The Great Migration.
Placed by fortnight, on both sides of the river, with the freedom to move the moment the herds do.
Eight nights timed to the river crossings, on conservancies rather than in the reserve. The crossings cannot be guaranteed by anyone; the position to see them can.
- From
- $13,900 pp
- Duration
- 7 nights
- Best months
- Late Jul – Sep
- Party size
- 2 – 6 guests
Two million animals, and nobody who can tell you when
The migration is not an event. It is 1.4 million wildebeest and roughly 400,000 zebra and gazelle moving in a slow circle between the Serengeti and the Mara, and the river crossings that photograph so well happen when the grass and the rainfall say so — usually between the last week of July and mid-September, sometimes twice at the same ford in a fortnight, occasionally not where anyone expected.
Which is why this package is built around movement rather than a fixed address. You spend the first half in the Mara’s northern conservancies, within radio reach of the Serena and Lookout crossing points, and the second half in a mobile camp in the northern Serengeti that pitches wherever the herds are that week. Both legs are flown. If the river does something unexpected, your guide knows before the internet does, and we move you.
It is the journey our own staff take their families on, and the only one where we ask for a fortnight’s flexibility on either side of your dates.
- River crossing points reached before the vehicle traffic, on private-land routes
- A mobile camp in the northern Serengeti, pitched to the herds that week
- Predator concentrations along the Mara triangle at their annual peak
- A dawn balloon flight over the plains, breakfast laid on landing
- Two nights with a photographic vehicle if you want one
- Border crossing by light aircraft — no road day lost either way
Ideal traveller
Second-time safari-goers, photographers, and anyone who would rather sit at a river for six hours than tick off a list. Not the gentlest first safari — the days are long and the dust is real.
The itinerary
Nairobi — arrival
Met on the airbridge and driven to a garden house in the Karen hills. A briefing over lunch with your guide, who will be with you for the whole journey, then an early night.
To the Mara conservancies
A 45-minute flight west across the Rift. Afternoon game drive on the conservancy: resident lion prides, and the first columns of wildebeest coming up from the reserve.
The crossing points
Out before six with a packed breakfast, positioned above a ford. Crossings are a matter of patience — some days three, some days none. Back by dark, or later if the river is busy.
Mara triangle, and the balloon
Optional dawn balloon flight, then a full day inside the reserve where the herds are densest. Cheetah on the open plains, and the resident crocodiles doing very well for themselves.
Into the Serengeti
A short flight south across the border, landing at Kogatende. Your mobile camp is six tents pitched where the herds are that week; the staff moved it eleven days ago.
Northern Serengeti
Kopjes, plains and the Sand river. Fewer vehicles than Kenya, and the herds arriving from the south in a front several kilometres wide.
A day without a plan
Kept deliberately open. By now your guide knows what you want, and this is the day he uses it — a long drive, a hide, a walk, or nothing at all before sundowners on a kopje.
Homeward
A morning flight to Kilimanjaro or back to Nairobi, day rooms at a private club, and our concierge with you until you are through security.
Two camps, both small, both moved for you
Nights 2–4 · a Mara conservancy camp. Six tents on a lugga, twelve guests maximum, on land leased from 340 Maasai households. Night drives and walking are permitted here and are not in the reserve, which is most of the reason we use it.
Nights 5–7 · a northern Serengeti mobile camp. Canvas, bucket showers with hot water carried to them, a single long table and no generator after ten. It is moved three or four times a season to stay with the herds, and it is the most memorable bed on the journey.
Both are on our list because members of this office have slept in them within the last eighteen months. If either changes hands before you travel, we will go back and tell you what we found.
What the price covers
- Seven nights as described, all meals and house drinks
- A private guide and vehicle throughout, in both countries
- All flights within the itinerary, including the border leg
- Park, reserve and conservancy fees, and the conservancy levy
- Airport meet-and-greet, fast-track and day rooms
- Mid-journey relocation if the herds move — at no additional cost
- 24-hour Nairobi concierge, answered by a person
What it does not
- International flights, visas and the Tanzania entry fee
- Travel insurance — required; we will help you compare
- The balloon flight ($540 pp) and any helicopter legs
- Photographic vehicle upgrade ($260 per day)
- Gratuities, at your discretion
Late July to mid-September for the crossings. Early July is quieter and cheaper with the herds still arriving; October can be extraordinary as they turn south. We do not sell this package outside those months.
Shall we hold the dates while you think?
Tell us the month and we will send a costed draft of this journey for your fortnight costed to the night, with the camps held provisionally at no charge. A written reply within one working day, from the specialist who will run your journey.
On the migration
Will we see a river crossing?
Probably, and we will not promise it. The herds respond to rainfall rather than a calendar, and any operator guaranteeing a crossing is selling something they cannot deliver. What we can promise is proximity: camps within reach of the fords, a guide in radio contact with the river, and the freedom to move you mid-journey — which we did for nine parties in 2025.
Kenya or Tanzania for the migration?
Both, in this package, which is why it exists. Kenya’s Mara gives you the famous crossing points and much higher predator density; the northern Serengeti gives you the arriving front, far fewer vehicles and mobile camps pitched among it. Choosing one means choosing what you give up.
How long are the days?
Long. Out by six, back after dark on crossing days, with breakfast and lunch in the vehicle. If that sounds punishing, say so — we can build the same route with a slower rhythm and one leisurely day in three.
Is the mobile camp comfortable?
Genuinely, if not conventionally: proper beds, linen, hot bucket showers, a cook who has been doing it for fifteen years. There is no swimming pool, no wifi worth the name, and no generator after ten at night. Most guests describe it afterwards as the best part.