What we would tell a friend.
The advice we give on the telephone, written down — including the parts that cost us money.
Costs, seasons, visas, health and the questions worth asking any operator — including us.
There is no bad month. There are months that suit different people.
July to October. Dry, dusty, reliable. Grass is short, water is scarce and animals are concentrated, which makes viewing easy. It is also the busiest and dearest season, and the Mara can feel crowded if you stay in the wrong place. Crossings from late July.
January to March. Our own favourite. Warm, green after the short rains, excellent for cats with cubs, and roughly a third cheaper. The coast is at its best. You will not see the migration in Kenya — go to Tanzania’s southern plains for the calving instead.
April, May, November. The rains. Some camps close, roads become interesting, and the parks are close to empty. Photographers who know what they are doing come now: storm light, dramatic skies, newborn everything, and the lowest rates of the year.
Where the herds are, month by month
Read this as probability, not schedule. The herds move on rainfall, and in 2024 the first Mara crossing was eighteen days later than in 2023. We place guests by fortnight and keep the freedom to move them.
What a safari actually costs
| Style of travel | Low season | High season | Private guide | Internal flights | What it buys |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comfortable, road-based | $550 | $780 | Shared | — | Good lodges inside the parks; you will share a vehicle |
| Luxury, privately guided | $900 | $1,250 | Included | Included | Our standard: small camps, your own guide and car |
| Fly-in, conservancy only | $1,200 | $1,600 | Included | Included | No road transfers, capped vehicle numbers, walking |
| Exclusive-use house | $1,450 | $2,100 | Two vehicles | Included | A house, staff and vehicles entirely to yourselves |
Where the money goes, honestly: roughly 55% to camps, 18% to flying, 14% to park and conservancy fees, 7% to guiding and vehicles, and 6% to us. The conservancy fee is the line worth paying — it is the payment that keeps the land unfenced.
Fifteen kilograms, soft bag, and less than you think
Light aircraft between camps limit you to 15 kg per person including hand luggage, in a soft bag with no rigid frame. It sounds punishing and is not: camps launder daily, free, and return things the same evening. Four days of clothing is enough for a fortnight.
Excess luggage is stored free at our office in Nairobi and returned on your last night, which is where the city clothes and the second camera body should live.
What actually matters
- Neutral colours — olive, khaki, stone. Not white, not black, never camouflage (illegal in Kenya)
- A proper fleece and a windproof layer: open vehicles at six in the morning are genuinely cold
- Long sleeves and trousers for dusk, when the mosquitoes arrive
- Your own binoculars, one pair each. The single item guests most regret leaving behind
- A wide-brimmed hat, high-factor sun cream, and lip balm
- Prescriptions in original packaging, plus a written copy
- A soft bag. Hard cases will not fit a Caravan’s hold, and one will have to stay behind
Entry
Most nationalities need Kenya’s Electronic Travel Authorisation, applied for online at least three days before travel. The East Africa Tourist Visa covers Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda on one application and is worth it if your journey crosses. Tanzania is separate and can be bought on arrival, though we advise doing it in advance.
Before you fly
Malaria prophylaxis for all safari areas; yellow fever certification if arriving from an endemic country, and worth carrying regardless. Nairobi’s private hospitals are excellent. Confirm everything with your own doctor — we send a written health note with your first draft, not medical advice.
Non-negotiable
Required on every journey. It must cover medical evacuation by air, small non-scheduled aircraft, altitude to 5,000m if you are climbing, and cancellation. We do not sell policies; we will read yours and tell you where it falls short.
Six things that improve your pictures more than a new lens
Sit lower — a bean bag on a door frame beats a monopod. Shoot at eye level, which means asking your guide to reposition rather than zooming. Stay with one animal for an hour instead of finding six. Book a conservancy so you can go off-road and out after dark. Bring two bodies, because dust kills sensors. And accept that the best light lasts twenty minutes, twice a day, and plan everything around it.
Our photographic vehicles have cut sides, bean bags, gimbal mounts and inverters, and we cap them at four guests — three if you are shooting 600mm. Kit hire is arranged in Nairobi and delivered to your first camp.
Travelling with children
Most conservancies accept children from six, walking itineraries from twelve. The changes that matter are structural rather than cosmetic: an exclusive-use house so nobody is shushed at dinner, a second vehicle so one parent can leave at five while the other sleeps, drives capped at three hours, and a guide who teaches rather than narrates. Swimming through the hot middle of the day is not a compromise — it is what makes the early mornings possible.
Planning a honeymoon
Four or five nights inland while you still have the energy for six o’clock starts, then the coast. Tell us the two evenings that matter and we will arrange them precisely, then leave you entirely alone — the harder half of the job. Avoid April and May on the Indian Ocean. And do not begin a nine-night safari two days after a wedding: everyone who has, wished they had not.
In the vehicle, and out of it
With animals
Stay seated and quiet at sightings. Never stand up near cats. Twenty minutes at a kill, then leave — your guide will move on before you want to, and he is right. No flash, no calling, no drones anywhere.
With people
Ask before photographing anyone, and accept no as an answer. A homestead visit is a home, not an attraction. Pay the agreed amount through your guide rather than handing out money or sweets, which does real damage over time.
With staff
Gratuities are customary and discretionary: roughly $25–35 per guest per day for your guide, and a camp box shared among staff. Your specialist gives exact guidance in writing so you are not guessing at the end of a fortnight.
Asked most often
How long should a first safari be?
Seven to ten nights on the ground, two or three regions, no more. Guests who try five parks in nine nights spend their holiday in aircraft and remember none of it. Two nights per camp is the minimum that feels like anything; three or four is where a safari becomes memorable.
Is it worth paying for a private guide?
It is the single most valuable upgrade available, and it costs less than most people assume — roughly $180 to $260 per day for vehicle and guide across the whole party. Everything else on a safari is negotiable. This is the thing we would not travel without.
Can we do a safari on a smaller budget?
Yes, and we will tell you honestly when another operator would serve you better. Below about $600 per person per night, road-based travel with shared vehicles is the sensible shape, and it is a genuinely good holiday — it is simply not what we build.
What is the flying really like?
Caravans and Grand Caravans on dirt strips, thirty to seventy minutes, usually smooth in the morning and bumpy after two in the afternoon. If small aircraft trouble you, say so at the first call: almost every route can be driven with a day added.
How far ahead should we book?
Nine to twelve months for July–October and the festive fortnight. Six months is comfortable otherwise, and we have written good journeys in six weeks. The constraint is never us; it is the six-tent camps, which sell out first and are the whole point.