Seven regions, one country
One country, a dozen different worlds
Kenya packs an improbable range of landscapes into a country you can cross in a single day's flight. On one trip you can watch the wildebeest pour across the Mara, wake beneath the snows of Kilimanjaro, drift past flamingos on a soda lake, and end the week with your feet in the warm sand of the Indian Ocean. Every destination has its own character, its own season, and its own reason to go.
The Maasai Mara and the Rift Valley
The southwest belongs to the Maasai Mara, the northern reach of the Serengeti ecosystem and the stage for the Great Migration. From July to October more than a million wildebeest and zebra pour across the Mara River, and the predators that follow them make this the finest big-cat country in Africa. North of the Mara, the floor of the Rift Valley strings one lake after another: the fresh water of Naivasha with its hippos and fish eagles, the flamingo-pink shallows of Nakuru, and the remote birding haven of Baringo in the far north.
The southern savannas
To the southeast the land opens into the vast, red-earth plains of Tsavo, Kenya's largest wilderness and home to the famous dust-red elephants. Neighbouring Amboseli offers the country's most iconic view: great herds moving beneath the snow-capped dome of Kilimanjaro. Between the two parks lie the quieter sanctuaries of Taita Hills and the community-run LUMO conservancy, wild corridors where elephants roam far from the crowds.
The wild north
North of the equator the scenery turns raw and cinematic. Along the life-giving Ewaso Nyiro river, Samburu and its sister reserve Shaba shelter species you will see nowhere else in Kenya: the Grevy's zebra, the reticulated giraffe, the gerenuk and the beisa oryx. Further east, Meru remains one of the country's best-kept secrets, a green and little-visited park where the lioness Elsa of Born Free once lived and where you can still have the wilderness almost to yourself.
The highlands and the coast
The edges of the country hold surprises of their own. In the central highlands the Aberdare range trades savanna for montane forest and moorland, waterfalls and misty peaks that climb towards four thousand metres. And where the land finally meets the sea, the green Shimba Hills rise just above Diani Beach, home to the rare sable antelope and an easy day trip from the coast.
Wherever you begin, the distances are short and the contrasts enormous. Our job is to thread these places into a single, seamless journey, tuned to the season and to the wildlife you most want to see. Tell us what draws you to Kenya, and we will build the route around it.
