Kenya’s Family Safari – Best with Pre-teens (9-12)

Your safari begins at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport where you are met and transferred the short distance to Ololo Lodge. Ololo has the perfect location to begin your family adventure: lying on the edge of the Nairobi National Park, it not only has views of the wildlife in the park but you also have time for an afternoon game drive to see the animals a little closer up. There are buffalo, giraffe and zebra in the park as well as rhino and lion, and an amazing wealth of birdlife. Back at camp you and your family have a 3-bedroom suite with two bathrooms and Wi-Fi in each room.

After breakfast you transfer back to Nairobi and Wilson Airport for a domestic scheduled flight to Samburu National Reserve. Lying in Kenya’s more arid northern region, Samburu offers a different wildlife experience to the more familiar destinations in East Africa such as the Masai Mara and Serengeti. Samburu is a land of elephants and lions but also the long-necked gerenuk and rapier-horned besia oryx. Your home for three nights is Samburu Intrepids, a luxurious tented camp that offers game drives as well as walks and cultural exchanges with the local Samburu community. There is also Internet access, a swimming pool and an activity club for the children as well as a wellness therapist, fine dining and natural history talks each night for the parents and adults in the group.

Today a scheduled domestic flight takes you south and to the great rolling plains of the Masai Mara. Your accommodation – Mara Intrepids – has a riverside setting in a game-rich region close to the famous Mara River. Here is where you will see tens of thousands of wildebeest during the mid-year Migration Season. Such is the scale of wildlife here that you and your family will be treated to excellent sightings of other animals all year round. It is an area rich in predators – big cats, hyenas and crocodiles – but Mara Intrepids is fenced and you can walk around on its green lawns and go bird watching. There is Wi-Fi at camp and your children go on adventures with experienced guides to search for animals or visit local villages to meet the Maasai and see what the camp does for the local community. It is a highly educational experience – there are wildlife slide shows each night, for example – and you have a grand 3-bedroom tented suite to relax in, complete with viewing deck overlooking the Talek River.

After breakfast at Mara Intrepids you are transferred back to the airstrip for a flight back to Nairobi’s Wilson Airport. There is a short drive to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport where this safari then ends and you connect with your onward travel arrangements.