This 5-day route links Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru and Lake Naivasha, staying at premium camps and lodges where the setting is part of the point. 4 nights on safari, priced on request.
Maasai Mara - Lake Nakuru - Lake Naivasha
About this safari
The route opens in Maasai Mara — big cats, open plains and the northern stage of the Great Migration — 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 luxury standard: premium camps and lodges where the accommodation is part of the experience. At this level the camps are as much a reason to travel as the wildlife: limited suites, exceptional food, private decks and guiding of a standard that changes what you see. 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
This planning outline starts in Nairobi and continues towards the first destination; the collection point, time and transport are confirmed in the final proposal. Today's route runs towards Kenya's most famous reserve, and the change in country is gradual but unmistakable. Farmland gives way to grazing land, grazing land to open savannah, and the flat-topped acacias that define the Mara begin to appear on the ridgelines. Your guide will usually raise the roof before the gate, because plains game gather along the boundary and the first sightings often come early. Beyond the big cats, the reserve holds an extraordinary supporting cast. Bat-eared fox and black-backed jackal work the short grass, secretary birds stalk through it hunting snakes, and ground hornbill move in slow procession. Your guide will stop for these as readily as for lion, and they are often what people remember once the trip is over. This outline assumes the catalogue's premium standard. No named camp is guaranteed until the quotation confirms it.
Overnight: Maasai Mara
Day 2
With a whole day in the reserve there is time to go further than the popular circuits. Your guide can push towards quieter sectors where vehicle numbers thin out and sightings are shared with nobody, returning through the afternoon as the light softens. The middle of the day is often spent with a packed lunch under a tree near the river, watching hippo shift and resettle in the shallows. 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 suggested standard is luxury. Citrus will identify the available property and contracted services before confirmation.
Overnight: Maasai Mara
Day 3
The route then continues onward, today's drive brings you down into the Rift Valley proper, with the escarpment falling away to the east and the chain of soda lakes strung out along the valley floor. Lake Nakuru is the one enclosed entirely by a national park, and that fence is precisely why it matters: it has made the lake one of Kenya's most important refuges for both black and white rhino. 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. The catalogue suggests a premium camp or lodge here. The exact property, suite and services remain subject to availability and quotation.
Overnight: Lake Nakuru
Day 4
If this optional activity is included in your written quotation, a boat trip on the lake is the reason most itineraries stop here. Cutting the engine near a hippo pod brings you closer to these animals than any vehicle can, and the birdlife along the shoreline is extraordinary — fish eagle calling from the dead trees, pelican working the shallows in line, cormorant colonies packed onto drowned branches, and herons stalking the papyrus edge. Boat trips are normally an optional extra rather than an automatic inclusion. This travel day carries the route onward, leaving the plains behind, the route brings you to the highest of the Rift Valley lakes, ringed by escarpment and dominated at its southern end by the bulk of Mount Longonot. The pace of the trip slows here deliberately: Naivasha is not a game park, and the day is built around water rather than game drives. A luxury stay is proposed for this night, with the final property and arrangements confirmed in writing.
Overnight: Lake Naivasha
Day 5
Citrus will time the last day around the agreed end point and onward arrangements. The lake supports a full day's exploring without a single game drive. Crescent Island, a partly submerged crater rim, allows walking among zebra, giraffe, waterbuck, eland and wildebeest — possible only because there are no resident large predators, and a rare chance to be on foot among African plains game. Nearby Hell's Gate National Park can be cycled between its red cliffs and through the Ol Njorowa gorge. The final road section is planned towards Nairobi. Citrus will confirm the exact end point and time.
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
Bateleur/Cottar's + The Cliff + Loldia House
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.
Where this safari goes
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.