Kenya on your own
The savannah of the documentaries in its original version: Mara lions, elephants beneath Kilimanjaro, Rift Valley flamingos — and a steering wheel in your hands to write your own episode.
When to go
Two dry seasons: January-February and above all June-October, when the migration occupies the Mara (July to October, Mara River crossings as a bonus). The long rains (mid-March to May) turn the tracks to soap — the Mara's black cotton soil traps even Land Cruisers — and many camps close. The short rains (November-December) remain workable: late-day showers, a savannah turned green, prices and crowds down.
What it costs
The vehicle is not the heaviest line: a Land Cruiser or Hilux fitted with rooftop tent and camping kit runs €90-140/day with Nairobi's specialist rental outfits, diesel around €1.20/L. It's the parks that weigh: Masai Mara USD 100-200/person/day depending on season, KWS parks (Amboseli, Tsavo, Nakuru) USD 50-60, public campsites USD 20-35/person. Budget €4,000-6,000 for two over 15 days camping, double that in lodges.
Driving & transport
Left-hand driving, international permit required. The real dangers are on the tarmac, not in the parks: speed bumps rarely signed at the entrance to every village, unpredictable matatus (minibuses), kamikaze trucks on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, and night driving to be ruled out absolutely. Police checks are frequent but fair if your papers are in order. In the parks everything is now paid online (eCitizen, cards): no more cash at the barriers — set up payments the evening before, the network is temperamental at the gates.
Kenya invented the word safari and has never stopped being its benchmark: the wildebeest migration in the Masai Mara, Amboseli's great elephant herds posed before Kilimanjaro, the rhinos of Nakuru and Laikipia, the red elephants of Tsavo. Contrary to received wisdom, all of it works beautifully as a self-drive: a 4x4 with a rooftop tent, the KWS public campsites, and the tracks become your lodge.
The country lends itself to a proper loop: Nairobi, the spectacular descent into the Rift Valley, the lakes, the Mara, then Amboseli and the Tsavos down to the Indian Ocean — Diani to park the rooftop tent, Lamu to finish outside of time. Allow two to three weeks, a GPS loaded with offline maps (Tracks4Africa) and an amused tolerance for speed bumps, matatus and zebu cattle on the tarmac.
The destinations that matter
6No. 013 to 4 nightsMasai MaraAfrica's densest big-cat savannah, and from July to October the greatest wildlife spectacle on the planet: the Mara never oversells.
No. 022 nightsAmboseliElephants with immense tusks wading a green marsh, and behind them the snowy roof of Africa: Amboseli is the photograph the whole world carries in its head.No. 032 to 3 nightsLakes Nakuru and NaivashaA fault tearing the continent apart, lakes pink with flamingos, rhinos beneath yellow acacias — and a park you visit by bicycle among the zebras.No. 042 to 3 nightsTsavo East and WestTwo parks the size of a country, elephants dyed red by the laterite, and tracks where you drive for hours without meeting a soul: Tsavo is the Kenya of immensities.No. 052 nightsLaikipia PlateauFormer colonial ranches turned laboratory of African conservation: Laikipia holds more rhinos than anywhere else in East Africa — and the world's last two northern white rhino females.No. 064 to 5 nightsSwahili coast: Diani and LamuAfter the dust of the parks, the Indian Ocean: Diani's white sand, Lamu's thousand-year alleys, dhows under triangular sails — the Swahili reward of the journey.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“Kenya on Your Own”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
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