This 14-day Kenya safari and beach holiday is built around one idea: never rush. Three nights in Samburu, four in the Masai Mara and six on Diani Beach, with light aircraft doing the travelling so you don’t lose days on the road. On safari, Dexter Kariuki guides every drive himself.
The safari half follows the drama of the Kenyan bush. In Samburu, elephants wade the Ewaso Ng’iro and rare northern species, from Grevy’s zebra to the long-necked gerenuk, move through the thornbush. In the Masai Mara, four nights means time for the big cats, time to wait at the river during the migration months, and time simply to sit with a lion pride as the light fades.
Then the coast. Diani is a long, palm-fringed beach south of Mombasa, with warm water, coral reefs offshore and colobus monkeys in the forest behind the sand. Dexter sees you onto the flight; the beach days are yours, to snorkel, dive, sail on a dhow or do nothing at all.
Dexter meets you in Nairobi and the light aircraft heads north over Mount Kenya’s foothills into dry, wide-open country. An afternoon drive along the river introduces you to Samburu’s elephants and the first of its rare northern species.
Two full days in Samburu. Dawn drives for leopard and lion along the riverine forest, searching out Grevy’s zebra and reticulated giraffe, and the slow afternoons that make this country feel so different from the south.
One more morning drive, then a flight south-west across the Rift Valley. You land on the Mara’s open grass and head straight out with Dexter to find what the plains are doing this week.
Three full days in the Mara. In migration season, patient hours by the river waiting for the herds to cross; at any time of year, lion prides, cheetah on the hunt and leopard in the riverine trees. Bush breakfasts, long drives, no clock to watch.
A last morning drive with Dexter, then a light-aircraft flight to the coast. By afternoon you are on the warm sand of Diani, the Indian Ocean turquoise in front of you.
Five full days on one of East Africa’s finest beaches. Snorkel or dive the reefs, take a dhow out at sunset, look for colobus monkeys in the coastal forest or simply stretch out under the palms. Your hotel can arrange it all.
A last swim, then a flight from Ukunda to Nairobi or Mombasa for your onward international connection.
7 days Two of Kenya's great wildernesses in one unhurried week: the wild north of Samburu, then the big-cat country of the Masai Mara. Three nights in each, light aircraft between them, and Dexter at the wheel.
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.
12 Days 12 days across 6 of Kenya's best landscapes — Samburu's dry north, the rhino conservancies of Laikipia and Nakuru, the Mara, Lake Naivasha, and Amboseli.
Send Dexter your dates. He'll shape the safari half around the season and suggest the right stretch of coast for the rest.
It's in Nairobi Dexter replies usually within a day