Short On Time, Not On Safari
Short Safaris & Day Trips
Three days is enough for a proper safari. One day is enough to remember for a lifetime.
Overview
Not everyone has two weeks.
Most of what we build runs seven, ten, twenty days — but a grand circuit is not always what the calendar allows. Someone extending a work trip through Nairobi has a weekend, not a fortnight. Someone weighing up their first safari wants a taste of it before committing to the longer version. A conference delegate has one free afternoon and a view of the plains from their hotel window that they are not about to waste.
We built two formats around exactly that: the short safari, from three days, and the single-day safari, run across East Africa without an overnight at all. Both use the same guides, vehicles and camps as everything else we run — nothing about them is a scaled-down version of the real thing.
Short Safaris
Three days, properly spent.
A short safari is not a long safari with days removed — it is built from the start around one reserve rather than a circuit between several, so the time you do have goes entirely into being on the ground rather than moving between camps. Three days is the minimum because it is the least amount of time in which a place like the Maasai Mara or Amboseli actually opens up: a sunset drive on arrival, two full days of game viewing, and a final morning drive before the transfer out.
Three days minimum. Long enough for a proper introduction to one reserve, short enough to fit around almost any schedule.
One reserve, not a circuit. The Mara, Amboseli, Tsavo or Lake Nakuru on their own, so there is no day lost to transfers between parks.
The same standard, compressed. Private guide, private vehicle and the same camps we use on a three-week itinerary — nothing about a short safari is the budget version.
Often an extension, not a trip on its own. Booked most often onto the front or back of a business trip to Nairobi, or a longer holiday elsewhere in the region.
Day Safaris
Out to camp, and back by evening.
This is the format with no overnight at all — a genuine full day of safari, run across East Africa for guests who have exactly one day to give it. You are collected in the morning and taken out to a camp or private conservancy, where the day is spent on the activities that make up a proper safari, before you are driven or flown back again in the evening.
What fills that day depends on where you go and what you would like in it — most days combine a morning game drive with a bush lunch or sundowner, and a hot air balloon flight where the reserve allows for it. Nothing is fixed; we build the day around your interests and however many hours you actually have.
At First Light
Hot Air Balloon
Golden Hour
Sundowner
Morning & Afternoon
Game Drive
Midday
Bush Lunch
Most day safaris are run out of Nairobi into the Maasai Mara, Amboseli or a private Laikipia conservancy, by light aircraft or private vehicle depending on the reserve and how much of the day you want left for activities once you arrive.
Corporate & Groups
The business trip, taken outdoors.
Both formats run just as readily for companies as they do for individual travellers. A day safari built around a conference or an offsite gets a team out of a hotel conference room and into a game vehicle for an afternoon — the same balloon flight, game drive and bush lunch, just organised around a delegate list rather than a family. A short safari does the same for a client visit or a team retreat that has three or four days rather than one.
Any group size. From a handful of executives to a full conference delegation, split across as many vehicles as the group needs.
Invoiced to the company. One invoice, one point of contact, and the paperwork a finance team actually needs.
Built around the schedule you already have. A half-day slotted around conference sessions, or a full day either side of the event.
Good To Know
The practical detail.
Where these run from. Most day safaris depart from Nairobi; short safaris can begin wherever your wider itinerary already has you.
What's included. Transport, a private guide, park fees and the activities of the day — quoted as one figure before you commit.
Extending it. Enjoyed the one day more than expected? Most day safaris can convert into an overnight or a short safari with a phone call, not a fresh booking.
Even one day is a safari.
Tell us your dates — a short safari, a single day, or a corporate group — and we will build it around what is actually possible.