Hi

I am trying to plan for a trip to East Africa for my wife and i and another couple. I lived in Kenya for a while as a teenager so definitely want to revisit teh Mara and Amboseli but would also love to visit the Migration in the southern part of the Serengeti and the Crater. We are flying in and out of Nairobi and have 9 nights for our trip and have a car and a driver arranged. I am wondering if a trip that went Nairobi- Mara Triangle - Serengeti - Ngorongoro - Amboseli - Nairobi would be feasible in 10 days or would it feel like we had massively rushed it?


Would we be better going for a Nairobi - Mara Triangle - Naivasha - Amboseli -* Nairobi itinerary leaving Serengeti - Ngorongoro for another separate trip?

I did a trip with Kuoni during February several years ago that started in Nairobi, stopping at Amboseli before crossing the border into Tanzania. We flew from Arusha to an airstrip in Seronera Valley in Serengeti, then on to Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara before returning to Nairobi via Arusha. The highlight of the trip was crossing the Shortgrass Plains in SE Serengeti where the migratory herds were grazing and giving birth to their young. The sight of thousands of wildebeest, zebra, mixed with gazelle and antelope, with predators nearby was something I’ll never forget.

It may be possible to alter the itinerary slightly and move from Serengeti to Mara, but at the time the land border between the two parks was closed. At any rate, the migratory herds were in SE Serengeti at the time, and there was lots of wildlife in Seronera Valley as well.

I think you're biting off way too much for just 9 nights. With the amount of driving between them, you'll just be packing and unpacking and driving constantly, which eats into valuable daytime game viewing time. Keep in mind too the covid requirements to cross and recross the borders; those are logistics you'll have to factor in too. There are more condensed itineraries in both Tanzania and Kenya that would make better use of your time. Heimdall did the same itinerary I did in Tanzania in Feb 2013 (I did it in the reverse though: Arusha - Tarangire - Manyara - Ngorongoro - Ndutu for the calving and migration - Serengeti - Arusha). At a minimum I'd suggest at least 2 nights at each stop to make the most of what each has to offer.

The Maasai Mara and Serengeti are literally the same ecosystem, it's just that the name changes when you cross from Kenya into Tanzania. Unless you have a compelling reason to see the Mara, you could just do an all Tanzania trip, which I think for the time of year is what I'd favor for you. If you include Tarangire in your Tanzanian trip, you'll get the elephant herds that you'd normally expect to see in Amboseli. Or you could do an all Kenya trip as you proposed. Naivasha doesn't get rave reviews. It really only hits people's itineraries because it's a stopping point on a long drive to the Mara. It used to be home to large flocks of flamingos, which made it worth seeing, but they have moved on.

I agree you may be trying to do too much. Here is a moving map that illustrates the migration throughout the year, and where the herds are likely to be in February:
https://www.expertafrica.com/tanzani...eest-migration