The trip
Overview
The Masai Mara delivers the safari most people carry in their imagination — open savannah to every horizon, lion prides operating in daylight, and between roughly July and October the migration herds crossing the Mara River under the gaze of very patient crocodiles. This ten-night route gives the Mara four nights, brackets it with Nairobi, and finishes with five nights on Zanzibar, where the Indian Ocean runs shallow and warm over white sand.
From the UAE the logistics are kind: direct flights serve both Nairobi and Zanzibar, so the route flies into one and home from the other with a single regional connection in between. In the Mara you stay at a tented camp — canvas in the honest sense, with proper beds, hot showers and a mess tent that produces dinners the bush has no right to expect.
Zanzibar adds a culture the pure beach islands lack: Stone Town's carved doors and spice-trade history, a spice-farm morning, and grilled seafood eaten with your feet in the sand.
Highlights
- ✦Four nights in a tented camp on the Masai Mara
- ✦Twice-daily game drives among lion, cheetah, elephant and — in season — the migration
- ✦Optional dawn balloon flight over the savannah
- ✦Stone Town's alleys, carved doors and spice-trade history
- ✦Spice-farm tour and a Swahili seafood dinner
- ✦Five nights on Zanzibar's white-sand east or north coast
Who it suits
- ●First-time safari travellers who want the iconic East African version
- ●Couples and honeymooners pairing adrenaline with recovery
- ●Photographers — the Mara's light and sightlines are unmatched
Why this journey works
- ✓Direct UAE flights at both ends make an ambitious route surprisingly simple
- ✓Four Mara nights give the wildlife time to perform rather than pose
- ✓Zanzibar adds history and spice-trade culture to the beach recovery
- ✓Light-aircraft transfers turn transit into sightseeing
Day by day
Day 1
Dubai to Nairobi
Fly direct from Dubai to Nairobi — around five hours — and overnight at a comfortable hotel in the leafy Karen or Westlands districts. If the schedule allows, an afternoon visit to an elephant-orphanage project or the Karen Blixen Museum settles you into East Africa.
Days 2–5
The Masai Mara — four nights under canvas
A forty-five-minute light-aircraft flight lands you on a dirt strip in the Mara, where your guide waits with the Land Cruiser. The days follow the animals: out at first light when the cats are working, back for late breakfast, out again as the heat fades. Expect lion and elephant daily, cheetah often, rhino and leopard with persistence. The optional balloon flight — dawn drift, champagne breakfast in the grass — is worth its considerable fee once in a lifetime. Nights are lamplit dinners and the distant percussion of hippos.
Days 6–10
Zanzibar — spice island exhale
Fly from the Mara through Nairobi to Zanzibar. Begin with a guided half-day in Stone Town — the House of Wonders façade, the old fort, the market's controlled chaos — then transfer to the coast: Nungwi and Kendwa in the north for swimmable tides all day, or the east coast's reef lagoons for barefoot quiet. A spice-farm morning and a sunset dhow cruise punctuate what is otherwise pure beach recovery.
Day 11
Home from the island
Direct flight from Zanzibar back to the UAE, arriving the same evening — one of the few safari-and-beach routes with no backtracking at all.
When to go
July to October is migration season in the Mara and the busiest, priciest window; January to March offers superb resident game with fewer vehicles. The long rains around April and May soften both safari tracks and Zanzibar beaches, so we generally route around them. Zanzibar is at its driest June to October and December to February.
Planning around seasons, regions and style? Read the full Kenya destination guide →
What’s included
- ✓Return flights from Dubai or Abu Dhabi, into Nairobi and home from Zanzibar
- ✓Light-aircraft flights Nairobi–Mara and the regional leg to Zanzibar
- ✓Full board and shared game drives at the tented camp
- ✓Five nights in a Zanzibar beach hotel with breakfast
- ✓Stone Town guided half-day and spice-farm tour
- ✓PCT travel consultant support before and during travel
Not included
- —Visas where required
- —Travel insurance
- —Balloon safari unless quoted
- —Park and conservancy fees where not stated
- —Meals not stated
- —Personal spending
Ways to extend it
- +Add two nights at an Amboseli camp beneath Kilimanjaro
- +Include the dawn balloon safari with champagne breakfast
- +Extend Zanzibar with three nights on a private islet
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