8 Days Lake Nakuru, Masai Mara, Serengeti & Ngorongoro Safari

Day-by-Day Itinerary

Day 1: Nairobi to Lake Nakuru – Afternoon Game Drive

Your safari begins with an early pick-up in Nairobi and after few hours of driving, by mid-morning, you’re descending into the Rift Valley — and soon, you enter Lake Nakuru National Park.

Upon your arrival here, you encounter lake shimmers. Its shores are painted pink by flamingos, while pelicans drift like boats on the surface. In the acacia forest of Lake Nakuru, white rhinos appear — massive, slow, unbothered. Rothschild’s giraffes stretch into yellow-barked trees.

The game drive feels like a slow reveal but there is more wildlife you experience here before evening approaches.
You exit the park at sunset and settle into your lodge nearby.

Meals: Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation Options:

Budget: Lake Nakuru Lodge
Mid-range: Sarova Lion Hill
Luxury: The Cliff Nakuru / Mbweha Camp

Day 2: Lake Nakuru to Masai Mara – Afternoon Game Drive

After breakfast, the road turns south after having your final Lake Nakuru encounter on foot. You shal have the best of the park in a rewarding nature walk. After this, depart and beging a transfer as you pass different Villages. The hills rise, then fall into open plains.

By early afternoon, you arrive at Masai Mara. After lunch and check-in, your first Mara game drive begins with the widest concentration of sighting.

Elephants graze in open view. A pride of lions lies in the grass — one eye always watching. Gazelles move like whispers through the savannah. Various animals in the true wilderness.

You return at sunset, the light golden and the air still.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation Options:

Budget: Rhino Tourist Camp
Mid-range: Jambo Mara Safari Lodge
Luxury: Mara Serena / Ashnil Mara Camp

Day 3: Full-Day Safari in Masai Mara

Today is the day for the full Masai Mara adventure. The day starts early, when the land is quiet but never still. Your guide reads the ground like a story — tracks, alarm calls, shifting herds encountering vast wildlife.

By midday, you stop for a picnic near the river as you have lunch, watch Crocodiles sun themselves on the banks. Hippos grunt from below. And if the migration is in season, the tension is thick — herds bunched near the water’s edge, waiting.

You explore deeper into the reserve before heading back in the soft light of afternoon.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation Options:

Budget: Rhino Tourist Camp
Mid-range: Jambo Mara Safari Lodge
Luxury: Mara Serena / Ashnil Mara Camp

Day 4: Masai Mara to Isebania – Cross into Tanzania – Northern Serengeti

Today you have to bid farewell to Kenya and proceed to cross the border into Tanzania. Through the Isebania border. After breakfast, you drive toward Isebania, passing fields, forests, and Maasai villages.

At the crossing point, when you are done with the immigration, wait for your Tanzania safri guide to meet, brief and guide you through your next stay in Tanzania.

Proceed for a drive and arrive in the early evening as you unwind in your Serengeti accommodation experiencing the spacious and untamed wilderness of Serengeti.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation Options:

Budget: Serengeti Bush Camp
Mid-range: Embalakai Camp
Luxury: Lemala Kuria Hills / Ole Serai Luxury Camp

Day 5: Full-Day Safari in Northern Serengeti

You’ll spend the full day with the river, the rocks, and the wide empty silence of northern Serengeti. Unlike in Masai Mara, Serengeti’s plains is endless, untamed and silent.

This is where you feel the wild more than you see it. You stop where others might pass. You wait. And then — lions on a ridge, wildebeest gathering, a leopard crouched in shadow. This day isn’t busy. It’s honestly more rewarding than you imagined.

After the full day of exciting viewing, return to your lodge for dinner, relaxation and overnight.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation Options:

Budget: Serengeti Bush Camp
Mid-range: Embalakai Camp
Luxury: Lemala Kuria Hills / Ole Serai Luxury Camp

Day 6: Northern to Central Serengeti – Game Drive En Route

After breakfast, the vehicle turns south. It’s not a transfer. It’s a moving safari taking you to a differrnt direction for a unique encounter.
Along the way, kopjes rise like islands from the plains. Cheetahs perch. Hyenas trail.

Your guide follows the natural rhythm — pausing where the light hits right, staying longer where the grass stirs.

You arrive in the central Serengeti by late afternoon — the heart of predator territory. If visited at the right time, witness the mighty Wildebeest migration before returning to your lodge for dinner, relaxation and overnight.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation Options:

Budget: Into Wild Africa
Mid-range: Serengeti Heritage Camp
Luxury: Kubu Kubu Tented Lodge / Four Seasons Serengeti

Day 7: Serengeti to Ngorongoro – Overnight on the Crater Rim

You begin the morning with a short game drive, then slowly leave Serengeti behind. The road rises, the landscape shifts — higher, greener, cooler.

You reach the Ngorongoro Highlands in the afternoon. The crater spreads out below you — not a park, but a sunken world. You’ll spend the night on the rim. The air is thin. The stars bright.

You sleep beside an ancient volcano filled with life experiencing as many wildlife as possible.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation Options:

Budget: Rhino Lodge
Mid-range: Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge
Luxury: Neptune Ngorongoro / Ngorongoro Serena Lodge

Day 8: Ngorongoro Crater Descent – Drive to Arusha

Before sunrise, you descend into the crater to encounter the highest concentration of wildlife ever— mist curling along the floor. The world here feels held, protected.

Lions walk across open fields. Buffalo graze alongside zebra. Black rhinos emerge, massive and quiet. Everything is close. There’s nowhere to hide.

You explore for hours, then rise back to the rim and begin the drive to Arusha, arriving in the late afternoon. It’s the end of the safari. But what you carry stays.

Meals: Breakfast and Lunch

Travel Notes

Visa Required: Use an East Africa Tourist Visa for Kenya–Tanzania entry
Ideal Travel Time: June–October (Migration season, dry roads), January–March for calm and clarity
What to Bring: Binoculars, fleece jacket, comfortable shoes, sunscreen, camera with zoom, a sense of wonder
Optional Add-ons: Hot air balloon safari in Mara or Serengeti, cultural visit in Ngorongoro Highlands