Getting out of the vehicle changes a safari. On conservancies and in a handful of parks you can walk with an armed ranger, reading tracks and dung and getting close to the small things you drive past.
Each of these is somewhere we run guided Walks, with its own page.
Kenya
The Mara is the northern end of the Serengeti ecosystem, and the single best place in Africa to watch big cats hunt. Between July and October around a million and a half wildebeest and zebra cross the Mara River into it. The rest of the year it is quieter, cheaper, and still holds the highest density of lion, cheetah and leopard in Kenya.
Kenya
Amboseli is where you photograph elephants with Kilimanjaro behind them. The swamps fed by meltwater off the mountain hold big herds year round, the plains are open and dusty so nothing hides, and it is close enough to Nairobi to be worth three days on its own.
Kenya
Naivasha is the freshwater lake in the floor of the Rift Valley, ninety minutes from Nairobi. You get out of the vehicle here: a boat among the hippos, a walk or a cycle on Crescent Island among giraffe and zebra with no predators to worry about. It is the day that breaks up a driving safari.
Kenya
Tsavo West is the handsome half of Tsavo — hills, lava flows and green scrub instead of flat red plain. Mzima Springs pushes fifty million gallons of clear water out of the ground every day, and an underwater chamber lets you watch hippo and crocodile from below the surface. The rhino sanctuary here is one of the few places in Kenya to see black rhino.
Kenya
Tsavo East is vast, flat and red — the elephants here are stained by the dust and look it. It is the park you cross on the way between Nairobi and the coast, which makes it the natural way to put a safari in front of a week at Diani or Watamu.
Kenya
The only national park in the world inside a capital city. Lion, rhino, giraffe and buffalo on open plains with Nairobi's skyline on the horizon — and you can be back at the airport in forty minutes. It is the half-day that rescues an arrival or departure date nobody knew what to do with.
Kenya
Ol Pejeta is a working conservancy on the Laikipia plateau with Mount Kenya behind it. It holds the largest black rhino population in East Africa, the last two northern white rhino on earth, and a chimpanzee sanctuary. Because it is private land, you can track rhino on foot and drive at night — neither of which a national park allows.
Kenya
Hell's Gate has no big predators to speak of, which is the whole point: you cycle and walk through it. Red cliffs, steam vents and a gorge you climb down into on foot, with zebra and giraffe watching from the track. It is an hour from Naivasha and the most active day on a Kenyan itinerary.
Kenya
Bogoria is the one with the geysers. Jets of boiling water and steam come straight out of the lake shore, and the alkaline water behind them often carries the biggest flamingo flocks left in the Rift Valley. It is a detour off the Nakuru road and a strange, memorable hour.
Kenya
Africa's second highest mountain, and the one you can climb without technical gear. Point Lenana at 4,985m is a long trek rather than a climb, through bamboo, giant groundsel and glacial tarns. The forest on the lower slopes holds elephant and buffalo, so the first day is a game walk in all but name.
Kenya
A dormant volcano two hours from Nairobi with a path right around its crater rim. The climb takes about four hours return and the view down into the forested crater floor, and out across Lake Naivasha, is the reward. It is the best half-day of exercise in the Rift Valley.
Rwanda
One of the oldest rainforests in Africa, and a canopy walkway a hundred metres above the forest floor to see it from. Thirteen primate species live here, including chimpanzees and troops of several hundred Angolan colobus — the largest arboreal primate groups anywhere.
Rwanda
Kigali surprises people: clean, green, laid out over a dozen hills and genuinely safe to walk at night. It is where every Rwandan trip starts and ends, and it is worth a day rather than a transfer — markets, a serious coffee scene, art co-operatives and some of the best restaurants in the region.
Tanzania
Tarangire has the baobabs and the elephants. In the dry season the river is the only water for miles and the herds concentrate on it — three and four hundred elephant in a day is not unusual, which beats anything the Serengeti offers. It is two hours from Arusha and usually the first stop on a northern circuit.
Tanzania
A narrow strip of forest, lake and floodplain under the Rift Valley escarpment, famous for lions that sleep in the acacia branches. It is small enough to see in half a day and sits directly on the road between Arusha and the Ngorongoro Crater, so it costs an itinerary almost nothing.
Tanzania
The smallest national park in Tanzania, a strip of forest on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, and the place Jane Goodall spent fifty years studying chimpanzees. The troops here are habituated to a degree found almost nowhere else, which means close, unhurried time with them on foot.
Tanzania
One of the least visited national parks in Africa, in the far west of Tanzania. In the dry season the Katisunga floodplain holds buffalo herds of a thousand and more, and hippo pile into the shrinking pools in numbers that have to be seen. You will likely be the only vehicle in the park.
Tanzania
The largest national park in Africa, and almost nobody goes. Nyerere — the old Selous — is boat safaris on the Rufiji river, walking safaris with an armed ranger, and wild dog, which is the species serious safari-goers travel for. It is the southern circuit, reached by a short flight from Dar es Salaam.
Tanzania
Tanzania's largest park after Nyerere, where the East African and southern African species overlap — so you get greater and lesser kudu, sable and roan in the same place as the usual plains game. Lion prides here run large, and the Great Ruaha river draws everything in during the dry months.
Uganda
Bwindi holds roughly half the mountain gorillas left on earth. You walk into thick, steep, ancient forest with a ranger and a tracker, sometimes for an hour and sometimes for six, and then spend one hour with a habituated family at a few metres' distance. People who have done every safari there is still describe it as the best hour of their lives.
Uganda
The best chimpanzee tracking in East Africa, in a forest holding thirteen primate species. Around 1,500 chimps live here and the habituated communities are relaxed enough that you watch them feed, groom and argue overhead rather than catching a glimpse and losing them.
Uganda
A Batwa community on the edge of Bwindi, where the forest people evicted when the park was gazetted in 1991 show how they lived inside it — tracking, hunting, fire, medicine, and the tree houses they slept in. It is a short visit and the most direct account you will get of what conservation cost the people who were already there.
Uganda
The largest mahogany forest in East Africa, on the road into Murchison Falls, with a chimpanzee community that has been tracked since the nineties. Stopping here turns the drive north into a morning in the forest rather than six hours in a vehicle.
Uganda
A small reserve on the Katonga river, between Kampala and the western parks, where the wildlife viewing is done from a canoe or on foot rather than from a vehicle. Sitatunga — the swamp antelope with splayed hooves — are the draw, and they are difficult to see anywhere else.
Uganda
Kidepo sits in the far north-east against the South Sudan border, and most people who rank Uganda's parks put it first. The Narus valley holds buffalo herds in the thousands, there are cheetah and ostrich found nowhere else in the country, and you will share it with almost nobody.
Uganda
The only Ugandan park with zebra, and small enough that you can walk in it, take a boat on the lake and do a game drive in the same day. Three hours from Kampala, it is the stop that turns a long drive to the gorillas into a proper first night.
Prices are per person. Any of these can be adjusted to give the activity more time.
Day trip in Nairobi, Kenya.
3 Days
Step into nature with our Guided Walk Experiences, where expert guides lead you through the diverse terrains of Kenya and Tanzania. Whether it's the rugged landscapes of Samburu or the lush woodlands of Ngorongoro, our guided walks promise intimate encounters with the flora and fauna of East Africa. Explore hidden gems, learn about traditional medicinal plants, and witness wildlife in their natural habitats. Join us for a walking safari, where every step brings you closer to the heart of the wilderness.
Set out on foot with our knowledgeable guides, who share their insights into animal tracks, bird calls, and the interconnected ecosystems that sustain life in the wild. Traverse the open plains of Amboseli, where herds of elephants roam freely, or meander through the acacia-studded landscapes of Tarangire. Our Guided Walk Experiences provide an immersive and educational journey, creating a deeper connection with the natural wonders that define East Africa's diverse ecosystems
Say so when you get in touch and we will build the route around it, rather than squeezing it in on an afternoon when the light is wrong.
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