Safari in Kenya

A custom 4x4 safari vehicle with a pop-up roof and a guaranteed window seat for every guest — we do not fill vehicles with strangers. Kenyan operators use both extended Land Cruisers and safari minibuses; we use Land Cruisers, which handle rough tracks and wet-season roads far better. Each vehicle has a cool box, charging points for cameras and phones, reference books and binoculars, and radio contact with other guides in the area.

Tipping is customary and genuinely matters to the people involved. Budget roughly $20 to $30 per day from the group for your driver-guide, and a similar daily amount into each camp's communal staff box, which is shared among kitchen, housekeeping and waiting staff. If you hire a spotter in a conservancy or use porters anywhere, tip separately and directly. Bring US dollars in clean notes issued after 2009 — older bills are widely refused.

Base yourself near the Mara River between late July and October and give it at least three nights. The herds arrive in the Mara from the Serengeti and cross back and forth repeatedly through the season, and the crossings themselves are entirely unpredictable — animals may gather at the bank for hours or days before one commits. Camps in the Mara Triangle and along the northern bank put you closest to the action. Even in a week without a crossing, the density of animals on the plains is remarkable.

Very much so, and Kenya is arguably the easiest safari country for families. Distances are short, flights are quick, many camps have family tents and dedicated children's programmes, and the conservancies allow the walking and night drives that keep older children engaged. Some camps set a minimum age for walking activities. Tell us your children's ages at the enquiry stage and we will only propose properties that genuinely welcome them.

Six to eight days is ideal. Three nights in the Masai Mara plus two elsewhere — Amboseli, Samburu or the Rift Valley lakes — gives you real variety without living in a vehicle. A four-day trip focused solely on the Mara is perfectly worthwhile if that is all the time you have, particularly if you fly in rather than drive. Ten days or more lets you add the northern parks or finish on the coast.

The national reserve genuinely is during peak season — a good leopard sighting can draw a dozen vehicles, and the reserve does not restrict numbers. The conservancies bordering it are the answer: they cap the number of beds and vehicles by agreement, so a sighting is typically shared with one or two other cars. They cost more per night and most guests who try them consider it the best money they spent on the trip.

Drive if you want to see the country and keep costs down; fly if your time is limited or you are visiting three or more areas. Nairobi to the Mara is five to six hours by road through the Rift Valley escarpment, which is a spectacular drive in its own right, or forty-five minutes by air. A common compromise is to drive out and fly back, so you see the landscape without losing a whole day at the end.

On a week-long Kenyan safari, lion, elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, hippo and a long list of antelope are close to certain. Cheetah are common in the Mara. Leopard are seen regularly but never guaranteed. Rhino require Lake Nakuru, Ol Pejeta or the Mara conservancies. Add Samburu and you pick up Grevy's zebra, reticulated giraffe, gerenuk and beisa oryx, none of which occur further south.

Easily, and it is one of the great trips in Africa. The Mara and the Serengeti are a single ecosystem divided by a border, so following the herds across it makes complete sense. You can fly between Nairobi and the Serengeti airstrips or Kilimanjaro, or cross by road. Each country requires its own visa and charges its own park fees, and we arrange the whole thing as one booking.

Neutral colours, a warm fleece for early mornings at altitude, a brimmed hat, high-factor sunscreen, binoculars and the longest camera lens you own — Kenyan parks restrict off-road driving, so sightings are often further away than in Tanzania. Soft duffel bags are required on light aircraft, which typically limit you to fifteen kilos including hand luggage. Laundry is done daily at almost every camp, so pack far less than you think.