Kenya Birding and Wildlife Safari

9 DAYS

Tour Details

Kenya is renowned for its dazzling wildlife including the Big Five and all the other animals people enjoy seeing on safari. And the country also has a staggering amount of birds—1134 species—and is one of Africa’s top birdwatching destinations. On this exciting 9-day safari we take you to a combination of Kenya’s best wildlife savannah parks and reserves, and the best lakes and forests to spot the extraordinary birdlife. Kakamega Forest National Reserve is Kenya’s only remaining patch of tropical rainforest, and the Great Rift Valley lakes of Nakuru, Baringo and Bogoria attract hundreds of thousands of wildfowl from herons and storks to flamingos and pelicans. Plentiful birds can be seen on this varied safari, and the animals you will see include:

  • Giraffe
  • Elephant
  • Lion
  • Cheetah
  • Zebra
  • Gazelle
  • Rhino

The Masai Mara National Reserve is one of the best game reserves in the world, and the plains teem with animals and it’s the stage for the spectacular annual wildebeest migration. Experience our 9-days Kenya birding and wildlife safari, with our local bird guide who will be your best aid for locating and identifying the many species!

2 nights Lake Baringo | 2 nights Kakamega | 1 night Lake Nakuru | 3 nights Masai Mara


Detailed Itinerary

DAY 1:Nairobi to Lake Baringo National Park

(278 kms, 5 - 6 hours)

On the morning of your first day of your Kenyan safari, we collect you from your Nairobi hotel or Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, and first we drive through the Limuru tea farms as we descend to the floor of the Great Rift Valley. On the way we stop on the escarpment viewpoint to take in the sweeping views of the lakes, rivers and arid plains and you will see volcanic Mount Longonot and pretty Lake Naivasha. We head north to Lake Baringo; one the Rift Valley’s freshwater lakes and a birdwatchers paradise with over 500 recorded bird species. We arrive for lunch at your Lake Baringo lodge/camp and later the resident ornithologist will take you on a fascinating evening bird walk along the lakeshore.

  • Overnight at Lake Baringo
  • Accommodation at your camp or lodge
  • Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
  • Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra

 

You'll stay in Lake Baringo National Park

We have multiple amount of accommodations, which fits any type of budget

Standard options:

Lake Bogoria Spa Resort

Lake Bogoria Spa Resort

Lake Bogoria Spa Resort is the only Resort in Kenya with a naturally heated Spa pool. The resort is known as 'the healing place' because of the therapeutic values associate with the spa and the hot spring geysers. Nothing in the world beats relaxation and unwinding in the spa pool.

Luxury options:

Lake Bogoria Spa Resort

Lake Bogoria Spa Resort

Lake Bogoria Spa Resort is the only Resort in Kenya with a naturally heated Spa pool. The resort is known as 'the healing place' because of the therapeutic values associate with the spa and the hot spring geysers. Nothing in the world beats relaxation and unwinding in the spa pool.

DAY 2:Full day bird watching in Lake Baringo

After breakfast, go on a bird-watching trip by boat to one Baringo’s many rocky islands, where you’ll also spy pods of hippos and perhaps crocodiles and monitor lizards. We can organize a short excursion at an extra cost to visit a local Njemps village to watch traditional crafts being made and tribal dancing, or we can visit a local snake farm. Then we take an hour’s drive to nearby Lake Bogoria, which is a shallow soda lake that is home to thousands of lesser and greater pink flamingos that feed on the algae in the bluish water and make for wonderful photographs. Mammals sometimes encountered on the lakeshore include impala, dik-dik, zebra, Grant’s gazelle, warthog and the lesser kudu, and we also visit the scalding hot springs and geysers at the southern end of the lake that spurt and steam their alkaline waters. Return to our Lake Baringo camp/lodge for dinner and overnight.

  • Overnight at Lake Baringo
  • Accommodation at your camp or lodge
  • Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
  • Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra

DAY 3:Lake Baringo to Kakamega National Reserve

(261 km, 4 - 5 hours)

After breakfast, drive to Kakamega Forest National Reserve, which is Kenya’s only remaining patch of tropical rainforest that once joined the Guineo-Congolian rainforest stretching across Central Africa to West Africa. A tranquil place for walking along the narrow winding paths, it’s characterized by tall trees, tangled vines, creepers and ferns, and a profusion of flowering plants including some exquisite orchids and flame lilies. Kakamega is home to more than 350 bird species, 36 of which are endemic to the forest, and include turacos, hornbills, woodpeckers, honeyguides, parrots, bee-eaters, barbets and greenbuls. You spend two nights at a very peaceful camp/lodge in a secluded part of this extraordinarily beautiful forest.

  • Overnight in Kakamega Forest National Reserve
  • Accommodation at your camp or lodge
  • Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
  • Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra

You'll stay in Kakamega National Park

We have multiple amount of accommodations, which fits any type of budget

Standard options:

Rondo Retreat Center

Rondo Retreat Center

The Serene & tranquil Retreat Centre set in Kenya's only rainforest, the Kakamega Forest, complete with endemic species of flora and fauna, welcomes you to make it your home for a few memorable days, birding, hiking or whatever else catches your forest fancies.

Luxury options:

Rondo Retreat Center

Rondo Retreat Center

The Serene & tranquil Retreat Centre set in Kenya's only rainforest, the Kakamega Forest, complete with endemic species of flora and fauna, welcomes you to make it your home for a few memorable days, birding, hiking or whatever else catches your forest fancies.

DAY 4:Full day in Kakamega National Reserve

Today explore the reserve on guided day and spotlighted night nature walks with Kakamega’s excellent professional guides. As well as the profusion of birds, it has amazing biological diversity and many small creatures live in the forest. These include a number of primates—the more conspicuous ones are the black-and-white colobus monkey and red-tailed and blue monkey, while the rare de Brazza’s monkey is harder to find. Giant forest squirrels, fruit bats and nocturnal potto and bushbaby might be spotted in the forest canopy, while small antelope like duiker and dik-dik live in the undergrowth. There are lots of interesting insects too, and more than 400 species of beautiful butterflies.

  • Overnight in Kakamega Forest National Reserve
  • Accommodation at your camp or lodge
  • Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
  • Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra

DAY 5:Kakamega National Reserve to Lake Nakuru National Park

(208 km, 4 - 5 hours)

After an early breakfast in the lovely rainforest, we depart for Lake Nakuru National Park on the floor of the Great Rift Valley. We game drive on the way to lunch in the pretty gardens of your lodge, and then after relaxing, go back out into the park for late afternoon game-viewing. The lake is surrounded by wooded and bushy grassland, and the birdlife is again excellent with more than 450 species. These include pelicans, eagles, rollers, starlings, herons, plovers, egrets, marabou storks and more, and you may see flamingos again, which literally turn Nakuru’s lakeshore a brilliant pink. The park is also home to both white and black rhino, rare Rothschild giraffe, and numerous antelope including gazelle, waterbuck and impala. Lion and leopard are frequently seen, and at the scenic lookout points on the cliffs overlooking the lake, you’ll spot playful baboons and vervet monkeys.

  • Overnight at Lake Nakuru National Park
  • Accommodation at your camp or lodge
  • Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
  • Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra

You'll stay in Lake Nakuru National Park

We have multiple amount of accommodations, which fits any type of budget

Standard options:

Flamingo Hill Camp

Flamingo Hill Camp

The Flamingo Hill Camp is situated within the famous Lake Nakuru National Park, which lies within the Great Rift Valley of Kenya.

Lake Nakuru Lodge

Lake Nakuru Lodge

The Lake Nakuru Lodge is situated in the South Eastern, ecological niche of the Lake Nakuru National Park. It is an oasis of comfort and excellent service with commanding views of the lesser Flamingo interspersed with the Greater Flamingo for which the Lake Nakuru is world famous.

Luxury options:

Lake Nakuru Sopa Lodge

Lake Nakuru Sopa Lodge

Located on a range of hills that form the western limits of Africa’s Great Rift Valley, the lodge offers spectacular views over the vastness of Africa.

Sarova Lion Hill Game Lodge

Sarova Lion Hill Game Lodge

Sarova Lion Hill Game Lodge is nestled along the Lion Hill overlooking the spectacular flamingo pink rimmed Lake Nakuru.

DAY 6:Lake Nakuru National Park - Masai Mara National Reserve

(300 km, 5 - 6 hours)

This morning we drive to the world-famous Masai Mara National Reserve, named in honour of the Maasai people, the ancestral inhabitants of the area. On the way to your camp/lodge, look out for the herds of herbivores like waterbuck, zebra and Thompson’s and Grant’s gazelle, all expertly identified by your Kenyan safari guide. Depending on the season, you may witness the annual wildebeest migration, when an estimated two million hooved animals move between the Masai Mara and Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park following the rains and fresh pastures. Over dinner at your comfortable camp/lodge, you can discuss what you might see on the next action-packed two full days on safari in the Mara.

  • Overnight in Masai Mara National Reserve
  • Accommodation at your camp or lodge
  • Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
  • Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra

You'll stay in Masai Mara National Reserve

We have multiple amount of accommodations, which fits any type of budget

Standard options:

Zebra Plains Mara Camp

Zebra Plains Mara Camp

Zebra Plains Mara Camp offers luxury tented rooms are furnished with all the amenities that you will require for a comfortable stay whilst visiting the Maasai Mara.

Mara Sopa Lodge

Masai Mara Sopa Lodge

Located high on the slopes of the Oloolaimutia Hills, Masai Mara Sopa Lodge was one of the first safari lodges to be built in the Masai Mara National Reserve, a reason why its gardens and trees are so lush and mature.

Basecamp Masai Mara

Basecamp Masai Mara

Basecamp Masai Mara is as much a home as it is a travel destination. Guests become more than visitors, they become part of the Maasai community.

Luxury options:

Ashnil Mara Camp

Ashnil Mara Camp

Ashnil Mara Camp is located in the Masai Mara National Reserve and close to the Mara River, famous for the wildebeest migration.

Sarova Mara Game Camp

Sarova Mara Game Camp

By virtue of its location and layout, the camp offers an unparalleled plethora of activities and experiences from luxury tented living to bird-watching, mini golf, sport fishing and a unique insight into the Maasai culture at the adjoining Maasai village.

Mara Serena Safari Lodge

Mara Serena Safari Lodge

The breathtaking landscapes of Masai Mara National Reserve, uninterrupted views of the Mara River and a design inspired by a traditional Maasai Manyatta set Mara Serena Safari Lodge as an unforgettable destination for safari holidays.

DAY 7:Full day in Masai Mara National Reserve

Rise early for a cup of hot tea/coffee and snack, and then head out for a morning birdwatching game drive. The Masai Mara’s extensive grasslands are the perfect habitat for the migratory corn crake and Caspian plover, as well Jackson’s widowbird, black coucal, red-tailed chat, magpie shrike, and the Mara’s 12 species of cisticola and numerous birds of prey. Return to the camp/lodge for freshening-up and breakfast, and then with packed lunches that will be served picnic-style by the Mara River, a full day is spent game-driving. On the grassy tree-studded plains and around the rocky kopjes look for the big cats, and the Masai Mara is famous for its large prides of lion and cheetah that are seen hunting in family groups. Other predators like jackal, hyena and bat-eared fox can be seen on the prowl in the early morning, the acacia woodlands are inhabited by giraffe, eland, impala, topi and hartebeest, and the Mara River is home to half-submerged hippos and some of the biggest crocodiles in Africa.

  • Overnight in Masai Mara National Reserve
  • Accommodation at your camp or lodge
  • Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
  • Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra

DAY 8:FULL DAY MASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE

After breakfast depart again with your picnic lunch boxes to explore the reserve. An optional hot air balloon safari can be arranged for US$425 per person, and it’s a wonderful experience to float over the plains and rivers in the first light of dawn and watch the wildlife below. Visiting a Maasai village is another optional extra for US$20 per person, and this is an interactive introduction to the culture of the semi-nomadic Maasai warriors who have a deep and symbolic relationship with the lands and animals of the Mara. An overnight at the Masai village can be organized on request.

  • Overnight in Masai Mara National Reserve
  • Accommodation at your camp or lodge
  • Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
  • Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra

DAY 9:Masai Mara National Reserve - Nairobi

(265 km, 5 to 6 hours)

On your final day, enjoy a last early morning game drive in the Mara followed by breakfast at your camp/lodge to reflect on all the animals and birds you have seen on this action-packed 9-day safari. Then drive back to Nairobi and we transfer you to your hotel or the airport for your onward flight.

  • No accommodation; this is the last day
  • Breakfast & lunch (dinner not included)
  • Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra

Tour Cost

Prices and Seasons

STANDARD

Date 1 people 2-3 people 4-5 people 6+ people  
Jan 3 - Mar 31, 2025

USD 4,720per person

USD 3,275per person

USD 2,715per person

USD 2,525per person

Book

Apr 1 - May 31, 2025

USD 4,595per person

USD 3,185per person

USD 2,625per person

USD 2,435per person

Book

Jun 1, 2025 - Jun 30, 2026

USD 4,720per person

USD 3,275per person

USD 2,715per person

USD 2,525per person

Book

Jul 1 - Oct 31, 2025

USD 5,550per person

USD 3,990per person

USD 3,430per person

USD 3,240per person

Book

Nov 1 - Dec 20, 2025

USD 5,030per person

USD 3,575per person

USD 3,015per person

USD 2,825per person

Book

Dec 21, 2025 - Jan 2, 2026

USD 5,650per person

USD 4,090per person

USD 3,530per person

USD 3,340per person

Book

LUXURY

Date 1 people 2-3 people 4-5 people 6+ people  
Jan 3 - Mar 31, 2025

USD 5,385per person

USD 3,725per person

USD 3,165per person

USD 2,975per person

Book

Apr 1 - May 31, 2025        

Book

Jun 1, 2025 - Jun 30, 2026

USD 5,385per person

USD 3,725per person

USD 2,715per person

USD 2,525per person

Book

Jul 1 - Oct 31, 2025

USD 6,735per person

USD 4,580per person

USD 4,020per person

USD 3,835per person

Book

Nov 1 - Dec 20, 2025

USD 5,685per person

USD 4,025per person

USD 3,015per person

USD 2,825per person

Book

Dec 21, 2025 - Jan 2, 2026

USD 6,735per person

USD 4,580per person

USD 4,020per person

USD 3,835per person

Book

All trip prices are per person based on double occupancy or single occupancy unless otherwise noted. Optional activities are at an additional cost. All prices and fares are quoted in U.S. dollars. Children below 3 years are free of Charge, children between 3 and 12 years will pay 75% of the adult rate.

Included

  • All transfers from and to Nairobi Residence, Hotel or Airport
  • All accommodations during the tour
  • All meals and unlimited drinking water during the tour
  • Flying Doctors medical, emergency, and rescue cover
  • All game drives and activities as noted in the itinerary
  • Transport in a private 4 x 4 Safari Land Cruiser
  • Well experienced, English speaking tour guides/ driver
  • All applicable government taxes, levies and entry fees
  • Eco-friendly, stainless steel, safari water bottle
  • Personalized private service

Not Included

  • International flights and taxes
  • Passports and visa applications and processing
  • Travel insurance
  • Tips and gratuities for drivers/guides
  • Personal laundry
  • Alcoholic drinks
  • Entrance fee for activities noted as optional