2-Day Masai Mara Escape
A weekend-length dash to the Mara for guests short on time: one afternoon and one full morning of game drives either side of a single night in camp.
Masai Mara National Reserve
Kenya's best-known reserve, in Narok County, where the wildebeest migration crosses the Mara River each year and lion and cheetah sightings are a near-daily event.
Overview
The Masai Mara sits in Narok County in Kenya's south-west, the northern extension of the Serengeti ecosystem that spans the border into Tanzania. Open rolling grassland is cut through by the Mara and Talek rivers, their banks thick with croton and riverine forest, and the Oloololo Escarpment rises along the reserve's western edge.
It is best known for the wildebeest migration, when huge numbers of wildebeest and zebra move north out of the Serengeti and cross the Mara River in search of fresh grazing, roughly from July through October. The crossings themselves are unpredictable and can happen at any hour, but the resident wildlife carries the reserve the rest of the year, with well-known lion prides, resident cheetah and a good chance of leopard along the river tree lines.
Entry is by daily conservation fee, payable in US dollars, and the rate depends on season: non-residents currently pay USD 200 per day in high season and USD 100 per day in low season. Several private conservancies border the reserve itself and offer a quieter, lower-vehicle-density alternative for parts of a longer stay.
Wildlife highlights
- Lion
- Cheetah
- Leopard
- Wildebeest
- Plains zebra
- Hippo along the Mara River
Best time to visit
July through October for the migration and the river crossings; January through March for quieter camps, clear skies and easy resident game viewing.
Getting there
Daily scheduled flights from Nairobi's Wilson Airport reach the Mara's airstrips in around 45 minutes. By road via Narok, the drive from Nairobi takes five to six hours, longer in the rains.
Part of my freelance years was spent guiding out of Angama Mara. That stretch taught me how the Mara moves through a day and a season, not just where the migration is, but where to be for it.
Safaris that visit Masai Mara
3-Day Masai Mara Classic
Our most-booked Mara itinerary: a full unbroken day of game drives bracketed by two travel days, giving the reserve time to show itself properly.
4-Day Masai Mara & Lake Nakuru
Pairs a night at Lake Nakuru, in the Rift Valley, with two full days in the Mara, giving you rhino and flamingos on the way in and cat country to finish.
5-Day Mara, Nakuru & Naivasha
Adds a slower first day on Lake Naivasha, boating and walking rather than game-driving, ahead of Nakuru and two full days in the Mara.
6-Day Mara, Nakuru & Amboseli
Rift Valley, the Mara and Amboseli in one loop: rhino at Nakuru, cats in the Mara, then a light-aircraft transfer to elephant herds under Kilimanjaro.
7-Day Best of Kenya
Our full circuit: Naivasha, Nakuru, two days in the Mara and two in Amboseli, linked by one internal flight, covering lakes, cats and elephant in a week.
8-Day Masai Mara & Diani
Three days of game drives in the Mara, then a flight down to five days on Diani's sand: our fullest itinerary pairing cats with the coast.
5-Day Romantic Escape
Two nights in the Mara and two on Diani sand, flown between rather than driven, built for couples who want the trip to feel unhurried rather than covered.
9-Day Kenya Honeymoon Safari
Three nights in the Mara, two on a Laikipia conservancy and three on Diani sand: the fullest version of a Kenya honeymoon, without a day of it spent rushing.
05Add-on experience
Hot air balloon safari
Over the Masai Mara
The Mara is where balloon safaris in Kenya started and it remains the classic flight: open plains, the river courses picked out by their tree lines, and game visible below in a way no vehicle can show you. Between roughly July and October, when the migration herds are in the reserve, the view from the basket takes in a scale of movement that is genuinely hard to grasp from the ground.
You are collected from camp in the dark and driven to the launch site, arriving while the crew are still inflating the envelope. Take-off is at first light, which is the whole point: the air is calmest then, and the low sun puts long shadows behind everything below you.
The flight runs roughly an hour, drifting with whatever wind there is rather than steering, so no two flights follow the same line. Height varies through the flight, from just above the treetops to a few hundred metres up.
Where the balloon lands, the ground crew are already setting up breakfast, cooked in the open and eaten at the landing site before you are driven back to camp. Most guests are back in time for the rest of the morning.
Worth knowing
- Flights go at dawn and are weather dependent. Wind or low cloud cancels them, and that call belongs to the pilot on the morning, not to us.
- Baskets are small and fill early in high season, so this is worth adding when you book the safari rather than deciding once you have arrived.
- It is a genuinely early start, normally a pre-dawn pickup from camp.
Who flies it
The flight itself is run by a licensed balloon operator with its own pilots and civil aviation approval, not by us. What we do is book your seats, make sure the pickup lines up with where you are staying and what your itinerary is doing the rest of that day, and sort it out with the operator if the weather moves your flight.
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