A 8-day journey through Ol Pejeta, Lake Nakuru and Maasai Mara, with well-run mid-range lodges and camps at every stop. 7 nights on safari, priced on request.
Ol Pejeta - Nakuru - Maasai Mara - Naivasha - Amboseli
About this safari
The route opens in Ol Pejeta — east Africa's largest black rhino sanctuary, under Mount Kenya — and works through 4 further destinations over 8 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 drive to Ol Pejeta climbs onto the Laikipia plateau, where open grassland runs out towards Mount Kenya's jagged peaks to the east and the Aberdare range stands blue to the south. This is private conservancy rather than national park, and the difference matters: the land is managed for wildlife and working cattle together, and the rules permit activities that reserves do not. Ol Pejeta protects the largest black rhino population in East Africa, alongside white rhino and the last two northern white rhino on earth, held under continuous armed protection. Drives across open Laikipia grassland turn up rhino regularly, along with lion, elephant, buffalo, Jackson's hartebeest and the Grevy's zebra and reticulated giraffe that reach the southern edge of their range here. The suggested standard is mid-range. Citrus will confirm the property and contracted services in writing before booking.
Overnight: Ol Pejeta
Day 2
The next section of the circuit moves on, leaving the grasslands behind, the day's driving heads for the Rift Valley floor and the compact park that surrounds Lake Nakuru. It is a shorter transfer than most on a Kenyan circuit, which leaves useful time for an afternoon game drive before the light goes — and the afternoon is when rhino most often move out onto the open lakeside flats. A morning here has a different character from the open savannah parks — tighter, greener, more enclosed. Your guide will work the lakeside tracks first while rhino are still out grazing, then climb through the woodland where colobus move in the canopy and the view opens out over the whole basin from the cliff viewpoints. The suggested standard is mid-range. Citrus will confirm the property and contracted services in writing before booking.
Overnight: Lake Nakuru
Day 3
This travel day carries the route 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. 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. A mid-range camp or lodge is proposed for this night, subject to availability and written confirmation.
Overnight: Maasai Mara
Day 4
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. 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. This outline assumes a comfortable safari stay near the route. The named property remains a suggestion until quoted.
Overnight: Maasai Mara
Day 5
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 next leg links the two destinations, leaving the plains behind, the route brings you to the highest of the Rift Valley lakes, ringed by escarpment and dominated at its southern end by the bulk of Mount Longonot. The pace of the trip slows here deliberately: Naivasha is not a game park, and the day is built around water rather than game drives. This outline assumes a comfortable safari stay near the route. The named property remains a suggestion until quoted.
Overnight: Lake Naivasha
Day 6
Leaving the previous stop behind, today's drive crosses the dry Kajiado rangelands where Maasai herders move cattle across open country and dust devils spin up off the flats. It is hot, bright driving, and it sets up the contrast that defines Amboseli — a parched landscape holding permanent water at its centre, with Africa's highest mountain filling the southern horizon whenever the cloud lifts. 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 catalogue suggests a comfortable mid-range stay here. The exact lodge, room basis and meals are confirmed in the quotation.
Overnight: Amboseli
Day 7
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. Amboseli's elephants are the most closely studied in the world, monitored continuously since 1972, and the families here are relaxed around vehicles in a way that makes for exceptional viewing. Drives follow them between the swamps, where they feed belly-deep in water with cattle egret riding their backs, and the open plains they cross in long processions. Among them are some of the last genuinely big-tusked bulls left in East Africa. A mid-range camp or lodge is proposed for this night, subject to availability and written confirmation.
Overnight: Amboseli
Day 8
Citrus will time the last day around the agreed end point and onward arrangements. A last early drive gives you a final chance at a clear view of Kilimanjaro, which more often than not is at its best just after sunrise, before cloud builds over the summit through the morning. The swamps are busy at that hour, with elephant feeding belly-deep and pelican working the shallows, and the light on the dry flats is the best of the day. 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
Sweetwaters Serena + Sarova Lion Hill + Masai Mara Sopa + Lake Naivasha Sopa + Kibo Safari Camp
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
East Africa's largest black rhino sanctuary, under Mount Kenya
ExploreKenya
A fenced rhino sanctuary around a Rift Valley soda lake
ExploreKenya
Big cats, open plains and the northern stage of the Great Migration
ExploreKenya
Freshwater, hippo pods and the Rift Valley's gentlest day
ExploreKenya
Great elephant families beneath Mount Kilimanjaro
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.
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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.