From $1,180 per person sharing
Four days north of Mount Kenya. A Samburu National Reserve safari shows you the five species you will not see in the Mara, along the Ewaso Ng’iro river.
A Samburu National Reserve safari takes you north of Mount Kenya into dry country most visitors never see, to find five species that do not occur in the Mara at all. Four days, three nights, and a reserve that depends entirely on one river.
A Samburu National Reserve safari is sold on five animals adapted to arid country, and they are the reason to make the drive.
Add elephant along the Ewaso Ng'iro river, leopard in the doum palms and lion on the open ground, and Samburu holds its own beside any park in the south. The Samburu destination page covers the reserve in more detail.
Day one. Nairobi north past Mount Kenya, crossing the equator at Nanyuki, into the reserve by early afternoon for a first game drive along the river.
Day two. A full day in Samburu: early and late drives with the middle hours at camp, which is how you cope with the heat and how the animals do too.
Day three. South to Ol Pejeta Conservancy for black rhino, the last two northern white rhinos and the chimpanzee sanctuary.
Day four. A morning drive at Ol Pejeta, then Nairobi by mid-afternoon.
Three nights full board, Samburu Sopa Lodge and Sweetwaters Serena Camp or similar, with Flying Doctors evacuation cover throughout. Optional extras at Ol Pejeta include a guided walk and lion tracking with the research team, paid locally.
June to October and December to March are dry, and the game concentrates on the river. It is hot country in every month: expect thirty degrees and more in the middle of the day. Ol Pejeta publishes its own conservancy fees at olpejetaconservancy.org.
From $1,180 per person sharing, or KES 110,000 for Kenyan residents and citizens, with reserve and conservancy fees included. Every price on this page includes park entry fees, transport in a pop-top 4x4 with a guaranteed window seat, and a professional driver-guide who stays with you for the whole trip. Our guides are the same people year after year, which is why they know where the cats were yesterday.
Samburu combines well with the Mara for a longer trip, and with Mount Kenya if you want days in the highlands.
Send a booking request with your dates and we will come back with availability, a firm price and an honest view of the month you have picked. Nothing is charged on this website.
Five species you will not see in southern Kenya: Grevy's zebra, reticulated giraffe, gerenuk, beisa oryx and Somali ostrich, along with elephant and leopard on the Ewaso Ng'iro river.
About five and a half hours by road, north past Mount Kenya. Light aircraft reach the reserve's airstrips in around an hour.
They are different trips. The Mara has the cats and the migration; Samburu has species found nowhere else in the country and far fewer vehicles.
Because Samburu has no rhino. Ol Pejeta is on the way home and holds the largest black rhino population in East Africa, which makes the big five realistic on one trip.
4 days · 3 nights · lunch, dinner, breakfast included
Download this itinerary as a PDF Day 1 · Samburu National Reserve
A long first day, north through Nanyuki and Isiolo, crossing the equator on the way. The country changes as you go. Highland farmland gives way to dry acacia scrub and then to red earth and doum palm. We reach the reserve in the early afternoon and drive along the Ewaso Ng’iro before dark.
Day 2 · Samburu National Reserve
Morning and afternoon drives with the middle of the day at the lodge. Everything in this reserve comes to the river, so we work its banks: elephant crossing at the shallows, crocodile on the sandbars, and leopard in the fig trees along the water in the last hour of light. The northern five are all resident here.
Day 3 · Ol Pejeta Conservancy
An early drive, then south to the Laikipia plateau. Ol Pejeta holds the largest black rhino population in East Africa and the last two northern white rhinos on earth. The afternoon covers the conservancy and the endangered species enclosure, with Mount Kenya behind you on a clear day.
Day 4 · Nairobi
A last morning drive, breakfast at camp, and the road south through Nanyuki and Nyeri. We aim to be back in Nairobi by early afternoon. Ol Pejeta permits guided walks and lion tracking with the research team, and either can be added to this morning if booked in advance.
Tell us when you want to travel and who is coming. The price below is for your party, not a headline figure, and nothing is confirmed until we have spoken.
Written out in full so there is nothing waiting at the park gate.
Tell us roughly when. We will come back with dates, a firm price and an honest view on whether the month you picked is the right one.
