4 days in the Maasai Mara & Lake Nakuru, Kenya: how to plan a low cost African safari
Everyone has ever dreamed of going on an African safari. Every year, from honeymooners to intrepid travellers venture into the African savannah to explore nature at its purest state. However, an African safari is not in everyone’s budget. Always thought to be one of the most expensive trips, the truth is that you can visit the African parks for very affordable prices if you do some research.
During my trip to Kenya, I took a 4 day safari leaving from Nairobi and visiting the Maasai Mara, the most popular park in the country for safaris, and Lake Nakuru, an indispensable visit to see aquatic animals and beautiful birds. Check out this post to learn how to plan a safari in Kenya for less than €100 per day!
How to plan a low-cost safari in Kenya
Since I was a child, I’ve always had a passion for animals. Together with my love for travelling, doing an African safari had always been a dream. Well known as a very expensive honeymoon destination, I always thought that this would be one of my most expensive trips.
When I found an online offer for flights from Dublin to Nairobi for only €400, I immediately started researching how much a safari leaving from the Kenyan capital would cost. I had just come back from a trip and had a couple of others already organised, so my budget wasn’t very high.
Lion in Maasai Mara
When I started looking online, I noticed that most of the sites that appear online are targeted towards more expensive experiences, with high-end accommodation during the safari. However, if you research some more you will be able to find some identical safaris with cheaper accommodation that decreased drastically in prices, starting at less than €300 in total per person.
I contacted a few companies but I finally decided to book a 4-day Maasai Mara and Lake Nakuru safari with GetYourGuide. With over 50,000 activities and tours all around the worlds, including guided tours, day trips, entry tickets for major attractions and even food and cultural experiences, GetYourGuide is one of the best options to book your safari or any other activity during your time in Kenya.
I’ve partnered with GetYourGuide to offer my readers the best deals, so if you’d like to book your safari for the best prices, you should check them out! Some of their top rated safaris are:
This safari included accommodation in a mid-range camp with shared tents. I was travelling solo, so I didn’t mind sharing with another person. My tentmate was a very nice English guy and the experience was great.
The tents are very well equipped with beds, mosquito nets and a toilet with hot water. The camp was run by members of the Maasai tribe, which made the stay even more special. Food was included, and the safari included 4 different game drives. The itinerary that I followed is the following:
Day 1: Nairobi - Maasai Mara
After breakfast, pick up from the hotel at 8:00 am and drive west for Maasai Mara Game Reserve with lunch en route, arriving in time for evening game drive. Dinner and overnight at the Camp (with hot showers and flush toilets). Lunch and dinner included.
Day 2: Maasai Mara Full Day
After breakfast, proceed on a full day of game viewing within the reserve. Break for your picnic lunch at the hippo pool, looking out for hippos and crocodiles. Dinner and overnight at the Camp. All meals included.
Day 3: Maasai Mara -Lake Nakuru
Early morning pre-breakfast game drive. After breakfast, depart the Mara region for Nakuru, lunch en route. Dinner and overnight at the budget hotel with self contained rooms. All meals included.
Day 4: Lake Nakuru - Nairobi
After breakfast, depart for a game drive in Lake Nakuru, later drive to Nairobi with lunch en route arriving in the afternoon. Breakfast and lunch included.
Maasai tribe
As you can see, a pretty much all-inclusive visit for less than €100 is actually a great deal. You’d pay almost that price for a hotel in most European capitals!
If you’re lucky enough to get a good deal for flights, you’ll be able to organise a 5-day visit to Kenya for less than what you would spend in an all-inclusive resort in a mainstream Mediterranean city!
Some tricks to find cheaper prices, apart from booking a group tour with shared accommodation (if you’re travelling solo), is to go offseason.
Many people go to the Maasai Mara or the Serengeti in Tanzania to see the wildebeest migration, when thousands of wildebeest cross the river from Tanzania into Kenya, one of the most mouth-dropping events in nature.
Lions in the Maasai Mara
This migration usually takes place between late July to August, or when they return south in the last two weeks of October through early November. If you go like me in Mid November, you may not see the migration but it is still a great time to visit Kenya and save some money.
Going for a game drive in the middle of the Maasai Mara National Reserve is one of the most incredible experiences that I’ve ever had.
The accelerated heartbeat when the jeep starts driving full speed towards a certain direction because they’ve been told by radio that a big animal has been spotted is one of the most fascinating things that I’ve ever felt while travelling.
Day 1: from Nairobi to the Maasai Mara
I arrived in Nairobi the previous night so that I could be rested and ready to for the long drive to the Maasai Mara the next morning.
I booked the Mvuli Suites Hotel, located quite centrical in Nairobi just next to the National Museum. To reach the hotel, I booked a transfer with Nairobi Airpot Transfers for a cost of $20. Nairobi is not the safest city, so I preferred booking my transfer in advance instead of having to find a taxi at the airport. The driver was waiting for me just outside the arrivals of the airport with a sign that had my name.
I woke up early in the morning for a wonderful buffet breakfast. My driver picked me up at the lobby early in the morning to join the rest of the group and start a 5h30m drive to the Maasai Mara. We were about 15 people, not too many, and most of us would stay together until the end of the trip. Some fellow travellers didn’t visit Lake Nakuru, while some others continued to the Amboseli National Park.
The first stop of the day took place after 1h30m for a panoramic viewpoint with incredible views of the Great Rift Valley. With a length of 6,000 km, it runs from Lebanon in Asia all the way to Mozambique in Africa. The views were truly gorgeous!
Skyscrapers in Nairobi
Sign
Great Rift Valley
View of the valley
Centre of the valley
Houses by the cliffs
The trip to the Maasai Mara seems endless; even though there’s only 255km between the park and the Kenyan capital, the roads are in such a poor state that it takes almost double than it should to reach the Maasai Mara. Especially towards the end, roads are no longer paved and become dirt, forming a massive cloud of dust around the car.
On the way, you will be able to pass by multiple villages that will really make you feel like you’re in real Africa. Contrary to the skyscrapers of Nairobi, seeing these villages seems like travelling back in time, as unfortunately the poverty and simpler way of living is quite evident.
Village outside of Nairobi
City on the way to the Maasai Mara
Cattle
Rural Kenya
We arrived in our camp in the late afternoon, and after getting assigned a tent and leaving our stuff, we headed to our first game drive to enjoy the sunset at the Maasai Mara. Here is where my safari really started!
As soon as we entered the park, we started spotting dozens of gazelles, zebras and wildebeests, living in complete wildness without any human settlements around.
The first felines that we saw were a couple of cheetahs. Our driver told us how they were brothers and one of them had got hurt on the eye, so the other cheetah was taking care of him while he recovered. I find cheetahs particularly beautiful, so the fact that it was the first feline that I saw was quite special.
Entering the Maasai Mara
Gazelles
Zebras
Maasai Mara
Wildebeest
Gazelles
Cheetahs
Cheetah stretching
Two cheetahs
Cheetah taking care of his brother
Cheetah sitting
Cheetah laying down
Our driver suddenly started driving full speed in a different direction. At that point, I had no idea of what was going on, until I saw the pride of lionesses with their cubs that were standing right in front of us. We would see more lions later in the evening just when the sun was setting, which gave me some incredible shot opportunities!
Some other animals that we spotted that evening were the giraffe, and one of my favourites: the elephant. I had already spent some time with elephants in a camp in Thailand, but quite different from the Asian elephant, the African elephant is even more imposing; it was almost scary to see them crossing the road so close to where I was!
As we were heading back to the camp, a breathtaking view of the sun hiding behind the mountains would wave us goodbye. We had already seen one of the big five in the first evening, but the next day we still had a full day hunting game in the Masai Mara!
Young lion with his mother
Lioness
Lion sitting in the Maasai Mara
Elephants
Giraffe with two zebras
Group of elephants at sunset
Lion yawning
Young lion at sunset
Young lion with his mother
Sunset at the Maasai Mara
Day 2: full day game drive in the Maasai Mara
My second day in the Maasai Mara consisted of a full day hunting game in the park. The previous day I had already seen two of the big five, the lion and the elephant, so I was hoping to see some others during that entire day exploring the park.
We were quite lucky that morning, as as soon as we entered the park we manage to spot a pride of lionesses. They had already gone hunting, so they were quite calm and they walked very close to us. Just a few moments later we found the buffalo, my third of the big five.
Lioness
Buffalos
African savannah
We continued driving for a few hours and managed to spot some multiple birds, as well as giraffes, an ostrich and again, some elephants.
Just next to the elephants we suddenly spotted a pack of hyenas, which meant that they had found the rests of a dead animal that had been hunted just a few moments before.
And in effect, there we saw a dead wildebeest, which was now surrounded by vultures. Not too far from it, hidden between the trees was a male lion resting on the shadow. It was probably this male lion who had captured and eaten the wildebeest that now the hyenas and the vultures were finishing.
Giraffe
Group of giraffes
Ostrich
Family of elephants
Dead wildebeest
Hyenas
Hyenas waiting to eat
Vultures
Sleeping male lion
After seeing another cheeta as well as some more elephants and buffalos, we stopped for lunch. In the camp they had prepared some sandwiches and food for us, so we extended a blanket on the ground and sit down to enjoy our food.
It was kinda terrifying to think that we were in the middle African savannah surrounded by wild animals, but our driver assured us that this spot was safe. It was quite open with no vegetation around, so it was almost impossible for animals to hide and all we saw were some zebras around us.
Cheetah
Baby elephant and its mother
Buffalo looking right at me
After lunch, we headed to the hippo pool to try and spot crocodiles and of course, the hippos. This is the famous place where the Mara River crossing takes place, when twice a year over 1.5 million wildebeest, gazelle and zebras follow a circular migratory route from the Serengeti and Maasai Mara. In this river, all type of predators wait for the migration to hunt their victims.
As we left the hippo pool, we finally spotted the fourth of the big five: a black rhino. Rhinos are one of the hardest animals to see in a safari, not only because they are critically endangered but also because they are a bit more shy than other species. We only managed to see them from the distance before they disappeared into the vegetation.
Not too far from the river, we stopped at what is considered the frontier between Kenya and Tanzania. Since the border is in the middle of the national park, there is actually no hard border whatsoever: only a stone marks the place where both countries are divided.
For the rest of the day, we continue driving and spotted the very funny warthog, famous for being Pumba in the Disney film ‘The Lion King’. We also managed to see the less common waterbuck, some more elephants and a lion resting on the shadow before heading back to the camp.
Black rhino in the distance
Border between Kenya and Tanzania
Caterpillar
View of Tanzania form the Kenyan side of the Masaai Mara
Warthogs
Waterbuck
Day 3: Early morning game drive in the Maasai Mara
On my last day in the Maasai Mara, we woke up before the sunrise to go on an early morning hunt game. The early morning is one of the best times of the day to visit the park, as most animals will be hunting their food for the day.
As soon as we accessed the park, we came across a pig esplanade full of wildebeests that were being surrounded by two cheetahs. This was one of the most exciting moments of my safari, with the two felines hiding and jumping to bite the wildebeests at the slightest opportunity. I kinda felt sorry for the poor wildebeests but the whole situation was quite exciting!
The whole ceremony took a good hour, and even though one of the cheetahs managed to bite one of the wildebeest’s neck, it managed to escape and the cheetahs had to leave without any food. A couple of lionesses joined a few moments later, but they also didn’t manage to hunt.
Entrance to the Maasai Mara
We drove for the rest of the morning trying to spot the only animal left from the big 5: the leopard, but unfortunately, we couldn’t see any. Lake Nakuru is home to some leopards, so I still had some chances!
In spite of this, before starting our drive to the lake we still managed to see impalas and two golden-crowned cranes, as well as a big group of lions that walked very close to us.
After more than 6 hours, we finally reached Lake Nakuru. Part of our group continued driving to Nairobi, but some of us would stay overnight in a hotel near the lake for a hunting game the next day. After 2 nights sleeping in a tent in the middle of the savannah, it was nice to spend the night in a comfortable hotel!
Golden-crowned cranes
Impalas
Day 4: Lake Nakurua
Lake Nakuru is one of the lakes of the Great Rift Valley. Filled with dozens of animal species, this lake is famous for the big migration of flamingos, when thousands of them go to the lake and cover their waters in pink.
But before trying to find the flamingos, we took a boat to navigate across the lake and enjoy some of the many species that live here. One of them is the hippos, one of the most dangerous animals when doing a safari. Every year, there are attacks to tourists by this ferocious animal that tend to end up in tragedy. There were quite a lot of them on the lake, but we got as close as we could without putting ourselves at risk.
The lake is also one of the best spots in Kenya to go bird watching: from different types of pelicans, cormorant, ibis, ducks and even eagles, don’t forget to look up during your visit!
Pelicans
Cormorant
Hippos in Lake Nakuru
After our boat cruise, we headed to the upper side of the lake to see what most visitors go to Lake Nakuru for: the flamingos. There weren’t that many flamingos during my visit, mainly because it was offseason, so my views were far from the huge pink lake that I had seen in pictures. However, there were still quite a lot of flamingos in the lake, which gave me an idea of this great spectacle.
The viewpoint was surrounded by baboons, which pretty much ignored us during our visit. Very different from the aggressive monkeys that I had encountered in India! Also lying on the sun there were two very cute capybaras. They almost went unseen, camouflaged on the ground!
Capybaras sunbathing
Before heading back to Nairobi, we drove along the lake trying to spot some other animals when very far in the distance we manage to spot one of the rarest animals that you can see in a safari: the white rhino. Considered today a threatened species, they reached this status due to the uncontrolled hunting that unfortunately sometimes still takes place today.
We did not manage to find a leopard (hopefully in my next safari!) but we did see a young male lion, as well as multiple zebras and a jackal.
White rhinos in the distance
Young male lion
Jackal
Zebras crossing Lake Nakuru
An African Safari is one of the most fascinating trips that one can ever do. If you’re being put off by the price of this type of trips, as I’ve covered there are actually some low-cost option that will allow you to enjoy the incredible wildlife of Kenya for the price of a one-week holiday in Europe.
Definitely an experience that you should live at least once in your life!
All opinions are my own.
