Eleven journeys. None of them finished.
Each is a route we have walked and would travel ourselves — and a first draft, written to be taken apart with you.
No fixed departures, no groups you did not choose, and no itinerary that has been sold to somebody else first.
Read these as suggestions of shape rather than fixed products: nine in ten journeys we sell differ from the published version by the time they are confirmed. Prices are per person sharing, in US dollars, and include everything below the fold — camps, meals, house drinks, a private guide and vehicle throughout, all flights inside the itinerary, park and conservancy fees.
A first taste, done properly
Masai Mara, Three Nights
3 nights · from $4,150 pp
Fly in at breakfast, out on the fourth morning. One camp, one guide, no transfers wasted — the shortest safari worth taking.
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Amboseli & Mara
5 nights · from $7,200 pp
Great-tusked elephant beneath Kilimanjaro, then the cats of the northern conservancies. Both legs by light aircraft.
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Bush & Ocean Honeymoon
5 nights · from $8,600 pp
Three nights on a private conservancy, two on the Lamu archipelago, with the evenings that matter arranged in advance.
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The heart of the collection
Classic Kenya
7 nights · from $9,400 pp
The journey we send first-time guests on: Nairobi hills, Amboseli, and four nights in the Mara’s northern conservancies.
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The Fly-in Collection
8 nights · from $16,800 pp
Four camps, no road transfers, all movement by private charter. For travellers with more taste than time.
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Kenya Explorer
10 nights · from $14,900 pp
Samburu, Laikipia, the Mara and Lake Naivasha — the widest range of country in a single fortnight-shy journey.
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When you have the time
Kenya & Tanzania
12 nights · from $23,400 pp
Two countries, one arc: the Mara, the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, and a border crossing by light aircraft.
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East Africa Grand Journey
14 nights · from $28,500 pp
Timed to the crossings, ending with three nights on the Indian Ocean. Our most requested journey, and our best.
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Private Family Safari
12 nights · from $19,200 pp
Exclusive-use houses, shorter drives, tracking lessons and a guide who has raised his own. Children from six.
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Classic Kenya
Seven nights that answer the question most first-time guests are really asking: can one journey hold the elephant of Amboseli, the cats of the Mara and a night that feels like a private house rather than a hotel. It can, if the flying is planned properly and nobody spends a morning in a minibus.
You are met airport-side in Nairobi and driven twenty minutes to the Karen hills, where the first evening is deliberately unstructured. From there the journey moves by light aircraft only: south to Amboseli beneath Kilimanjaro, then west to the northern conservancies bordering the Masai Mara, where vehicle numbers are capped, night drives are permitted and walking is allowed.
One guide travels the whole route with you. By the fourth morning he will know you take coffee before you talk, and the difference that makes to a safari is difficult to overstate.
Highlights
- Great-tusked elephant families at Amboseli’s swamps, with Kilimanjaro clear at dawn
- Four nights on a private conservancy: night drives, walking, no crowding at sightings
- An optional dawn balloon flight over the Mara plains, breakfast on landing
- A morning with Maasai trackers reading the previous night on foot
- Private dinner on the last night, laid wherever you liked best
Ideal season
June to October for dry, reliable viewing; late July to September for the crossings. January to March is greener, quieter and excellent for cats.
Nairobi — the Karen hills
Met on the airbridge and through immigration by our own staff, then a short drive to a garden house above the city. Lunch, a swim, and an early night; nothing else is asked of you.
To Amboseli
A 45-minute flight south, landing on the park’s edge. Afternoon in the swamps, where the elephant come down through the papyrus and the light does something extraordinary at six.
Amboseli — Kilimanjaro at dawn
Out before six for the twenty minutes when the mountain is entirely clear. Late breakfast, the middle of the day at leisure, and an evening walk with a Maasai guide on the conservancy boundary.
To the Mara conservancies
A morning flight north-west across the Rift. Your camp is six tents on a lugga, with lions that are genuinely used to vehicles and no other operator within twelve kilometres.
Northern conservancies
A full day, taken at whatever pace you have found. Optional balloon at dawn; leopard in the riverine forest most evenings; a night drive after dinner if you want it.
Into the reserve
A long day south into the national reserve itself, picnic breakfast in the vehicle, and — in season — the river crossing points at Serena and the Lookout. Back to camp by dark.
Walking, and the last night
On foot at first light with an armed Maasai guide, tracking whatever came through in the night. The afternoon is yours; dinner is laid privately wherever you liked best.
Nairobi and homeward
A late-morning flight to Wilson, day rooms at a private club near the airport, and our concierge with you until you are through security.
What is included
- All accommodation, meals and house drinks
- Private guide and vehicle throughout, one guide for the whole route
- All flights within the itinerary, including light-aircraft legs
- Park, reserve and conservancy fees
- Airport meet-and-greet, fast-track and day rooms
- 24/7 Nairobi concierge, answered by a person
Not included
- International flights and visas
- Travel insurance (required; we will assist)
- Balloon flights, spa treatments, premium wines
- Gratuities, at your discretion
On itineraries
Can these itineraries be changed?
They are drafts. Nights get moved, camps swapped for something quieter, a walking day added, an early start removed. Roughly nine in ten journeys we sell differ from the published version by the time they are confirmed — that is the point of them.
Why are prices given as “from”?
Because camp rates move with the season by as much as sixty per cent, and because a journey for two costs a different amount per head than the same journey for six. Your written itinerary carries a single all-in figure with nothing hidden beneath it.
How much flying is involved?
On the classic journeys, three or four legs of thirty to seventy minutes in a Cessna Caravan or similar. Fly-in itineraries are entirely airborne between camps. If small aircraft trouble you, say so early — we can route almost everything by road with a day added.
What if the migration is late?
It usually is, somewhere. We plan crossings as a possibility rather than a promise and place you where the herds are most likely to be that fortnight; if the rivers move the animals, we move you, and we have done it mid-journey more than once.