11 Days Kenya & Tanzania Family Safari
Orphaned elephants, bikes in a gorge, junior ranger badges and a crater full of rhino
11 Days Kenya & Tanzania Family Safari
Children don't want to spend ten days staring at animals through a car window, and neither do their parents. This safari mixes classic game drives with things kids can actually do: feed a giraffe, cycle past zebra, walk among wildebeest on an island, follow lion tracks with a Maasai ranger, and try to hit a target with a traditional throwing club.
You begin in Nairobi with orphaned baby elephants at their late-morning milk feed, then drop into the Rift Valley to Lake Naivasha for hippos seen from a boat and a bike ride through Hell's Gate. In the Maasai Mara, junior ranger lessons turn game drives into detective work, and Maasai women show the children how to thread a beaded bracelet. A small plane carries everyone across the border to the Serengeti, before a grand finale on the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater.
Everything is paced for young travellers. Drives are timed around meals and rest, the cool box is always stocked with snacks, and your guide has heard every version of 'are we nearly there?' and still smiles. You travel in your own private vehicle with a window seat for everyone, and we choose family rooms, ideally with a pool, at every stop.
Ideal for: Families with children aged six and up who want the big animals plus hands-on days that keep young minds busy.
The journey in brief
You land in Nairobi and spend your first full day with orphaned elephants and giraffes before driving down the escarpment to Lake Naivasha. Three nights by the lake give you a hippo boat ride, a walking safari on Crescent Island and a morning cycling through Hell's Gate. The road then carries you west to the Mara, where three nights bring game drives, junior ranger tracking lessons and a visit to a Maasai homestead. A light-aircraft hop via Migori and Kogatende takes the family into Tanzania for two nights around Seronera. On the way out you spend an afternoon down in the Ngorongoro Crater among rhino and buffalo, sleep in the cool highlands, and finish in Arusha for your flight home.
Highlights
Day by day
Jambo, Nairobi!
Your guide is waiting just outside customs at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport with a sign, a big smile and cold drinks for everyone. The drive to your hotel gives the children their first look at Nairobi: matatu minibuses painted with footballers and pop stars, motorbike taxis weaving through traffic and, if you're lucky with the route, the open edge of Nairobi National Park, where giraffes graze within sight of skyscrapers. The rest of the day is free for a swim, a nap or a run around the garden. At dinner your guide hands each child a safari notebook with an animal checklist, and the competition to spot the rarest creature begins.
Baby Elephants and Giraffe Kisses
Start at the Giraffe Centre, where children climb to a raised platform and offer pellets to Rothschild's giraffes; the brave ones hold a pellet between their lips for a slobbery 'kiss'. At eleven, the orphaned elephants at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust nursery in Nairobi National Park trot in for giant bottles of milk and a roll in the mud, while keepers explain how each calf was rescued. After lunch you drive about two hours north-west, pausing at a viewpoint where the Great Rift Valley escarpment drops away to the valley floor far below. You reach Lake Naivasha in time for a swim before dinner, with hippos grunting from the reeds after dark.
Hippos, Fish Eagles and an Island Walk
After breakfast you board a small boat with life jackets in every size. Your boatman steers slowly past pods of hippos, near enough to hear them snort but never too close, while pied kingfishers hover and plunge around you. He may whistle to a fish eagle and toss a fish so the children can watch it swoop and snatch it from the water. The boat lands at Crescent Island, a sanctuary with no big predators, where you walk on foot among zebra, wildebeest, waterbuck and giraffe. Children are always amazed at how tall a giraffe looks from the ground. The afternoon is pool time, with an optional sunset boat ride for anyone with energy left.
Pedal Power in Hell's Gate
Hell's Gate is one of the few Kenyan parks where you can cycle among wild animals, and children love it. Bikes and helmets, including smaller frames, are ready at the gate, and the mostly flat track runs between red cliffs past zebra, warthog and buffalo, with Fischer's Tower, an old volcanic plug, standing over the valley like a giant's chess piece. Tired riders can hop into the support vehicle at any point. At the end, a local guide leads a walk down into the gorge, where warm water trickles from the rock and the walls narrow overhead; the guide decides how far to go based on the children's ages and the weather. Picnic lunch, then a lazy afternoon by the lake.
Over the Hills to the Mara
The drive to the Maasai Mara takes about five hours, so your guide breaks it into bite-sized pieces: a stop in the market town of Narok for a stretch, a cold drink and a peek at the curio stalls, then the final stretch on dirt roads, where the children can start counting animals before you even arrive. Zebra, gazelle and the first giraffes appear along the reserve boundary. You reach camp for a late lunch and a quiet hour. On the afternoon game drive your guide teaches the children how to tell a Thomson's gazelle from a Grant's by the black stripe along its side, and everyone hunts for the first lion to tick off in their notebooks.
Junior Rangers on the Trail
In the private conservancy around camp, a Maasai ranger takes the children for a junior ranger session while parents join in or enjoy a quiet coffee. They learn to read footprints in the dust, tell a hyena's track from a lion's by the shape of the pads and claws, work out which antelope left which droppings, and check the wind so animals can't smell them coming. There's a short tracking game on foot near camp, then a lesson with binoculars and a field guide. After lunch and a rest, the afternoon drive puts their new skills to work, with the children taking turns to call the sightings. A small certificate is presented over dinner.
Bracelets, Rungus and Big Cats
An early drive catches the cats while they're still active, then you return for a big, late breakfast. Mid-morning you visit a nearby Maasai homestead, where women in bright shukas show the children how to thread tiny glass beads into a bracelet to take home, and young warriors demonstrate how a rungu, the wooden throwing club, is used for herding and protection. The children get a turn at the target, which is much harder than it looks. Back in the vehicle for an afternoon drive along the Talek River, looking for elephants, buffalo and perhaps a cheetah mother with cubs on the plains. Your last evening in Kenya ends with stories around the fire.
Three Little Flights to Tanzania
Children usually rate this as a top day. A small plane takes off from the Mara airstrip and hops to Migori to clear Kenyan immigration, then crosses into Tanzania at Kogatende, where passports are stamped again. A short connecting flight takes you on to Seronera in the central Serengeti. Many pilots are happy to let children peek into the cockpit on the ground, so it's worth asking. Your Tanzanian guide meets the family with a new vehicle and a freshly stocked cool box, since Kenyan vehicles stay in Kenya. After lunch and a rest, an afternoon drive among the kopjes may reveal lions lounging on warm granite, looking exactly like the cartoons promised.
Who Can Spot the Leopard?
Today is a full Serengeti day, but not a long one in the vehicle. You set off after breakfast with snacks and car games ready. The Seronera River valley is known for leopards, and children with sharp eyes often spot the dangling tail before the adults do. You'll see big herds of buffalo, giraffes stretching into the acacias, hippos piled on top of each other in the Retima pool and, if the plains are kind, cheetahs scanning for gazelle. Lunch is a picnic under a shady tree, and you're back at camp early in the afternoon for a swim or a nap. A short sunset drive closes the day before dinner and a little stargazing.
Down into the Crater
Leave the Serengeti after breakfast and head south-east across the short-grass plains, stopping at Naabi Hill, where a short climb gives the children a lookout over grassland that runs to the horizon. About three hours after setting off you reach the crater rim and wind down into the caldera, some 600 metres deep and almost 20 kilometres across. On the floor, lions doze in the open, hyenas trot past the vehicle and the checklists fill fast: zebra, wildebeest, warthog, ostrich and maybe a black rhino if eyes are sharp. Lunch is a picnic beside a hippo pool, where black kites swoop for unguarded sandwiches. You climb back to the rim before dusk for a cosy night in the highlands.
Back to Arusha, Notebooks Full
After a slower morning in the cool highlands, you drive down past the coffee estates and wheat fields around Karatu and on through the Rift Valley town of Mto wa Mbu, where banana groves crowd the roadside and stalls sell carved animals and painted bowls. It's about three hours to Arusha, with a stop for drinks and a stretch. Over lunch your guide tallies the animal checklists one last time and hands out the honours: sharpest spotter, best question, bravest giraffe kiss. There's a little time for final souvenirs before the hour's drive to Kilimanjaro International Airport and your evening flight home, with a vehicle full of sleepy, dusty explorers.
Your route
The parks, lakes and towns you'll travel through, in order.
What's included
Prices
Book as a group and the saving is applied to your quote.
Rates are per person per day, sharing a room, and cover everything under what's included. Your tailored quote confirms the final price for your dates. International flights are not included.
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11 Days Kenya & Tanzania Family Safari · 11 days
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