Guests on safari viewing rhino in savanna landscape, Borana Lodge, Laikipia Highlands, Kenya
Swimming pool with white building and shade trees, Manzili House, Nairobi, Kenya
Guests viewing landscape from tent entrance at camp, Kitich Camp, Northern Kenya, Kenya
Guests dining outdoors at sunset under acacia trees, Kicheche Valley Naboisho, Maasai Mara, Kenya
Wooden deck with infinity pool overlooking savanna at dusk, Borana Lodge, Laikipia Highlands, Kenya
Swimming pool with white modern house and large trees, Manzili House, Nairobi, Kenya
Lakeside dining pavilion overlooking water and savanna hills, Borana Lodge, Laikipia Highlands, Kenya
Interior view of safari tent with open entrance and guests outside, Kitich Camp, Northern Kenya, Kenya
Interior of safari tent with two beds and open canvas flaps, Kicheche Valley Naboisho, Maasai Mara, Kenya
Guest relaxing on lounge chairs on sunlit terrace, Manzili House, Nairobi, Kenya
Bedroom with open views across savanna at sunset, Borana Lodge, Laikipia Highlands, Kenya
Group walking through tall grass during guided forest activity, Kitich Camp, Northern Kenya, Kenya
Safari vehicle observing elephant in acacia woodland landscape, Kicheche Valley Naboisho, Maasai Mara, Kenya

inspiration

kenya: active safari

Private Safari
From $15,885 pp
2 guests
13 nights

trip highlights

  • At Borana you can ride among zebra and giraffe, then return to the valley waterhole at dusk.
  • Rangers monitor Borana's black and white rhino daily, and guests can join them on foot.
  • Kitich Camp does away with the game drive, exploring the Mathews Range forest on foot for birds, butterflies and elephant sign.
  • In Naboisho guides can leave the track to follow a cheetah, and drives run on after dark for nocturnal species.
Scroll for the full itinerary
Rider on horseback galloping across open grassland, Borana Lodge, Laikipia Highlands, Kenya

From Laikipia to the Loita Hills

This route links five parts of Kenya over thirteen nights. It opens in Nairobi, where savannah runs up against the city’s southern edge, then climbs to the Laikipia Highlands and the Borana rhino conservancy. From there it moves into the Mathews Range forest, down to Naboisho Conservancy on the edge of the Maasai Mara, and ends among the Loita Hills.

The pace shifts as you go. Borana is horse riding, walking and rhino tracking on a private conservancy; Kitich does away with the game drive and explores on foot; Naboisho allows off-track driving and night drives that the reserve cannot. The stays are family-run lodges and small camps, closing on a lightweight mobile camp in the Loita Hills.

plan your safari

Daily Itinerary Breakdown

Nairobi at the Savannah's Edge

You begin in Nairobi, a highland capital where lion, black rhino and resident herds of zebra and giraffe move across grassland on the city's southern edge. With a day here you can visit the Giraffe Centre, which runs a breeding programme for Rothschild's giraffe, or the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which raises orphaned elephant calves at the park's edge. Manzili House is a Lamu-inspired family home in the Karen suburb, below the Ngong Hills, built with artisans brought up from Lamu Island. White living spaces open onto a central courtyard and pool, and the in-house chef cooks to order.

Borana Rhino Conservancy on Horseback

In the Laikipia Highlands you spend three nights on a private rhino conservancy, where the dropped boundary with neighbouring Lewa forms a single landscape of more than 92,000 acres, home to over 200 black and white rhino. Rangers monitor the animals daily and you can track individuals on foot. Because Borana is private, days go beyond drives into night drives, off-road approaches and horse riding among zebra and giraffe. Borana Lodge sits terraced above the Samangua Valley in eight cottages of local stone and cedar, with a dam below drawing elephant, giraffe and baboon through the day.

Walking the Mathews Range Forest

Four nights in the Mathews Range are spent on foot, moving through indigenous montane forest and along the seasonal Ngeng River, tracking elephant sign and following birdsong rather than a road. The forest holds more than 350 recorded bird species and over 150 kinds of butterfly, with elephant, buffalo and bushbuck in the glade below. Between walks you swim in natural rock pools and can fly-fish the streams. Kitich Camp does away with the game drive entirely; its canvas tents string along the river glade beneath the canopy, each with a veranda facing the valley.

Naboisho Conservancy off the Track

On the edge of the Maasai Mara you spend three nights in Naboisho, co-owned by more than 500 Maasai landowners, where visitor numbers and vehicle density are capped. Lion, cheetah, leopard and elephant move through the country, and guides can leave the track to follow a cheetah, something forbidden in the national reserve, with drives running on after dark and walking safaris on foot with an armed guide. Kicheche Valley Naboisho is an owner-run camp of six octagonal tents on a wooded hillside, each raised on its own platform and turned east across the valley.

The Loita Hills under Canvas

The trip closes with two nights in the Loita Hills, staying under canvas after the drive down from Naboisho. This is a lightweight mobile camp rather than a permanent property, set up for the stay and kept simple, so the country around it stays the focus. It brings the route to a quiet end in a different part of Kenya, away from the conservancies that came before, with the days shaped by where the camp is pitched.

  • Accommodation at Lightweight Mobile Camp
Ed Charles photographing wildlife

Ed Charles, BBC Producer

Fitzroy are true specialists in accessing the wilderness. They know where to go and importantly, when to go there. Highly recommended.

Ed Charles

Bafta & Emmy award winning film producer of BBC’s Planet Earth 2 and A Perfect Planet

looking for inspiration?

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Planning a journey together

our approach

remote, exclusive
& personal

Every journey starts with a conversation. We take the time to understand your vision before we start planning.

Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape something that is considered, personal, and expertly delivered.

Every journey starts with a conversation. We favour a direct, personal approach: understanding your vision before anything else.

Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape a journey that is both thoughtfully considered and expertly delivered.

Get in touch to start planning yours.

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