5 days across Aberdare, Lake Nakuru and Maasai Mara, with simple, comfortable camps chosen for how close they sit to the wildlife. 4 nights on safari, priced on request.
Aberdare - Lake Nakuru - Maasai Mara
About this safari
The route opens in Aberdare — high montane forest, waterfalls and floodlit waterholes — and works through 2 further destinations over 5 days. It stays within Kenya; the final proposal will confirm transfer times and the balance between travel and game viewing. Accommodation is at the budget standard: value camps and simple lodges chosen for position rather than polish. This is the practical way to see the route: the same parks, the same guiding and the same game drives, with the savings taken on accommodation rather than on time in the field. Like every safari in this catalogue, it is priced on request rather than sold at a published rate, because park fees, permits, group size and contracted accommodation all change the figure.
Day by day
Written out in full before you book, so you can see exactly how the days are paced and where each night is spent.
Day 1
Nairobi is the working gateway for this itinerary, with the first day's timing to be agreed around the confirmed travel arrangements. Today's drive heads for the high forest of the Aberdares, where the country changes character entirely — steep, wet, and wooded rather than open and dry. Waterfalls drop hundreds of metres into forested gorges, and higher still the forest opens into moorland scattered with giant heather and lobelia. If this optional activity is included in your written quotation, arrival is timed for the afternoon so that you are in place before the waterhole becomes active. As the light goes, the floodlights come on and the clearing begins to fill — buffalo first, usually, then elephant moving in with surprising quietness, and later the smaller nocturnal animals that only appear once it is properly dark. It is a slow, patient kind of wildlife viewing, and a genuine change of pace. A practical camp is suggested for this night, with the confirmed property and services stated in the quotation.
Overnight: Aberdare
Day 2
The route then continues onward, leaving the grasslands behind, the day's driving heads for the Rift Valley floor and the compact park that surrounds Lake Nakuru. It is a shorter transfer than most on a Kenyan circuit, which leaves useful time for an afternoon game drive before the light goes — and the afternoon is when rhino most often move out onto the open lakeside flats. Nakuru is small enough to cover thoroughly, and that is its advantage. The lakeside circuit is where white rhino graze the open flats, usually in loose groups and often close to the track. Black rhino are browsers and stay in thicker cover, so seeing them takes more luck. Rothschild's giraffe — distinguishable by their clean white lower legs — were introduced here and are now easy to find among the acacias. This planning outline places the night at a value property near the route. Availability and the final choice are confirmed before booking.
Overnight: Lake Nakuru
Day 3
This travel day carries the route onward, the road west out of Nairobi climbs the shoulder of the Rift Valley before dropping through Narok and onto the open country beyond, where cultivation gives way to grassland and the horizon widens. The last stretch is rougher going, but it is also where the safari properly begins — giraffe browsing beside the track, zebra scattering ahead of the vehicle, and the first raptors riding the thermals above the escarpment. A full day here usually divides itself naturally. The first hours go to the predators, tracking the prides your guide knows by territory and following whatever the night has left behind. Through the middle of the day the vehicle heads for shade near the river, where hippo crowd the deeper pools and crocodile lie out on the banks. The last light brings the plains alive again, with hunting cats moving and dust rising gold behind the herds. The suggested standard is simple and location-led. The quotation will name the property and specify what the stay includes.
Overnight: Maasai Mara
Day 4
The rhythm of a Mara day follows the animals rather than the clock. Dawn is the most productive window, when cats are still active and the light is low enough for photography. Later the plains settle into the heat and the emphasis shifts to elephant, buffalo and the birdlife along the water. By late afternoon the predators stir again, and the last hour before the gate closes is often the best of the day. The Mara's density is what makes it remarkable — sightings come quickly, and the day tends to build rather than drag. Expect long stretches of plains game: zebra, topi, Thomson's gazelle, eland and Maasai giraffe, with buffalo herds grazing in the bottomlands. Overhead, vultures circling low is always worth following, and the sudden stillness of a grazing herd usually means a predator is somewhere in the grass. The catalogue suggests a value stay in this area. The exact property, room basis and meals remain subject to the written quotation.
Overnight: Maasai Mara
Day 5
This outline leaves the final morning available for the confirmed transfer plan. A final crossing of the plains takes you out past the herds one more time before the ground begins to rise. The grassland thins into grazing land, the Maasai cattle reappear along the verges, and the Mara ecosystem is gradually left behind as the road climbs back towards the Rift Valley escarpment. Nairobi is the working end point, with the final transfer stated in the written proposal.
Safari ends
Where you stay
Accommodation below is the suggested standard for this package, taken from the Citrus catalogue. Where an entry describes a standard rather than a named property, we confirm the exact camp or lodge with your quotation. Named properties are suggestions and are substituted with comparable alternatives if they are unavailable for your dates.
Source catalogue listing
Aberdare value stay + Buraha Zenoni + Miti Mingi
This is reproduced exactly from the catalogue. The written quotation will allocate nights and confirm each available property before booking.
These are planning examples, not confirmed inclusions for this package. Your written quotation will confirm exactly what is included.
The quotation will identify every separate cost before you confirm.
Before you ask
The catalogue sets the route and travel standard, but it does not publish a fixed price or a contracted inclusion list. Citrus will prepare a written quotation for your dates, party and rooming, showing the exact transfers, activities, accommodation, meals, fees and permits before you confirm.
No. It is suggested accommodation from the source catalogue. Availability and any proposed alternative are confirmed in the written quotation before a booking is made.
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Tell us your dates and who is travelling, and we will come back with availability, honest advice on timing and a written quotation for this route.