For a honeymoon
Kenya: variety, and the conservancy answer
The widest range of things in the shortest distances, and a coast two hours away.
The case
Kenya packs more variety into short distances than anywhere else here. The Masai Mara has the highest density of big cats you will find on the continent. Laikipia, an hour’s flight north, is high, cool and private, with walking, riding, night drives and rhino tracking on foot. Samburu, further north again, is red desert with species that appear on no standard circuit. The Indian Ocean is two hours from any of them.
It is also the easiest of the five to travel. Nairobi is well connected, the internal flight network is dense and frequent, and our partner agency is based there, which means the deepest knowledge and the most hands-on service we can offer anywhere.
The caveat
The Masai Mara National Reserve is public land and the number of vehicles at a sighting is not capped. Between July and October that is a real problem: a leopard can draw a queue, and a honeymoon morning spent sharing it with fourteen other vehicles is not what anybody pictured.
The answer is to stay on a private conservancy bordering the reserve rather than inside it. Same wildlife moving freely across the same ecosystem, a fixed number of beds per hectare, an enforced cap on vehicles at a sighting, plus off-road driving, night drives and walking. It costs more and it is the single most important upgrade in Kenya.
The Kenyan honeymoon that works
Four nights on a Mara conservancy with a private vehicle, three or four in a second region — Laikipia for activity, Samburu for strangeness — and four on the coast.
Two internal flights, two genuinely different landscapes, and the sea at the end.
When to go
July to October for the migration and peak dry-season game, with the crowding caveat above. January to March is quieter, hot, excellent, and the best months on the coast. November is cheap, quiet and unpredictable.
What it costs, relatively
Moderate for the region: cheaper than Tanzania for a comparable camp, more than Uganda, and with fewer internal flights needed than either because the distances are shorter.
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