First trip
Kenya, for most people, and it is not close
We would say the same if every country on this list paid us differently. It does not, which is why it is worth saying.
The case
- The highest density of big cats anywhere. On a first trip, seeing things matters more than it will on your fourth.
- The widest variety in the shortest distances. Plains, desert, highland forest and reef, within an hour’s flight of each other.
- The easiest logistics on this list. Nairobi is well connected; the internal network is dense and frequent.
- The conservancy system, which permits walking, night drives and off-road driving that national parks cannot.
- A coast two hours away, so bush and beach fit comfortably into a fortnight.
The one thing to get right
Stay on a conservancy bordering the Masai Mara rather than inside the reserve, at least for part of the trip.
The reserve is public land and vehicle numbers at a sighting are not capped. Between July and October a leopard can draw a queue, which is a poor first impression of something you have saved for. The conservancies have the same wildlife on the same ecosystem, with a cap that is written into the lease and enforced.
When Tanzania is the better first trip
| If | Then |
|---|---|
| Scale is what you are picturing | Tanzania. The Serengeti is vast in a way the Mara is not. |
| You can travel in February | Tanzania, for the calving in the south — less famous than the crossings and arguably better |
| The Crater matters to you | Tanzania. There is no equivalent anywhere. |
| You want Zanzibar attached | Tanzania. Forty minutes from the Serengeti airstrips. |
What we would not suggest for a first trip
- Two countries. The flying takes days you do not have on a first trip, which is usually ten nights or fewer.
- Botswana, unless budget is not a constraint. It is superb and it is the most expensive country here, and a first safari does not need the lowest vehicle density on the continent to be extraordinary.
- Uganda, for effort reasons rather than quality — it rewards time, and a first trip rarely has it.
- The southern Tanzanian parks, which are wonderful and are a second-trip answer.
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