One Million
Wildebeest.
One River.

The Masai Mara in 5 days, from a conservancy camp that allows night drives, off-road tracking and fewer vehicles per sighting. Fly Nairobi–Mara (45 min) for 4 nights in the Naboisho or Olare Motorogi conservancy.

Six game drives plus two night drives and a guided bush walk with a Maasai guide. The guide tracks the Big Five from the first drive — the resident lion pride, the leopard territory, the elephant families. Migration-crossing standby in July–October (the crossing is never guaranteed; the wait is part of it). A genuine Maasai homestead visit rounds it out.

The dawn hot-air balloon — the experience no game drive can replicate — as an add-on to any Mara itinerary. A 5am wake, a briefing at the launch site, then a 5:30am lift-off.

The hour-long flight runs from skimming the treetops to 300m above the plains, with elephants, hippo pools and (in season) the wildebeest column visible below. After landing, a champagne bush breakfast: the tracking vehicle arrives within minutes and the guide names three species before you finish your coffee.

Amboseli — the elephant park — with Kilimanjaro behind the herds at dawn. Fly Nairobi–Amboseli (45 min) for 3 nights at a lodge or tented camp.

The guide goes straight to the Enkiama swamp at 6am to catch the Kilimanjaro window, knows the specific spot for the photo, and can identify individual elephant families by name. You'll see big bull elephants, an Observation Hill sunset, and a genuine Maasai homestead visit. Fly out to Nairobi or on to the Mara on day 4.

Samburu — the arid Northern Frontier, with five species found nowhere else in Kenya. Fly Nairobi–Samburu (1 hr) for 3 nights on the Ewaso Ng'iro river.

The guide aims to find all five of the Special Five on day one — Grevy's zebra, reticulated giraffe, gerenuk, Beisa oryx and Somali ostrich. Add leopard in the doum palms, elephants crossing the river at sunset, and a beadwork visit with Samburu women whose cooperative receives the proceeds directly.

The Laikipia conservancy plateau — wild dogs, black rhino, night drives, and the conservation story told from the inside. Fly Nairobi–Ol Pejeta or Lewa (1 hr) for 3 nights at a conservancy camp.

Track black rhino on foot with a KWS ranger (always downwind), follow a radio-collared wild dog pack, and take a night drive for the nocturnal species. At Ol Pejeta you visit the enclosure of the last two northern white rhinos, Najin and Fatu, where the guide explains the assisted-reproduction programme — the science and the grief together.

Nairobi's wildlife day — the city with a national park — built around its two most affecting experiences. Morning: the David Sheldrick elephant orphanage and the 11am feeding and mudbath, where the guide explains the keeper sleep-in programme.

Then the Giraffe Centre, where you hand-feed the endangered Rothschild giraffe. The afternoon is Nairobi National Park (lion, rhino and hippo with the skyline behind), finishing at the Karen Blixen Museum, where the guide reads the opening line of Out of Africa from the veranda.

Lamu — the UNESCO Swahili old town, no cars, 600 years of Indian Ocean architecture — as the coastal end of a Kenya safari. Fly Nairobi–Lamu (1.5 hrs).

Day one is a walking tour of the old town's carved doors, the Riyadha Mosque and the Lamu Museum. Day two is a sunset dhow under lateen sail, down the Lamu Channel to the Shela dunes. Day three crosses to Manda Island and the Takwa ruins, an abandoned Swahili city with baobabs growing through the mosque walls.

The July–October crossing safari, built to maximise your chance of witnessing a Mara River crossing. Seven days lets the guide position at several points along the column rather than waiting at one spot for three days.

Days 1–2 establish the column's position and plug into the crossing network — the radio network of guides and scouts watching the river from dawn to dusk, so the vehicle can be in place within 20 minutes of a call. Days 3–5 are crossing standby. Day 6 is a dawn balloon. The honest position: a crossing is never guaranteed, but seven days in peak season gives the best odds.

The complete Kenya in a fortnight — every ecosystem, all the wildlife, the Swahili coast as the finale. Two days in Nairobi (orphanage, Giraffe Centre, national park, Karen Blixen), three in Samburu (the Special Five), three in Laikipia (wild dog, black rhino, the last two northern white rhinos at Ol Pejeta).

Then four days in the Masai Mara (Big Five, a balloon safari, crossings in season, a Maasai village) and two on the Lamu coast (the old town and a sunset dhow). Thirteen nights, six domestic flights and all park fees included, full board throughout.