Maasai Mara safaris
Authentic off-the-beaten-track safaris
Maasai Mara Safaris
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Iconic reserve
The Maasai Mara is one of the most famous safari reserves in Africa and tends feature in almost all Kenya safaris.
Scenic diversity
The Mara is a very scenic location, with undulating savanna landscapes, punctuated by small forested river valleys and backed by dramatic escarpments.
Rich wildlife
The wildlife in the Maasai Mara is prolific and reliable year round, including elephants, lions and leopards.
Migration
Enormous herds of wildebeest and zebras pass through the Mara during the Jul-Oct dry season, with those famous river crossings.
High quality lodges
The Mara has a good range of high quality lodges and camps, many of which are in excellent private conservancies.
Strong combos
It is very easy to combine the Mara with other safari areas in both Kenya and Tanzania, as well as gorilla tracking in Uganda and tropical beaches in Zanzibar.
3 to 5 nights
For shorter trips, it is more than possible to fly into Nairobi and connect out to the Maasai Mara for as few as 3 to 5 nights, something that we often do for guests who are visiting the capital on business.
7 to 14 nights
Most of our guests tend to deploy 7 to 14 nights on safari in Kenya. At the shorter end, it can be best to focus on one area, perhaps combining a couple of camps in the Maasai Mara. At the longer end, it is possible to also include diverse safari areas including Amboseli, Samburu, Laikipia and Mathew’s Range.
15 to 28 nights
For longer trips, the most popular extensions include further safari in Tanzania (Maasai Mara is a small part of the Serengeti ecosystem over the border), gorilla and chimpanzee tracking in Rwanda or Uganda and tropical beaches on the Kenyan Coast, Zanzibar or even the Seychelles.
The cost of safari in Maasai Mara
Safari in Maasai Mara ranges from relatively pricey to eye-watering expensive. You can expect to spend £400 to £2000 per person per night.
We are more than happy to work across this range of prices. The only important thing is that we help you find the very best safari to suit your budget.
The two dominant price factors are the length of time that you spend on safari and the specific lodges that you choose to include in your trip. Deploying more time in town, rural and beach locations can bring the total cost down dramatically.
If you have a higher budget, we will help you determine which camps do actually deliver elevated levels of service and experience. We will also highlight other subtle ways in which your trip can be raised to another level, including the use of whole camp bookings, private guides and vehicles, helicopter explorations of remote areas etc.
If you have a medium budget, the best ways to keep a lid on costs are to travel out of high season and to carefully choose lower cost lodges. You can also reduce the number of core safari nights and deploy time in lower cost beach, town and rural locations. We will help you understand where to trim and where to splash in order to achieve the best overall experience.
If you have a lower budget, then we can always look at other fundamentally less pricey safari areas.
Amboseli
Lying to the east of the Mara, Amboseli is another iconic reserve, renowned for its large tusker elephants and the fabulous backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro, but which does suffer from unavoidable traffic.
Popular combos with a Maasai Mara safari
Samburu
Lying to the north of Kenya, Samburu is an extremely atmospheric semi-desert reserve, set along a pretty river and with a couple of excellent private conservancy lodges.
Serengeti
The Maasai Mara represents only about 12% of the Serengeti ecosystem, the remainder lies over the border in Tanzania. However, with the land borders closed, it takes a little but of jiggery-pokery to combine the two.
The best lodges in Maasai Mara
The best lodges in Maasai Mara
The Maasai Mara has around 120 safari lodges, in a very wide range of styles and price levels.
We are able to include any of these properties in your trip. We ones most like to recommend fall into two categories …
Firstly, there are the truly high-end lodges, which are in the very best locations and offer the highest levels of guiding, hospitality and consistency, suitable for demanding guests. Examples include Angama Mara, Mara Plains and Serian Mara Ngare.
Secondly, there are the relatively good value camps, which are also in excellent locations and also take their guiding very seriously, but which typically offer lower levels of luxury and have the potential to be slightly less consistent in their delivery, suitable for more easy-going guests. Examples include Offbeat Mara and Encounter Mara Camp.
The properties that we generally prefer to avoid in the Maasai Mara are the large sausage-factory type places, which deliver nasty low-quality safari experiences to guests who appear to be on a very different agenda. We also need to avoid very simple lodges, where the experience can be too unreliable for us to recommend.
You can always expect absolute honesty from us when describing the various lodges and camps. Our primary motivation is to figure out which ones will suit you the best.
Luxury trips
Our luxury trips to Kenya combine lodges which are in prime locations, where high levels of comfort and service are guaranteed. This does not necessarily mean infinity pools and spa facilities, but it does always mean that you will be hosted and guided by the very best people in the country. That is how to truly guarantee the quality of a safari.
Trips to Kenya
Adventure trips
In our adventure trips to Kenya, we use a much wider range of lodges, still in fabulous locations and offering authentic safari experiences, but often at considerably lower cost. More strenuous activities, like walking safari, are likely to feature more prominently. These cool, sometimes edgy lodges tend to be best suited to guests who are a little more outdoorsy and forgiving.
Your trip will be fully tailor-made. We will work with you until we are all happy that we have arrived at the ideal trip solution. Sometimes that’s a quick and easy process, other times it can take several iterations. It’s a mutual learning process.
Set 200km west of Nairobi, Maasai Mara is the portion of the Serengeti ecosystem that lies on the Kenya side of the border with Tanzania. It contains lovely scenery and very rich wildlife, but with serious traffic issues in the public access areas. Guest accommodation is in around 75 lodges and camps, some very high quality, offering a good range of safari and cultural activities.
Maasai Mara can be combined by air with other safari areas in Kenya, including Amboseli and Samburu, as well as crossing the border into Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Tarangire. It is also possible to extend into the primate areas of Uganda and Rwanda, as well as the tropical beaches of Zanzibar and the mainland coast.
We will help you to create your perfect Maasai Mara safari, using the full range of high quality ingredients.
When to go to Maasai Mara
Safari in Maasai Mara is unusually strong year round, but there are considerable seasonal differences.. Careful planning is extremely important. When thinking about seasonality it is important to consider the four aspects of weather, wildlife movements, visitor traffic and prices.
Jul-Oct : Dry season
The classic time to go on safari in the Maasai Mara is the during the main Jul-Oct dry season, when weather conditions should be warm and sunny everywhere and wildlife viewing should be at its strongest, as the animals cluster around the few remaining water sources. Visitor traffic is a significant issue and traffic avoidance is important, especially in Jul-Aug. Prices are at their highest.
Nov-Dec : Short rains
The period Nov-Dec usually marks the end of the dry season in the Maasai Mara, but in reality the Short Rains are unpredictable and sporadic. Although there can be some considerable weather around, the experience usually remains very enjoyable. Wildlife viewing can be more challenging, with the animals becoming more dispersed, but there's still plenty to see. Visitor traffic is much lower, meaning that even the most popular areas can become attractive. Prices tend to be at their lowest. A 'secret season' that tends to be popular with more experienced safari travellers.
Jan-Mar : Green season
Another interesting period to go on safari in the Maasai Mara is the Jan-Mar green season, when the more naturally arid safari areas to the north and southeast again experience good weather and reasonably strong wildlife viewing. Visitor traffic drops significantly after New Year. Prices tend to be in the middle of their range.
Apr-Jun : Long rains
The Apr-Jun period is usually dominated by the Long Rains, which tend to be much more reliable and heavy. If you are ready for some considerable weather, the experience should remain very enjoyable. Wildlife viewing can be more challenging, with the animals being more dispersed and the increased foliage cover reducing visibility, but there's still plenty to see, notably with lots of wildflowers and baby animals. Visitor traffic is much lower, meaning that even the most popular areas can become attractive. Prices are at their lowest. A 'secret season' that tends to be popular with more experienced safari travellers.
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Maasai Mara insider tips
Traffic
The vehicle clustering in core parts of the Maasai Mara can be unbearable. Avoiding the crowds is almost always our number one focus.
Mass market
Kenya offers a lot of low-quality mass-market tourism, much more than neighbouring countries. This also needs to be avoided.
Safari restrictions
Inside the main reserve, off-road driving and walking safari are not permitted. Another good reason to head for the neighbouring private conservancies.
No location is perfect and the Maasai Mara is certainly no exception. We will help you to avoid the inherent pitfalls, to create a fantastic safari experience.
How long to spend in Maasai Mara
Ngorongoro
The famous Ngorongoro Crater, one of the greatest natural wonders in Africa, lies on the south side of Serengeti and naturally fits into an overland safari heading south via Manyara and Tarangire, to end in Arusha.
Zanzibar
Whilst Kenya has its own tropical beaches, the allure of Zanzibar is too much for many people to resist. Flight connections are either via Nairobi, or direct from Serengeti.
Uganda
For gorilla and chimp tracking experiences, we usually look towards Uganda, with Rwanda being an alternative for very high-end trips. Flights to the respective capitals Entebbe and Kigali are either via Nairobi or Serengeti.