The field guide
Know before
you book.
What the jargon means, conservancy vs reserve, the fee tables, and how to actually choose. Operator terms live on the Operators page.
The vocabulary
What you're actually buying when a rate sheet says it.
Game drive
2–4 hours in an open 4×4 with a guide, at dawn and late afternoon.
Shared means with other guests — the schedule is the camp's, not yours.
Exclusive vehicle
The whole 4×4 and guide to yourself, charged per day.
Your schedule, your sightings, beanbags on the door — the photographer's upgrade.
Photography vehicle
Exclusive-use 4×4 stripped for lenses, usually 2 photographers max.
Low angles and swivel room. Kicheche publishes a rate; others on request.
Night drive
A spotlit drive after dark.
Leopard, serval, aardvark, genet. Conservancies only — reserves lock the gate.
Off-road
Leaving the track to position on a sighting.
The difference between a record shot and a portrait. A conservancy privilege.
Sundowner
A drinks stop mid-drive at golden hour, somewhere scenic.
You're parked in the best light of the day — drink slowly, shoot fast.
Bush walk
The savanna on foot with an armed guide.
Tracks, dung, birds, the small stuff — everything a vehicle drives past.
Hide
A sunken blind at a waterhole, camera at ground level.
Eye-level elephants at ten meters. Only a handful exist in Kenya.
Game package vs full board
Game package = drives included. Full board = bed and meals only.
FB looks cheaper until you add a per-drive charge for shared drives, twice a day.
Single supplement
The solo charge for occupying a two-person tent.
Flat (Porini), per-night (Kicheche, Axis) or absent (Saruni low season, DIY) — it reshuffles the ranking.
What it costs — in bands
The one place the bands carry a number. Indicative per-person-per-night, all-in for a solo traveller; the final figure depends on dates, room type and the shape of the itinerary.
- Lean
under $400/night
lodges, rest houses, group road trips
- Classic
$400–900/night
tented camps, DIY with your own vehicle
- Expedition
$900–1600/night
flying packages, premium per-night camps
- Exclusive-use
$1600+/night
villas, whole-unit houses, peak-season premiums
Bands derive from published 2026 rate sheets and official fee tables, recomputed for your dates in the Explorer. Exact lodge figures stay with us and come back in a proposal — one less number to go stale on a card.
Conservancy vs national reserve
The single biggest quality-of-sighting decision in the Mara ecosystem.
| Conservancy | National reserve | |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | Maasai landowners leasing to a few camps | county government |
| Fee model | per night, bundled or billed by the camp | per 12-hr day, per entry ticket |
| Vehicle density | capped — often 1 vehicle per sighting | uncapped; cats draw crowds |
| Off-road | allowed | forbidden |
| Night drives | allowed | forbidden |
| Walking | allowed with guide | mostly forbidden |
| Access | guests only | anyone with a ticket |
The catch: the reserve holds the river crossings (Jul–Oct) and is where the road-based budget safaris operate. Conservancy camps can buy a reserve day ticket when needed — the reverse is not true.
Park & conservancy fees
Reserve camps charge the fee every night, drives or not. The DIY gate-edge camp pays only on actual safari days.
| Where | Fee | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Masai Mara National Reserve | $100/day → $200/day | per adult, 12-hr ticket — doubles on 1 Jul 2026 |
| Naboisho / Mara North / Olare Motorogi / Lemek | $130/night | conservancy fee, per person |
| Kalama (Samburu) | $160/night | conservancy fee, per person |
| Sera (Saruni Rhino) | $175/night | conservancy fee, per person |
| Ol Pejeta (Laikipia) | $187/night | includes wilderness-zone bed-night fees (Kicheche) |
| Ol Kinyei / Mara Ripoi / Selenkay | bundled | inside Porini package prices |
The 1 July 2026 cliff is the single most important fact in this dataset: reserve fees double, Porini's published package base steps up sharply, and Kicheche steps from regular to peak. Most Mara camps land a band lower below the cliff — date around it if you can.
Flight & transfer benchmarks
Return fares unless marked. Porini packages bundle flights; Kicheche rack rates, Saruni and DIY don't.
| Leg | Cost | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Nairobi ↔ Mara (return) | $440 | Saruni rate sheet |
| Nairobi ↔ Samburu (return) | $465 | Saruni rate sheet |
| Wilson ↔ Mara (return) | $200–400 | estimate — Kicheche rack rates exclude flights |
| Nairobi airport transfer | $70/vehicle each way | max 4 pax |
| Inter-camp ground hops | per person, min 2 pax | a solo pays 2 seats |
| Flying Doctors cover | $25/person | mandatory on Saruni bookings |
How to choose
The decision tree this app encodes, in plain words.
- Set the band first. Group road safaris and simple lodges (Lean) → DIY gate-edge and tented camps (Classic) → flying packages and premium per-night camps (Expedition) → villas and peak-season premiums (Exclusive-use). Each step buys capability, not just comfort.
- Fly unless the budget says drive.The road in is 5–6 hours each way and eats half of day 1 and day 4 — that's the real cost of the cheap options.
- Solo? Check the supplement rule before the rate. A per-night supplement (Kicheche) compounds; a flat one (Porini) amortizes over longer stays; Saruni low season and DIY charge nothing extra.
- Photographer checklist: off-road + night drives (conservancy camps only), an exclusive or photography vehicle you can actually book, and hide access if eye-level is the goal (Samburu).
- Mind the calendar. Mar–May and Nov are cheapest but wet, and half the camps close. Jun and Oct are the value windows — mid/regular season everywhere. On 1 Jul 2026 everything steps up, and Jul–Sep buys the migration at roughly a band more.
- Then let the Explorer shortlist. Set your dates, watch the bands, and read the caveats — the gaps in a capability strip are the real price tag. When the shortlist is right, send it to us.
Hide directory
Sunken photographic hides — ground-level, eye-to-eye. The reason Samburu is on this shortlist.
Saruni Samburu sunken hide — Kalama Conservancy
Elephant-proof, waterhole, ground level, day & night sessions, up to 8 pax, bean bags provided. On-site at Saruni Samburu; Basecamp Samburu guests get access — terms/charge TBC with reservations.
Scott's Hide — Ol Pejeta Conservancy
Public drive-up day hide (no night use, no flash) — rhino, wild dog, lion, cheetah at a salt-baited waterhole. Ankle-friendly, seated. The Hippo Hide nearby needs a guided river-rock walk — skip it if footing is a concern.
Lentorre — three hides (incl. two bird hides)
South Rift — a tunnel-access underground waterhole hide (eye-level, day+night) plus two dedicated bird hides; rare in Kenya and best-in-class for birding.
Soroi Larsen's & Soroi Samburu — Samburu National Reserve
Low-level underground waterhole hide reached by a secure tunnel from Larsen's; non-reflective glass (openable under supervision), eye-level, A/C, bunk beds, and three exterior floodlights for night photography. Elephant, leopard, cheetah and day birds. Shared by Larsen's and Soroi Samburu Lodge guests.
Soroi Lions Bluff — Tsavo (Lumo sanctuary)
A second, separate Soroi hide: underground, ~180° unobstructed waterhole view — Tsavo's red elephants at water level; star-bed sleep-out option. Paid hide access per 24-hr session, dry-season only.
Shompole Wilderness hide — South Rift
The celebrated sleep-in studio-lit underground hide; book far ahead. June often goes to exclusive-use.
Hide Photography Kenya
Near the Amboseli road — the one true specialist bird feeder/perch hide found. No published rate; enquire direct.
- Kenya is a field-birding country — dedicated bird hides are rare, and aggregator lists recycle the same unverified entries. Treat every hide here as confirm-before-you-book.
Ol Pejeta — vehicles & hide rules
The Laikipia plateau plays by its own rules: off-road is banned and night drives are conservancy-vehicle-only.
- Off-road is banned conservancy-wide. Every sighting is from the track — unlike the Mara conservancies, no premium camp gets off-road here.
- Night drives only in Ol Pejeta's own vehicle (~$70–90), not your camp's — bookable by anyone through the conservancy, 7–9 or 9–11 PM.
- Single-entry re-fee $110. Exit and re-enter and you pay the day fee again — staying inside (Sweetwaters, Bush Camp, Porini Rhino) saves both cost and hassle.
- Hides:Scott's is a public drive-up day hide; the Hippo Hide needs a river-rock walk; Porini Rhino keeps a private guest hide. Conservancy entry $110/adult/day + $5 vehicle.
Road-safari vehicle intel
What you actually ride in on the cheaper options — and why solo means whole-vehicle.
- Land Cruiser, pop-top roof. 6–7 seats, big sliding windows both sides, charging socket, cooler — the road-safari standard.
- Private = the whole vehicle. A solo private booking is the entire Cruiser, not a seat: legs up on the next seat, gear spread, any window angle.
- High step up. The Cruiser sits tall — flag mobility needs and ask for grab handles / a side step. Off-road and night drives still need a conservancy guide-vehicle even where allowed.
Road distances from Nairobi
Objective drive times — the real cost of the cheap options. Source for the Builder's road/fly routing.
| Destination | By road | By air |
|---|---|---|
| Masai Mara | 5–6h · 270 km | 45 min fly-in |
| Naivasha | 1.5h · 90 km | no scheduled flight |
| Ol Pejeta (Nanyuki) | 4h · 210 km | 45 min fly-in |
| Samburu / Buffalo Springs | 5–6h · 300 km | 75 min fly-in |
| South Rift (Lentorre / Shompole) | 4.5h · 200 km | no scheduled flight |
| Tsavo (Lumo / Lions Bluff) | 5h · 330 km | 60 min fly-in |
The killer leg is Mara → Samburu at ~10h direct — always broken via a stepping-stone (Naivasha, Nakuru or Ol Pejeta) or flown. Flying only transforms that one leg (~7h saved); elsewhere it saves 2–3h but costs ~$400–500 and loses the private vehicle.
Light-aircraft baggage & power
The bush-flight rules that decide what camera kit you can carry — objective carrier policy.
- 15 kg per person on Safarilink bush routes (20 kg to the coast), inclusive of hand luggage, in soft bags — max bag 60 × 45 × 33 cm. Excess is buyable up to 48 h out in 10/20/30 kg batches, or ~$3.50/kg at check-in. Counters close 45 min before domestic departures.
- Power: UK-style 3-pin (Type G), 220–240 V. Camps run on solar/generator — bring a Type-G adapter, charge during the day, and go easy on high-wattage chargers.
- A hard camera case usually busts both the weight and the soft-bag rule — this is the real argument for the all-road private vehicle, which has no baggage limit.
Operator-specific terms, solo rules and offers live on Operators. Everything here derives from published rate sheets and official fee tables, kept with us; exact lodge figures come back to you in a proposal.