SVAF 005: 8Nights/9 Days Family Safari Kenya
This Kenya safari itinerary is designed specially for families travelling with children: Kenya family safari for parents and children on a Kenya holiday with education and wildlife safari experience. This Kenya holiday takes you to Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru, Sweetwaters and The Ark at the Aberdares. You'll conclude your Kenya holiday with a Nairobi city tour to Village Market, Giraffe Manor, Karen Blixen Museum, Sheldrick Farm, Bomas of Kenya, Kazuri Bead Factory and Kitengela Glass. Accommodation at Panafric Hotel, Sarova Mara Game Camp, Sarova Lion Hill Game Lodge, the Ark and Giraffe Manor.
Designed for families, this Kenya wildlife safari has the right balance of activities and sightseeing to keep them interesting and rewarding for both children and adults. This safari is set at a slightly slower pace, using lodges and hotels that are better suited for families. Spend a wonderful Kenya family holiday together with us!
Day 1: Nairobi
A representative of Skyview of Africa Ltd will receive you at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and arrange for your transfer you to Panafric Hotel where accommodation will be on bed and breakfast.
Meals: Bed and Breakfast
Accommodation: Panafric Hotel
Day 2: Nairobi – Masai Mara
After breakfast, depart Nairobi for Masai Mara Game Reserve through the Great Rift Valley. Arrive at Sarova Mara Game Camp in time for lunch. Later proceed for the afternoon game drives till sunset in search of the Big Five.
Located in Kenya's richest game reserve – the Maasai Mara – Sarova Mara Game Camp offers front seats to nature's most breathtaking show – the wildebeest migration. The endless plains of East Africa are the setting for the world's greatest wildlife spectacle where, from the vast Serengeti plains to the champagne colored hills of Kenya's Maasai Mara, over 1.4 million wildebeest and 200,000 zebra and gazelle, relentlessly tracked by Africa's great predators, migrate in a clockwise fashion over 1,800 miles each year in search of rain ripened grass.
Sarova Mara Game Camp is well positioned to enjoy this unique phenomenon. The rolling plains around the Camp are teeming with wildebeest, gazelles and zebras, during the migration months and the Camp is situated right in the center of their migration path.
Sarova Mara Game Camp is the ideal choice for those seeking a richer experience of Maasai Mara that goes much beyond just game drives. By virtue of its location and layout, the Camp offers an unparalleled plethora of activities and experiences from luxury tented living to bird-watching, mini golf, sport fishing and a unique insight into the Maasai culture at the adjoining Maasai village
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Sarova Mara Game Camp
Day 3: Masai Mara
Spend the whole day in the Masai Mara plains doing game drives and also on the look out for herds of wildebeests crossing the crocodile-infested Mara River. Options: Depart for full day carrying packed lunch or return to lodge for lunch and then set off for afternoon game drives. Optional evening visit to a Masai Manyatta Village to learn the dance and culture of the Masai tribe.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Sarova Mara Game Camp
Day 4: Masai Mara – Lake Nakuru
After breakfast, depart Mara for Lake Nakuru. Lunch at Sarova Lion Hill Lodge followed by an extensive afternoon game drives in the park. Besides the flamingos that the lake is famous for, there are approx 400 other species of birds visiting the lake. Also, many species of game can be found in the park including the introduced Rothschild's giraffe, black and white rhino, waterbuck, reedbuck, lion, buffalo, leopard, baboon and many species of plains game.
Sarova Lion Hill Game Lodge is nestled along the Lion Hill overlooking the spectacular flamingo pink rimmed Lake Nakuru. Its location affords panoramic vistas of the Lake and the picturesque Lake Nakuru National Park. The Lodge is cleverly laid out such that most rooms and sitting areas afford stunning views of the Lake and the Park. The Lodge incorporates natural landscaping with tall acacia trees, winding walkways and greens dotted with bird feeds. Spread over acres, the lodge is a natural haven for bird life and attracts over 50 species of birds amongst the 400 species that inhabit the Park.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Sarova Lion Hill Game Lodge
Day 5: Lake Nakuru – Mt Kenya
After breakfast, depart Ol Pejeta Conservancy located in Mt Kenya region with a brief stop at Thompson Falls in Nyahururu. Lunch at Sweetwaters Tented Camp. You can do day and night game drives around the private conservancy, which is home for the members of the 'Big Five' (elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo and leopard). The conservancy has a higher wildlife-to-area ratio than any Kenyan national park and is one of only four private game conservancies to have been founded in Kenya. At the forefront of the Kenyan conservancy programme, the conservancy boasts the largest black rhino sanctuary in East Africa, hosts the only chimpanzee sanctuary in Kenya, and shelters large numbers of rare and endangered species.
A sheltered oasis, clustered around a water hole and set in the pristine calm of the private Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Sweetwaters Tented Camp offers a charming blend of under-canvas ambiance and safari luxury.
Located on the plains of Mount Kenya, Sweetwaters Tented Camp features thirty-nine luxury tents, each with its own private veranda overlooking the water hole. The central Rhino Restaurant is housed in the former manager's house of this once colonial farm, and offers both regional and international cuisine. Also within the house is the Kashoggi Bar and lounge, which centres on a blazing log fire. The Waterhole Bar, built in the style of a game-viewing hide, overlooks the waterhole and offers unrivalled wildlife-watching.
Abounding with wildlife, unfettered by the more rigorous strictures of the Kenyan National Parks and designed to offer a charming blend of under canvas ambiance and uncompromising luxury, it has long been the preferred retreat of wilderness and safari lovers alike.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Sweetwaters Tented Camp
Day 6: Mt Kenya – Aberdares
After breakfast, depart for the nearby Aberdares National Park. You'll have lunch at the Aberdare Country Club. Afterwards, a driver of The Ark will transfer you to their lodge. Access to Aberdares National Park with vehicles is limited to conserve and protect the environment which hosts wildlife such as elephant, rhino, buffalo, bush bucks, giant forest hogs, Sykes monkey, leopard, and bongo. This tree-lodge is uniquely shaped to resemble the actual Ark, designed with decks from which numerous balconies and lounges provide superb vantage points for viewing the animals visiting the salt-lick and waterhole. A ground-level bunker at The Ark provides excellent photographic opportunities and the Yasabara waterhole is floodlit by night to enable all-night viewing of game.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: The Ark
Day 7: Aberdares – Nairobi
After breakfast at your lodge, a driver of The Ark will transfer you back to The Aberdare Country Club where you'll reconnect with your driver/guide and then depart to Nairobi's Village Market.
1200hrs-1530hrs: Village Market
The Village Market is East Africa's premier Shopping and Recreation complex, next to the United Nations Environment Programme headquarters, featuring over 150 retail outlets, world-class open air food court, a Masai-themed craft market plus fun and entertainment spots for the whole family. The complex is designed to resemble an open-air African market, including waterfalls, rivers, plants and gardens. Choose the restaurant you'll have your lunch (at your own cost).
1630hrs: The Giraffe Manor
Depart to the Giraffe Manor on the other side of town in Karen suburb. This Scottish hunting lodge is surrounded by 140 acres of its own park and forest. It is the only place in the world where you can feed and photograph the giraffe over your breakfast table and at the front door, and even from a bedroom window. You will be conducted to guided walks through its primeval forest to enable you to learn about traditional uses of the varied flora. Giraffe Manor is also home to many characters including warthogs, bushbuck, dik dik and more than 180 species of birds and has a striking view of the Ngong hills.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Giraffe Manor
Day 8: Nairobi City Tour
0900hrs-1045hrs: Karen Blixen
Breakfast and then depart your hotel at 0900hrs and head to the nearby Karen Blixen Museum, a beautiful farmhouse where Karen Blixen, author of Out of Africa, lived between 1917 and 1931, until she left Kenya after a series of personal tragedies. Karen Blixen Museum has been restored with many of her own furnishings, as well as replicas made for the movie. The museum opens at 0930hrs.
1100hrs-1200hrs: Sheldrick Farm
Depart to the nearby David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Karen. Visitors are allowed to visit the farm between 1100hrs and 1200hrs when elephants and rhinos return from the forest for their milk feed and mud-bath for an hour. The animals return to the forest at 1200hrs. The Trust is named after the late David Sheldrick, a famous Naturalist and founder Warden of Kenya's giant Tsavo East National Park in which he served from 1948 until 1976. The Trust is famous for saving and conserving orphaned rhinos and elephants, which faced extinction.
1220hrs-1400hrs: Lunch at New Rangers Restaurant
Depart for New Rangers Restaurant for lunch. The restaurant is located at the Nairobi National Park main gate. The restaurant's Twiga Terrance offers a perfect view of wild animals grazing and drinking water at Kisima water hole just 10 metres away as you enjoy your lunch.
1420hrs-1800hrs: Bomas of Kenya
After lunch, you depart for Bomas of Kenya, a tourist village in the nearby Lang'ata suburb. Bomas (meaning homesteads) displays traditional villages belonging to the several Kenyan tribes, aimed at promoting Kenya's rich cultural diversity of her 42 tribes. You'll tour traditional villages for a series of tribal cultural shows entertainment.
1830hrs-1945hrs: Carnivore Restaurant
Dinner at the famous Carnivore Restaurant.
2000hrs: Carnivore – Panafric Hotel
Transfer to Panafric Hotel for overnight. Accommodation at Panafric will be on bed and breakfast.
Meals: Bed and Breakfast
Accommodation: Panafric Hotel
Day 9: Nairobi – Kitengela
0900hrs-1145hrs: Kazuri Bead Factory
After breakfast, depart for Kazuri Bead Factory located in the Nairobi suburb of Karen. You will be conducted to a tour around the factory. Founded by Lady Susan Wood in 1975, the company is known for its beautiful, hand-painted beads made from the authentic clay from the Mt. Kenya area. Kazuri (Swahili for “small and beautiful”), also produces a number of other goods popular with tourists including pottery, hand-beaded sandals and purses which reflect culture and African wildlife. The beads are often featured on three-dimensional art cards and can also be found in shadowboxes.
1215hrs-1345hrs: Lunch at Panari Hotel
Depart for lunch at Panari Hotel.
1400hrs-1600hrs: Kitengela Glass
Depart for Kitengela Glass at the edge of Nairobi National Park. You will be conducted to a tour around the factory. Here, artisans make internationally-renowned vases, goblets, pitchers and other glassworks. They use recycled materials to make their creations and work in a compound where people, animals, trees and art all co-exist.
1700hrs: Kitengela – Nairobi
Return to Nairobi and transfer to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to catch your evening international flight home or to Panafric Hotel for evening rest and overnight and depart for home the following day.
