The Great Migration Safari

The Great Migration is one of the most awe-inspiring wildlife spectacles on the planet, when 1.5 million wildebeest, gazelle, and zebra are on the move across the Serengeti. Our fantastic safari combines the best of Tanzania and Kenya’s celebrated gamelands, with superbly sited camps on the fabled Serengeti Plains and the green and lush Masai Mara. This is the Africa of the imagination: thrilling gameviewing each day, and the delights of safari life to savor in camp—superb meals by candlelight and crackling campfires with a million stars overhead. The famed Ngorongoro Crater, Elephant Bedroom Camp in palm-fringed Samburu, and Mbweha Camp, a cozy gem near flamingo-thronged Lake Nakuru in the Great Rift Valley, are all part of this wonderful journey.

Itinerary at a Glance

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Days 1-3
Nairobi, Kenya / Samburu National Reserve (February departure)

We fly north to Samburu and our intimate, riverside Elephant Bedroom Camp, where game drives in open-sided 4WD vehicles bring us trumpeting elephants, shy impalas feeding at water’s edge, and baboons and vervet monkeys swinging through the tree canopy. The camp’s spacious tents, set high on stilt platforms, have fantastic river views—the wildlife walks right through this special camp.

Days 4-6
Lake Nakuru National Park

Tucked away in the vastness of the Great Rift Valley, Mbweha Camp is in the private Soysambu Conservancy near Lake Nakuru. We enjoy bush walks, day and nighttime game drives, and savor the African-style cottages with private outdoor bathtubs. Lake Nakuru, a soda lake, is famed for its thousands of flamingos but there’s excellent lion- and rhino-viewing, too.

Days 7-8
Masai Mara National Reserve

Everything about the Mara is spectacular, from its sheer beauty to its renowned abundance of wildlife. Huge year-round populations of plains game guarantee great sightings of the dominant predators: lion, leopard, and cheetah. Our inviting six-tent camp, Mara Ngenche, is at the confluence of the Mara and Talek Rivers.

Days 9-10
Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

In famed Ngorongoro, we overnight at a lodge on the crater rim for an unforgettable safari in a breathtaking setting. On the 105-square-mile grassy crater floor lives Africa's largest permanent concentration of wildlife, a sort of mini-Serengeti. As exploring by 4WD vehicle, we are likely to see elephant, zebra, wildebeest, and buffalo, and there's hardly a better place on earth for observing lions than on the crater floor, where prides are large.

Days 11-14
Serengeti Plains Migration

The massive herds of wildebeest and zebra return to the short grass plains of the Serengeti. This is calving time, and the drama of predator and prey is at its height. At Alamana, our extraordinary private camp on Masai lands, we witness this epic wildlife spectacle, as lions, cheetahs, hyenas, and leopards play out a battle of life and death with their prey. Our exclusive activities include off-road travel and night drives—not allowed inside the park—and our interactions with Masai add to our phenomenal adventure. Depart on Day 14 from Kilimanjaro Airport in Arusha.

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What the Trip is Like

The trip is rated Level 2+, moderate. This is a deluxe camping and lodge safari with gameviewing by 4WD vehicle and nature walks that can be enjoyed by anyone in reasonably good health. There are a few long driving days over rough roads and rugged dirt tracks. Although this is not a particularly rigorous trip, we recommend that each participant undertake a preparatory program of physical conditioning. Daily walking or regular hiking, jogging, and stair-climbing are excellent for preparing for the trip. Any African safari is an adventure, and the traveler to Africa should bring along flexibility, a sense of humor, curiosity about new peoples and places, and an openness to the unexpected.

Explanation of Trip Levels