This 8-day route links Samburu, Sera Conservancy and Greater Mara, staying at premium camps and lodges where the setting is part of the point. 7 nights on safari, priced on request.
Samburu - Sera Conservancy - Greater Maasai Mara
About this safari
The route opens in Samburu — northern dry country and the Samburu Special Five — and works through 2 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 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
The route is drafted from Nairobi. Citrus will set out the actual meeting arrangements and first transfer in writing. Heading north, the highlands fall behind and the country opens into rocky, sun-bleached bush broken by kopjes and dry riverbeds. Samburu is a different Kenya: hotter, emptier and holding a set of species that simply do not occur in the south. The first reticulated giraffe standing among the thorn trees usually makes that clear before you reach the gate. 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. This outline assumes the catalogue's premium standard. No named camp is guaranteed until the quotation confirms it.
Overnight: Samburu
Day 2
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 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. The suggested standard is luxury. Citrus will identify the available property and contracted services before confirmation.
Overnight: Samburu
Day 3
The next leg links the two destinations, the track east from Samburu runs into country that empties out almost completely — rocky ridges, dry riverbeds and thorn scrub stretching to a horizon with nothing built on it. Sera is community-owned land, and reaching it feels like leaving the tourist map behind, which is very much the point. Sera is where black rhino were returned to community land in 2015 for the first time in decades, and it became the first conservancy in East Africa where visitors can track them on foot. Beyond the rhino, the conservancy holds elephant, reticulated giraffe, Grevy's zebra, beisa oryx and gerenuk at low densities across a very large area, which makes every sighting feel like a discovery. The catalogue suggests a premium camp or lodge here. The exact property, suite and services remain subject to availability and quotation.
Overnight: Sera Conservancy
Day 4
If this optional activity is included in your written quotation, tracking black rhino on foot begins early, with the rangers who monitor the animals daily picking up sign from the previous night. The walk that follows is quiet and careful, reading tracks and dung and testing the wind, and the approach at the end is managed with real discipline. Whether a tracking walk succeeds depends on rhino movements and conditions on the day, so it is offered as an attempt rather than a guarantee. Days here are long and unhurried, covering big distances through country that sees almost no other vehicles. The conservancy is owned and run by the Samburu communities who live alongside it, and time spent with the rangers and the people who manage the land is as much a part of the experience as the wildlife itself. A luxury stay is proposed for this night, with the final property and arrangements confirmed in writing.
Overnight: Sera Conservancy
Day 5
Leaving the previous stop behind, moving into the private conservancies that border the national reserve brings an immediate change in feel. Vehicle numbers are capped by agreement with the Maasai landowners, so sightings are shared with one or two cars rather than a dozen, and the guiding tends to be slower and more considered as a result. Days here are longer and more varied than in the reserve. Drives can start before dawn and end well after dark, and the emphasis is on spending real time with what you find rather than moving between sightings. Between drives there is the conservancy model itself, which pays Maasai landowners directly to keep land open to wildlife and is genuinely worth understanding. This outline assumes the catalogue's premium standard. No named camp is guaranteed until the quotation confirms it.
Overnight: Greater Mara
Day 6
With several nights in the conservancies there is room to do things that the national reserve prohibits. Night drives bring out genet, civet, white-tailed mongoose and hunting hyena; guided walks with a Maasai tracker shift the scale of attention down to tracks and plants; and unhurried morning drives allow a pride to be followed through a whole hunt rather than caught at the end of one. The conservancies hold the same wildlife as the national reserve but under quite different rules. Off-road driving is permitted, which transforms predator viewing — a cheetah hunt can be followed properly rather than watched from a track. Vehicle numbers at any sighting are strictly limited, and some conservancies carry exceptional cheetah and lion densities precisely because the land is under less pressure. The suggested standard is luxury. Citrus will identify the available property and contracted services before confirmation.
Overnight: Greater Mara
Day 7
If this optional activity is included in your written quotation, a guided walk with an armed ranger and a Maasai tracker is one of the real privileges of conservancy land. On foot the plains stop being scenery and become a surface you can read — tracks crossing the path, the freshness of dung, the alarm calls of francolin and baboon that tell you what has passed and how recently. You cover very little ground and notice a great deal. Days here are longer and more varied than in the reserve. Drives can start before dawn and end well after dark, and the emphasis is on spending real time with what you find rather than moving between sightings. Between drives there is the conservancy model itself, which pays Maasai landowners directly to keep land open to wildlife and is genuinely worth understanding. The catalogue suggests a premium camp or lodge here. The exact property, suite and services remain subject to availability and quotation.
Overnight: Greater Mara
Day 8
This outline leaves the final morning available for the confirmed transfer plan. With several nights in the conservancies there is room to do things that the national reserve prohibits. Night drives bring out genet, civet, white-tailed mongoose and hunting hyena; guided walks with a Maasai tracker shift the scale of attention down to tracks and plants; and unhurried morning drives allow a pride to be followed through a whole hunt rather than caught at the end of one. The planning route returns to Nairobi; the final drop-off and timing will be agreed around the confirmed onward arrangements.
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
Sasaab + Sera Safari Lodge + premium Mara conservancy 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
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.