kenya: flying safari to the diani reef

In one day, usually with a change of aircraft in Nairobi.

Kenya's main safari airlines list no scheduled flight straight from the Mara to Diani. So the usual plan is a late-morning flight from the Mara to Wilson Airport, about an hour and twenty minutes with calls at other airstrips on the way, then an afternoon flight of about an hour and a quarter to Ukunda, the airstrip a few minutes from Diani Beach.

The aircraft are typically 12-seat Cessna Caravans, and each passenger may bring 15 kilograms in all, carry-on bags counted, in soft bags.

One coastal airline does advertise daily scheduled flights between Ukunda and the Mara that avoid Nairobi, so ask us whether it suits your dates. We can also arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, which can fly direct from the Mara into Ukunda.

Timings can shift by up to 40 minutes.

For what you are allowed to do there, and for how few people you share it with.

Naboisho is land leased from its Maasai owners, more than 52,000 acres from over 600 landowners, and the conservancy keeps a strict watch on how many visitors come in. Night drives, off-road driving and walking are all permitted, and none of them is allowed in the national reserve.

Vehicles at a sighting are capped as well, at between four and six. The cats are a draw in their own right: Naboisho has more than 70 identified lions.

You do not give up the reserve by staying here, because the camp also runs game drives inside it, so ask us to plan a day there.

The herds, quite possibly; a crossing, only with effort and luck.

The Serengeti herds are usually in the Mara between July and October, and Naboisho also lies on the path of a smaller, separate movement of wildebeest and zebra from the Loita Plains. No one can promise migration viewing inside the conservancy, and it is most likely in August and September.

The river crossings are another matter. They happen on the Mara River, inside the reserve and the Mara Triangle in the west of the ecosystem and not in Naboisho, so seeing one means giving a day to the reserve, which the camp can arrange. Even then it is the wildebeest that decide.

Most crossings fall between late July and October, and a herd that reaches the bank may go straight in, mill about for days, or leave. If a crossing is your priority, ask us about adding nights close to the river.

Not at any time, and it helps to know that before you arrive.

This coast has two high tides and two low tides a day, and the range is large, from under two metres on neap tides to about four metres on springs.

Diani's beach sits behind a fringing reef, so as the tide falls the lagoon drains towards the reef and the waterline can retreat several hundred metres, leaving shallow water and sandbars. Swimming is at its best in the two or three hours around high water, which comes about 50 minutes later each day.

Low tide is the time to walk the flats, in reef shoes because of sea urchins and sharp coral. Alfajiri Cliff Villa stands on a coral cliff, and the sea laps at the edge of the infinity pool at high tide. Ask the staff for the day's tide times.

Two windows stand out, January to February and July to September.

We rate them highest for Nairobi, the Mara and Diani alike, with short grass and steady game in Naboisho and clear, calm water inside the reef. October is nearly as good, and December is a strong beach month with a few showers possible inland.

From July to October the wildebeest are in the Mara as well, which makes those the busiest months there.

The months to avoid are April and May, the long rains, which bring muddy tracks to the Mara and stormier seas to the coast. March earns a challenging rating from us in the Mara as well. June and November are in-between months at both ends of the route.

On safari the greener months mean quieter sightings, keener prices, young animals and clean light for photographers, but a beach week is harder to enjoy under cloud, so for this pairing we lean towards the drier months.

It works for either, though a family or a group of friends will use more of it.

The Cliff Villa has four bedrooms and is let to one party at a time, with a minimum of two adults, so a couple can have the whole house to themselves. The exception is Christmas and New Year, when at least six adults and a stay of seven nights are needed.

A couple who would like something smaller could look at Alfajiri's Beach Villa, three bedrooms a few steps from the sand.

For a family the Cliff Villa comes into its own. The owners provide a butler with each villa, a children's menu and child-minding, so parents can take the ngalawa out to the reef or book a morning's diving on their own. The Mara camp has two family villas as well.

Tell us who is travelling and we will match the house to the party.