kenya

5 day trip to Maasia Mara, Kenya

It takes roughly 24+ hours to get to Maasia Mara. Traveling from NY, our layover was in Dubai before landing in Nairobi (NOTE: we stayed an extra 3 days in Dubai - you can find our itinerary in a separate blog post). What people don't tell you, is that there are only ~2 flights a day from Nairobi to Maasia Mara. When planning our flights from NY, we didn't think that through... We ended up staying the night in Nairobi at Eka Hotel Nairobi. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant the night we landed, woke up the next morning and got on the first flight out to Maasia Mara. I'll be honest; Nairobi, was everything you would expect. Our hotel had a security gate and a metal detector for all guests entering the property. It's an extremely poor city - definitely feels like a 3rd world country. For safety reasons, our friend who manages the camp organized a ride to and from the hotel and airport. For anyone that needs to spend the night in Nairobi before flying out to the park, you should be able to organize transportation and hotel arrangements through your camp (highly recommend!).

We stayed in Kenya for 5 days/5 nights. This is probably the right amount of time to spend on the safari. Anything more; you might get bored. I'd recommend pairing this with a trip to the beaches in Kenya or Dubai (like we did!).

Naibor Camp

Lets talk about our stay: one of my best friends growing up ran a safari camp in Maasai Mara, Kenya - Naibor Camp (Hence the purpose of the trip - we wanted to visit her!).

It's definitely "glamping"- you live in a tent but its the most luxurious tent you will ever stay in! The bed is SUPER comfy. They offer you heaters for the mattress every night, each room has its own bathroom and the service is outstanding. You can zip the tent shut to prevent any bugs from coming in BUT it's still a tent. There is nothing preventing the wild animals from torpedoing your tent. For that reaosn, they have nightly watch guards that roam the camp grounds.

Part of glamping means there is no running water. You can flush the toilet but they give you a bucket of water to wash your hands. To shower, you need to tell the camp ahead of time. They pre-heat water that makes for a ~5-7min shower. 5-7 mixtures turns out to be a lot longer than you think. In the bathroom, there is an open space for the shower where you can pull a lever and the heated water spits out of a shower head (just like normal shower). You can see the picture below of what the bag looks like outside our tent. This really added to the full experience of being on safari and made you be extra conscious of wasting water/saving the environment.

The camp runs morning and sunset safaris - they do this because early morning and sunset are when the animals are most active/out in the open. During mid-day, they take you back to camp for lunch and lounging.

We were lucky enough to see the "big 5" - lion, buffalo, rhino, elephant, and leopard.

Our last night in the camp turned out to be one to remember... The guards at Niabor Camp take you back to your tent every night for safety reasons and because it's not well lit. On our walk back to our tents, they flashed a light and there was a buffalo less than 20 feet from us (!) The guards barely spoke english but turned to us and told us to "RUN!" There was no mistaking that! -- I have never run so fast in my life (haha!). In our sprint back to the tent, the gaurds "shewed" the buffalo off campus. Despite the near death feeling, I felt so safe. The guards really took action and put up their spears toward the buffalo to protect us. While that was a traumatizing experience, I wouldn't trade it for a campsite that's isolated and protected by fences. I felt this was a true safari experience. The animals will not hurt you!

Just before this chaos, on our final night, we had a happy hour and a sunset safari - little did we know what we were in for ;)