Upon arrival at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, you will be met by our representative for transfer to your city hotel where you can relax. Meals at own cost.
After an early breakfast we travel to Maasai Mara Game Reserve, so named to mean the “spotted plains” in Maa language. This is home to the greatest concentration of large mammals and is widely recognized as Africa’s ultimate wildlife reserve. The park is the northern extension of the vast Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, famous for its annual migration of wildebeest. Transfer to the lodge with a game drive en route and after check-in enjoy a hot lunch. Later in the evening enjoy a game drive in this spectacular place of breathtaking scenery, never-ending plains and the most abundant variety of wildlife remaining anywhere in the world. The landscape is made up of rolling savannahs dotted with patchy shrubs and bush thickets
During your stay, you have the opportunity to explore this great reserve in depth. You may see elephants, giraffes, prides of lions, and thousands of impalas, topi, grants, and Thomson's gazelle. Birds are prolific including immigrants, 450 bird species have been recorded among them 57 birds of prey. The Mara is the scene of the annual migration of millions of wildebeest up from the Serengeti plains in search of water and grasses.
Spend another exciting day on safari enjoying seeing all the animals the Mara is famous for! You may be lucky enough to be here in the season of the Great Migration and may witness thousands of wildebeest cross the crocodile-infested Mara River trying to evade becoming a crocodiles meal!
Depart after early breakfast for a long drive via Bomet/Sotik to Mbita on Lake Victoria. This drive will take you across the floor of the Rift Valley and over the Ololoolo escarpment into the fertile Western highlands rich with tea and coffee plantations. Enjoy your picnic lunch en-route. Check in and spend the rest of the evening at leisure within the lodge grounds enjoying the beautiful sundowner over Africa’s largest freshwater lake.
Enjoy a sumptuous breakfast followed by a drive to the nearby Ruma National Park, for a half day of game viewing. The park was created to conserve and protect the endangered Roan antelope that is endemic to the area. After your lunch in the park, you can opt to have a boat transfer on the lake back to your lodge. The rest of the evening at leisure or fishing from the pier.
After breakfast, you continue to Lake Simbi. Lake Simbi Nyaima offers a breathtaking legendary tale, Simbi Nyaima” means the village that sank; it is a seasonal home of migrating flamingos. They arrive from lakes in the Rift Valley region, such as Nakuru, Baringo, Natron and Elementaita every year. You will arrive for lunch at Kiboko Bay and check in your room. After some rest the Kenyan National Museum awaits you for Kenyan cultural experiences. In the evening you will enjoy a boat ride and unique sunset at Lake Victoria.
Today we will drive an hour away from Kisumu to the last remaining rainforest in Kenya, Kakamega Forest. There are hiking trails in the forest that allow for forest walking, camping, hiking, primate watching, bird and butterfly watching, game watching and village walks. In the Afternoon you return to Kisumu and can have an optional sunset cruise at the lake.
Maragoli Hills is the unofficial boundary between Kisumu & Vihiga County. The hills are located just adjacent to the Mungoma caves and offer panoramic scenic views and are great for bird-watching adventures & hiking. It is rocky and steep, but the viewpoint is rewarding when you reach the summit. From the top of the hill, one is able to see the Nandi Hills, Miwani Plains, Ndere & Maboko Islands on Lake Victoria. Enjoy the distant view of Lake Victoria as it stretches out into the horizon, with expansive vegetation, and a lovely skyline. The view at the top is worth all the sweat broken while climbing.
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Kapsimotwa Gardens is a serene and secluded site located in the picturesque Nandi Hills, a highland area of lush green rolling hills at the edge of the Great Rift Valley. At about 2000m above sea level, the gardens are part of the Kapsimotwa farm – a huge Tea plantation that dominates the landscape. The farm was established in the 1930s by a British settler called Bushwell. From Kisumu, you go to Awasi and turn off to Chemeli, a picturesque road framed by lots of Jacaranda trees. Drive up the Nandi Hills to Kapsabet and turn in Kapsabet at the High school to the tea factory. Through all the tea plantations you will reach the garden on an easy driveway. Visitors can also tour the tea farms which were planted in the 1950s. They can also visit tea factories nearby and buy the processed leaves to carry home. The huge green tea fields are already so beautiful, but the garden is a jewel.
This garden has survived many generations since 1955 when it was started by an Australian white settler named Roy Mayer. She loved nature so much that she planted over 100 different flower species such as the Star of Bethlehem, English Bluebell, African daisy, jasmine, honesty, cardinal flower, Peruvian lily, hibiscus, granny’s bonnet, urn plant, African lilies, red roses and climbing orchids.
The gardens also boast of a number of both exotic and indigenous trees such as wild bananas, fountains, Nandi Flame, Nandi gold, Coco palm, Royal palm, and bamboo trees. Over the years, the garden has remained intact. In the middle, there are two ponds which are shaped like Australia and Africa continents. The water naturally seeps from swampy ground and collects in the ponds.
If you are lucky, you will see monkeys like Colobus monkeys in the gardens either in the trees or sometimes even on top of the cars. You should take care of your food because they might snatch it! The Garden is a birding paradise too. At the highest point of the resort, one can view the breathtaking Lake Victoria in the neighboring Kisumu County as well as the Kisii hills.
After an early breakfast it´s time to depart to Nairobi. Your Safari ends here.
