A 11-day circuit taking in Samburu, Lake Naivasha and Maasai Mara, staying in comfortable tented camps and established safari lodges throughout. 10 nights on safari, priced on request.
Samburu - Naivasha - Maasai Mara - Amboseli - Tsavo East
About this safari
The route opens in Samburu — northern dry country and the Samburu Special Five — and works through 4 further destinations over 11 days. It stays within Kenya; the final proposal will confirm transfer times and the balance between travel and game viewing. 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
Nairobi is the working gateway for this itinerary, with the first day's timing to be agreed around the confirmed travel arrangements. The road north crosses the equator near Nanyuki and then drops steadily out of the green highlands into dry country, where the vegetation thins to thorn scrub and the earth turns red. The change is dramatic and quick. By the time you reach the Ewaso Ng'iro River, doum palms line the banks and the landscape looks nothing like anywhere else on a Kenyan circuit. Everything here organises itself around the Ewaso Ng'iro. Drives follow the river through doum palm forest where leopard rest through the heat and elephant families come down to drink and dig for water in the sand. Away from the banks the country is thorn scrub and rock, where oryx and gerenuk browse and vulturine guineafowl move through in noisy flocks of startling blue. The catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Samburu
Day 2
Birding in Samburu is exceptional and distinct from the south, with vulturine guineafowl, Somali bee-eater, golden-breasted starling and pygmy falcon among the dry-country specials. Your guide will stop for them as readily as for the big animals, and on a hot afternoon when the mammals have gone quiet they carry the drive. The reserve has a strong reputation for leopard, and the riverine forest is where to look — early morning and late afternoon, working slowly along the bank and watching the branches. Lion and cheetah are present on the open ground beyond, and crocodile lie out on the sandbars. Between sightings the landscape itself holds attention: red rock, palms, and blue hills stacked on the horizon. A mid-range camp or lodge is proposed for this night, subject to availability and written confirmation.
Overnight: Samburu
Day 3
Leaving the previous stop behind, the drive to Naivasha is easy going on good tarmac, and it delivers you to somewhere that feels like a change of gear after several days of early starts and dusty tracks. The lakeshore is green and shaded, the water is fresh, and the activities are gentler — a boat among the hippos, a walk among plains game, or simply an afternoon with binoculars. Naivasha's signature activity is time on the water. A boat takes you out among the hippo pods that rest in the shallows through the day, past African fish eagles perched in the drowned acacias and cormorant colonies crowding the dead branches. Pelican work the open water in formation, jacana step across the lily pads, and the papyrus edge holds herons, kingfishers and crakes. It is a genuinely different way to see wildlife after days in a vehicle. This outline assumes a comfortable safari stay near the route. The named property remains a suggestion until quoted.
Overnight: Lake Naivasha
Day 4
If this optional activity is included in your written quotation, a boat trip on the lake is the reason most itineraries stop here. Cutting the engine near a hippo pod brings you closer to these animals than any vehicle can, and the birdlife along the shoreline is extraordinary — fish eagle calling from the dead trees, pelican working the shallows in line, cormorant colonies packed onto drowned branches, and herons stalking the papyrus edge. Boat trips are normally an optional extra rather than an automatic inclusion. The lake supports a full day's exploring without a single game drive. Crescent Island, a partly submerged crater rim, allows walking among zebra, giraffe, waterbuck, eland and wildebeest — possible only because there are no resident large predators, and a rare chance to be on foot among African plains game. Nearby Hell's Gate National Park can be cycled between its red cliffs and through the Ol Njorowa gorge. The suggested standard is mid-range. Citrus will confirm the property and contracted services in writing before booking.
Overnight: Lake Naivasha
Day 5
The route then continues onward, the road west out of Nairobi climbs the shoulder of the Rift Valley before dropping through Narok and onto the open country beyond, where cultivation gives way to grassland and the horizon widens. The last stretch is rougher going, but it is also where the safari properly begins — giraffe browsing beside the track, zebra scattering ahead of the vehicle, and the first raptors riding the thermals above the escarpment. Game drives cover genuinely different country within a short distance. The Musiara marsh draws elephant and buffalo to permanent water, the open grassland of the central plains is where cheetah have the room they need to run, and the broken ground towards the escarpment holds different prides again. Between sightings there is the sheer breadth of the place — grass running to the horizon under an enormous sky. The catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Maasai Mara
Day 6
Beyond the big cats, the reserve holds an extraordinary supporting cast. Bat-eared fox and black-backed jackal work the short grass, secretary birds stalk through it hunting snakes, and ground hornbill move in slow procession. Your guide will stop for these as readily as for lion, and they are often what people remember once the trip is over. 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. A mid-range camp or lodge is proposed for this night, subject to availability and written confirmation.
Overnight: Maasai Mara
Day 7
The Mara rewards early starts. Leaving camp while the grass is still wet puts you out when lion are finishing the night's work and cheetah are looking for the high ground that lets them scan for gazelle. Your guide will work the riverine forest along the Mara and Talek rivers, where leopard rest through the day in the fig branches, then move out onto the open plains where topi stand sentinel on termite mounds and elephant families cross in single file. Beyond the big cats, the reserve holds an extraordinary supporting cast. Bat-eared fox and black-backed jackal work the short grass, secretary birds stalk through it hunting snakes, and ground hornbill move in slow procession. Your guide will stop for these as readily as for lion, and they are often what people remember once the trip is over. This outline assumes a comfortable safari stay near the route. The named property remains a suggestion until quoted.
Overnight: Maasai Mara
Day 8
The itinerary continues by road, the road south from Nairobi runs towards the Tanzanian border through increasingly dry country, and the last stretch across the Amboseli plains is dust-coloured and almost treeless. Then the landscape does something unexpected: out of that parched ground rise permanent green swamps, fed by meltwater filtering underground from Kilimanjaro, and elephants are standing in them. The open, almost treeless terrain gives Amboseli long sightlines and makes it one of the best photographic parks in Kenya. Morning drives work the swamp edges where elephant, buffalo and hippo gather, while the dry lake bed shimmers and distorts in the heat further out. If the cloud lifts off Kilimanjaro — most likely in the first and last hour of daylight — the mountain dominates everything. The suggested standard is mid-range. Citrus will confirm the property and contracted services in writing before booking.
Overnight: Amboseli
Day 9
Time in Amboseli is best spent at the edges of the day. The middle hours bring heat, glare and fine volcanic dust; the first and last hours bring low gold light, active animals and the best chance of a clear mountain. Your guide will plan around that, heading out early, returning to rest through the worst of the heat, and going out again as the light softens. The birdlife around the swamps is easy to underestimate — pelican, crowned crane, African spoonbill, sacred ibis and large numbers of waders work the shallows, and raptors hunt the open ground. Between elephant sightings there is always something on the water, and the contrast of a green marsh set into grey dust is part of what makes the park photograph so well. The catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Amboseli
Day 10
Leaving the previous stop behind, today's route brings you into Kenya's largest national park, a vast stretch of red plains cut by the Galana River and overlooked along its length by the Yatta Plateau, one of the longest lava flows on earth. The scale here is the point, and so is the emptiness: you can drive for a long time without meeting another vehicle. Drives follow the Galana River, where crocodile lie on the sandbanks and hippo hold the deeper pools, then work out onto the open plains for oryx, gerenuk and the occasional cheetah. Tsavo's lion are famously maned lightly or not at all, and the park's association with the man-eaters of 1898 is part of the story your guide will tell along the way. The catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Tsavo East
Day 11
The last morning remains flexible until the departure point and timing are agreed. A stop at Mudanda Rock is usually worth making — a natural outcrop above a waterhole where elephant come down to drink and the view runs for miles. Beyond it, the day is spent covering ground: buffalo herds at the dam, giraffe browsing along the watercourses, and the Yatta Plateau running along the skyline above the river. The final road section is planned towards Nairobi. Citrus will confirm the exact end point and time.
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
Samburu Sopa + Lake Naivasha Sopa + Masai Mara Sopa + Kibo + Ashnil Aruba
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
Northern dry country and the Samburu Special Five
ExploreKenya
Freshwater, hippo pods and the Rift Valley's gentlest day
ExploreKenya
Big cats, open plains and the northern stage of the Great Migration
ExploreKenya
Great elephant families beneath Mount Kilimanjaro
ExploreKenya
Red elephants on wide open plains
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.
No. Cloud and weather can obscure the mountain even when a route is timed well.
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.