Four camps. No roads.
The Mara to Amboseli takes ten hours by road and fifty minutes in the air. This journey spends the difference on game drives.
Eight nights, four camps, no road transfers. The Mara to Amboseli is ten hours by road and fifty minutes in the air, and this journey spends the difference on game drives.
- From
- $16,800 pp
- Duration
- 8 nights
- Best months
- Jun–Oct, Jan–Mar
- Party size
- 2 – 6 guests
For travellers with more taste than time
Kenya’s distances look small on a map and are not. The road from the Mara to Amboseli is ten hours, of which four are genuinely rough, and it costs you the morning at one end and the afternoon at the other. Flown, it is fifty minutes over the Rift with the windows to yourself.
This journey moves four times in eight nights and loses nothing to transfer. Every camp has its own airstrip or one within fifteen minutes, luggage limits are negotiated in advance with the operator, and the aircraft — a Caravan or Grand Caravan, sometimes a King Air on the longer legs — is chartered rather than scheduled, so it leaves when your morning drive ends rather than at nine sharp.
The regions are chosen for contrast: the Mara’s cats, Amboseli’s elephant and mountain, Laikipia’s ranchland and rhino, and Samburu’s arid north. Four different Kenyas in eight nights, and one guide who travels the whole route with you.
- Private charter between every camp — no scheduled waits, no road days
- Four distinct regions: Mara, Amboseli, Laikipia, Samburu
- Camps with their own airstrips, several exclusive to a single property
- The Rift Valley, Lake Magadi and Mount Kenya from 2,000 feet
- One guide and one vehicle waiting at each strip, throughout
- Optional helicopter leg to Lake Turkana or the Suguta valley
Ideal traveller
Travellers with eight to ten nights and no appetite for transfers. Anyone visiting three or more regions. Not for guests uneasy in small aircraft — say so early and we will route by road with days added.
The itinerary
Nairobi — arrival
Met on the airbridge, driven to a garden house in the Karen hills, and briefed over lunch by the guide who will travel your whole route.
To the Mara conservancies
A 45-minute charter west, landing on the camp strip before lunch. Afternoon drive on capped-density conservancy land.
The Mara
First light out, late breakfast, the middle of the day yours, and a night drive after dinner — permitted here and not in the reserve.
To Amboseli
A 70-minute charter south-east across the Rift. Afternoon in the swamps as the elephant come down through the papyrus.
Amboseli
Out before six for the window when Kilimanjaro is clear. A walk on the group ranch in the afternoon, outside park boundaries.
To Laikipia
Ninety minutes north over Nairobi and Mount Kenya. Black rhino on foot with the ranger team in the afternoon.
Laikipia
Riding, walking or a morning with the lion researchers, then the ridges at dusk. The best sundowner country in Kenya.
To Samburu
Forty minutes further north, and the landscape changes entirely. The northern five along the Ewaso Nyiro before dark.
Homeward
A dawn drive, then a 70-minute charter to Wilson, day rooms at a private club, and our concierge with you until you fly.
Four camps, chosen partly for their airstrips
Each of the four camps on this journey has either its own strip or one within a fifteen-minute drive, which is not a small consideration: a camp forty minutes from the nearest airstrip converts a fifty-minute flight into a two-hour movement and defeats the purpose.
All four are small — six to ten tents — and all four are on conservancy or group-ranch land, which is why walking, night drives and off-road positioning are available on this itinerary and would not be inside the national parks.
Two are exclusive to a single strip, meaning your aircraft is the only one on it. That is the detail guests notice on the third leg, when they realise they have not waited for anything all week.
What the price covers
- Eight nights as described, all meals and house drinks
- A private guide and a vehicle waiting at every strip
- All charter flights between camps, and Nairobi at both ends
- Park, reserve, group-ranch and conservancy fees, and the levy
- Walking, night drives and rhino tracking as described
- Negotiated luggage allowance, and free storage of excess in Nairobi
- Airport meet-and-greet, fast-track and day rooms
- 24-hour Nairobi concierge, answered by a person
What it does not
- International flights and visas
- Travel insurance — must cover non-scheduled aircraft; we will check yours
- Helicopter legs to Turkana or the Suguta valley, quoted at cost
- Balloon flights, spa treatments, premium wines
- Gratuities, at your discretion
June to October for dry strips and reliable flying, and January to March for green country and clear air. In the long rains some murram strips soften and legs occasionally shift by an hour or two; we do not sell this itinerary in the last week of April or in May.
Shall we hold the dates while you think?
Tell us the month and we will send a costed draft of this journey, with the camps held provisionally at no charge. A written reply within one working day, from the specialist who will run it.
On flying safaris
What aircraft will we be in?
A Cessna Caravan or Grand Caravan on most legs — single-engine turboprops, twelve seats, and the workhorse of East African aviation — and occasionally a King Air on the longer runs. Every operator we use holds a current AOC audit, and we will send you the paperwork if you ask.
How much luggage can we take?
Fifteen kilograms per person in a soft bag, including hand luggage. It is a genuine limit set by the aircraft rather than the operator. Excess goes into free storage at our Nairobi office and is returned on your last night.
Is the flying uncomfortable?
Mornings are smooth. Afternoons, particularly over the Rift after two o’clock, can be bumpy for fifteen minutes at a time. We schedule the longer legs before eleven wherever the game drives allow.
What if a flight is cancelled?
It happens two or three times a season, usually weather at a single strip. Your guide knows before the office does, and the concierge reroutes — a road leg, a different strip, or a night moved. In 2025 we did it four times and no guest lost a camp.