A Beginner’s Guide to Travelling for the First Time
Kenya is one of the greatest countries to visit if you are looking to begin your first safari vacation. The excursions are very budget-friendly, the nation is filled with breathtaking national parks and vistas, and there are many more opportunities for adventure than in other nations’ safaris.
In this piece, you’ll discover everything there is to do in Kenya, as well as all the information you need to begin planning your holiday. Here are the 10 greatest things to do in Kenya, from going on game drives to trekking gorges to riding across a wildlife preserve:
1. Find the Big Five in Maasai Mara.
Of course, seeing wild animals is one of the primary objectives of a Safari journey, and you’ll certainly have to spot all five Big Five species in Africa: leopards, lions, elephants, buffalos, and rhinos. The Maasai Mara National Reserve is the finest location to view them.
The Maasai Mara is part of the Serengeti ecosystem, which straddles the Tanzanian and Kenyan borders and contains millions of animals that do not recognize national boundaries. You’ll see a wide range of creatures at this wildlife reserve, from elephants to uncommon species like serval cats, elands, and more.
I’ve been on a lot of memorable safari trips, and I have to say that Maasai Mara is one of the best places in the world to go on a safari. It was here that I had encounters with all of the Big Five, including the elusive leopard, for the first time.
Although the Maasai Mara isn’t a national park, it does not follow the stick-to-the-road rule, allowing drivers to get incredibly close to these animals and allowing you to really observe them.
There are several travel packages that will bring you to the Maasai Mara, but because it is a 6-hour drive from Nairobi, I suggest doing a 3-day itinerary that allows you to fully enjoy your trip and spend two nights in a tented camp.
With a three-day trip, you’ll start your first night on a game drive and finish the following day with an entire 12-hour journey around the reserve looking for all of the animals you desire to see. Plenty of time for all of the Big Five to appear for you.
2. Take a Trip to a Maasai Village.
The majority of multi-day trips to the Maasai Mara will include a stop at a Maasai Village, where you may learn how the Maasais live off their land, how they built their mud homes, and why they must relocate every three months due to termite infestation (termite issues).
During the walk, you will be accompanied by a genuine Maasai guide and he will teach you all about the area’s land and traditional medicines, as well as how they create fires and more.
At first, I was against this sort of behavior, but I went with a group of individuals anyway because the part where we had to pay to enter and sell us trinkets felt somewhat forced.
I’m not saying it’s easy to be a woman, but I’m also not suggesting that there aren’t benefits. For example, how many times have you been invited to a Maasai village and learned about their lives? If you’ve never been to a Maasai Village before, this experience will be fascinating.
3. At Lake Nakura, Observe Black and White Rhinos in the Wild.
The rhinos were one of the Big Five that I had yet to see up close before my trip to Kenya, and it only took 5 minutes into our game drive at Lake Nakuru to spot a black rhino, followed by 15 more minutes with a family of white rhinos grazing along the lake’s banks.
Lake Nakuru has a healthy population of white rhinos, so you should have no problem seeing them along the main road chomping on vegetation and shrubs. They are far more accustomed to humans than their close relatives, the black rhinos.
Black rhinos are shy and choose to be alone, so you’ll have a harder time seeing them anywhere. Fortunately, Lake Nakuru isn’t very big, and it won’t take long before you find one.
Lake Nakuru is one of the best places in Africa to see pink flamingos, as well as many other colorful birds you’ve probably never seen before. Seriously, I didn’t know what a spoonbill looked like until now, and guess what? Their beaks are really shaped like a spoon!
If you want to see Lake Nakuru as well as the Maasai Mara in one excursion, I strongly advise that you go with a 4-5 day itinerary that will frequently stop at Lake Nakuru on the way back and also Lake Naivasha.
4. Lake Naivasha is a Great Location for a Boat Safari.
Another freshwater lake, Lake Naivasha is not far from Lake Nakuru and is frequently included in a multi-day itinerary stop after seeing Maasai Mara and Lake Nakuru, where you may go on a boat trip.
The Mara River is home to several species of fish and other aquatic creatures, including giraffes, ostriches, and eagles. If you’ve already spent three days in the Maasai Mara and Lake Nakuru on overland game drives, this will undoubtedly be a welcome change.
If you want to see Lake Naivasha on your trip, you’ll need a 6-7 day itinerary that also includes Hell’s Gate National Park and Amboseli, which are both gorgeous national parks in Kenya.
5. Take a bike ride around Hell’s Gate National Park.
The animals of Hell’s Gate National Park are among the few in the country, if not the world, where you may see them on a bike as you tour through the park, amongst giraffes, buffalos, and zebra.
There are no predators in this environment, so you’ll be pretty secure. That said, if you approach buffalo too closely, they may become aggressive, so a vehicle should be available to you as you bicycle across the world for your protection.
