Explore Samburu’s Northern Frontier and the Masai Mara on this fourteen-night Kenya journey, ending on the Indian Ocean coast with a private reef dive, sea turtles, and four nights on the Watamu coastline.
15 days
|From $20,000 pp
Explore Samburu’s Northern Frontier and the Masai Mara on this fourteen-night Kenya journey, ending on the Indian Ocean coast with a private reef dive, sea turtles, and four nights on the Watamu coastline.
This itinerary covers two sides of Kenya that most trips treat as separate journeys. The first ten nights move through two of the country’s most distinct safari ecosystems, from the semi-arid rangelands of Samburu in the north, where the Samburu Special Five and the Ewaso Ng’iro River define the experience, to the Masai Mara in the southwest, where the wildebeest migration and one of the highest predator densities in Africa have made it the most documented wildlife destination on the continent.
The final four nights step off the savanna entirely, onto the Kenyan coast, where the Indian Ocean, a reef system that has been protected since 1968, sea turtles, whale sharks in season, and the Swahili culture that has shaped this coastline for centuries provide a close to the journey that no further game drive could match.
The three sections are connected by light aircraft, keeping transitions short and time in each place long. Do Not Disturb designs the full fourteen nights around what each area produces at its best and how the journey moves between them.
Your journey begins in Nairobi, where a driver meets you at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and transfers you to your accommodation in the city. Most international flights from the US connect through a Middle Eastern or European hub, with direct services from New York on Kenya Airways and connections via Amsterdam, London, Dubai, and Doha.
Nairobi rewards a night before the first flight north. The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant nursery in Nairobi National Park offers a window into one of the most significant elephant conservation programs in Africa, with orphaned calves raised by dedicated keepers and prepared for return to the wild in Tsavo.
Giraffe Manor, in the Karen suburb, puts guests at the same level as the resident Rothschild giraffe herd at breakfast each morning, one of the more photographed wildlife encounters in East Africa and one that requires no transfer into the bush. Both can be combined within a single day, with the morning at the nursery and the evening at the manor.
A scheduled flight from Wilson Airport carries you north to Samburu in approximately one hour, tracking over the central highlands before the Ewaso Ng’iro River appears below and the plane descends toward the bush strip.
Samburu National Reserve and the private conservancies surrounding it sit in the Northern Frontier District, a landscape of doum palm groves, open scrubland, and rocky outcrops. The Samburu Special Five, the reticulated giraffe, Grevy’s zebra, Beisa oryx, gerenuk, and Somali ostrich, move through this terrain daily alongside elephant, lion, leopard, cheetah, and wild dog. The Grevy’s zebra is listed as endangered with fewer than 3,000 individuals remaining globally, and the reticulated giraffe, with an estimated 8,500 left in the world, is classified as vulnerable.
Your base for four nights sits within a private conservancy with access to both the conservancy and the national reserve, with off-road driving and night drives available beyond the reserve boundary. Game drives operate morning and evening, a camel safari through the scrubland with a Samburu guide provides a different pace entirely, and cultural engagement with the Samburu community, riverbank walks, bush breakfasts, and sundowner stops on the open plains are available throughout.
A light aircraft transfer carries you southwest to the Masai Mara, the northern extension of the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem. The reserve covers 1,510 square kilometers along the Tanzanian border, and the private conservancies bordering it extend the protected area with the added freedom of off-road driving.
Your base for five nights sits within one of these conservancies, chosen for its position relative to the Mara River and its access to the migration corridors the wildebeest use between July and October. Game drives operate morning, afternoon, and into the evening. The guide positions the vehicle around where the herds have been concentrating in the preceding days rather than a fixed route, and between crossings the conservancy holds lion, leopard, cheetah, elephant, buffalo, giraffe, hippo, and crocodile year-round.
Five nights allows the itinerary to move beyond the game drive schedule. A private hot air balloon flight over the reserve at dawn is included, followed by a champagne breakfast on the plains at landing. Walking safaris, cultural visits to the Maasai community whose land forms the conservancy, and sundowner positions on the Mara River are available throughout the stay.
A light aircraft transfer from the Mara connects to the Kenyan coast, where the final four nights step off the savanna entirely. The transition from the open plains to the reef-protected lagoons and Swahili architecture of the coast is one of the more complete shifts available within a single Kenya journey.
Your base sits on the Watamu coastline, within reach of the Watamu Marine National Park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve established in 1968 as one of the first marine parks in Africa. The reef holds over 600 species of fish, more than 150 species of coral, three species of nesting sea turtle, whale sharks between October and March, and resident bottlenose dolphin year-round.
A private guided dive with a specialist marine guide is included, planned around the tide schedule and the seasonal movements of the larger species. Local Ocean Conservation, which grew from Watamu Turtle Watch founded in 1997, runs Kenya’s only sea turtle rehabilitation center within the park.
Beyond the reef, a sunset dhow cruise through the mangrove-lined channels of Mida Creek, the Gedi Ruins, a 15th-century Swahili settlement abandoned in the 17th century and now sitting within forest, and the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Reserve, one of the largest remaining coastal forests in East Africa, all sit within reach. Days move between the reef, the creek, the forest, and the beach.
A flight from the coast connects to Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for onward international connections. Flight time from Nairobi to most European hubs is between eight and nine hours. Connections to the US operate the same day via Amsterdam, London, Dubai, or Doha. The itinerary can be extended with additional nights on the coast, a connection to Lamu Island to the north, or a night in Nairobi before departure.
Ready to plan your Kenya safari and coast journey across Samburu, the Masai Mara, and the Indian Ocean? Speak with Do Not Disturb to begin your journey.
A private guided dive on the Watamu Marine National Park reef with a specialist marine guide, covering sea turtles, whale sharks in season, and one of the most species-rich reef systems in the world.
A private balloon flight over the Masai Mara at dawn, timed around the wildebeest migration, reveals a scale of landscape and wildlife that no game drive can replicate.
A half-day camel safari through the Samburu landscape with a Samburu guide, moving through one of northern Kenya's most distinct ecosystems at a pace that no vehicle can replicate.
Walk with rhino, elephant, and wild dog in Kenya's Lewa Wildlife Conservancy with an armed ranger and Maasai tracker. Arranged by Do Not Disturb.
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