Epic Kenya & Tanzania safari

The capital of Kenya, Nairobi is a major city and the primary transport hub for East Africa. It's a typically hectic place, but with some pleasant quiet suburbs, a good range of hotels and some interesting activities, notably the famous giraffe and baby elephant sanctuaries.

Set 150 km southeast of Nairobi, Amboseli is an iconic national park which is renowned for huge tusker elephants against a backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro. Guest accommodation is in a wide range of properties, a handful of which are decent quality. There are major traffic and tonality issues in core areas.

Set 230 km north of Nairobi, Samburu National Reserve is an arid and particularly atmospheric safari area, with a full range of wildlife, notably including Grevy’s zebras, reticulated giraffes and gerenuks. Guest accommodation is in a wide range of lodges, the best of which are mostly located in the peaceful private conservancies around the periphery.

Set 200 km west of Nairobi, Mara North is an excellent private conservancy to the northeast of the main Maasai Mara reserve, with guest accommodation in a good range of camps and offering a wide range of safari and cultural activities.

Serengeti Mara is the prime but potentially busy area for migration herds and river crossings during the Jul-Nov dry season and a wonderful quiet backwater at other times, with guest accommodation in around 30 small lodges and camps, offering a good range of safari experiences.

Serengeti Southcentral is one of the most magical of areas, with migration calving Dec-Mar, superb Maasai interaction, incredible palaeontology and just two rather cool mid-priced lodges.

Situated 10 km to the southeast of the Ngorongoro Crater, Karatu is an area of fabulous rural scenery centred on a busy agricultural town, with guest accommodation in some lovely farmhouse lodges, offering a wide range of cultural, active and safari experiences.

Set in the far west of Tanzania, Mahale Mountains is not only an incredibly scenic location on the distant shores of Lake Tanganyika, but it also happens to be the best location in Africa for chimpanzee tracking. In fact this is almost certainly the ultimate primate experience in Africa, even better than gorilla tracking. Guest accommodation is in just a couple of very remote camps.