Welcome to Kenya!
You shall arrive at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, where you will be welcomed and met by your SkySafari representative.
Kenya’s capital and the tech hub of Africa, with a national park spread beneath its skyscrapers, Nairobi is unique. We’ll whisk you away from the hubbub to Hemingways, a sumptuous haven of calm, built on an old coffee plantation at the foot of the Ngong Hills.
It’s ideally placed for exploring – perhaps to feed the inmates at the Giraffe Centre, meet orphaned elephants at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust or visit the Karen Blixen Museum. Or you might simply feel like relaxing on site, where you can wander the bird-filled gardens, dip in the pool, take afternoon tea on the terrace or sip cocktails in the Hemingways bar.
After a delicious breakfast at Hemingways Nairobi, check-out and transfer to Wilson Airport Nairobi which is the gateway to the flying safaris in Kenya. Time to board the Elewana Executive Grand Caravan. Your SkySafari will now take to the Air!
Amboseli is Africa at its most iconic. This vastness of open plains, swampland, thorn bush and fever trees unfurls below snow-capped Kilimanjaro, the world’s highest freestanding peak and an unrivalled safari backdrop.
And what a safari: part of a two million acre ecosystem, crossing from Kenya into Tanzania, Amboseli is one of the best wildlife-viewing locations around. Most notable are its 100-strong herds of elephants – including big old tuskers – but there’s an abundance of other species too, from buffalo and hyena to lion and cheetah as well as over 600 types of birds.
The opulent thatched tents of Elewana Tortilis Camp, your Amboseli base, nestle in a private conservancy, gazing across at Kilimanjaro. An ecotourism award- winner, Tortilis delivers high comfort with a low environmental impact. It also employs some of the best guides in the business, who will reveal both Amboseli’s star attractions and its minute, magical details.
Set your alarm early for the morning game drives. This is when the plains stir, the animals are most active, the big cats are returning from a night of hunting. These are also the golden hours for photographers, as dawn light rose-tints the savannah and Kilimanjaro is most likely to be free of cloud. A lavish breakfast, devoured out in the bush, more than makes up for the 5am start.
Your days don’t end there. Head out on afternoon drives for more encounters – maybe elephants up- close, giraffes drinking at the waterholes and raptors swooping above. Or stride out on a walking safari for a fresh and exhilarating perspective: follow animal tracks, taste bush herbs, meet the Small Five and be amazed by the antics of insects, while completely (but safely) exposed to the bush.
As the day draws to a close, raise a classic African Sundowner: nothing says safari like an ice-cool G&T, sipped as the sun disappears.
After breakfast fly from Amboseli to Loisaba across the equator.
Great game, good looks, high adventure, an exclusive feel and a groundbreaking attitude to conservation make the Loisaba Conservancy one of the most exciting destinations in Kenya. Sitting within Northern Laikipia, it’s a ravishing landscape of rolling river valleys, rich forests and open plains, home to the Big Five, endangered rarities like wild dog and more than 260 species of birds.
As the wildlife is varied here, so are your options for getting out among it. The contemporary-luxe Elewana Loisaba Tented Camp – perched on an escarpment, with unhindered views to Mt Kenya – offers excellent game drives, of course.
The day is full of activities you can choose from, ride through the bush on horse-back – a thrilling way to get unusually close to wild animals. Or you could bound down the ridges by mountain bike, raft through canyons and take a sunset trek by camel.
Or witness Loisaba’s cutting-edge conservation first- hand. Visit the conservancy headquarters to see the extraordinary work being done here and meet the sniffer dogs – Warrior, Machine, Memusi and Nanyokie – and the anti-poaching team to find out how they safeguard the wilderness.
This morning, departure for the Masai Mara. After flying about 90 minutes, you will land in the middle of the Masai Mara Reserve.
Nowhere in Africa is wildlife more abundant than the magnificent Masai Mara. Creatures galore roam these sweeping, acacia-dotted plains. And while the seasonal migration of two million wildebeest, zebra and gazelle crossing from the Serengeti is one of Mother Nature’s greatest spectacles, the profusion of wildlife here – from 450 species of bird to the Big Five makes it one of the best safari spots year round.
Elewana Sand River Masai Mara, it goes above and beyond. You’ll feel a little bit movie star at this opulent 1920s-style camp, with its dark wood, draped four-posters and antique furnishings adding bygone glamour to the bush.
Even better is the camp’s location, on the banks of the serene Sand River: you might spot herds of ungulates crossing from the comfort of your own verandah.
The Mara will never disappoint. The animal encounters – often so close you hardly dare breathe are just too good.
Todays activities are game drives and/or a Masai Village visit.
Today we cross into Tanzania.
After breakfast we will fly from Mara to Kisumu about a 45 minutes flight. At Kisumu International Airport we will go through customs and passport control. Your pilot will help you and show you the way.
Your Tanzanian SkySafari plane and pilot will meet you and your luggage will be moved over. Fly about 30 minutes to Musoma Airport and now we will clear the Tanzanian passport control and customs.
Return to the plane and fly to Lobo Airstrip in the Serengeti.
It’s hard to sum up the epic Serengeti. At 14,763 sq km, its scale is too great. And while you can revel in the bigger picture, it’s also the place to embrace the individual moments: the will-they-won’t-they tension of a lion pack on the hunt; the shock of a crocodile bursting from the river; the white-knuckle charge of an angry bull elephant; the dazzle of the sun subsiding into plains with no end.
Your accommodation in the Serengeti, you will experience the luxurious bygone- style tents of Elewana Serengeti Pioneer Camp perched on a kopje in the southern Serengeti. As well as being surrounded by immense wildebeest herds for most of the year, the area is rich in unusual rock formations and prehistoric paintings while nearby Lake Magadi is flush with flamingos.
The Serengeti is abundant with game – from the Big Five and cheetah to huge plains herds. You might time your visit for the dramatic peak of the Great Migration, when more than a million animals cross the rivers in the Serengeti’s north. But the animals are always on the move: there is plenty to see, all over the park,
year round.
Spend the day exploring the Serengeti and the area around Pioneer Camp where there are plenty of resident animals.
Another fabulous day spent in the spectacular Serengeti National Park.
Shortly after breakfast at Migration Camp, you will pack up and depart to Lobo Airstrip with a game drive on the way. Your SkySafari aircraft is ready at Lobo Airstrip and a mere 40 minutes later you will land at Manyara Airstrip.
Depart for Lake Manyara – according to Ernest Hemingway, the ‘loveliest in Africa’ – is also nearby; join a game drive here to see hippos chortling in the shallows and baboons bounding amid the giant fig trees and a flamboyance of flamingo on the lake!
Lunch will be served in the park. In the late afternoon enjoy yourself and visit our Spa for a treatment.
There’s no need to rough it to enjoy this ‘festival’ though. Your home is Elewana The Manor, quite possibly the most lavish address on the safari circuit. From your elegant Cape Dutch-styled cottage, tucked into the Tanzanian highlands, you can make forays through the surrounding coffee plantations.
Over 20km wide and 600m deep, Ngorongoro is a geological marvel and a festival of wildlife. This natural volcanic amphitheatre, lined with grasslands, acacia thickets, riverine forest and sparkling lakes, throngs with a cast of around 30,000 animals: the highest density of wildlife in Africa. Safaris here can be overwhelming, in the very best way.
An early departure over the rim to explore the crater bottom: watch zebra and buffalo, lounging lions, spotted hyena and good numbers of black rhino, stopping for a gourmet picnic under the acacias.
Time for one last breakfast, breathing in the cool, highlands air, before lifting off for Arusha; time for one last look at Africa spread out below the window.
We’ll deliver you to the laid-back embrace of Elewana Arusha Coffee Lodge, where you can relax in your own day room, stroll amid the plantations, perhaps have one last cup of smooth Kilimanjaro java before it’s time to bid farewell to the bush and take your flight home.
