• 11 Dinner (D)
• 11 Breakfast (B)
• 8 Lunch (L)

• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• 4 & 5-star stays
• Coach, 4 x 4 safari vehicle travel, and select flights

• Nairobi: Meet your Driver Guide and fellow Small Group travellers for dinner in Nairobi on your first evening in Kenya.
• Nairobi: Enjoy lunch at Karen Blixen Garden and Cottages, set close to the former home of Karen Blixen, whose life in Kenya inspired Out of Africa. You’ll dine in the gardens and hear more about Blixen’s story, her coffee farm and the colonial history that shaped this part of Nairobi.
• Nairobi: Enjoy a three-course Farm-to-Table dinner at Shamba Cafe in Nairobi’s Loresho district. You’ll dine in the gardens of this working farm, where herbs, vegetables and flowers are grown on site on the edge of the capital.
• Lake Naivasha: Sit down to a Farm-To-Table lunch at Ranch House Bistro on the shores of Lake Naivasha, known for its papyrus-fringed edges and birdlife. You’ll enjoy dishes made with locally sourced ingredients, including produce from the property’s own farm, served beside the water in this quieter corner of the Rift Valley.
• Maasai Mara National Reserve: Enjoy a private bush barbecue dinner in the Maasai Mara, reserved for your Small Group. Seated in the open air after dark, you’ll dine out in the reserve itself, with the sounds of the Mara carrying through the evening and firelight adding to the atmosphere.
• Zanzibar: Join local women at Mama’s of Zanzibar for a hands-on cooking lesson centred on Swahili flavours and traditional cuisine. Using local ingredients and time-honoured methods, you’ll help prepare the meal before sitting down together with your hosts to share lunch and a more personal side of Zanzibari hospitality.

• Lake Naivasha: Step onto Crescent Island for a guided walk among the wildlife that roams freely across its open grassland. With zebra, giraffe and antelope moving through the landscape, experience Kenya’s wildlife on foot and at eye level, with Lake Naivasha and the surrounding Rift Valley scenery never far from view.
• Naivasha: Join a guided birdwatching walk in the grounds of Naivasha Sopa Lodge, where acacia-dotted lawns and the lake environment attract a wide variety of birdlife. Look out for African fish eagles, pelicans, kingfishers, herons and cormorants as you explore on foot in one of Kenya’s best-known birding areas.

• Maasai Mara National Reserve: Visit a Maasai village for a closer look at one of East Africa’s best-known pastoral communities, whose traditions have long been tied to cattle, seasonal movement and life across the Rift Valley. As you meet members of the community, you’ll learn more about customs, daily life and the jumping dance associated with Maasai ceremonial tradition.

Visit the world-renowned nursery to visit the Daphne Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage and witness the calves’ midday milk feed and mud bath. Stand close as keepers introduce each youngster by name and character, revealing the tender routines that help them heal and thrive.

Hear how rescued orphans are rehabilitated for eventual release to the wild, and hear each calf’s story within a long-running conservation project founded by Dame Daphne Sheldrick. The intimacy of the encounter brings Kenya’s elephant protection efforts into clear, moving focus.

Explore the capital on a guided panoramic tour taking in civic and cultural landmarks. See the Parliament Buildings and Kenyatta Avenue, the bustle of City Market, and the skyline anchored by the Kenya International Convention Centre, a symbol of post-independence modernism.

As you pass Government Square and University Way, trace Nairobi’s evolution from railway outpost to regional hub. Your Local Specialist shares stories of nationhood, everyday city rhythms and the personalities that shaped Nairobi’s distinctive urban character.

Step into literary history as you visit the Karen Blixen Museum, the author’s former farmhouse made famous by Out of Africa. Wander rooms lined with photographs and period furnishings, and look toward the Ngong Hills that framed Blixen’s life in colonial-era Nairobi.

Continue to the adjacent Cottages & Restaurant for a relaxed garden lunch. Surrounded by bougainvillea and shady acacias, hear more about coffee-farm days and the wider settler story that shaped this serene corner of the city.

Savor a seasonal menu at Shamba Cafe during a three-course Farm-to-Table dinner. Dine amid kitchen gardens and flowering beds as chefs showcase produce picked steps from your table, paired with East African ingredients and aromatics.

Between courses, stroll the beds where herbs and greens are grown, appreciating Nairobi’s blossoming food culture. The picked-from-the-garden freshness and relaxed setting offer a flavorful introduction to the capital’s creative culinary scene.

Head out across the plains of Ol Pejeta Conservancy and head out on an afternoon game drive through acacia woodland and open grassland. Watch for black rhino, elephant and a kaleidoscope of plains game as the light softens toward evening.

Pause at a scenic vantage for a sundowner in the bush, with views toward Mount Kenya tinting pink in the distance. The stillness and wide horizons capture the timeless pace of Laikipia’s wildlife landscapes.

Witness living conservation history as you visit Najin and Fatu, the last two northern white rhinos on Earth. During a ranger-led talk, learn about round-the-clock protection and the scientific work striving to secure the subspecies’ future.

This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER experience directly supports habitat protection and research at Ol Pejeta. Standing near these gentle giants offers a rare moment of connection—and a powerful call to safeguard Africa’s wildlife for generations.

Explore the only place in Kenya to see chimpanzees as you tour the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary. Meet individuals rescued from trafficking and conflict zones, observing their social bonds and daily routines in spacious, natural enclosures.

Opened in 1993 with Dr. Jane Goodall’s support, the sanctuary focuses on lifetime care and rehabilitation. Hear how keepers tailor enrichment and veterinary programs, and understand why rescued chimpanzees cannot return to the wild yet still thrive here.

Glide across Rift Valley waters as you head out by boat on Lake Naivasha. Scan papyrus-fringed shallows for resident hippos and watch African fish eagles circling and calling overhead, their reflections flickering on the calm surface.

Your guide interprets this freshwater ecosystem, pointing out kingfishers, herons and cormorants along the shore. The lake’s gentle pace and close wildlife encounters reveal a quieter, more contemplative side of Kenyan safari.

Step ashore to step onto Crescent Island for a low-impact walking safari among plains game. Move quietly across open grassland on a guided walk among zebra and giraffe, with Lake Naivasha glinting beside you and Rift Valley views on the horizon.

Without vehicle noise, notice hoofprints, browsing paths and birdsong that define life by the lake. This is an included Choice experience; select one of two activities during your time at Naivasha.

Join a naturalist for a guided birdwatching walk through the lodge’s acacia-dotted grounds. Listen for the ringing call of African fish eagles and watch for kingfishers, herons and cormorants moving between shoreline and garden.

Learn to identify species by silhouette, flight and habitat as you explore on foot at an easy pace. This is an included Choice experience; select one of two activities during your time at Naivasha.

Range across one of Africa’s great wildlife theaters on game drives in the Maasai Mara. Follow tracks from golden grasslands to the Mara River, watching for the Big Five alongside cheetah, hyena and vast herds of plains game.

Your Driver Guide reads the landscape—fresh prints, alarm calls, shifting light—so you can focus on behavior and photography. Moments in the golden light over the plains capture the Mara’s scale, drama and abiding wildness.

Dine under East African skies at a private bush barbecue dinner set amid the savanna. Lantern glow and crackling coals frame flame-grilled specialties and fresh salads, paired with your choice of drinks.

As darkness gathers, the sounds of the Mara after dark—distant calls, rustling grass—enrich the firelit setting. It’s an atmospheric celebration of safari evenings and the open, starlit spaces of the reserve.

Explore Stone Town with a Local Specialist through spice-scented lanes and coral-stone alleys. Visit the seafront trio of the House of Wonders, the Sultan’s Palace Museum and the Old Arab Fort, and browse the lively market where Swahili, Arab and Indian influences intermingle.

Hear stories of sultans, traders and sailors that shaped this UNESCO-listed quarter. Carved Zanzibari doors, call to prayer and sea breezes combine to evoke centuries of cosmopolitan island life.

Trace the island’s aromatic legacy as you visit a spice farm to see cloves, cardamom and cinnamon cultivated under the tropical canopy. Crush leaves, taste fresh spices and learn how trade shaped Zanzibar’s fortunes.

Later, join a hands-on Swahili cooking class at Mama’s of Zanzibar, preparing classic dishes with local women. Share the meal you’ve created and gain a flavorful window into everyday island hospitality and tradition.

Gain insight into pastoral life as you visit a Maasai village and meet community members. Hear how cattle, seasonal movement and beadwork traditions shape identity across the Rift Valley.

Learn about age-grade customs and join the rhythmic jumping dance often performed during ceremonies. Conversations with elders and warriors open a respectful window onto pastoral traditions that continue alongside modern Kenyan life.

Settle into the journey as you meet your Driver Guide and fellow travelers for a relaxed welcome dinner. Enjoy Kenyan-inspired dishes while your guide outlines the days ahead and answers questions.

The convivial setting emphasizes the advantages of a small group—shared curiosity, nimble logistics and unhurried conversations—setting a warm tone for the safari and island experiences to come.

Pause by the water for a Farm-to-Table lunch at Ranch House Bistro on the papyrus-fringed shores of Lake Naivasha. Menus highlight produce from the property and local farms, celebrating simple, flavorful cooking.

The lakeside setting invites an unhurried meal as birds flit along the reeds and distant hills frame the view—an easygoing interlude between wildlife encounters.

Experience the conservancy after dark on a night game drive with spotlights sweeping the savanna. Watch for genet, springhares, aardwolf and other nocturnal wildlife seldom seen by day, and listen as the bush’s soundscape shifts.

Your guide explains nighttime behavior and eye-shine identification while spotlight scanning reveals secretive predators on the move. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour.

Saddle up for a gentle guided horseback ride across Naivasha’s open grounds, moving quietly among browsing giraffe and grazing antelope. Riding at a relaxed pace brings you closer to the lakeside plains and their everyday rhythms.

Guides match horses to ability and share insights into behavior and safety as you roam beside giraffe and antelope. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour.

Choose boots or bike to explore Hell’s Gate National Park, famed for towering cliffs and geothermal vents. Navigate sculpted gorges, spot rock hyrax on sun-warmed ledges and pass grazing zebra and gazelle in the open.

Guides interpret volcanic features and wildlife corridors as you enjoy an active, ground-level perspective on the Rift Valley. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour.

Set sail on a traditional wooden dhow for a sunset dhow cruise along Zanzibar’s coast. As the Indian Ocean mellows and the lateen sail fills, watch Stone Town’s seafront shift to silhouettes and gold.

Musicians and crew share sailing lore while snacks and drinks complete the evening mood. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour.

Board a wooden vessel for a leisurely traditional dhow sail to sheltered reefs, then slip into clear water to snorkel above coral reefs. Drift over gardens alive with butterflyfish, parrotfish and curious wrasse.

Guides highlight marine life and safe snorkeling sites as you float in warm, turquoise shallows and watch for starfish on the sandy bottom. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour.

Discover Kenya’s capital wilderness as you join a guided game drive in Nairobi National Park, where acacia scrub and golden grasslands unfurl against the city skyline. Watch for giraffe stepping through whistling thorn, black rhino grazing in open glades, and lion or buffalo moving across this rare urban-edge ecosystem.

Gain a vivid sense of Kenya’s conservation story in one of Africa’s oldest national parks. Rangers protect key species here within sight of downtown, offering chances to pause for photos and reflection as wildlife and metropolis share the same horizon.

Insight Vacations