11 Days Mount Kenya Trek and Masai Mara Safari

11 Day Mount Kenya Trek and Masai Mara Safari Combined

Combine your Mount Kenya climb with an incredible Masai Mara safari experience. This tour combines the classic five days Mount Kenya trek with the popular 6 day Masai Mara and Rift Valley Safari. Its without doubt the best way of seeing Kenya!

11 Days Mount Kenya Trek and Masai Mara Safari Combine 2024 – 2025

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Trip Overview

Best Kenya Safari experiences combined with Mount Kenya Trekking expeditions.

Kenya Adventure Safaris.

Kenya medium range Safari and Mount Kenya Circumnavigation Trek.

Kenya holidays travel,

Hot air Kenya balloon safaris

Highlights
Mount Kenya is without doubt, a beautiful mountain and the climb to the trekkers peak at Point Lenana (4,985m) is claimed by many to be the superior to climbing Kilimanjaro. The Sirimon Naro-moru route is justifiably the most popular on the mountain. The climb up Sirimon is well paced with wonderful scenery, whilst Naro-Moru offers the quickest and easiest route down. Sirimon Naro-Moru can be done in 4 days, but to aid acclimatisation an extra day at Shipton’s Camp is always wise. The Rift Valley Lakes of Nakuru and Naivasha lie half-way between Mount Kenya and Masai Mara and are well worth the stop with all the big game and incredible birdlife on offer. The Maasai Mara National Reserve is a vast park of rolling grasslands interrupted only by crocodile infested rivers. It plays host to all the big game and the incredible wildebeest migration during the peak summer months.

The obvious highlights of this trip are climbing Mount Kenya and safaris in Masai Mara and Lake Nakuru, but there is plenty in the detail too. You will get to camp out in the Maasai wilderness with a Maasai warrior standing guard against the wildlife outside. You’ll also visit Maasai villages and schools and hopefully get a small sense of the incredible changes that modernisation is bringing to these remote communities. When you are not camping, you’ll stay in charming local guesthouses, including a night in a Colonial tea plantation complete with an out of Africa veranda and lush gardens.

Trip Itinerary

11 Days Mount Kenya Trek combined with Samburu, Lake Nakuru and Maasai Mara Wildlife Safari.

Day 1: Arrival – Nairobi

On arrival in Nairobi, you are met and transferred to the Tamarind Tree Hotel for an overnight stay on bed and breakfast basis.

Day 2: Nairobi/Sirimon/Judmier Camp (Old Moses Camp) 3-4 hrs, 9km, 860m ascent.

Breakfast. Depart from Nairobi to Nanyuki Town and onto the Sirimon Gate of Mount Kenya with your packed lunches and commence your trekking expedition. Follow the track as it winds uphill through the forest which becomes heathland after about 3 hrs. After about 3½ hours of trekking the track veers right to the Old Moses Hut; where you have dinner overnight; 3300 metres. Full board

Day 3: Old Moses to the Shiptons Hut 6-7hrs, 14km, 900m ascent.

After breakfast, follow the track uphill, forking left at the junction. After one hour from Old Moses Camp, the track crosses Ontulili River. Go right contouring through the Moorland and crossing Liki North and continue uphill having panoramic views up the valley towards the main peaks. Dinner and overnight at Shiptons Hut, 4200m. Full board

Day 4: Shipton Camp/Mackinders Hut

Spend the day today trekking. Walk to Kami Hut down to Hauseberg Lakes (Hauseberg Tarn and Nanyuki Tarn). With overnight at the Mackinders Hut. Full board

Day 5: Mackinders/Point Lenana/Mount Meru Bandas 32km, 785m ascent.

Depart at 3 am up a steep stony quarry that cuts through a cliff clearing visible part towards lower Hall Tarns arriving point Lenana at 6:30 am, taking about 3hrs. After the sunrise, descend down to Mintos Hut, 2 hours, for breakfast and further 3 hours down to Mount Meru Bandas Hut, 2950m, for dinner and overnight. Full board

Day 6: Meru Bandas/Chogoria /Samburu.

Descend for 2 hours, 15km to forest clearance to catch a 4×4 transfer vehicle to Chogoria Village where you will connect with your transfer vehicle North to the Samburu National Reserve. On arrival, check in and have lunch at the Samburu Sopa Lodge. Enjoy your afternoon game viewing drives at the Samburu Game Reserve. Dinner and overnight at the Samburu Sopa Lodge. Full board

Samburu Game Reserve is situated in the hot and arid fringes of Kenya’s vast Northern Frontier District. The area is home to the Samburu tribe, pastoral relatives of the Masai. The landscape is rugged and dramatic – against a backdrop of volcanic mountains, gaunt hills and withered scrub tree punctuate the sparse and dry terrain with clusters of the incredibly hardy desert rose providing the occasional flash of vivid color.

The Ewaso Nyiro river, a lifeline of the area, runs along the southern boundary dividing Samburu from Buffalo Springs Reserve. Crocodile and hippo share the river with the many small herds of elephant which bathe and frolic in the muddy brown waters during the heat of the day before returning later to browse on the lush vegetation of the riverine forest. Buffalo, lion, leopard, cheetah and plains game may also be seen but a special feature of this Reserve are the various species of the game unique to these northern parks – Beisa oryx, the long-necked gerenuk, Grevy’s zebra, reticulated giraffe and the blue shanked Somali ostrich.

Day 7: Explore Samburu National Reserve

Early rise for day long game viewing drives at the Samburu National Reserve; with your packed lunches. Dinner and overnight at Samburu Sopa Lodge. Full board

Day 8: Depart Samburu – Lake Nakuru

Depart for the Lake Nakuru National Park with a stop at Nyahururu Falls to arrive in time for lunch at the Lake Nakuru Sopa Lodge. Set on a plateau in an elevation above Lake Nakuru, is the perfect place to experience one of the world’s largest ornithological spectacles, The Pink Flamingo, or a rich concentration of wildlife including black and white colobus monkey and is also a famed Rhino Sanctuary. In the afternoon proceed on a game drive in this famous ornithological spectacle for flamingoes. Dinner and overnight at Lake Nakuru Sopa Lodge. Full board

Day 9: Leave Lake Nakuru – Masai Mara.

Drive through the Great Rift Valley past the spectacular Volcano Mount Longonot and head towards the rolling plains of the Masai Mara. Drive on through the Loita Plains enjoying the breathtaking scenery.

On arrival check in and have lunch at the Masai Mara Sopa Lodge. Later, enjoy your afternoon game viewing drives at the Masai Mara Game Reserve. Dinner and overnight at Mara Sopa Lodge. Full board

11 Days Mount Kenya Trek and Masai Mara Safari

Day 10: Explore Day Long The Masai Mara Reserve.

Full day in Masai Mara with two game drive sessions – morning and afternoon. The Masai Mara is the most famous and prolific game park in Kenya covering an area of 1672 square kilometers. It is classified as a Reserve as opposed to a National Park to allow the Masai people to use the area to graze their cattle.

A highlight of the Mara is no doubt the annual wildebeest migration, when literally millions of these beasts stray north from the Serengeti in search of grass for food, before turning south again.

The Masai Mara has one of the highest concentrations of the lion in Africa and is a good place to try and spot the elusive leopard. In most National Parks it is forbidden to drive at night, so all game viewing is done as early and as late as possible to get the best conditions. The best time of the day to spot the hunting cats is just before sunrise and just after sunset so we are up and away early. During the heat of the day, we return to the lodge for huge buffet breakfasts and a chance to enjoy your superb hotel facilities, including a chance to relax by the pool.

Game Parks are places where the enthusiastic use a lot of films so it’s advisable to have some extra. Hopefully, we should be able to spot a pride of lions, elephants, buffaloes, zebra and hippo and other more common animals such as warthog, giraffe, and the baboon – almost every conceivable species of East African wildlife can be spotted here.

At our lodge in the reserve, there are many optional activities to enjoy. In the evening there is the opportunity to learn more about the Masai and their way of life with a talk about their rich culture and an option to join them in traditional dancing.

Early the next morning hot air ballooning is on offer. It is an amazing experience, as you take off with the sunrise and float above the Game Reserve, viewing the wildlife for approximately an hour before landing in the reserve to enjoy a full breakfast with champagne under the shade of a tree on the plains. The wildlife looks on while you partake in this luxurious fare. There are two opportunities for an optional balloon safari ride here at Masai Mara. Dinner and overnight at a Masai Mara Sopa Lodge. Full board

Day 11: Masai Mara – Nairobi – Departure.

Breakfast at the Masai Mara Sopa Lodge. Depart for Nairobi with your packed lunches. Arrive Nairobi and are transferred to the airport for your ongoing international flight. Breakfast and lunch

Included:

– The mentioned transfers in Nairobi.

– All ground transport whilst on safari in a comfortable safari van fitted with a pop-up roof for ease of game viewing and photography.

-Transfer to and from the base of Mount Kenya.

– Overnight at the Tamarind Tree Hotel, Nairobi on Day 1 on bed and breakfast basis.

-Full board accommodation whilst on safari and on the Mount Kenya Trek on full board basis (includes room, breakfast, lunch and dinner).

-All park entrance fees during the Mount Kenya Trek and on Safari.

-Service of a professional Mount Kenya Trekking Guide while trekking at Mount Kenya.

– Services of a professional English-speaking professional driver cum guide on safari.

– Services of a professional cook during the Mount Kenya Trek.

-Services of Porters during the Mount Kenya Trek.

– Accommodation in Mountain Huts during the Mount Kenya Trek.

-All game drives as per the Safari Holidays itinerary.

-Bottled mineral water whilst on the safari vehicle on Safari.

-Treated water on the Mount Kenya Trek.

Excluded:

-Tips, laundry, sleeping bags, beverages/Drinks and climbing gears

– Items not mentioned as included.

11 Days Mount Kenya Trek and Masai Mara Safari