Once a month, Dexter puts together a small group, never more than six people, and leads them through the circuit he’d choose if a guest simply asked him to show them his country properly. There’s no booking desk assembling this from a template and no second guide waiting at the next stop. From the moment he picks you in Nairobi to the moment he drops you back for your flight home, eleven days later, it’s the same person, the same vehicle, the same working knowledge of where the game actually is that week rather than where a brochure says it should be.
The route itself is deliberately wide-ranging — Ol Pejeta’s conservancy country in the shadow of Mount Kenya, the flamingo-lined shallows of Lake Nakuru, three full nights given to the Masai Mara, the quieter waters of Lake Naivasha with a walking safari on Crescent Island, and Amboseli’s open plains under Kilimanjaro to close it out. Most itineraries pick two or three of these and call it a safari. This one is built on the idea that if you’re giving eleven days to Kenya, you should actually see the breadth of what makes it Kenya, not a narrower slice of it.
Because it departs on a fixed date each month rather than being assembled around one group’s preferences, this is the most straightforward way to travel with Dexter for guests who want his twenty years of guiding without commissioning a fully custom itinerary from scratch — you’re joining a small group he’s already planned for, not negotiating a route. The one thing that doesn’t change from his private, bespoke trips is the guide: it’s him, for all eleven days, start to finish.
Dexter picks you in Nairobi and heads north, the city giving way to farmland and then the cooler air of the central highlands. Lunch is at Trout Tree Restaurant, tables built into a fig tree, trout farmed in the stream running underneath it, before continuing on to Ol Pejeta Conservancy. After checking in, a 4:00pm game drive gets the safari properly underway, with dinner and the first of ten nights on the road to follow.
Ol Pejeta isn’t just scenery, it’s one of the more serious conservation efforts in East Africa, sanctuary to the last two northern white rhinos left anywhere on earth and a working black rhino breeding program. The morning’s built around that: a wildlife activity or game drive with conservation at its center, lunch back at the lodge, and an afternoon left open to rest or go again if the group wants more.
Breakfast, checkout, and the drive southwest to Lake Nakuru — a soda lake famous for the flamingos that gather along its shallows and for the rhino sanctuary within the park boundary. Lunch at the lodge, then an afternoon that can hold a short game drive if timing and park access line up, or simply rest after two full days at Ol Pejeta.
The drive to the Masai Mara takes most of the morning, arriving in time for lunch and check-in. There’s no easing into this one, a 4:00pm game drive starts the first of three full nights in the reserve that most people picture when they picture Kenya at all.
An early game drive with a packed breakfast catches the Mara at its coolest and most active hours, before returning to the lodge for lunch and a quiet midday, this is the slot in the itinerary where a Maasai cultural visit fits naturally, if the group wants it (to confirm with Dexter). A second game drive at 4:00pm closes the day the same way it opened.
Out with a packed breakfast and lunch, and no fixed return time beyond aiming for late afternoon, a full day with Dexter covering as much of the reserve as that day’s sightings justify, rather than working to a predetermined loop.
Breakfast and checkout, then the transfer to Lake Naivasha, a shift in register after three nights of game drives, arriving to a resort with gardens and grounds built for actually slowing down, not just somewhere to sleep between parks.
A boat ride across Lake Naivasha leads to Crescent Island, one of the few places in Kenya where you can walk freely among zebra, giraffe, and waterbuck on foot, there are no predators on the island, which is the entire point. Lunch back at the resort, then an afternoon at leisure.
An early start for the long transfer to Amboseli, timed to allow for the distance rather than rush it. Lunch and check-in on arrival, then a 4:00pm game drive in a park best known for elephant herds moving against the backdrop of Kilimanjaro, cloud cover permitting.
A full day split between a morning and an afternoon game drive, with the lodge and a proper lunch in between — Amboseli rewards two separate outings more than one long one, since the light and the mountain’s visibility both shift through the day.
Breakfast, checkout, and the drive back to Nairobi, timed around flight schedules and Nairobi traffic. The same person who collected you eleven days earlier is the one driving you to the airport, which, on this circuit, is rather the point.
14 days Samburu's wild north and the Masai Mara's big-cat plains with Dexter, then six barefoot nights on Diani's white sand. A slow, two-week Kenya safari and beach holiday with no rushing anywhere.
15 days Kenya's three great safari landscapes, from Samburu's arid north to the Mara's plains and Amboseli's elephants under Kilimanjaro, then four slow days on the Swahili island of Lamu. The definitive fly-in.
8 days The classic northern Tanzania circuit, timed to the migration: Tarangire's baobabs and elephants, a day inside the Ngorongoro Crater, then three nights in the Serengeti wherever the herds are that month.
Message Dexter directly on WhatsApp for the next departure date and availability. Spaces are limited to six guests per group.
It's in Nairobi Dexter replies usually within a day