Fly-in safari
Local guide and safari organiser · Watamu, Kilifi County
Languages: Italian, English, Swahili, Giriama
You leave by plane from Malindi airport: the Mara is reached by air, not with two days on the road, and the days stay free for game drives.
The Maasai Mara is on the opposite side of the country from the coast. Anyone offering it to you as a road transfer is mainly selling you hours in a vehicle: that is why this one flies. Departure from Malindi airport, landing on an airstrip inside or beside the reserve, and the safari starts the same day.
Three days and two nights is the format that makes sense: the first and last days are split between the flight and a game drive, the middle one is entirely in the reserve. It is not a cheap trip in terms of time — it is a trip that buys time.
Day 1 · morning
I take you to Malindi airport, or have you taken there, with the check-in time the airline requires. Depending on the service operating for your dates the flight may be direct or include a stop: it is the variable that shapes the rest of the day, so you see it written in the proposal before you confirm.
Day 1 · afternoon
When you land, the vehicle of the camp or of the operator in the reserve is waiting for you. After checking in you go out in the late afternoon, when the light drops and the plain becomes readable: here you can see a long way, and looking for animals works differently from the parks near the coast.
Day 2 · full day
This is the day that justifies the trip: out at dawn, back for lunch or a packed lunch depending on the plan, second drive in the afternoon. You move across different parts of the reserve instead of repeating the same circuit.
Day 2 · evening
The evening in the Mara is for listening more than for looking. At the camps you are escorted back to your tent, in line with the property's rules.
Day 3 · morning
A last game drive in the morning light, then the transfer to the airstrip and the flight to Malindi. What time you reach the coast depends on the flight operating and on any stops: early afternoon or later, never at a guaranteed time.
The starting point is Malindi airport. I take you there, or arrange for you to be taken from where you are staying, with the notice the airline requires for check-in. Domestic flight times change with the season and sometimes change a few weeks out: what appears in the proposal is the schedule operating at the moment you confirm.
On small aircraft the baggage allowance is low and the shape of the bag counts as much as its weight. The big suitcase stays at your property on the coast: it is the simplest solution and nobody travels with two cases.
In the Mara the game drives are run by the operator in the reserve, with a local vehicle and driver. Before you leave I tell you who is with you and in what vehicle: that is not a detail to discover on landing.
The wildebeest migration is a continuous movement that circles between Tanzania and Kenya all year round. In the months when the herds are in the northern area the chances of meeting them are higher, but nobody can put a river crossing in a diary: it happens or it does not, and that depends on the animals.
The altitude makes the mornings cold and the afternoons hot on the same day. In the rainy seasons the tracks soften and flights can be delayed or moved to another airstrip: that is why I do not promise precise times for getting back.
No sighting is guaranteed, in any season. What changes in the Mara is the visibility: the open grassland lets you watch from a distance without getting closer, and that is the right way to look.
The two nights are in a tented camp or lodge inside the reserve or in a neighbouring conservancy. The property is named in the written proposal, with the meals included and its position relative to the gates: staying inside or outside changes the timing of the morning drives.
If you are travelling as a family, tell me straight away: family tents at the camps are few and have to be held before anything else.
You board the aircraft up a narrow set of steps, with no aisle inside, and in the reserve the tracks are as rough as anywhere else. If anyone in the group has mobility difficulties, write to me before booking: I have to check it with the airline and with the camp, it is not something I can decide myself.
There are no published reviews on this site yet.
I'd rather not copy reviews from other platforms without the consent of the people who wrote them. As soon as the verification process is ready, you'll find them here with their source.
It depends on three things: where you are setting off from, how many days you have and the pace you want to travel at.
A short safari is a first meeting with the savannah: it gives you the idea, but it compresses the transfers. With more days available the rushed journeys are cut back and there is more time inside the park, in the hours when the animals really do move.
Either way I'll explain the real travel times and the alternatives that exist, including when the honest answer is that a particular safari does not fit into the days you have.
When both formats are available for your dates I set them side by side: the price changes, and so do the flexibility over timings and the number of people travelling with you.
The proposal you receive lists only the options genuinely available in that period. I don't set out arrangements that I then cannot put on.
No. The animals are free, they move and they follow nobody's programme: sightings cannot be guaranteed, not in the savannah and not at sea. If someone promises them to you, know that they are promising something they do not control.
What I can tell you is how we look for them: keeping our distance, respecting the park rules, staying on the tracks, without chasing and without forcing an approach for the sake of a photograph. Respect for the wildlife comes before any promise.
Every proposal states explicitly what it covers: transport, entry fees, guide, meals, accommodation and activities. And it states what is left out as well, because that is usually where misunderstandings begin.
Before confirming you always receive a written summary with these points, so you can read it through calmly and ask me about anything that doesn't add up.
Two parks that look nothing alike: the red earth of Tsavo East and the low plains of Amboseli, with two nights so you are not spending the whole trip chasing the clock.
See the experience
Four days and three nights to cross the Tsavo area, the country around the Taita hills and the plains of Amboseli, without rushing any of it.
See the experience
No off-the-shelf programme: you tell me how much time you have and what interests you, and I write you an itinerary built on that.
See the experience
Tell me how many of you there are and when: I'll tell you what's realistic and what isn't.
