Built around Aberdare, Lake Nakuru and Maasai Mara, this 5-day safari at the top of the market, with space, privacy and considered detail throughout. 4 nights on safari, priced on request.
Aberdare - Lake Nakuru - Maasai Mara
About this safari
The route opens in Aberdare — high montane forest, waterfalls and floodlit waterholes — and works through 2 further destinations over 5 days. It stays within Kenya; the final proposal will confirm transfer times and the balance between travel and game viewing. Accommodation is at the luxury standard: premium camps and lodges where the accommodation is part of the experience. At this level the camps are as much a reason to travel as the wildlife: limited suites, exceptional food, private decks and guiding of a standard that changes what you see. 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
This planning outline starts in Nairobi and continues towards the first destination; the collection point, time and transport are confirmed in the final proposal. Today's drive heads for the high forest of the Aberdares, where the country changes character entirely — steep, wet, and wooded rather than open and dry. Waterfalls drop hundreds of metres into forested gorges, and higher still the forest opens into moorland scattered with giant heather and lobelia. If this optional activity is included in your written quotation, arrival is timed for the afternoon so that you are in place before the waterhole becomes active. As the light goes, the floodlights come on and the clearing begins to fill — buffalo first, usually, then elephant moving in with surprising quietness, and later the smaller nocturnal animals that only appear once it is properly dark. It is a slow, patient kind of wildlife viewing, and a genuine change of pace. The suggested standard is luxury. Citrus will identify the available property and contracted services before confirmation.
Overnight: Aberdare
Day 2
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. Time in the park is spent on a circuit that takes in the shoreline, the woodland and the viewpoints above. Defassa waterbuck are everywhere, buffalo graze in herds near the water, and lion are present though they often lie up in the acacia through the heat. The drowned trees standing in the risen water are a reminder of how much the lake has changed over the past decade. The catalogue suggests a premium camp or lodge here. The exact property, suite and services remain subject to availability and quotation.
Overnight: Lake Nakuru
Day 3
The itinerary continues by road, 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. 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. A luxury stay is proposed for this night, with the final property and arrangements confirmed in writing.
Overnight: Maasai Mara
Day 4
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 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. This outline assumes the catalogue's premium standard. No named camp is guaranteed until the quotation confirms it.
Overnight: Maasai Mara
Day 5
The final day's exact pace depends on the confirmed transfer and onward travel arrangements. You leave the reserve through the same open grassland you arrived on, though it reads quite differently now that you know what lives in it. Your guide will keep the roof up until the gate, because the boundary areas hold as much game as anywhere, and last-minute sightings on the way out are more common than you might expect. 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
Aberdare Country Club + The Cliff + Bateleur/Cottar's
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.
Before 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.
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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.