Highlands to the Indian Ocean
The journey, one day at a time
Arrive in Nairobi
Arrive in Arrival · Nairobi, met and transferred to your accommodation.
To the foot of Mount Kenya
Drive to Mount Kenya to the forested foothills of Mount Kenya, the country's namesake peak, and settle into a lodge with the mountain filling the skyline. Foothill drives or walks with elephant and buffalo in the woodland, the snow-capped summit above, and a rhino sanctuary or trout stream within reach.
Around the mountain
Foothill drives or walks with elephant and buffalo in the woodland, the snow-capped summit above, and a rhino sanctuary or trout stream within reach.
Down to Malindi
Fly to Malindi to Malindi on the Indian Ocean — an old Swahili-Portuguese town with a fine beach and one of Kenya's best marine parks just offshore. Snorkel or dive the Malindi Marine Park, visit the Gede ruins and the Vasco da Gama pillar, or settle into the rhythm of the coast.
Reef and shore
Snorkel or dive the Malindi Marine Park, visit the Gede ruins and the Vasco da Gama pillar, or settle into the rhythm of the coast. A free day for the water — a dhow trip, more reef, or the old town's lanes and seafood.
A day on the Indian Ocean
A free day for the water — a dhow trip, more reef, or the old town's lanes and seafood. Malindi Marine Park, gazetted in the 1960s, protects coral gardens and seagrass just offshore, and it's the reason to get in the water here: glass-bottomed-boat trips and snorkelling over reef thick with fish and turtles, often with the beach nearly to yourself. It's not the Maldives, but it's a genuine, long-protected reef with real life on it — and a history of conservation most beach stops can't claim.
Reef and shore
Snorkel or dive the Malindi Marine Park, visit the Gede ruins and the Vasco da Gama pillar, or settle into the rhythm of the coast.
A day on the Indian Ocean
A free day for the water — a dhow trip, more reef, or the old town's lanes and seafood.
Arrive in Nairobi
Arrive in Nairobi, met and transferred to your accommodation. Nairobi National Park is the city's one true wonder: a genuine wildlife reserve — lions, rhino, giraffe, hundreds of bird species — with skyscrapers and passing planes as the backdrop. You can be on a real game drive within twenty minutes of a downtown hotel. It's not the Mara, and it's fenced on the city side, but as a first taste of African wildlife on a jet-lagged arrival day, nothing else comes close.
Journey's end
Transfer to the airport for your onward flight home.
The season changes what you see.
The migration window
The wildebeest are in the Mara and the river crossings are on — the headline months, and the busiest. Book well ahead.
Resident game, green plains
The Big Five never leave. Fewer vehicles, lower rates, newborns in the grass and clean light for photography.
Hand-picked camps & lodges
Lion in the Sun Retreat
An Italian-flavoured boutique with a celebrated spa — polished and intimate on the Malindi coast.
Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club
A storied colonial estate on the equator, with manicured grounds and the mountain rising behind.
Giraffe Manor
The famous 1930s manor where resident Rothschild's giraffes lean through the windows at breakfast.
Diamonds Dream of Africa
A boutique beachfront resort with elegant rooms and fine dining, adults-focused and refined.
Serena Mountain Lodge
A forest tree-lodge on the slopes, where game comes to a floodlit waterhole through the night.
Hemingways Nairobi
A polished boutique hotel in leafy Karen, all colonnades and personal service near the giraffe centre.
Make it yours.
Add nights, swap a park, extend to the coast — this route is a starting point, not a fixed menu. Tell us how you travel and we'll route the rest.