SVAF 012: 16 Nights/17 Days Family Holiday in Rwanda & Kenya
A stylish gorilla tour in Rwanda combined with a wildlife safari in Kenya. Enjoy wildlife and wildebeest migration safari at Masai Mara in Kenya for your family holiday or honeymoon safari in Africa.
Day 1: Arrival – Volcanoes National Park
Our Rwanda representative will meet you at Kigali Airport for short briefing, a snack (or provided with a picnic lunch) and proceed to Northern Rwanda.
Meals: Lunch (or picnic lunch) and Dinner
Accommodation: Mountain Gorilla View Lodge
Day 2: Gorilla Trekking – Kigali
Early morning rising!
05.45 hrs: Breakfast at Mountain View Lodge
0630 hrs: Picked up by your driver-guide and proceed to starting point.
0700 hrs: Briefing by your gorilla guide and proceed in your vehicle to the actual starting point of the trek.
Return from trek any time between 1200hrs-1500hrs (approximately) depending on the trek’s length for at your lodge (at our cost). Time permitting (NOTE) visit the traditional village and see a bit more of Rwandan traditional life (entry fee of US$ 30 per person to be paid directly by yourselves to the village – depends on length of the trek for the day). Return to Kigali by road arriving late afternoon/early evening. Dinner at your own cost.
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch
Accommodation: Stipp Hotel Kigali
Day 3: Kigali Tour – Nairobi
Breakfast at Stipp Hotel.
0800hrs. Clients are picked up at the hotel and proceed on a city tour of Kigali including a visit to the Genocide museum / memorial as well as Kigali’s only craft market.
1100hrs: Lunch (at you own cost).
1430hrs: Proceed to Kigali Airport.
1520hrs: Check in at the airport.
1820hrs: Kenya Airways Flight KQ 475 departs from Kigali to Nairobi.
2050hrs: Our Kenyan representative will receive you at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi and transfer you to Southern Eka Hotel for overnight.
2100hrs: Transfer to Eka Hotel for overnight. The hotel has good restaurants where you can buy your dinner.
Meals: Bed and Breakfast
Accommodation: Eka Hotel
Day 4: Nairobi – Samburu
After breakfast, depart for Samburu Game Reserve, passing through Nanyuki town and Mount Kenya, until you reach Isiolo town and then down into the thorny landscape of Samburu. After lunch in your camp, set off for afternoon game drives in the park. This area boosts of unique northern species of wildlife which are not found in any other part south of equator, here you will find the Grevy zebra, Beisa Oryx, Reticulated Giraffe, Somali Ostrich, the long necked gerenuk, herds of elephants and their predators abound. The life-giving Uaso Nyiro River plays a major role in the ecosystem of this region.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Ashnil Samburu Camp
Day 5: Samburu
Before dawn you head out in search of Africa’s wild cats. After the game drive, you return to the camp for breakfast and some R&R “rest and relaxation", read a book/novel, sunbathe or perhaps go for a refreshing dip in the uniquely designed swimming pool. After lunch at the lodge game drive until sunset in Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba till sunset
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Ashnil Samburu Camp
Day 6: Samburu – Mt Kenya
After breakfast at the Samburu Serena Lodge check-out and continue to Mount Kenya National Park arriving at Serena Mountain Lodge midday in time for lunch.
Located at 7200 FT (2195M) on the slopes of the snow-capped Mt. Kenya, Serena Mountain Lodge is the most luxurious tree lodge in Kenya. At dusk the dense tropical rain forest comes alive with myriad sounds of creatures of various descriptions.
Apart from the Big Five, the bird life is prolific.
Serena Mountain Lodge has open-air viewing-deck that looks down on to its own water hole and salt-lick, which attracts numerous herds of elephant and buffalo. There is also a tunnel leading to a photo-hide, which offers spectacular viewing and photographic opportunities just metres away from the wildlife at the water hole.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Serena Mountain Lodge
Day 7: Mt Kenya – Lake Bogoria
Leave Mt Kenya after breakfast with a scenic drive to the west across the Lerochi Plateau, arriving at Lake Bogoria National Park in time for lunch. Have an afternoon day trip to the Lake to explore the Geysers and Hot spring and in a good day you will view Kudus, Antelopes, and Giraffes.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Lake Bogoria Spa & Resort
Day 8: Lake Bogoria – Lake Naivasha
After breakfast, begin your journey to Lake Naivasha. We’ll take you on a picnic trip to Lake Naivasha. Lake Naivasha is a beautiful freshwater lake, fringed by thick papyrus. The lake is almost 13kms across, but its waters are shallow. This is also a birdwatchers fantasy. There are over 450 species in the immediate area including the highland escarpments, which surround the lake to the south and west. Lake Naivasha is a recreational center; there is a flourishing yacht club and many private cabin cruisers and other boats for fishing. All the land surrounding the lake is in private hands so access to the water has to be through the grounds of the hotels on the south-east shore or by the consent of local landowners. You can book boat trips into the lake (at your own cost).
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge
Day 9: Lake Naivasha – Maasai Mara
After breakfast, depart for depart for Masai Mara Game Reserve through the floor of the great Rift Valley. Lunch at your camp and then set off for afternoon game drives in the unspoiled Savannah.
Masai Mara is the northern portion of the Great Plains ecosystem in the neighboring Tanzania called Serengeti. It is a home to the “big five" lion, buffalo, rhino, leopard and elephant as well cheetah, zebra, giraffe and vast herds of wildebeest, plain antelope and numerous and other African wildlife.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Basecamp Explorer
Day 10-11: Masai Mara
Spend two full days doing game drives in Masai Mara plains in search of the Big Five and herds of wildebeests. As sun starts to edge dip into the horizon it will be perfect time to photograph the beautiful Mara rolling plains. Don’t forget this is the right time to spot the shy leopard.
In the evening, optional visit to Maasai manyatta villages to see a way of life of the Maasai tribesmen as you learn their dance and culture. The Masai tribe boasts of tall and proud race of warriors. Herding cattle and goats, they’ve lived among fierce wildlife for centuries.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Basecamp Explorer
Day 12: Masai Mara – Nairobi
After breakfast, begin your journey back Nairobi.
1100hrs-1200hrs: City Centre – Sheldrick Farm: Arrive at The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Karen, Nairobi. 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.
1215hrs-1400hrs: Lunch: You leave The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust at 1215hrs, arriving at Giraffe Manor in time for lunch.
1400hrs-Rest of Afternoon: Take a guided tour of the Giraffe Manor, an exclusive boutique hotel set in 12 acres of private land within 140 acres of indigenous forest in the Langata suburb of Nairobi. As one of Nairobi’s most iconic buildings, Giraffe Manor has extraordinary appeal that harks back to the 1930s when European visitors first flocked to East Africa to enjoy safaris. With its stately façade, elegant interior, verdant green gardens, sunny terraces and delightful courtyards, guests often remark that it’s like walking into the film Out of Africa: indeed, one of its six suites is named after the author Karen Blixen.
However, the most fascinating thing about Giraffe Manor is its herd of resident Rothschild giraffe who may visit morning and evening, sometimes poking their long necks into the windows in the hope of a treat, before retreating to their forest sanctuary.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Giraffe Manor
Day 13: Nairobi – Amboseli
After breakfast, depart for Amboseli National Park. Lunch at Kibo Villa Amboseli. Afternoon game drives in search of herds of elephants, giraffes, lions, and a variety of other animals and birds. At dawn you’ll have the best view of the snow-capped Mt Kilimanjaro.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Kibo Villa Amboseli
Day 14: Amboseli – Tsavo West
A dawn game drive will be the perfect time for photographing the humbling and magnificent Mt. Kilimanjaro the highest peak in Africa. Return to the villa for breakfast and then depart for Tsavo West National Park. Game drives en route your lodge. Lunch at your lodge and then set off for afternoon game drives.
This wilderness is home to over 1000 plant species, 400 bird species and more than 60 major mammal species such as lions, huge herds of buffalo, the solitary and ill-tempered Rhino and at least 7000 elephants. If time allows, visit Mzima springs where you view hippos, crocodiles, exotic fish and bird life
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Kilaguni Serena Lodge
Day 15: Tsavo West -Tsavo East
After breakfast, you’ll depart for the vast wilderness of Tsavo East National Park, Kenya’s oldest and largest park, the legendary land of the “Man-Eaters". This wilderness is home to over 1000 plant species, 400 bird species and more than 60 major mammal species such as lions, huge herds of buffalo, the solitary and ill-tempered Rhino and at least 7000 elephants. After lunch at your camp, set off for afternoon game drives exploring the park where we can expect to see elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo, kudu, zebra and hartebeest.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Voi Wildlife Lodge
Day 16: Tsavo East
Set off for game viewing drives (carrying packed lunch) with a visit to the Mzima springs and the spine of the Yatta Plateau, one of the world’s longest lava flows. The Springs are fed daily by 250 million liters of water gushing from the Chyulu Hills provide an oasis of green, an underwater hippo viewing chamber, two nature trails and some unique picnic spots.
Be on the lookout for the variety of animals can be seen in the park such as lions, leopard, cheetah, zebras, giraffes, serval, antelopes, kongoni, lesser kudu, oryx, klipspringer, impala, stripped hyena, ostriches, gazelles, buffalos, elephants and many more. A variety of migratory and native birds are seen.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Accommodation: Voi Wildlife Lodge
Day 17: Tsavo East – Nairobi – Depart Home
After breakfast, drive out of Tsavo East with last-minute game viewing drives (carrying packed lunch).
1800hrs-1930hrs: Carnivore Restaurant: Arrive at the famous Carnivore Restaurant in Nairobi for a complementary farewell dinner (paid by Skyview of Africa Ltd).
Later, transfer to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to catch your international flight home.
