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.
9-Day Kenya Honeymoon Safari
Overview
A honeymoon has a different shape from a safari. Most people want two things that pull against each other, enough of Kenya to feel like they have seen it and enough stillness to feel like they have been away, and a nine-day trip is where those two stop competing. This itinerary gives the Mara three nights, adds a Laikipia conservancy for the things a national reserve cannot offer, and finishes with three nights at the coast.
Laikipia is the part people do not expect and the part they tend to talk about afterwards. The conservancies there set their own vehicle limits and allow activities a fenced park does not: rhino tracked on foot, drives that run after dark, and horseback outings across open country. It is also the ground Nissa knows best, after seven years at Lewa Safari Camp and six at Borana.
The whole trip is planned around slowing down rather than adding stops. There is no day where you move in the morning and move again in the afternoon, the two long transfers are flown rather than driven, and the coast leg is left almost entirely unscheduled.
Day by day
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01
Nairobi to the Masai Mara
We collect you from your Nairobi hotel or the airport and drive southwest via Narok, reaching the reserve by early afternoon. Lunch at camp, then straight out for an afternoon game drive while the light is good. Dinner and the night at a tented camp in or bordering the reserve.
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02
A full day in the Mara
An early drive out for the first light, back to camp through the middle of the day, and out again through the afternoon until the light goes. With three nights here there is no need to force anything: if a sighting is worth sitting with for an hour, we sit with it.
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03
The Mara, on your own terms
A second full day, and this is the one we deliberately leave loose. Some couples want another long drive, some want a single early session and then the rest of the day at camp, and some want a bush breakfast set up somewhere with a view. Tell us the night before and we will arrange it with the camp.
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04
The Mara to Laikipia by air
A morning game drive, then the airstrip for a light-aircraft flight north to Laikipia. You are met on landing and driven to your camp on the conservancy, arriving in time for lunch. An orientation drive in the late afternoon introduces the ground, which looks and feels nothing like the Mara.
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05
Rhino on foot, and a night drive
Out early on foot with the conservancy's anti-poaching team to track black rhino, which is a completely different experience from watching one from a vehicle: quiet, slow and on the animal's terms. The afternoon is free, and after dinner we head out on a night drive for the animals that only move once the light has gone.
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06
Horseback, or whatever you would rather do
A morning on horseback across open country for riders at intermediate level and above, which gets you closer to plains game than a vehicle can. If you would rather not ride, the alternative is a walk with a guide or simply a slow morning, and neither costs you anything from the itinerary.
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07
Laikipia to Diani
A last morning on the conservancy, then a flight south to the coast via Nairobi, landing at Ukunda on the edge of Diani. You are met and transferred to your beachfront hotel. Nothing is scheduled for the rest of the day beyond getting into the sea.
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08
Diani, unscheduled
The reef trip and the dhow sail are both available today and both are optional. The reef sits close enough to shore to keep the lagoon calm and shallow, so snorkelling does not need a long boat ride to reach good coral. Beyond that the day is yours.
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09
Departure
A final morning on the sand, then a transfer to Ukunda airstrip or Moi International in Mombasa for your onward flight. Where the flight allows it we ask the hotel to hold the room later rather than moving you out mid-morning.
What's included
Included
- Ground transport in a 4x4 safari vehicle with a pop-up roof for the Mara and Laikipia legs
- Two light-aircraft flights: the Mara to Laikipia, and Laikipia to the coast via Nairobi
- Three nights full-board accommodation in or bordering the Masai Mara
- Two nights full-board accommodation at a camp on a Laikipia conservancy
- Three nights full-board accommodation at a beachfront hotel in Diani
- Game drives throughout, including one night drive, led by an English-speaking driver-guide
- Guided rhino tracking on foot with the conservancy anti-poaching team
- Horseback safari for intermediate and above riders, or a guided walk instead
- One snorkelling trip and one dhow sailing trip at the coast (arranged on your behalf through our coast agent)
- Masai Mara reserve and Laikipia conservancy fees
- Marine park fees for the reef snorkelling trip
- All meals throughout: breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Bottled water in the vehicle and at your accommodation
- Soft drinks, juices, tea and coffee throughout
- Beer, wine and spirits throughout
Not included
- International flights to and from Kenya
- Kenya entry visa
- Travel insurance
- Items of a personal nature such as laundry and souvenirs
Best time to visit
Year-round. June through October is the driest across all three, and puts the migration herds in or near the Mara; January through March gives firmer ground in Laikipia and settled sea at Diani. The long rains around April and May are quietest and greenest, with a real chance of afternoon storms.
Common questions
Do you tell the camps it is a honeymoon?
Yes, on every booking, because it changes what they can offer: a double rather than a twin, a table away from the main dining area, sometimes something in the room on arrival. What each property actually does varies, and we would rather tell you what a specific camp will do than promise a general honeymoon treatment that some of them do not run.
Why include Laikipia rather than adding days to the Mara?
Because it does things the Mara cannot. Laikipia conservancies allow walking, night drives and horseback, all of which are prohibited inside a national reserve, and they cap vehicle numbers so sightings are quieter. Adding a fourth Mara night would give you more of the same; two nights in Laikipia give you a different country entirely.
Is the rhino tracking on foot safe?
It is done with the conservancy anti-poaching team, who track these animals daily and know them individually, and you walk with an armed ranger. They control the approach and the distance, and will call it off if the wind or the animal is wrong. It is genuinely a wild animal on foot, so it is not risk-free, but it is run by the people who know that particular rhino best.
Can we swap the horseback morning?
Yes. It needs an intermediate rider and plenty of couples are not, so a guided walk or a slower morning at camp replaces it at no cost to the rest of the itinerary. Tell us at booking so the conservancy can plan its day.
Can the coast half be longer?
Yes, and it is the easiest change to make. Extra nights at Diani are usually the least expensive part of the trip, and the bush half is already the fuller of the two. Tell us how long you have and we will rebalance rather than compress.
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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