A 10-day Big Five safari across the Masai Mara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, arranged direct with the Nairobi team that runs it — no US reseller in the middle.
Every trip is quoted individually, in US dollars.
Most Kenya safaris sold in the United States are bought from a Nairobi operator and resold with a margin on top. We are that Nairobi operator. The vehicles, the driver-guides and the lodge relationships are ours, so the money you spend goes into the trip rather than into a layer of resale.
Summer break, Thanksgiving, the winter holidays and spring break all fall in usable safari windows, but they are not equally good windows. We start from the dates you can actually take off work and school, then tell you honestly what the wildlife is doing then.
It is a long flight from North America, so we build the trip to earn it: Kenya’s Masai Mara and Tanzania’s Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater in a single itinerary, with the border crossing and internal logistics handled for you.
Nature Point Africa is enquiry-based: we quote each safari individually in US dollars once we know your dates, party size and preferred lodge tier. The table below shows the shapes of trip this page is built around for American travellers.
| Package | Duration | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya & Tanzania Big Five Safari | 10 days | On request | First safari, Great Migration |
| Safari + Zanzibar Beach | 14 days | On request | Honeymoons, safari and beach |
| Kilimanjaro Trek + Safari Combo | 12–14 days | On request | Adventure travellers |
| Premium Private Big Five | 12 days | On request | Luxury, private guiding |
Not included: international airfare, the Kenya eTA and Tanzania e-visa, travel insurance, gratuities and personal spending.
Kenya Airways flies direct between New York (JFK) and Nairobi (NBO) — the carrier puts the eastbound leg at around 13 hours 45 minutes and the return at about 15 hours. From other US hubs the practical one-stop options are:
Airlines, routings and direct-service status change by season and home airport — please verify current carriers and schedules at the time of booking. We help every US client choose the easiest connection, and we do not charge for that advice.
Those JFK–NBO block times are Kenya Airways’ own published figures (kenya-airways.com) and vary with season, aircraft and routing. We publish no frequency for the route because the carrier publishes none — check the airline’s current schedule before you book flights.
You need a Kenya eTA (Electronic Travel Authorization), applied for online before departure. Tanzania requires a separate e-visa. Carry a passport valid for at least six months beyond your date of arrival, with at least two blank pages.
We send a US-specific checklist — eTA steps, current fees and the vaccination guidance that applies to the parks on your route — once your safari is confirmed.
Please confirm requirements on the official Kenyan and Tanzanian government portals, and check the US State Department country information page, before you travel.
Peak dry season, and the Mara River crossings typically begin in July. Lodges in the Mara and northern Serengeti sell out earliest for these dates — nine to twelve months ahead is normal.
The short green season. Landscapes turn, birding is at its best, and lodge availability is far easier than in summer. Late December through February also brings the southern Serengeti calving season, which is the strongest predator viewing of the year.
The quietest of the American windows. Late March into April is the long rains, so we usually steer spring-break travellers toward the crater and the conservancies rather than the open plains.
If your dates are flexible, these are the value months — strong game viewing, better lodge availability, fewer vehicles at a sighting.
Booking a safari with a company on another continent is a fair thing to hesitate over, so here is exactly how it works in practice.
Nairobi is UTC+3 year-round — about seven hours ahead of New York in summer and eight in winter, and ten to eleven hours ahead of the West Coast. Kenya does not observe daylight saving, so the gap shifts when the US clocks change, not when ours do. A message sent at the end of your working day is normally answered before you wake up.
Everything starts by email or WhatsApp with a written itinerary and a written quote, so there is a paper trail you can read at your own pace. If you would rather talk it through, we schedule a call at a US-friendly hour rather than expecting you to dial Nairobi office hours.
Nothing on this page is a group tour you join. Every American booking is a private 4×4, a private driver-guide and an itinerary written for the party travelling it, which is why we ask for your dates before quoting rather than after. The route this page is built around is the 10-day Kenya and Tanzania adventure, running Nairobi, Lake Nakuru, the Masai Mara, the Serengeti, the Ngorongoro Crater and Amboseli — and we move nights around inside it rather than selling it as a fixed block.
That flexibility is the practical reason to buy from the operator rather than a reseller: reshaping a trip costs us a call to a camp manager we know, not a renegotiation with a supplier eight time zones away. If you would rather start from something concrete and adjust it, the finished itineraries are in our Kenya safari collection.
Ten days of game drives is a lot of early mornings. A beach leg is what turns the trip from an expedition into a holiday. The 14-day Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar getaway is the standard shape: the full cross-border wildlife route first, then a short internal flight to Zanzibar for four nights of doing very little.
Because Zanzibar is part of Tanzania, the entry permission you already needed for the Serengeti normally covers the island as well — Tanzania’s immigration portal states that a traveller visiting the mainland and Zanzibar “will be allowed to visit both places without a need for a new Visa”. The beach leg does add one document, though: Zanzibar requires every arriving visitor to hold travel insurance bought from the Zanzibar Insurance Corporation, the only permitted seller, and the FCDO warns that you may be refused entry if you do not have the correct insurance. Confirm current requirements on the official Tanzanian portal, as always. Diani, on the Kenyan coast, is the alternative when you would rather not fly again at all.
A honeymoon changes which properties we choose far more than it changes the route. Private plunge pools, dinner set up away from the main deck, a vehicle that is genuinely yours rather than shared with strangers, and a coast finish so the last few days are horizontal. The 11-day Kenya safari and Zanzibar honeymoon combo is built around precisely that sequence.
We do not announce couples to the dining room and there is no rose-petal package on the invoice. If the trip carries a milestone — an anniversary, a proposal, a surprise you would rather your partner did not read about in a confirmation email — say so in the enquiry and it gets planned quietly.
The two questions worth asking about a family safari are how long the drives between camps are, and whether the lodge has rooms that genuinely sleep four. Both are decided by which properties we pick, not by the itinerary headline. The 8-day classic family safari runs Ol Pejeta, Samburu, Lake Naivasha and then the Mara, with a boat ride on Lake Naivasha in the middle of the week to break up the game drives.
Tour routes are re-sequenced from time to time, so treat the route above as the shape of the trip rather than a fixed schedule — the current day-by-day is always the one on the tour page itself.
Summer break is the obvious window and sells out first. Thanksgiving and the winter holidays are considerably easier to book and coincide with calving in the southern Serengeti, which is the strongest predator viewing of the year. Our month-by-month guide to visiting Kenya sets out what the wildlife is doing in each.
For travellers crossing the Atlantic, the best value usually comes from combining genuinely different landscapes rather than adding more one-night stops. Use these views to decide whether your priority is migration country, varied Kenya wildlife or a slower safari-and-beach finish.
US passport holders need an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) to enter Kenya, applied for online before departure. Tanzania requires a separate e-visa. Your passport should be valid for at least six months beyond your date of arrival, with at least two blank pages for stamps. We send every US client a step-by-step checklist once the safari is confirmed. Please verify current requirements and fees on the official Kenyan and Tanzanian government portals before you travel.
Both direct and one-stop options exist depending on your home airport. Kenya Airways flies direct between New York (JFK) and Nairobi (NBO); the carrier puts the eastbound leg at around 13 hours 45 minutes and the return at about 15 hours. From other US cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington DC and Houston, one-stop connections run via Amsterdam, Paris, Doha, Dubai, Istanbul and Addis Ababa. Carriers, routings and flight times change, so please verify current schedules with the airline at the time of booking. We help you choose the smoothest connection from your home airport.
June through October is dry-season Big Five viewing at its best, and the Mara River crossings typically peak July through October, which lines up with the US summer break. December to February is the southern Serengeti calving season, excellent for predator action with fewer vehicles around. We build your departure around your dates and the wildlife you most want to see.
Nairobi runs on UTC+3 year-round, which is about seven hours ahead of New York in summer and eight in winter, and ten to eleven hours ahead of the West Coast. In practice that means a message sent at the end of your working day is usually answered by the time you wake up. Quotes are prepared overnight your time, and while you are on safari you have a direct contact number for the Nairobi team.
Our quotes cover all park and conservancy fees, lodge and tented-camp accommodation, all meals on safari, private game drives in a 4×4, a professional driver-guide and all ground transfers within Kenya and Tanzania. International airfare from the USA, the Kenya eTA and Tanzania e-visa, travel insurance, gratuities and personal spending are not included. Final pricing depends on season, lodge tier and party size, so we quote every trip individually.
Tell us your travel dates and party size and we reply within 24 hours with a tailored itinerary and US-dollar pricing. No booking fee, no obligation.
Prefer to talk? Call or WhatsApp: +254 769 406 388 · WhatsApp · info@naturepointafrica.com
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