8-Day Private Kenya Safari: Masai Mara, Rift Valley & Amboseli

Your 8-day Kenya safari begins with a private drive from Nairobi to the Masai Mara National Reserve, travelling through Kenya’s changing highland and Rift Valley landscapes before reaching one of Africa’s most celebrated wildlife areas. Check in at Jambo Mara Safari Lodge (or similar) and settle in before heading out for your first afternoon game drive. This is your introduction to the Mara’s open savannahs, where you can begin searching for lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras, antelopes and other wildlife before returning to the lodge for the evening.

Spend a full day exploring the Masai Mara with your private driver-guide, giving you time to follow wildlife sightings rather than rushing between fixed stops. Depending on where the animals are, you can explore different sections of the reserve in search of big cats, elephants, buffalo, giraffes and large plains-game herds. During the Great Migration season, the Mara may also offer opportunities to encounter vast wildebeest and zebra herds. Your private safari format gives you greater flexibility over the pace of your day and how long you spend at particularly rewarding sightings.

You can begin the day with an optional hot-air balloon safari over the Masai Mara before continuing your journey to Lake Nakuru National Park. After arriving and checking in at Buraha Zenoni Hotel & Resort (or similar), head into the park for an afternoon game drive. Lake Nakuru provides a noticeable change of scenery from the Mara, combining woodland, grassland and lakeshore habitats with particularly good opportunities to search for rhinos and other wildlife.

Leave Nakuru for Hell’s Gate National Park, one of the most distinctive landscapes on your route, before continuing to Naivasha and checking in at Eseriani The Resort (or similar). In the afternoon, take to Lake Naivasha by boat, enjoying a completely different perspective from your vehicle-based game drives, before visiting Crescent Island for a walking wildlife experience. This combination of lake, open landscapes and time on foot gives you a welcome change of pace midway through your safari.

Today you can shape the experience around how active you want to be. Choose a Mount Longonot experience for an energetic encounter with the volcanic landscapes of the Great Rift Valley, or take a gentler cultural and conservation-focused visit to Elsamere, the former home of Joy and George Adamson and home to the Born Free conservation legacy.

Afterwards, continue to Nairobi and check in at Kozi Suites (or similar) for an overnight break before the Amboseli section of your private Kenya safari.

After breakfast, travel south from Nairobi to Amboseli National Park, where open plains, wetlands and large elephant herds create one of Kenya’s most recognisable safari settings. Check in at Penety Amboseli Resort (or similar) before heading into the park for an afternoon game drive. On clear days, Mount Kilimanjaro provides a dramatic backdrop as you search for elephants and other wildlife across the Amboseli ecosystem.

Dedicate the day to exploring Amboseli National Park with your private driver-guide. Extended game-viewing time allows you to explore the park’s plains, marshes and seasonal wildlife areas while looking for elephants, lions, buffalo, giraffes, zebras and abundant birdlife. Because this is a private safari, your game drives can respond to wildlife activity and your interests rather than following a group schedule. You can also add an optional Maasai village visit for an introduction to local Maasai culture before returning to Penety for your final safari night.

Enjoy your final morning in Amboseli before checking out of Penety Amboseli Resort and beginning the private drive back to Nairobi. The journey closes an itinerary that has taken you from the big-game plains of the Masai Mara through Lake Nakuru and Lake Naivasha, into the volcanic landscapes around Mount Longonot, and finally to the elephant country of Amboseli. On arrival in Nairobi, your 8-day private Kenya safari comes to an end.