Your classic Kenyan safari begins at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, where you are met and transferred to the Nairobi Serena Hotel. Nestled among manicured, lush gardens on the edge of the city center, this elegant hotel provides a peaceful sanctuary to recover from your flight. After a fresh lunch, you dive into the capital’s charm with a visit to the Giraffe Centre, where you can get up close and personal with the rare, endangered Rothschild’s giraffes. You return to the hotel for a relaxing evening at leisure, settling in on a lunch, bed, and breakfast basis.

The next morning, you take a scheduled flight northeast to the wild, untamed wilderness of Meru National Park. Upon arrival, you transfer to Elsa’s Kopje, an award-winning boutique lodge seamlessly sculpted into a massive granite hill, renowned as the historic home of Elsa the lioness from Born Free. After a fresh lunch at the lodge, the afternoon is yours entirely at leisure, allowing you to relax in your open-front cottage, soak in the infinity pool, and take in the sweeping panoramic views of the volcanic plains below before dinner.

On day three, you leave Meru behind and board a short flight to the arid, rugged wilderness of the Samburu Game Reserve. You check into Joy’s Camp, a chic and stylish retreat built on the site of Joy Adamson’s original tented camp in the Shaba region. Your afternoon stays entirely open, giving you the perfect opportunity to settle into your luxurious oasis, enjoy a refreshing drink, and look out over the camp’s private natural spring, which regularly attracts local wildlife.

Day four is dedicated to exploring the rugged northern wilderness. You spend the day on shared morning and afternoon game drives, tracking Samburu’s famous “Special Five”—the reticulated giraffe, Grevy’s zebra, Somali ostrich, Beisa oryx, and the long-necked gerenuk—which are uniquely adapted to this arid terrain. Between drives, you enjoy world-class dining and canvas-side hospitality, falling asleep to the nocturnal sounds of the African bush.

Following breakfast on day five, you board a flight tracking across the dramatic expanses of the Great Rift Valley to descend onto the endless plains of the world-renowned Maasai Mara National Reserve. Upon landing, you transfer to Cottar’s 1920s Safari Camp, an ultra-exclusive, vintage-style outpost located in a private conservancy bordering the Serengeti. In the cooler hours of the late afternoon, you head out for an evening game drive, catching your first glimpses of the Mara’s legendary big cat populations before returning for a refined dinner by lantern light.

Days six and seven unfold with the classic, thrilling rhythms of safari life in the Maasai Mara. Your shared morning and afternoon game drives position you front and center in one of the world’s most prolific wildlife arenas, offering front-row seats to track legendary lion prides, cheetahs scanning the horizons from termite mounds, and elusive leopards. Between your wildlife drives, the nostalgic luxury of Cottar’s allows you to rest on your private veranda, enjoy exceptional hospitality, and absorb your final evenings in the African wilderness.

Your grand Kenyan expedition concludes on day eight. After a final early morning game drive to watch the savannah wake up and a hearty breakfast at camp, you transfer to the airstrip for your flight back to Nairobi. Upon arrival at Wilson Airport, a private transfer smoothly delivers you to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, arriving in perfect time to check in for your onward international flight home.