6 Days Maasai Mara & Serengeti Fly-in Safari
Six days, four flights, almost no road: the Mara, Serengeti and crater for people short on time
6 Days Maasai Mara & Serengeti Fly-in Safari
This is the safari for people who can't spare two weeks but refuse to waste a day. Light aircraft do the heavy lifting, so instead of long hours on bumpy roads you spend your time where it counts: watching lions, not the dashboard.
You fly from Nairobi into one of the private conservancies bordering the Maasai Mara National Reserve, where vehicle numbers are capped, guides may leave the track for a sighting and the day doesn't end at sunset. Night drives reveal creatures you'd never see by daylight. Mornings might start with a walk alongside Maasai guides and end with breakfast laid out in the grass. Then a cross-border flight drops you into the Serengeti, at whichever airstrip puts you closest to the big herds and their hunters that month.
Ngorongoro Crater closes the trip, reached by a short flight and a climb up the Rift Valley wall. You descend at dawn for black rhino and lion, eat lunch on the caldera floor, then fly out to Arusha or Kilimanjaro International Airport in time for an evening connection home. Five nights, four flights, two countries and an enormous amount of wildlife, with hardly a long drive among them. It's proof that a short safari doesn't have to feel rushed, provided someone has planned it tightly.
Ideal for: Time-poor travellers who want the Mara, the Serengeti and Ngorongoro in under a week and would rather spend their hours on game drives than on roads.
The journey in brief
Land at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the morning and, within a few hours, you're aboard a light aircraft from Wilson Airport bound for a private Mara conservancy. Two nights there bring off-road sightings, a night drive, a guided walk and a bush breakfast. On day three you fly via Migori across the border into the Serengeti for two nights, with full days spent following predators and, in season, the migration. Day five opens with a last Serengeti drive, then a short flight to the Lake Manyara airstrip and a drive up to the Ngorongoro rim. On the final morning you descend into the crater at dawn and picnic on the floor, then fly from Lake Manyara to Arusha or Kilimanjaro for your connection home.
Highlights
Day by day
Arrivals Hall to Airstrip
Your Geob Ventures representative meets you as you exit Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and drives you across the city to Wilson Airport for a scheduled light-aircraft flight to the Maasai Mara, roughly an hour. Pack in soft bags of no more than 15 kg. You land on a dirt strip in one of the private conservancies on the reserve's northern edge, and your guide is waiting with the vehicle. The afternoon drive is your first taste of conservancy life: fewer vehicles, no jostling at sightings and the freedom to leave the track for a closer look. Sundowners on a ridge, then dinner under a sky thick with stars.
Breakfast Where the Lions Slept
Up before dawn for the first drive, when predators are finishing the night's business. Mid-morning, the vehicle pulls up to a scene laid out in the grass: a table, fresh coffee, eggs cooked over a fire. Afterwards, walk for an hour or two with a Maasai guide and an armed ranger, learning to read tracks, dung and the alarm calls of birds. Afternoons are for rest. After an early dinner you head out on a night drive, the spotlight catching the eyes of genets, bushbabies and prowling hyenas. Conservancy guides often know the resident leopards, and darkness is when they move.
Two Countries Before Lunch
One last early drive, then back to the airstrip. Your light aircraft drops into Migori, near the border, where you clear Kenyan exit formalities, then flies on into Tanzania to complete entry formalities before continuing to the Serengeti. Which airstrip you land at depends on the season: Kogatende in the far north during the river-crossing months, the central Seronera area for much of the year, or the southern plains in calving season. Your Tanzanian guide meets you with the vehicle, and after lunch the afternoon drive begins. Kenya to Tanzania, one game drive to the next, without a single long day on the road.
A Whole Day on the Serengeti
Today the Serengeti has your full attention. Breakfast and lunch are packed so you can follow the action without breaking off, from first light until the park closes for the evening. If the migration is close, you could be surrounded by wildebeest and zebra moving in long lines across the plains, with lions and hyenas trailing them. If the herds are elsewhere, the resident wildlife fills the day: prides on granite kopjes, cheetah scanning from termite mounds, leopard stretched along branches. Your guide mixes big sightings with quiet ones, like a family of bat-eared foxes at their den or a secretary bird stamping through the grass for snakes.
Hop to the Highlands
Another dawn drive, then you fly from the Serengeti to the Lake Manyara airstrip, a short flight over the Ngorongoro highlands with volcanic peaks below your window. A new guide meets you and drives about an hour up the Rift Valley escarpment to the crater rim, through farmland and then thick montane forest. The afternoon is free. Take an optional walk along the rim with an armed ranger, or simply rest and watch the clouds spill over the caldera's edge. Nights at this altitude are crisp, so a fire and a warm dinner are welcome. Turn in early, because tomorrow's descent begins at first light.
Rhino Before Noon
The crater road opens at dawn, and you're on it. Within the hour you're on the floor of a collapsed volcano, scanning the grassland for black rhino, an animal Ngorongoro shows more reliably than almost anywhere else in Tanzania. Lions, hyenas, elephants, buffalo and thousands of zebra and wildebeest make for a busy morning. Picnic by the water with hippos snorting nearby, then climb out and drive back to the Lake Manyara airstrip. A short flight takes you to Arusha or Kilimanjaro International Airport, timed for evening connections home or back to Nairobi. Six days, and barely a long drive among them.
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.
Frequently asked questions
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Let's plan your safari
6 Days Maasai Mara & Serengeti Fly-in Safari · 6 days
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