Skip the long drive: fly from Nairobi to the Masai Mara in 45 minutes and spend three nights at a camp in a private conservancy, with game drives, walks and night drives away from the crowds.
Flying to the Masai Mara turns a long, bumpy drive into a 45-minute scenic flight, giving you more time on safari. This four-day trip is based at a camp in one of the private conservancies on the edge of the reserve, where vehicle numbers are limited and activities include walking safaris and night drives.
It is ideal for travellers who want an exclusive, unhurried Mara experience, or who are combining Kenya with gorillas in Uganda or the beaches of Zanzibar.
Conservancies feel wilder and quieter than the main reserve, and sightings are shared by only a handful of vehicles. Days follow the classic safari rhythm: early morning drives, a midday rest and late afternoon drives, with walks and night drives adding variety. In migration season you can still drive into the main reserve for the river crossings.
Conservancy camps are small, usually 6–12 tents, with en-suite bathrooms, private verandas and excellent food. Many are owner-run and employ Maasai guides and staff from the surrounding community, and part of your camp fee goes to the landowners who lease the conservancy land for wildlife.
Transfer to Nairobi’s Wilson Airport for the morning flight to the Masai Mara, crossing the Ngong Hills and the Great Rift Valley. Your camp guide meets you at the airstrip and you often see wildlife on the short drive to camp. After lunch and a rest, head out on your first game drive in the conservancy, where vehicle numbers are limited and guides can drive off-road to sightings.
Start with a walking safari led by a Maasai guide, learning to read tracks, plants and the smaller creatures that are easy to miss from a vehicle. After a leisurely brunch, rest during the heat of the day, then take an afternoon game drive for lions, cheetahs and elephants, ending with a sundowner on a hilltop. After dinner, a night drive searches for leopards, hyenas, aardvarks and bushbabies.
Spend a full day exploring the reserve with a picnic lunch. Leave at sunrise, when lions and cheetahs are most active, and follow your guide’s knowledge of the prides and their territories across the open plains. Look for elephants and buffalo along the rivers, topi standing sentry on termite mounds, and leopards resting in the riverine forest. In migration season (usually July to October) you head for the Mara River, where great herds of wildebeest and zebra gather and, if you are patient, plunge across the crocodile-filled water. Return to camp at sunset. Alternatively, stay in the conservancy for a quieter day, or start with an optional sunrise hot-air balloon flight.
Enjoy a final early game drive, then fly back to Nairobi’s Wilson Airport, arriving around midday in time to connect to an international flight or continue to another destination.
Lodges shown match the quoted price. Ask us about mid-range and luxury upgrades.
Private or community land bordering the reserve, leased from Maasai landowners. Conservancies limit vehicle numbers and allow walks, night drives and off-road driving, which the main reserve does not.
From July to October the herds often spread into the conservancies, and your guides can drive to the river crossings in the main reserve.
Usually 15 kg per person in soft bags on light aircraft.
Conservancy fees are included; Mara reserve fees apply only on days you enter the main reserve.
Yes. Flights connect the Mara with Amboseli, Nairobi and Entebbe.
Yes, in the conservancies around the reserve, though not in the main reserve itself.
Adventure 6 daysAfrica’s second-highest mountain, with far fewer people than Kilimanjaro: up through the Mackinder Valley to the foot of the jagged peaks, sunrise on Point Lenana, and down the dramatic lakes and gorges of the Chogoria side.
Wildlife 5 daysRhinos on the Laikipia plateau, then the dry, beautiful north where reticulated giraffes, Grevy’s zebras and gerenuks gather along a palm-lined river: Kenya beyond the Mara, in five days.
Signature 18 daysThe ultimate East African journey across four countries: chimps and gorillas in Uganda, golden monkeys in Rwanda, the Masai Mara in Kenya and the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania.
Change the dates, add a night, upgrade a lodge or combine it with Rwanda or Kenya. Tell us what you have in mind and we’ll send a revised plan and price.
