Family Trip to Kenya

Touch down in Nairobi to start your extraordinary journey. Step off the jetway for a warm welcome and be escorted through immigration and luggage collection. A driver transports you to a leafy suburb where you’ll arrive at Karen Blixen Coffee Garden & Cottages (featured in the film Out of Africa). Enjoy a restful sleep after your long travel day in a spacious, standalone cottage that feels like a home-away-from-home.

A second, full day in Nairobi is a soft landing with which to fall into East Africa’s rhythms. After an unhurried garden breakfast, you’re taken to AFEW Giraffe Centre to hand-feed endangered Rothschild giraffes. Next, milk cows and sample artisanal cheese at Brown's Cheese, followed by a farm-to-table lunch. Return to the cottage for a laid-back afternoon where the kids make mischief on manicured lawns or splash in the pool.

Fly to the Mara North Conservancy, a private reserve boasting the magic of the Maasai Mara without the crowds. Settle into a self-contained bush home at Basecamp Mara Houses where a dedicated service team takes the load off parents, putting you at ease. Later, take your first thrilling family game drive. The moment your child locks eyes with their first lion is a memory they’ll hold their entire life.

A private guide and vehicle are ready when you are. Safari days are typically anchored by twice-daily game drives, but this isn’t any safari; it’s your safari, moving at the pace and needs of your unique family. Prefer to sleep in? Working around a nap schedule? No problem. When you’re ready, ready your binoculars for mesmerizing wildlife encounters, sighting zebra, giraffe, hippo, prides of lions, herds of buffalo, and possibly cheetah.

Basecamp Mara’s Young Explorers Club scales safari activities to kids’ abilities and fascination. Under the watchful guidance of a ranger, your children tinker with bush craft, fire making, and archery. Maasai mamas might invite them to bead a souvenir, and chefs usher the littles into the kitchen to bake. Welcomed by those who call the Mara home, it’s a heartening cultural exchange that will inspire plenty of "Remember when?" conversations.

Change up your day, rising early for a magical hot air balloon safari to view iconic plains in widescreen and spot wildlife in miniature. This whimsical experience ends with a bush breakfast in a scenic setting. This afternoon, your family might take a bush bumble walking safari with a Maasai ranger. This immersive, slow safari experience lets you inspect animal tracks, spoor, and other clues left in the bush.  

Fly to Laikipia, a rugged landscape on the hem of Kenya’s northern frontier. Settle into your standalone suite at Ol Malo Lodge, an old-school ranch dear to our hearts. More than a luxury safari lodge, Ol Malo is a family-operated home in the bush that doesn’t ask children to conform to adult spaces. (The owners—“Kenyan cowboys”—are big kids themselves.) Rather, kids thrive riding camels, catching frogs, riding horses, and river tubing (seasonal).

Rumble along dusty tracks crisscrossing Ol Malo Conservancy for crowd-free wildlife viewing. Scan for the unique patterns of Grevy’s zebra and reticulated giraffe—species unique to northern Kenya. Midday is for lunch, naps, and splashing in the saltwater pool. Meals are served where families feel most comfortable with dishes to suit even picky eaters. Close each day at the fire, recounting the day’s highlights to commit them to memory.

Rich in Samburu culture, Ol Malo is also a place where cultural exchange gently expands young minds’ worldview. Be warmly invited into community life while visiting a village, learn to throw a spear with a warrior, or witness the Singing Wells, a ritual where Samburu herders sing to their cattle while drawing water by hand.

Enhance your Family Trip to Kenya with a tour of Reteti, a highly reputed elephant sanctuary in Kenya. Hearts melt like butter as precious calves bathe in mud and are bottle-fed by dedicated keepers. Afterward, learn how this compassionate conservation project readies the orphans for life in the wild. You might also reserve this night for an unforgettable family sleepout in the Leopard Hide or Treehouse—comfy, safe, and just wild enough.

After a final morning game drive, fly to Nairobi where a private driver collects your family for some last-minute shopping or sightseeing. If you fly out late, we can arrange a day room at a hotel near the airport. Kids burn energy in the pool, and a proper meal and showers prep you for your international flight home.