raise the roof before the gate, because plains game gather along the boundary and the first sightings often come early. Today is given over to the reserve, and how it unfolds depends on what your guide finds. Radio traffic between vehicles helps, but the best mornings often come from reading tracks and working a hunch. Lion are the most reliably seen of the big cats here; cheetah favour the open ground where they can use speed; and leopard, though present in good numbers along the watercourses, still ask for patience and a bit of luck. This outline assumes a comfortable safari stay near the route. The named property remains a suggestion until quoted.
Overnight: Maasai Mara
Day 2
A full day here usually divides itself naturally. The first hours go to the predators, tracking the prides your guide knows by territory and following whatever the night has left behind. Through the middle of the day the vehicle heads for shade near the river, where hippo crowd the deeper pools and crocodile lie out on the banks. The last light brings the plains alive again, with hunting cats moving and dust rising gold behind the herds. The Mara's density is what makes it remarkable — sightings come quickly, and the day tends to build rather than drag. Expect long stretches of plains game: zebra, topi, Thomson's gazelle, eland and Maasai giraffe, with buffalo herds grazing in the bottomlands. Overhead, vultures circling low is always worth following, and the sudden stillness of a grazing herd usually means a predator is somewhere in the grass. The suggested standard is mid-range. Citrus will confirm the property and contracted services in writing before booking.
Overnight: Maasai Mara
Day 3
The next leg links the two destinations, today's drive brings you down into the Rift Valley proper, with the escarpment falling away to the east and the chain of soda lakes strung out along the valley floor. Lake Nakuru is the one enclosed entirely by a national park, and that fence is precisely why it matters: it has made the lake one of Kenya's most important refuges for both black and white rhino. Nakuru is small enough to cover thoroughly, and that is its advantage. The lakeside circuit is where white rhino graze the open flats, usually in loose groups and often close to the track. Black rhino are browsers and stay in thicker cover, so seeing them takes more luck. Rothschild's giraffe — distinguishable by their clean white lower legs — were introduced here and are now easy to find among the acacias. The catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Lake Nakuru
Day 4
The itinerary continues by road, returning to Arusha from the parks, the road climbs gradually back towards Mount Meru, past coffee estates and Maasai grazing land. The town itself sits at about 1,400 metres, green and temperate, and after days of dust and early starts a hot shower and a proper meal have obvious appeal. Time in Arusha is practical rather than scenic — vehicles are checked and restocked, guides are introduced or handed over, and the itinerary is talked through in detail. For anyone with a spare few hours, the coffee estates on Meru's lower slopes make an easy and genuinely interesting outing. A mid-range camp or lodge is proposed for this night, subject to availability and written confirmation.
Overnight: Arusha
Day 5
Leaving the previous stop behind, the road to Manyara passes through Mto wa Mbu, a busy market town where the produce of several climates meets in one place, before reaching the park gate at the base of the escarpment. Inside, the transition is immediate: from roadside bustle into deep, shaded groundwater forest within a hundred metres. Manyara packs an unusual amount of variety into a small area. The drive begins in dense groundwater forest fed by springs at the base of the escarpment, where blue monkey and olive baboon move through the canopy and silvery-cheeked hornbill call overhead. It then opens into acacia woodland — the classic place to scan for lion resting in the branches — before reaching the floodplain and the lake shore. This outline assumes a comfortable safari stay near the route. The named property remains a suggestion until quoted.
Overnight: Lake Manyara
Day 6
The next section of the circuit moves on, the road climbs steeply out of the Rift Valley into the Ngorongoro highlands, through forest thick with wild olive and strung with lichen, and the air turns cold and damp. Then the trees break at the rim, and the crater is simply there below — twenty kilometres across, six hundred metres down, with its own weather moving across the floor. It is a genuinely arresting first view. The crater floor holds roughly 25,000 large animals in an area small enough to cover in a morning, and because most of them have no reason to leave, the viewing does not depend on season. Lion prides are large and well known, spotted hyena are abundant, and the Lerai fever tree forest holds some of the last big-tusked bull elephants in Tanzania. The suggested standard is mid-range. Citrus will confirm the property and contracted services in writing before booking.
Overnight: Ngorongoro
Day 7
This activity is a planning option and only forms part of the day when it appears in the written quotation. The route then continues onward, the journey into the Serengeti is long, and it is a genuine part of the experience rather than dead time. You climb through the highlands, skirt the crater rim, cross the conservation area where Maasai herd cattle alongside wildlife, and then descend onto the plains where the herds are. Game viewing effectively begins as soon as you pass the gate. The catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Serengeti
Day 8
With a full day there is time to work an area rather than pass through it. Following a single pride through a morning, waiting out a cheetah that is clearly building towards a hunt, or simply sitting with a leopard until it moves — these are the things a compressed itinerary cannot do, and they are what people remember. The Serengeti's scale means different sectors feel like different parks. The central Seronera valley is reliable year-round for resident predators; the western corridor follows the Grumeti River through denser country; the north is hillier and holds the Mara River crossings in season; and the southern short-grass plains empty and fill with the herds. Where you drive depends entirely on the month. A mid-range camp or lodge is proposed for this night, subject to availability and written confirmation.
Overnight: Serengeti
Day 9
The next leg links the two destinations, the road to Arusha runs beneath the bulk of Mount Meru, Tanzania's second highest mountain, through country that grows steadily greener as it climbs. Arusha is the operational heart of the northern circuit — vehicles are prepared here, guides are briefed here, and almost every Serengeti and Ngorongoro itinerary passes through it. Arusha is a working town rather than a destination, and the day is usually about logistics done well — a full briefing on the days ahead, checking the vehicle and equipment, and an early night before the circuit begins. The coffee estates on the lower slopes of Mount Meru welcome visitors, and nearby Arusha National Park offers colobus, giraffe and flamingo on the Momella Lakes for anyone with a spare half day. This outline assumes a comfortable safari stay near the route. The named property remains a suggestion until quoted.
Overnight: Arusha
Day 10
The final day's exact pace depends on the confirmed transfer and onward travel arrangements. Arusha marks a clear hinge in the journey, and the evening is generally given over to a proper meal and an early night. The mountain stands behind the town, the air is cooler than on the plains, and the briefing for the circuit ahead covers routes, park fees, timings and what to expect at each stop. Nairobi is the working end point, with the final transfer stated in the written proposal.
Safari ends
Where you stay
Accommodation below is the suggested standard for this package, taken from the Citrus catalogue. Where an entry describes a standard rather than a named property, we confirm the exact camp or lodge with your quotation. Named properties are suggestions and are substituted with comparable alternatives if they are unavailable for your dates.
Source catalogue listing
Masai Mara Sopa + Sarova Lion Hill + Mount Meru/Four Points + Manyara Serena + Ngorongoro Serena + Kubu Kubu
This is reproduced exactly from the catalogue. The written quotation will allocate nights and confirm each available property before booking.
These are planning examples, not confirmed inclusions for this package. Your written quotation will confirm exactly what is included.
The quotation will identify every separate cost before you confirm.
Where this safari goes
Kenya
Big cats, open plains and the northern stage of the Great Migration
ExploreKenya
A fenced rhino sanctuary around a Rift Valley soda lake
ExploreTanzania
The northern circuit's starting line, beneath Mount Meru
ExploreTanzania
Groundwater forest beneath the Rift escarpment
ExploreTanzania
A collapsed volcano holding its own complete ecosystem
ExploreTanzania
Endless plains and the engine of the Great Migration
ExploreBefore you ask
The catalogue sets the route and travel standard, but it does not publish a fixed price or a contracted inclusion list. Citrus will prepare a written quotation for your dates, party and rooming, showing the exact transfers, activities, accommodation, meals, fees and permits before you confirm.
No. It is suggested accommodation from the source catalogue. Availability and any proposed alternative are confirmed in the written quotation before a booking is made.
Ask Citrus to revise it. Any change to route, nights or transport must be reflected in the final itinerary and quotation.
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Tell us your dates and who is travelling, and we will come back with availability, honest advice on timing and a written quotation for this route.