Kenya Safaris: GRAND KENYA

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ITINERARY AT A GLANCE

ITINERARY DETAILS

Day 1 Nairobi
Arrival at Jomo Kenyatta Airport, met and assisted by a tour representative. Transfer to your hotel. Rest of the day is spent at leisure in Nairobi. Overnight at The Norfolk Hotel or similar (BB )

Day 2 Mount Kenya National Park
After breakfast drive to the world famous Mt. Kenya Safari Club founded by William Holden. On a clear day you will see the magnificent mountain in its full splendor. The club offers glorious views of the mountain and forest, delightful gardens, a 9-hole golf course and a splendid colonial-style ambience with roaring log fires. Arrive for lunch at your lodge. Afternoon at leisure enjoying the clubs facilities.
Meals and overnight at Mt Kenya Safari Club (LDBB)

Day 3 Mt Kenya National Park/ Sweetwaters Widlife Sanctuary
Drive to the Sweetwater's Wildlife Sanctuary for morning game drive. The reserve is also home to the only chimpanzee sanctuary in Kenya. Return to Mt Kenya Safafi Club for lunch. Afternoon at leisure. Meals and overnight at Mt Kenya Safari Club (LDBB)

Day 4 Samburu National Reserve
After breakfast, drive to the Samburu National Reserve. Rugged and remote, this wildlife reserve provides some of the best and most colourful game viewing in the country.Arrive for lunch at your lodge. Afternoon game drive until sunset.
Meals and overnight at Samburu Sopa Lodge ( LDBB)

Day 5 Samburu National Reserve
Full day in Samburu with morning and afternoon game drives. Meals and overnight at Samburu Sopa Lodge (LDBB)

Day 6 Aberdare National Park
After breakfast drive to the lush foothills of the Aberdare Mountain Range to the Aberdares Country Club for lunch. After lunch transfer to The Ark (children under 7yrs not permitted, light bags only) overlooking a waterhole and salt lick where the 'Big Five' occasionally gather for an exhilarating night of wild encounters. The Ark comprises three decks from which numerous balconies and lounges provide superb vantage points for game viewing. Dinner and overnight at The Ark (LDBB)

Day 7 Lake Naivasha / Lake Nakuru National Park
After breakfast, drive via Nyahururu to Lake Naivasha with its commanding setting at the foot of the Rift Valley Escarpment. Lake Naivasha is also an important horticultural area of Kenya. Arrive for lunch at your lodge. Afternoon drive to Lake Nakuru National Park, famous as the home to thousands of greater and lesser flamingo. The park also provides sanctuary for Rothschild giraffe, rhino and leopard. Afternoon game drive in the park. Return to your lodge in Naivasha in the evening. Meals and overnight at Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge ( LDBB )

Day 8 Masai Mara National G.R
Drive via Narok to the Masai Mara National Reserve offering wonderful scenery and plenty of game. It is perhaps the only region left in Kenya where the visitor may see animals in the same super-abundance as existed a century ago. Afternoon game drive. Mara Sopa Lodge LDBB

Day 9 Masai Mara National G.R
Early morning optional balloon ride with champagne-style breakfast. Whole day in Masai Mara with morning and afternoon game drives. Meals and overnight at Mara Sopa Lodge ( LDBB )

Day 10 Amboseli National Park
After breakfast, drive to Nairobi for lunch at a Nairobi restaurant. Afternoon proceed to the Amboseli National Park, lying below the most famous symbol of Africa, Mt Kilimanjaro. Afternoon game drive en-route to your lodge. Dinner and overnight at Amboseli Sopa Lodge (L-DBB )

Day 11 Amboseli National Park
Day spent in Amboseli National Park with morning and afternoon game drives. Meals and overnight at Amboseli Sopa Lodge ( LDBB )

Day 12 Departure
After breakfast, drive to Nairobi and drop off at your hotel or Jomo Kenyatta Airport for your departure flight back home. A tour representative will re-confirm your onward flight, and assist you at check-in.

ACCOMMODATION INFORMATION

The Norfolk Hotel
The exterior of the Norfolk Hotel has changed little since the colonial era. Timbered walls covered in vines and creepers, the taxi rank with old London cabs queuing to take guests where they will, look much the same as they did in the old photographs that chart the history of Kenya. Opened on Christmas Day 1904, (and still justifiably famous for its Christmas Morning cocktail party) the Norfolk has hosted such luminaries as Lord Delamere, Theodore Roosevelt and Karen Blixen. Now expensively refurbished the hotel still retains a sense of history. The new reception areas of the Norfolk Hotel are light, bright and immediately welcoming. Ceiling fans, cane chairs, plump animal-print cushions and deep sofas combine with locally sourced woods to create a tranquil ambience with echoes of the colonial period in which the Norfolk featured so strongly. However, not all is new - the long case clock in the hall, for example, was presented to the hotel by the drivers in the Nairobi to Johannesburg Race on 26th October, 1936.

The Ibis Restaurant, at the Norfolk, is renowned locally for its innovative use of the best and freshest of ingredients Kenya has to offer. The executive chef ensures that the chefs gain experience in the finest hotels and restaurants in Europe. The cosmopolitan cuisine features classic and new dishes exquisitely prepared, and finely tuned as to seasoning and accompaniments.

Accommodation at the Norfolk varies from large opulent suites to smaller, more intimate rooms. All are beautifully furnished and many look out onto the hotel's lovely gardens. The grounds are immaculate and profusely planted with indigenous plants. Artifacts from the hotel's history are dotted around including a sedan chair from the colonial era. The Norfolk Hotel offers all the comforts of a modern first class hotel yet combines it with an intriguing sense of history.

Mount Kenya Safari Club
The Mount Kenya Safari Club was founded in 1959 by William Holden, the late film star, highly eccentric American Ray Ryan and Carl Hirschmann, a Swiss financier. From the outset it attracted a cosmopolitan and glamorous clientele - those connected with Hollywood and the royalty and jet set who found the Hollywood connection irresistible. The Club still retains a strong sense of history and, unlike many hotels, has not swept away the old in favor of the new. The William Holden cottages retain an ambience recalling the 1950's glamour that is now so fashionable - huge french windows, white terrace furniture, and large cozy sofas in the central sitting room. The Riverside suites are more modern and very private, with vaulted ceilings and riverfront sites. The roaring fires, fuelled by huge logs that are lit every evening in the cottages add considerably to the feeling of soothing relaxation experienced by the visitor.

The huge grounds at the Club are absolutely fabulous! Immaculately kept, abundant with beautiful blooming shrubs and trees, dotted with ponds and lakes, and alive with marabou storks, little egrets and peacocks, they stretch verdantly into the distance with the dramatic bulk of Mount Kenya behind. A beautiful pool, surrounded by colonial style cane furniture, also has the mountain as its backdrop. Often wreathed in cloud it appears from time to time allowing the observer a sense of privilege. The main club building is dotted with memorabilia - huge trophy heads from the days when hunting was permitted and photographs of famous actors, actresses and various luminaries, from the past up to the present day, adorn the walls.

The Ark
Set in the heart of the Aberdare National Park, this unique game lodge overlooks a floodlit waterhole and salt lick which attracts a host of wildlife: elephant; rhino; leopard; bushbuck and occasionally an elusive bongo or giant forest hog. Resembling, and named after, Noah's Ark, the Ark comprises three decks from which numerous balconies and lounges provide superb vantage points for game viewing. A ground level bunker provides excellent photographic opportunities and takes you closer than you would believe possible to the animals.
Comfortable en- suite cabins are fitted with buzzers to announce the arrival of one of the "Big Five"; at the water hole. Before embarking on the half-hour drive to The Ark, lunch is served at the charming Aberdares Country Club. Dinner and breakfast are served on board!

Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge
Set on 200 acres of Lake Naivasha's southern shoreline in Africa's Great Rift Valley, the resort blends in perfectly with its natural surroundings. Being one of Kenya's most upmarket destinations, it is the ideal base from which to explore the surrounding countryside and nearby National Parks and wildlife sanctuaries. Double storied cottages offer extremely spacious rooms with en suite bathrooms and either balconies or solariums. Spacious rooms with ensuite bathroom, private lounge and balcony. Each room boasts two queen-size beds with mosquito nets on all windows. Facilities include: swimming pool, children's pool, nature walks, fitness centre, Telephone, Hairdryers, 3 Bars and babysitting facilities. Minimum temperatures of 11 degrees Celsius and maximums of 32 degrees. The short rains fall between November and December and the long rains between April and May.

Mara Sopa Lodge
The Masai Mara is one of the most famous game viewing areas in Africa. Large herds of game, including the amazing Great Migration of wildebeest and zebra, are still found here. Masai Mara Sopa Lodge is set in the Oloolaimutia Valley and blends perfectly with the surrounding hillside landscape. The lodge is located 206 km south of the Equator on the eastern boundary of the Masai Mara Game Reserve in southwestern Kenya, 2km from the Oloolaimutia Gate. The accent here is on the indigenous Masai people and the fabulous wealth of wildlife, birdlife and natural flora. Luxuriously appointed bedrooms, a refreshing swimming pool, a boutique and gift shop, wildlife films and CNN all ensure that your stay will be blissfully comfortable.

The lodge has 77 rooms, 12 suites and 1 Presidential suite, all of which are 'rondavel' style and have en-suite bathroom facilities which provide shaving sockets and hairdryers. Every room and suite has a private, elevated verandah with splendid views across the valley. Here guests can relax, sunbathe and watch resident birds and wildlife. Mini-bars are also available in each room. Like all pools at other Sopa lodges, the free-form swimming pool here too has a stunning location, overlooking the Oloolaimutia Valley.

Amboseli Sopa Lodge
Located at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, the lodge is set in expansive and mature wooded gardens that face Africa's highest mountain. Built within the area of 190 acres of Masai country, it is an ideal holiday base from which to enjoy numerous pursuits. Spacious cottage style rooms with en suite bathrooms and verandas. All rooms have mosquito nets on windows. Facilities Available: Swimming Pool, Children's Pool, Mountain Climbs, Masai Dancing, Board Games, Hairdryers, 3 Bars, Conference Facilities and Babysitting facilities are also available.

Special groups can enjoy private lunches at our shaded, outdoor bar-b-cue or starlit dinners beside the swimming pool. Minimum temperatures of 11 degrees Celsius and maximums of 32 degrees. The short rains fall between November and December and the long rains between April and May.