Highlights:

Welcome to Kenya! Arrive in Nairobi and transfer to your hotel.

Please note: Most flights from North America arrive late in the evening.

Climb into 4×4 land cruisers and set out to discover notable landmarks and local culture in and around Nairobi, Kenya’s bustling capital city.

• Watch elephants bathe and eat during a stop at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which has operated an orphan elephant rescue and wildlife rehabilitation program since its founding in 1977
• Learn about the rescued, orphaned elephants, their trusted keepers, and the organization’s conservation work across Kenya
• Enjoy an included welcome lunch with your fellow travelers at a local restaurant in Nairobi
• Visit Sandstorm Kenya, a company that began as a maker of safari tents and now employs 40 Maasai craftspeople who hand-make totes, backpacks, and other styles of bags from locally sourced canvas and leather
• Tour Sandstorm’s facilities to learn how its bags are made, from the sourcing of materials to the finished product

Tonight, gather with your Tour Director and fellow group members at a mixer before enjoying dinner at a local restaurant.

Travel south to Amboseli National Park today. This roughly 150-square-mile natural area sits against the breathtaking backdrop of Mount Kilimanjaro and is known for its population of wild African elephants.

• Enjoy an included lunch at your safari lodge or camp
• Set out on an afternoon game drive after lunch
• Ride along with your expert driver and naturalist guide in search of elephants, leopards, lions, baboons, cheetahs, wild dogs, buffaloes, kudus, hippos, rhinos, wildebeest, and dozens more animals

Join your tour mates for an included dinner this evening, served with beer or wine.

This morning, head out on your first game drive of the day and marvel at Amboseli National Park’s huge herds of elephants, as well as ostriches, leopards, lions, and rhinos.

Later, meet a wildlife conservation expert from a local nonprofit animal welfare organization.

• Hear how locals and park rangers work together to protect the wildlife
• Ask the expert any questions you have about anti-poaching efforts and animal conservation

After an included lunch, head back out for a second game drive through Amboseli National Park.

Enjoy an included dinner served with beer or wine after freshening up this evening.

Travel through scenic, highland landscapes—and make a photo stop at the equator—on your way to the Great Rift Valley. This astoundingly beautiful region is an important center of ecological study. Its sparkling lakes and steep, rocky escarpments serve as havens for wildlife, such as black rhinos, rare Rothschild giraffes, and more than a dozen globally threatened bird species.

• Continue on to the vast and ancient Lake Naivasha, which, at nearly 6,200 feet above sea level, is the highest of the Great Rift Valley’s three best-known lakes
• Enjoy an included lunch with your fellow travelers at a local restaurant
• Set out on a boat tour of Lake Naivasha, which is known for its substantial population of hippos and bird species

This evening, sit down for an included dinner served with beer or wine.

Continue through the Great Rift Valley as you travel to the Maasai Mara, a nearly 600-square-mile national reserve in southwestern Kenya known for its vast plains and abundant wildlife. The region is also home to the Maasai people, an indigenous tribe of semi-nomadic pastoralists whose livelihood revolves around cattle. Brightly colored clothing and beaded jewelry are among many traditions the Maasai people have maintained, while other tribes have adopted more modern styles of living.

Immerse yourself in the Maasai way of life during a visit to a local boma, or homestead.

• Join members of the Maasai tribe in their signature adamu, or jumping dance
• Tour a functioning Maasai boma—a collection of mud-hut homes—and discover the tribe’s history and heritage
• Visit a market where Maasai people sell handiworks and crafts, and learn how money from visitors’ purchases sustains the tribe
• Receive your own Maasai name and learn the meaning behind it

Sit down for an included dinner this evening, served with beer or wine.

Today, get to know the awe-inspiring animals of the Maasai Mara National Reserve.

• Rise before the sun for an early morning game drive and an exhilarating opportunity to spot leopards, rhinos, Cape buffalo, lions, and elephants—known collectively as the Big Five
• Head back to your tented safari camp for an included lunch
• After lunch, climb aboard a safari vehicle for an afternoon game drive, keeping your eyes peeled for prides of lions snoozing in the shade, giraffes ambling among leafy trees, and sturdy, shaggy-maned warthogs trotting through tall grass

Celebrate your trip at tonight’s farewell dinner, served with beer or wine.

Transfer to Nairobi this morning. Then, relax in a dayroom before boarding your flight home tonight or early tomorrow morning, or extend your stay to explore Zanzibar.

Arrive home today.