Cost of Kenya Tour: $10,500 per person from Nairobi, based on double occupancy. Single supplement: $1,470. Price includes: All transportation throughout, 3 boat rides (Lake Baringo, Lake Victoria, Lake Naivasha), airport transfers on tour dates, all accommodation (the best accommodations in some areas may be basic), all meals, entrance fees and permits, bottled water, trip information packet & bird checklist, drivers, and service of 2 guides (one Ventures; one local). Not included: Round-trip airfare to Kenya, excess baggage fees, visas for Kenya, alcoholic and other beverages at lodges, gratuities, laundry, medical and travel insurance, Covid tests where required, and other items of a personal nature.

This tour consists of 17 days of unforgettable birding and mammal watching in Kenya, one of the premier wildlife destinations in the world. On this tour, we should have plenty of time to see and photograph a range of bird species endemic and near-endemic to Kenya, while we also visiting world-famous wildlife destinations such as the Masai Mara National Reserve, Buffalo Springs and Samburu National Reserves, Aberdare National Park, and Nairobi National Park to sample the country’s big game. This incredible venture takes us to a wide variety of ecosystems (moist and arid savannas, highland and equatorial forests, and montane grasslands) and top birding sites such as Kakamega Forest, Lake Victoria, Lake Nakuru, and Lake Naivasha. The August timing of the trip maximizes the likelihood that we arrive at the Masai Mara during peak migration time, when thousands of wildebeest cross the crocodile-infested Mara River from the Serengeti Plains in Tanzania to Kenya. To ensure maximum enjoyment, each participant will have a window seat in the 4x4 safari vehicle we’ll be driving in.

We begin our tour by driving to Mount Kenya; birding will already start en route to this location as we’re looking for the Kenyan endemic Hinde’s Babbler. Once on Mount Kenya, we will look for a range of high-altitude grassland and montane forest species before we head further north to the arid savannas of Buffalo Springs and Samburu National Reserves, which provide us with opportunities to see several mammal and bird species not to be found elsewhere on this trip. We will then visit two waterbird havens: Lake Nakuru and Lake Baringo. These stops are followed by a visit to Kakamega Forest, a remnant of the Guineo-Congolian Equatorial forests that are more widespread in Central Africa. Then it’s onward to Lake Victoria (Africa’s largest inland body of water) and Lake Naivasha before we head to the endemic-rich montane grasslands of Aberdare National Park. Then it is time to visit the Masai Mara National Reserve, bound to be the highlight of our East African adventure. Apart from enjoying thousands of migrating wildebeest and other big game, including Africa’s famous Big Five, we will also spend some time enjoying the avifauna this productive landscape has to offer. After spending two full days on the Masai Mara, it is time to head back to Nairobi, where we will spend the morning in Nairobi National Park before heading to the airport to catch our flights home.

PLEASE NOTE: U.S. citizens are encouraged to obtain the latest travel details and information from the Kenya Embassy, which can be reached online at https://kenyaembassydc.org/. At the time of writing, you are advised (but not required) to take MMR, Tdap, Hepatitis, Polio, Typhoid, and Yellow Fever immunizations. Precautions against Malaria are strongly recommended; because of chloroquine-resistance, the CDC recommends Malarone, Doxycycline, or Mefloquine. A Kenyan tourist e-visa (see http://evisa.go.ke) is required to enter the country, which needs to be applied for and printed before boarding the plane to Kenya.

Itinerary

Some of the Birds We Hope to See

Aberdare Cisticola, Hinde’s Babbler, Sharpe’s Longclaw, William’s Lark, Kikuyu White-eye, Somali Ostrich, Vulturine Guineafowl, Hildebrand’s Francolin, Jackson’s Francolin, Abyssinian Nightjar, Lichtenstein’s Sandgrouse, Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, White-spotted Flufftail, Gray Crowned-Crane, Nyanza Swift, Black-winged Lapwing, Somali Courser, Ruppel’s Griffon, Olive Ibis, Northern White-faced Scops-Owl, Bar-tailed Trogon, White-crowned Turaco, White-headed Mousebird, White-headed Wood-hoopoe, Hemprich's Hornbill, Blue-headed Bee-eater, Jackson’s Hornbill, Somali Bee-eater, Moustached Tinkerbird, Red-bellied Parrot, Red-fronted Parrot, Jameson’s Wattle-eye, Pringle’s Puffback, Pink-footed Puffback, Sharpe’s Drongo, Taita Fiscal, Somali Tit, Red-throated Tit, Foxy Lark, Somali Crombec, Yellow-vented Eremomela, Turner’s Eremomela, Pale Prinia, Red-fronted Prinia, Hunter’s Cisticola, Boran Cisticola, Ashy Cisticola, Uganda Woodland-Warbler, Highland Rush-Warbler, Abbott’s Starling, Golden-breasted Starling, Fischer’s Starling, Chapin’s Flycatcher, Chestnut-crowned Sparrow-Weaver, Jackson’s Widowbird, Kandt’s Waxbill, and many more.

Some of the Mammals We Hope to See

Rothschild’s Giraffe, Masai Giraffe, Reticulated Giraffe, African Bush Elephant, Lion, Plains Zebra, Impala, African Buffalo, Spotted Hyena, Common Hippopotamus, Common Waterbuck, Defassa Waterbuck, Olive Baboon, Grant’s Gazelle, Blue Monkey, Thomspon Gazelle, Common Eland, Southern White Rhinoceros, Eastern Black Rhinoceros, Coke’s Hartebeest, Kirk’s Dikdik, Grevy’s Zebra, Gerenuk, Leopard, East African Oryx, Mantled Guereza, Bushbuck, Bohor Reedbuck, Cheetah, Common Warthog, and many more.