Kenya Photography Tour

Itinerary

Saturday, January 26

Fly from US/Canada

Sunday, January 27 and Monday, January 28 (2 nights)

Arrive in Nairobi (NBO). Our tour representatives will greet you at the airport upon arrival and transfer you to the Hemingways Nairobi hotel. Overnight at Hemingways for two nights.

We stay two nights in Nairobi to give extra time for unexpected travel delays and to recover from jet lag. Visit, shop, and have lunch at Matbronze, a beautiful gift shop and cafe that specializes in African bronze statues, art, and high quality gifts. We’ll have an afternoon private excursion to go see the rescued baby elephants at the Sheldrick’s Elephant Orphanage. Get up close and personal with these wonderful African animals and support a great cause!

Tuesday, January 29 – Thursday, January 31 (3 nights)

Fly to Amboseli National Park. Stay three nights at Tortilis Camp with game drives daily.

Amboseli National Park covers 151 square miles, only a small portion of the surrounding nearly 1,200 square miles of the Amboseli ecosystem. Tortilis Camp is on the southwestern edge of the park and overlooks its own private 30,000 acre wildlife conservancy, Kitirua. Away from the busy eastern side of Amboseli and with its own private conservancy, guests experience a wild and private Amboseli.

The area is famous for the dramatic views of Kilimanjaro, the highest free standing mountain in the world, and the highest peak on the African continent. At 19,340 feet, Kilimanjaro rises dramatically out of the Amboseli plains. Despite being in Tanzania, the best views of the mountain are from Amboseli, with Tortilis Camp on a southwest hillside facing the mountain, the most dramatic view of all.

Amboseli is famous for its elephant herds, a population of over 1,500! Amboseli has some of the largest elephants in Africa, and the guides at Tortilis Camp know the individual elephants, their family history, and are able to get very close to the habituated herds.

Much of Amboseli incorporates the dried up bed of a Pleistocene lake, with lush deep freshwater springs in the middle of the park, a haven for hippos and birdlife and a playground for elephants. As well as plentiful plains game and their predators, the area hosts its own eastern white-bearded wildebeest migration, a population that is genetically separate from the Masai Mara/Serengeti population.

Friday, February 1 – Sunday, February 3 (3 nights)

Today we’ll board a scheduled flight and make our way to Lewa Safari Camp in Lewa Downs where we’ll stay three nights with game drives daily.

This camp is based within the private 65,000 acre wildlife conservancy of the Lewa Wilderness Trust. The conservancy is home to about 10% of Kenya’s black rhino population and the single largest population of Grevy’s zebra in the world. The big five are often seen in this area. Lewa reinvests all the profits generated from tourism (including profits from Lewa Safari Camp) into its core programs. When you visit Lewa, you will help thousands of people from different backgrounds and cultures improve their lives, help to give their children a future, and also ensure Africa’s wildlife has a stable home. In past years we have been lucky to see wild dogs here!

Monday, February 4 – Saturday, February 9 (6 nights)

Fly to Masai Mara National Reserve. Stay six nights at Sand River Masai Mara Camp, which is located in Masai Mara National Reserve near the Tanzanian border. Game drives daily.

All the big cats, elephant, black rhino, and plains game spread out before you. It’s better than the Discovery channel because you are part of the spectacle. We cannot forget the impressive birds including the crowned cranes, tawny eagle, secretary bird, and kori bustard. Other creatures include common zebra, warthog, hyena, gazelle, hartebeest, wildebeest, Masai giraffe, reedbuck, banded mongoose, and hippos in the river. Year-round babies and young can be seen. The Mara is spectacular!

Sunday, February 10

Return flight to Nairobi mid/late morning. Private day rooms at Crowne Plaza Nairobi Airport. Evening flight home. This day will give you time to repack, visit some gift shops, or relax at the hotel by the pool. We’ll have our last dinner together as a group before leaving for our return flights home in late PM. You’ll gain a day on the return, so you should be home late day on February 11th.

Monday, February 11

Arrive home

SCROLL DOWN THIS PAGE to see images Explorers took from past NE Kenya trips!