9 Days Kenya & Tanzania Women's Safari
Women rangers, beadwork cooperatives and big cats, travelling in an all-women group
9 Days Kenya & Tanzania Women's Safari
This journey is for women who travel with curiosity and want to understand the people behind the landscapes. You'll travel in a small, women-only group, led wherever possible by one of East Africa's growing number of female safari guides, and spend real time with the women who are reshaping conservation and community life in Maasai country.
In Amboseli, with Kilimanjaro floating above the swamps, you'll meet women community rangers working in the tradition of Team Lioness, the area's pioneering all-women ranger unit, and hear what it took to earn the uniform. A Maasai women's beading cooperative shows how a collar of glass beads can pay school fees and win a stronger voice at home. In the Maasai Mara you sit in on a village savings circle, then follow lionesses on the hunt and matriarchs leading their elephant families, with plenty of time for the big game drives that make a safari.
Then you fly into Tanzania, trading the Mara for the Serengeti's granite kopjes and a morning among the rhino and buffalo of the Ngorongoro Crater, and the trip ends in Arusha with women building businesses of their own. The pace is steady but never rushed, the conversations run deep, and the group stays small enough for every voice to be heard.
Ideal for: Women who want a small, like-minded group and a safari that puts African women in conservation and community at its centre.
The journey in brief
You arrive in Nairobi and meet the group over dinner, then fly to Amboseli for two nights of elephant herds beneath Kilimanjaro, a morning with women community rangers and an afternoon with a Maasai beading cooperative. Another flight takes you on to the Maasai Mara for two nights of game drives and a visit to a women's savings group. You cross into Tanzania by air via Migori and Kogatende, spend a night in the central Serengeti, then drive to the Ngorongoro highlands by way of Olduvai Gorge. After a morning in the crater, you continue to Arusha for a final night and a morning with women entrepreneurs before flying home from Kilimanjaro.
Highlights
Day by day
First Names Around the Table
You're met at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, ideally by one of the women guides who'll travel with you, and driven to the group's hotel in a quiet, green corner of Nairobi. The afternoon is yours to rest. In the evening the group gathers for a welcome dinner, and you meet the women you'll be travelling with: some on their own, some with a sister or a friend, all curious. Your guide introduces the journey ahead and the women you'll meet along the way, from rangers and beaders to entrepreneurs. Expect the conversation to drift from wildlife to work, families and why everyone chose this trip, and a table that is reluctant to break up.
Under Kilimanjaro's Gaze
A morning flight from Wilson Airport takes about 45 minutes, and if the sky is clear, Kilimanjaro's snow-streaked summit fills the window on the way in. Amboseli is elephant country: family groups walk in single file across the dusty pans to the swamps, led by an old matriarch who remembers where water could be found in droughts decades ago. These are among the most closely studied elephants on earth, with families followed by researchers since the early 1970s. After lunch and a rest, your afternoon drive takes in Observation Hill and its sweeping view over the swamps, before you return to dinner as Kilimanjaro turns pink in the last light.
The Lionesses of Amboseli
This morning is the heart of the trip. You'll spend time with women community rangers from the land around the park, working in the spirit of Team Lioness, the pioneering all-women ranger unit formed here in 2019. Depending on their duties that day, you may join part of a patrol, watch them log wildlife sightings, or sit with them at their base to hear how they won a place in a job once held only by men. In the afternoon you visit a Maasai women's beading cooperative. The women teach you to stitch a simple bracelet, explain what each colour signifies, and talk frankly about how beadwork income pays school fees and gives them a stronger voice at home.
Wings to the Mara
Say goodbye to Kilimanjaro on an early drive, then head to the airstrip for a light-aircraft flight to the Maasai Mara, usually with a short stop at Wilson Airport along the way. The Mara feels different from Amboseli: greener and rolling, scattered with acacia and croton bush, its grass alive with topi, zebra and gazelle. Your guide is waiting on the strip and drives you to camp in a private conservancy bordering the reserve, where vehicle numbers are limited. After lunch and a rest, head out on the afternoon drive in search of lionesses, who do most of the hunting for the pride, and perhaps a cheetah mother teaching her cubs to stalk.
Matriarchs, Mothers and a Savings Circle
A full day in the Mara. You spend the morning with the animals, following lion prides and elephant families and learning from your guide how female-led herds decide where to move and when. Lunch is a picnic on the plains. In the afternoon you meet a women's group from a nearby village whose members run a chama, a savings circle in which each woman contributes a little every month and takes her turn receiving the pot. Many such groups around the Mara have grown with income linked to the conservancies, and now fund livestock, school fees and small businesses. Expect laughter, hard questions on both sides and an invitation to join in a song.
Over the Border, Down to Seronera
After an early drive and breakfast, you fly from the Mara airstrip to Migori for Kenyan exit formalities, then hop over the border to the Kogatende airstrip, where Tanzanian officials stamp you in. One more short leg brings you down to the Seronera airstrip, deep in the central Serengeti. Your Tanzanian guide meets the group at the airstrip; the number of women guiding in Tanzania is growing, and we request one wherever possible. The afternoon drive takes in the kopjes, granite outcrops where lions bask and klipspringers balance on the rocks, and the Seronera River, where leopards drape themselves along the branches. Dinner tonight is under the wide Serengeti sky.
From the Plains to the Crater Rim
Rise early for a last Serengeti drive, when lionesses are often returning from the night's hunt and cheetahs begin to scan the plains. After breakfast, drive out over the open grasslands into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, land shared by wildlife and Maasai herders, where women in beaded collars walk cattle along the roadside. Stop at Olduvai Gorge, where Mary Leakey's discoveries helped rewrite the story of human origins; the small museum also displays a cast of the Laetoli footprints she uncovered nearby. By late afternoon you reach the crater rim, cool and green at about 2,300 metres. Dinner is by the fire, with the crater silent below.
Crater Floor, Then Down to Arusha
Descend into the Ngorongoro Crater early, while mist still clings to its walls. The caldera floor is a self-contained world of grassland, swamp and soda lake, home to lion, hyena, buffalo, elephant and the critically endangered black rhino. You spend the morning exploring, with a picnic lunch beside a hippo pool, then climb back up the crater wall in the early afternoon. The road then winds down through Karatu's farmland and across the Rift Valley floor to Arusha, about three hours on good tarmac. The group gathers for a last dinner together, with plenty of time to reflect on the women you've met and the stories you'll carry home.
Arusha: Women in Business
Your final morning is spent with women building businesses in and around Arusha. Depending on the day, you might visit a women's coffee group on the slopes of Mount Meru, where farmers explain how they took charge of their beans from bush to cup, or a women-led craft workshop where artisans turn kitenge offcuts and recycled materials into bags and homeware. You'll hear what it takes to start a business here, ask as many questions as you like, and buy directly from the makers if something catches your eye. After lunch there's time to pack and freshen up in a day room before you're driven to Kilimanjaro International Airport, roughly an hour away, for the evening flight home.
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
9 Days Kenya & Tanzania Women's Safari · 9 days
Tell us when you'd like to travel and who's coming. A Geob safari specialist in Nairobi will reply within one working day with availability, a tailored quote and any changes you'd like.
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