3 Days Masai Mara And Lake Nakuru Safari: 2027 Itinerary And Rates

Leave Nairobi around 7:30 am. Most guides skip the main Rift Valley viewpoint now because it has become a tourist trap, with hawkers everywhere and not much peace. Instead, ask your driver to stop at the Mai Mahiu Catholic Church. Built by Italian prisoners of war in 1942, it seats maybe 12 people, and it is East Africa’s smallest church. It takes five minutes, the history is fascinating and it is quiet.

By 11 am you are entering Nakuru through Lanet Gate. The old Main Gate near town is under water since the lake rose, and the gates that remain get congested with day-trippers and school buses, so Lanet saves you 30 to 40 minutes of queuing and puts you straight into the acacia forest.

If you are staying inside the park, at Sarova Lion Hill, Lake Nakuru Sopa Lodge or The Cliff, you head straight to the lodge for lunch. If you booked the budget tier at Taidy’s Suites in Nakuru town, we have lunch in town first and then enter through Lanet Gate for one uninterrupted afternoon drive. Either way the afternoon game drive starts around 3 pm. This is your one real shot at Nakuru wildlife. Focus on the southern loop for rhinos: white rhinos graze the open grassland, black rhinos hide in the thickets. We can usually find white rhinos within an hour. Black rhinos are harder, maybe 50/50 depending on luck.

One thing about Baboon Cliff: yes, go for the view, but do not leave anything loose in the vehicle. Sunglasses, water bottles, cameras, the baboons reach through open roof hatches in seconds, and we have seen guests lose prescription glasses that way. If you want a quieter panoramic spot without the baboon drama, ask for the Out of Africa Lookout instead. Similar views of the lake’s southern end, far fewer animals trying to steal your things.

Sunset is around 6:30 pm. If the flamingos are sparse, and they often are now because the rising water has changed the lake’s chemistry, do not panic. Ask about Makalia Falls at the south end of the park instead. Most 3-day tours skip it because it adds 40 minutes, but it is beautiful and you will probably have it to yourself.

Day 2: The Hard Day

Check out at 5:45 am with your luggage already in the Land Cruiser, because there is no coming back to the lodge. You then have a sunrise game drive of about two hours before you need to leave. Head for the acacia belt and the northern ridges, where the leopards sit in the trees above the drowned lakeshore.

Here is something nobody mentions: KWS tickets at Nakuru run for 24 hours from the moment you enter. Because you came in through Lanet Gate at about 11 am on Day 1, your ticket is valid until 11 am on Day 2, which covers the 6 am drive completely. Just be packed and out of the gate before 11 am, or a second USD 90 day fee applies. On the budget tier, where you entered after lunch, the window runs even later. If you want a longer morning and the time is tight, offer to cover the extra entry fee yourself. It is worth it for another hour with the rhinos.

By 8:30 am you are out of the park and driving toward the Mara. The route through Njoro and Mau Narok to Narok, and then the C12 to Sekenani, is the sensible one. But if it has rained recently and your guide suggests going the long way round through Mai Mahiu instead of the Njoro and Mau Narok shortcut, do not argue. They are avoiding black cotton soil on the Mau Escarpment, where we have seen vehicles stuck for six hours.

Stop in Ewaso Ngiro, the last town before Sekenani Gate. It has the cleanest restrooms between Narok and the Mara. Also, buy the local honey if you see it, dark and smoky, sold in recycled bottles. It is better than anything in a Nairobi supermarket.

The C12 from Narok to Sekenani Gate is smooth tarmac now, so the drive is fast. The rough part, what some people call the African massage, starts once you pass through the gate onto the dirt tracks inside the reserve, and on the Talek side. Dust gets inside closed windows there, so bring a buff or a lightweight scarf, dampen it and breathe through it. Otherwise you will have what we call safari cough for the next two days.

If everything goes well, you enter Sekenani Gate around 3 pm. One sunset game drive. Your guide already knows where the big cats were spotted that morning.

Day 3: Why You Came

A 5:45 am departure. Cold air, gold light, shadows stretching long across the savannah. Lions are still active, cheetahs are hunting and the leopards have not climbed their trees yet.

We have had guests spot a cheetah kill within 20 minutes of leaving camp on this morning. One mother had been waiting the whole trip for exactly that moment, and she cried. Not sad crying, just overwhelmed. Three days of exhaustion suddenly worth it.

Here is the ticket rule for the Mara, and it is different from Nakuru. Masai Mara tickets are not 24-hour tickets. They run by calendar day, from 6 am to 6 pm, so the afternoon you entered on Day 2 counted as a full day whatever the time. How Day 3 works depends on where you slept. If you are staying inside the reserve, at Mara Serena or Governors’, your Day 2 ticket covers the night, you take the sunrise drive straight from camp, and you must be out through a gate by 10 am, or Narok County charges another full day, USD 100 or KES 13,000 per person in the low season and double that from July to December. Some guides rush you back to camp early to avoid it. If you want to stay out longer, and on Day 3 you really should, budget the extra day and tell your guide upfront. It changes the whole morning. If you booked the budget or mid-range tier outside the gates, at Crocodile Camp or Sentrim Mara, your Day 2 ticket ran out at 6 pm, so the Day 3 morning drive needs a second day’s ticket. That ticket is already built into our itemised packages, and it means there is no 10 am rush, so you get the full morning.

Either way you are back at camp for a late breakfast, on the road by mid-morning, and then it is five to six hours to Nairobi. You will arrive tired.