Kenya Grand Safari

Fly overnight from the UK to Nairobi.

Your driver/guide will be waiting to meet you when you arrive, today, and together you'll head north in your safari vehicle. You'll pass acres of ripening pineapples in Thika, and climb through the forested hills to Aberdare National Park.

Here you'll spend the night at the incredible Ark Lodge, which looks out over a floodlit waterhole that attracts an assortment of wildlife. This area was also a popular destination for the British Royal Family in the past (the late Queen was staying here when she learned of her father's death in 1952).

Unwind this afternoon at the lodge, making sure to keep an eye out for the visiting animals.

After breakfast, drive to Samburu National Reserve, perhaps catching a glimpse of Mount Kenya, often shrouded in cloud, on the way.

Journey into the high plain, through grasslands dotted with market towns, cross the Equator and take in the panorama of the Laikipia plateau before dropping down onto the arid lowlands to Samburu National Reserve.

On the banks of the Ewaso Ny’iro River, rugged Samburu is one of Kenya’s most peaceful and beautiful locations. It's also home to elephants, cheetahs, leopards, crocodiles, giraffes, zebra, the blue-legged Somali ostrich and the giraffe-necked gerenuk gazelle. After lunch, join your driver/guide for your first included game drive, returning to the lodge in time for a sundowner before dinner.

You'll spend today in the reserve. Choose morning and afternoon drives, and return to your lodge for lunch, or spend the whole day out on safari, taking a packed lunch with you.

Journey, via Kenya’s highest town Nyahururu (formerly known as Thompson’s Falls after the nearby waterfall), into the Rift Valley. Enjoy lunch at the Thomson Falls Lodge, and an afternoon game drive en-route to Lake Nakuru National Park, a popular grazing ground for black and white rhinos, Rothschild giraffe, buffaloes and several species of gazelle, and similarly popular with leopards. The lake itself is a paradise for birdwatchers, who can expect to see flamingos and pelicans, as well as fish eagles, heron and hundreds of other species.

Continue south, pausing at spectacular, freshwater Lake Naivasha - one-time home of Born Free author Joy Adamson. Board a boat to cruise on the lake’s waters, which are home to hippos, and keep a look out for its many bird species, and for giraffe, zebra, waterbuck and wildebeest on the shore.

By early afternoon you will have entered the Maasai Mara, perhaps the world’s most famous protected game reserve, to enjoy an afternoon game drive en route to your lodge. The Mara is the setting for Kenya's annual wildebeest migration and, thanks to a rigid conservation programme, it's a place where game can be seen in numbers little diminished from the pre-hunting days of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. If you're hoping to see giraffes, zebra, hippos, buffalo, elephants, ostriches - not to mention lions, cheetahs and leopards - this particular corner of Africa offers unparalleled opportunities, and your two-night stay here should leave you with some indelible memories.

Enjoy a last full-day of game drives, whether you choose morning and afternoon safaris or spend all day in the reserve. During the day, you’ll visit a Maasai village, and will have the opportunity to meet the villagers, speak to them about their lives here and buy a locally produced souvenir of your stay. Enjoy a last dinner at the lodge.

Make the journey up out of the Rift Valley back to Nairobi. Enjoy a short visit to the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife’s engaging Giraffe Centre - with its protected Rothschild giraffes.

This evening, check into your Nairobi hotel and enjoy a special farewell dinner.

After an early breakfast, transfer to the airport to check in for your flight home, which arrives back in the UK late the same afternoon.