3 Days Maasai Mara Experience

Your professional driver/guide reports to your hotel for start of the safari to Masai Mara with a 7.30am to 8am departure for a picturesque drive in your 4X4 Safari Land Cruiser descending the Great Rift Valley and onwards to Maasai Mara, Kenya's famous game reserve. Your drive time will be approximately 6hours. Do a stop over at the "Viewpoint" - a great observation area to witness the amazing views of the Great Rift Valley. You have a chance to buy a few collectibles / Souvenirs along the way. You will arrive in the Maasai Mara and check in for lunch at Base Camp Mara. You will have some time to refresh/rest. The afternoon game drive at 3.30pm allows spotting of the magnificent wildlife in the park ranging from the Big Cats such as Lion, Leopard & Cheetah to Rhino, Elephant and Wildebeest. Return to your lodge by 6.30pm for dinner and overnight.

Basecamp Masai Mara is as much a home as it is a travel destination. Guests become more than visitors, they become part of the Maasai community. A pioneering Mara eco-camp, opened in 1998, Basecamp Maasai Mara is a moderately sized tented camp in Koiyaki Lemek, just outside the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Close to Talek Gate and the small settlement of Talek, the camp is ranged in riverine forest along the north bank of the Talek River, which forms the reserve’s north-east boundary. The camp has direct access to the reserve via a private footbridge. Basecamp Maasai Mara achieved world fame in 2006 by hosting Barack Obama during his visit to Kenya two years before he became US president.

Basecamp Maasai Mara’s 17 tents are set up on wooden platforms, dotted around the shady, wooded site, with plenty of space between each tent – no views of a row of parallel tents like a military encampment here. Each tent – large, rectangular and made of canvas and mosquito screen – rests on a much larger wooden deck, with recliners and hammocks to hand for whiling away the hot hours in the middle of the day. Sheltering the tent is a pitched roof of Kilgoris-grass tiles supported by wooden pillars, partly filled with pleasingly irregular walls constructed of wood and mud.

Early morning breakfast before embarking on a packed day to explore the famous Maasai Mara Game Reserve. Enjoy maximum viewing with unlimited game drives across the vast savannahs. Track the big cats along with elephants, giraffes, buffalos, and the other 95 mammals found in this world-famous park. If you’re visiting during the Great Migration (July – October), you’ll encounter the most fantastic movement of animals on our planet. Thousands of zebra, gazelle, and wildebeest cross into the park over the Mara River on their timeless parade searching for taller grasses to consume. The Mara river is also home to pods of hippos and waiting crocodiles, eyeing the vast herds crossing into their territory.

If you would like to add a cultural aspect to your Maasai Mara safari, tell your driver/guide to arrange a visit with the Maasai in their local village. This optional experience will allow you to learn about these native people and see their homes up close. For the most unique safari experience in the world, sign up for the optional early morning hot air balloon ride over the Mara. Watch the rising sun break over the park, lighting up the fields and the wildlife below. Your driver/guide can make all the arrangements.

Enjoy early morning game drives before breakfast then return to the camp/lodge for a full breakfast, check out and depart to Nairobi with a stopover for lunch on the way arriving in the early evening and drop off at your Nairobi hotel or at the airport.