10 days Kenya budget — Amboseli, Nakuru & the Masai Mara

Kenya is where the idea of a safari was born. The wide skies, the red dust roads, the Maasai standing motionless on one leg watching a herd pass — it all looks exactly like you imagined, and then the real thing arrives and the imagined version falls away entirely.

This is a ten-day journey through three of Kenya’s best parks. The wildlife doesn’t change based on what you paid for your tent. The elephants under Kilimanjaro are the same elephants. The lions in the Mara don’t check your accommodation grade before they make a kill.

We run this itinerary through a trusted partner operator based in Nairobi — people we know personally and whose standards match our own. One booking, one point of contact, no hand-offs.

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Day 1 – Arrival in Nairobi

Arrive at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Your transfer to the hotel in Nairobi is waiting. If you land early enough and have the energy, the Giraffe Centre and the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage are both worth an afternoon — a gentle introduction to the wildlife before the real thing begins.

Nairobi doesn’t need to cost much. A clean, central guesthouse puts you close to everything you need for an early departure the next morning.

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Day 2 – Nairobi → Amboseli National Park

A 4.5-hour drive south brings you to Amboseli, and to what is arguably the most iconic view in Africa: elephants moving across a dusty plain with the full mass of Mount Kilimanjaro rising behind them. On a clear morning — and mornings here are often clear — the mountain fills the entire horizon.

Budget camps sit just outside the park boundary, which keeps costs down without significantly affecting the experience. The animals don’t stop at the fence line.

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Day 3 – Amboseli Full Day

A full day in the park. Morning drive when the light is low and the elephants are moving. Midday rest at camp — it gets warm. Afternoon drive as the temperature drops and the predators become active.

The swamps at the centre of the park draw everything. Elephants drinking and bathing, buffalo grazing the edges, pelicans overhead. If you want to visit a Maasai village today, we arrange it through a community that actually benefits from the visit — not a performance for tourists.

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Day 4 – Amboseli → Lake Nakuru National Park

A drive of around five hours north through the Rift Valley escarpment — one of the great geological features of East Africa, visible for miles in every direction. It’s a full transit day. You arrive at Lake Nakuru in the afternoon.

Budget accommodation near Nakuru is solid. You’re here for the park, not the lodge, and the park delivers.

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Day 5 – Lake Nakuru Full Day

Lake Nakuru’s flamingos are the famous draw — thousands of them, sometimes tens of thousands, turning the lake edge pink from a distance. But Nakuru is also one of the better places in Kenya to see both black and white rhino. The park has a successful breeding population and sightings are reliable. Rothschild giraffe — one of the most endangered giraffe subspecies — are here too.

A full day gives you morning and afternoon drives in completely different light.

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Day 6 – Lake Nakuru → Masai Mara National Reserve

Around four to five hours on the road via Narok. You arrive at the Masai Mara in the afternoon and do a game drive on the way to camp. The Mara announces itself immediately — lions visible from the road, cheetah on termite mounds, the horizon broken by acacia and wildebeest in every direction.

Budget camps sit just outside the reserve boundary near the Oloolaimutia Gate — a short drive to the action, clean tents, decent food, no unnecessary extras.

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Day 7 & 8 – Masai Mara Full Days

Two full days in the Mara. Morning drives when the cats are hunting. Afternoons following a cheetah or watching a hyena clan work a carcass. Sundowners on the plains.

If the Great Migration is in season — July through October — the Mara River crossings are happening and we position you for them. This is one of the great wildlife spectacles on earth and it costs the same to watch it from a budget camp as it does from a luxury one.

The hot air balloon at sunrise is available and worth it if your budget stretches that far. Book it in advance.

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Day 9 – Masai Mara → Nairobi

A final morning drive before the road back to Nairobi. The drive takes most of the day. Overnight in the city — a clean guesthouse, a proper meal, time to process ten days of bush.

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Day 10 – Departure

Transfer to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for your international flight.

Combining Kenya with Tanzania? The two countries share the same ecosystem across the border — the Masai Mara and the Serengeti are one continuous landscape divided by a line on a map. We plan the combined trip seamlessly from both sides.

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Key Facts

Feature	Details
Duration	10 days / 9 nights
Best Season	July – October (Migration) or January – March
Parks Visited	Amboseli, Lake Nakuru, Masai Mara
Transport	Private 4×4 Land Cruiser with pop-up roof
Accommodation	Budget tented camps (outside parks) + Nairobi guesthouses
Extensions	Zanzibar, Tanzania northern circuit, Diani Beach
Price	From USD 225 per person per day — final price depends on group size and season. Minimum 2 guests. Peak season (July–December) carries higher Masai Mara fees. Contact us for a quote based on your dates and party size.