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.
5-Day Mara, Nakuru & Naivasha
Overview
This is a good route for guests who want the Rift Valley lakes to be more than a drive-through stop. We start at Lake Naivasha, less than two hours from Nairobi, where the pace for a few hours is boat and foot rather than vehicle: a ride out on the water among hippo and fish eagle, and for those who want it, a walk among giraffe, zebra and waterbuck on Crescent Island, where there are no predators to keep you in the car.
From Naivasha we move on to Lake Nakuru for its rhino and lake-shore game drives, then continue to the Mara for two full days, following the same rhythm as our other Mara itineraries: an early drive, a rest through the heat, and an afternoon session.
Day by day
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01
Nairobi to Lake Naivasha
A short morning drive down into the Rift Valley to Lake Naivasha, where the afternoon is spent on and around the water rather than in the vehicle: a boat trip along the shoreline for hippo and birdlife, and time on foot on Crescent Island among giraffe, zebra, waterbuck and eland, none of which share the island with predators.
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02
Naivasha to Lake Nakuru
A short drive on to Lake Nakuru National Park, arriving in time for an afternoon game drive around the lake shore and acacia woodland, looking for both black and white rhino, buffalo and the flamingo that gather along the shallows when lake levels allow.
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03
Nakuru to the Mara
We finish our time at Nakuru with a short morning drive, then head southwest through Narok to reach the Mara by mid-afternoon, going straight into an afternoon game drive on arrival.
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04
Full day in the Mara
A complete day inside the reserve, with an early drive, a break at camp through the hottest hours, and an afternoon session running until last light. Where exactly we drive depends on where sightings have concentrated over the preceding days.
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05
Morning drive and departure
A final early game drive before breakfast, then the drive back to Nairobi, arriving in the early evening.
What's included
Included
- Ground transport throughout in a 4x4 safari vehicle with a pop-up roof
- Four nights full-board accommodation: one at Naivasha, one at Nakuru, two in or bordering the Mara
- Boat ride and Crescent Island walk at Lake Naivasha
- Six game drives, led by an English-speaking driver-guide
- Lake Nakuru and Masai Mara park and reserve entry fees
- All meals throughout: breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Bottled water in the vehicle throughout
- Soft drinks, juices, tea and coffee throughout
- Beer, wine and spirits throughout
Not included
- International and domestic flights
- Kenya e-Visa or entry permit fees
- Tips and gratuities for your guide and camp staff
- Items of a personal nature such as laundry and souvenirs
- Travel insurance
Best time to visit
The two Rift Valley lakes are good year-round; for the Mara leg, late June through October gives the best odds on the migration, and January through March is drier and quieter.
Common questions
Is the Naivasha boat ride included, or an add-on?
Included, along with the Crescent Island walk. Both are included for day one; no separate booking is needed once you confirm this itinerary.
What vehicle do we travel in?
A 4x4 safari Land Cruiser with a pop-up roof for the road days and game drives. The Naivasha boat is a separate small craft run by a local operator on the lake, not the safari vehicle.
How fit do I need to be for the Crescent Island walk?
Not very. It is flat ground with no technical walking, roughly ninety minutes at an easy pace, and you can shorten it if needed. There are no predators on the island, which is why walking is allowed there at all.
Will we see the migration in the Mara?
Only if it happens to be in the reserve on your dates. It is a seasonal movement rather than a fixed schedule, and we would rather be honest about that than promise a river crossing we cannot guarantee.
Is there a single supplement?
Yes. This itinerary is priced for two people sharing a room or tent; travelling alone with your own room adds a supplement, which we can quote once we know which camps you have chosen at each stop.
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.
Add a balloon flightReady to book this safari?
Send us your travel dates and group size and we'll confirm availability for the 5-Day Mara, Nakuru & Naivasha within a day.
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