Welcome to Kenya!
On arrival into Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, clear immigration, collect your bags, and proceed through customs to the arrivals hall. Here, a representative will warmly meet you with a traditional, unique & special welcome (bubbly, wet towels and presentation of authentic safari hat and a beautiful authentic canvas pouch filled with safari essentials). You will then be transferred to your accommodation, located in the heart of the central business district. Check in and spend two night at Sarova Stanley Hotel with breakfast included.
After breakfast this morning, meet your private guide at your hotel and embark on a city tour of Nairobi, visiting Daphne Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, Giraffe Centre and Karen Blixen Museum. During your tour enjoy lunch at Karen Blixen coffee garden.
Your private tour finishes at 16h00 and you will be returned to your hotel where the rest of the afternoon and evening is at your leisure.
After breakfast, its time to check out. Meet your guide at the agreed time and transfer to the Samburu National Reserve. You arrive at camp to a warm welcome then lunch. Then enjoy an afternoon game viewing drive.
The Samburu region is the best place to find several endemic Northern species; including the Gerenuk (Twiga gazelle) due to her long neck, the beisa Oryx, the Reticulated Giraffe, the Somali ostrich and Grevy’s Zebra. Samburu is also an ornithological paradise, home to many birds including local species such as the Palm Nut Vulture and the Vivacious Dove.
Check in and spend two nights at Larsens Camp with all meals included. Spend the next few days enjoying morning and afternoon safari activities with your guide.
Enjoy morning and afternoon game viewing in both Samburu and Buffalo Springs game reserves. Leopards are often seen at dusk. The Samburu culture is a truly fascinating one, sharing a great deal of ancestral and linguistic ties to the Maasai. The entire Samburu region is a place of breath-taking and magical beauty, a place where the vision of a deep red sunset silhouetting the doum palms along the river as a leopard emerges to hunt brings the perfect end to a day on safari.
OPTIONAL ACTIVITY: Visit to a Samburu Manyatta to see how the tribe lives in this harsh surrounding.
After breakfast, its time to check out. Meet your guide at the agreed time and drive to the Rift valley lakes region. You arrive at the lodge to a very warm welcome, check-in then lunch. This afternoon you depart on a walk in the area. Check in and spend one night at Mbweha Camp with all meals included.
After breakfast, it's time to check out. Meet your guide at the agreed time and head off to explore Lake Nakuru Naitonal Park. Afterwards, you will continue the journey to Lake Naivasha. Arrive at Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge in time for lunch. Check in and spend one night in with meals included. This afternoon enjoy a visit to Cresent Island where you will walk amongst the wildlife.
After an early breakfast, its time to check out. Meet your guide at the agreed time and head off to the Masai Mara National Reserve. On arrival, enjoy at late lunch before heading out for an afternoon game drive.
Check in and spend two nights at Tipilikwani Mara Camp in a classic safari tent with meals included. Spedn these days enjoying morning and afternoon safari activities with your private guide.
After breakfast, it's time to check out. Meet your guide at the agreed time and depart, with picnic lunch boxes, to the Isebania and Sirari border. Your guide will assist you through the immigration procedures into Tanzania and bid you goodbye. Clear immigration and meet your Tanzanian guide who will be with you for the duration of your Tanzanian safari. Continue to camp, game viewing along the way. On arrival at Serengeti Sopa Lodge, check in and spend three nights with meals included.
Today is a very early morning wake up. Meet a driver from the Balloon Safari Company at the agreed time who will transfer you to the Balloon Safari launch site. Enjoy a scenic hot air balloon safari followed by a cooked breakfast in the bush upon landing. Afterwards, you will game drive back to camp, arriving in time for lunch. Enjoy lunch and time at leisure before you meet your guide and head out again in the afternoon for another game drive.
This morning after breakfast, depart with picnic lunch boxes for a full day game viewing on the vast Serengeti Plains. Return in the afternoon for dinner and a good sleep.
After breakfast, it's time to check out. Meet your guide at the agreed time and depart to the Ngorongoro region. Along the way, enjoy a picnic lunch and stop at the Oldupai Gorge, one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world to learn about human evolution. You will enjoy an on-site talk on the interpretation of the gorge by one of the resident guides. Continue on to the Ngorongoro Crater. On arrival, check in and spend two nights at Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge with all meals included.
Ngorongoro Crater has the largest unbroken caldera in the world. It has been described as one of the great natural wonders of the world. Eight million years ago, the Ngorongoro Crater was an active volcano but its cone collapsed, forming the crater that is 610 meters deep, 20 kilometres in diameter, and covers an area of 311 sq. km. Spectacular as it is, the crater accounts for just a tenth of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The crater is home to many species of wild game and birds. With the exception of impala and topi (due to fierce competition with the wildebeest) and the giraffe (because there is not much to eat at tree level), almost every species of African plains mammal lives in the crater, including the endangered black rhino, and the densest population of predators in Africa. The birdlife, which includes the flamingo, is mainly seasonal, and is also affected by the ratio of soda to fresh water in Lake Magadi on the crater floor.
After breakfast you descend some 610 metres into the crater, which is home to an abundance of wildlife and a photogenic paradise, for a full day of game-viewing drive with picnic lunch. Ngorongoro Crater, the largest intact caldera in the world teams with an abundance of wildlife permanently resident on the crater floor. Prides of lions, herds of Cape buffalo, impala, Thompson gazelles, rhino, giraffes, golden & black-backed jackal, zebra, cheetah, leopard and the spotted hyena freely roam on the crater floor plains. Unmatched for its natural variety & breath-taking beauty, there are few places on earth where such a tremendous diversity of landscapes exist inside a region this size. Apart from its wildlife riches, the crater is also of great archaeological importance, with the remains of some of mankind’s earliest ancestors discovered in the area, also a home to hundreds of bird species, refreshing in the small lakes in the crater floor. Return late afternoon to the lodge for dinner and overnight.
After breakfast, it's time to check out. Meet your guide at the agreed time and enjoy a scenic transfer to Tarangire National Park, visiting Mto wa Mbu local village markets along the way. Arrive at Tarangire Sopa Lodge in time for lunch. Check in and spend one night with meals included.
This afternoon you depart on an exciting game viewing drive in this area dotted with majestic baobab trees, stately eland antelopes among other game. Herds of up to 300 elephants scratch the dry Tarangire river bed for underground streams, while migratory wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, hartebeest and eland crowd the shrinking lagoons. It's the greatest concentration of wildlife outside the Serengeti ecosystem - a smorgasbord for predators – and the one place in Tanzania where dry-country antelope such as the stately fringe-eared Oryx and peculiar long-necked gerenuk are regularly observed.
After an early breakfast, meet your guide and transfer to the Namanga border. Here, your guide will help you through the immigration procedures into Kenya and bid you goodbye. Clear immigration and meet your Kenyan guide who will remain with you for the rest of your safari. Continue on to Amboseli National Park. Arrive at Amboseli Serena in time for lunch. Check in and spend 2 nights with meals included.
You depart on an afternoon game viewing drive. Amboseli is home to lions, buffalo, cheetah, giraffe, baboon, gazelle hippo and wildebeest among many others. It is also an ornithological paradise with over 400 species of birds, flora and fauna and some of the most soul-searing views in Africa.
Morning and afternoon game viewing drives. Amboseli offers some of the most breath-taking views in Africa. Her scenery - one of the best places for a photogenic view of Mount Kilimanjaro (weather permitting) is next to none. This is best seen on a clear day. Amboseli National Park provides the classic Hollywood image of Africa. The park is famous for her large herds of giant elephants.
After breakfast, it's time to check out. Meet your guide at the agreed time and transfer back to Nairobi. Lunch today is booked at the Carnivore.
On arrival at Sarova Stanley Hotel, check in and spend one night with breakfast included.
After breakfast, it's time to check out. Meet your guide and transfer to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in time to check in and catch your scheduled international flight.
All arrangements with Encompass Africa come to an end.
