Ultimate 3-Week East Africa Safari Itinerary

If you need help planning your East Africa safari trip and want to see how someone else did it, you’ve come to the right place! In this guide, I’ll give you my exact itinerary that I did when I visited three East Africa countries in roughly 3 weeks. If you’re like me, you want to make the most of an expensive plane ticket and see as much as you can. This itinerary will take you though Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar and wrap up with gorilla trekking in Uganda.

Note: My exact itinerary was actually 3.5 weeks, but you can cut out some of the Nairobi time out if you wish. My husband was working in Nairobi when I visited, so I spent additional time in that area to hang out with him and some friends while I was there.

Table of Contents

• First things first!
• Day 1 – Arrival in Nairobi
• Day 2 – Visit Crescent Island at Lake Naivasha
• Day 3: Time for Safari! Off to Amboseli National Park
• Day 4: Full Day in Amboseli
• Day 5: Leave Amboseli for Lake Nakuru
• Day 6: Leave Lake Nakuru for Masaai Mara
• Day 7: Masaai Mara
• Day 8: Masaai Mara Hot Air Balloon Ride, Kenya/Tanzania border crossing / Serengeti
• Day 9: Full day in Serengeti National Park
• Day 10: Serengeti to Ngorongoro Crater
• Day 11: Tarangire National Park
• Day 12: Tarangire > Arusha Domestic Airport > Zanzibar
• Day 13: Zanzibar
• Day 14: Flight from Zanzibar to Nairobi
• Day 15: Nairobi – Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage
• Day 16: Nairobi National Park / Giraffe Center / Shopping
• Day 17: Fairview Estate Coffee Plantation
• Day 18: Kiambethu Tea Farm
• Day 19: Flight to Entebbe, Uganda, travel to Queen Elizabeth National Park
• Day 20: Queen Elizabeth National Park and Kazinga Channel boat ride
• Day 21: Queen Elizabeth National Park to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
• Day 22: Gorilla Trek
• Day 23: Drive from Bwindi to Entebbe, flight home
• What would I have changed?
• More East Africa Safari Information

First things first!

If you’re just beginning your East Africa travel planning journey, I suggest that you check out few other of my posts:

Ultimate East Africa Safari Planning Guide

This is not a self-drive/transport itinerary! In general, you cannot visit these areas alone; you can’t rent a car from the airport and show up at the gates of the Masai Mara — they will not let you in, you will need to be on a guided safari tour. This itinerary is just to show you what I did, in case you were interested in visiting some of the same places on your trip, and wanted to know how I did it. You can use this itinerary in helping you plan what you want to see and to narrow down the tours offered, but ultimately, you will need to book your safari trip through a guided service.

However, we did do some of this on our own. Specifically, all of the time we spent in Nairobi, we arranged without a guided tour service. I will be upfront though — I had help from my husband’s work who helped get us a driver. You can arrange driver services through places like Viator or Tripadvisor, or you can always use Uber.

Day 1 – Arrival in Nairobi

After what seemed like a crazy travel day(s), we arrived in Nairobi from the USA, via CDG (Paris, France) at around 7am local time.

My husband and the driver met us outside the airport. But you will find taxis available to take you to your hotel, or you might have made arrangements through your tour operator to pick you up (this is very common!)

We went directly to our hotel — the Trademark Hotel in the Village Market mall, where we would be spending the next few nights. This was a great place to stay as it is attached to a large shopping mall, and has plenty of stores, and even a grocery store. We were able to check into the room and drop off our luggage, and then proceeded to eat breakfast at the hotel. I felt very sick due to jet lag but forced myself to stay awake. Later on that day, our driver took us to City Park to check out the monkeys and then we visited the Friday Masaai Market on the roof of the Village Market Mall.

Accommodation: Trademark Hotel (Marriott Property). – 2 nights

Day 2 – Visit Crescent Island at Lake Naivasha

Getting an early start from Nairobi, we visited Lake Naivasha. Along the way, we stopped at viewpoints along the Great Rift Valley. This was actually our first ‘safari’ but it was not in a safari vehicle; we were in a kayak, boating on Lake Naivasha out to Crescent Island for a walking safari. Walking safaris are allowed when there are no predators (like lions) in the park. We saw giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, pelicans and more. It was so much fun! Then, back to our hotel in Nairobi. We arranged this one-day safari via my husband’s work, so I know that’s not helpful to you, but these day trip tours are offered on SafariBookings.com

Day 3: Time for Safari! Off to Amboseli National Park

We were picked up from our hotel in Nairobi by our safari company and off we went! We had about a 4 hour drive to our first game park — Amboseli National Park. I chose this park because I really wanted to see Mt. Kilimanjaro and at this park, you can get that iconic photo. Plus, it’s known for lots of elephants! We checked into our hotel (Kibo Safari Camp – read my review!), had lunch and then we were off for an afternoon game drive, our first of many.
Accommodation: Kibo Safari Camp (2 nights)

Day 4: Full Day in Amboseli

Up early for our morning game drive in the park, followed by lunch and an afternoon relaxing in the pool. We did not do an evening game drive. We had now been on two game drives and saw 3 of the Big 5 (Big 5 are Lion, Rhino, Cheetah, Leopard and Elephant, with the leopard being the most difficult animal to spot).

Day 5: Leave Amboseli for Lake Nakuru

We met our driver at around 7:30am that morning, and we were off to our next park — Lake Nakuru National Park, which is known for its large flocks of pink flamingos, and known for being a rhino habitat. This was about a 7 hour drive. We arrived in time to go on an afternoon game drive and saw rhinos (though at a huge distance away) and saw the famous flamingos!

Related: Read about my experience at Lake Nakuru here

Accommodation: Lake Nakuru Lodge – One night.

Day 6: Leave Lake Nakuru for Masaai Mara

Off to the Mara! But before we left, we did one last game drive through Lake Nakuru National Park, and we lucked out and saw two rhinos walking down a hill, and eventually walked right past our vehicle! We also stopped by the flamingo spot one more time for pictures.

Then it was off to the Masaai Mara. This was about a 4-5 hour drive, and it was brutal. It starts off fine, on paved roads through the Kenyan countryside, but once you turn off the main road and head to the Mara, the roads get very, very rough.

We arrived at the Mara Sopa Lodge in time for the buffet lunch. After lunch, we went on an afternoon game drive.

Accommodation: Mara Sopa Lodge – 2 nights

Day 7: Masaai Mara

Up early for a morning game drive, back to the lodge for lunch, and then relaxed the rest of the day. On our game drive, we spotted a lepoard which made us 5-for-5 on the Big Five – we did it! We chose not to go on another game drive in the afternoon, as we had something special planned for the next morning…

Day 8: Masaai Mara Hot Air Balloon Ride, Kenya/Tanzania border crossing / Serengeti

Huge day ahead! We were up at 3 am to get to our hot air balloon ride! We did our game drive from the air, which was incredibly cool. After the hot air balloon ride over the Masai Mara, we had an amazing bougie bush breakfast with our group. We made friends with other travelers (one from the USA, and two from Japan), and then we were off to the Serengeti. We crossed the Kenya/Tanzania border and had to part ways with our driver at this point. Drivers are switched at the border crossings, so we said bye to George and hello to our new driver, Casey! Then we were off to the Serengeti. This drive took nearly all day, and we did not have time for a game drive but we spotted animals along the way to our lodge, including a lion just hanging out on a rock.

Accommodation: Ang’aata Seronera Camp – two nights

Day 9: Full day in Serengeti National Park

We did both a morning and an evening game drive and saw some of the most amazing wildlife scenes of our trip! We saw the biggest concentration of wild animals I’ve ever seen in my life (so many wildebeests and zebras! As far as the eye can see), tree-climbing lions (this was huge on my list of things to see!) a pride of lions take down a zebra, I even got that shot of a full mane lion with a bloody face!

Day 10: Serengeti to Ngorongoro Crater

We had an early morning game drive, where we saw even more tree-climbing lions (I just loved them!), and then it was off to Ngorongoro Crater. This was about a 3 hour drive, so we had time for an early afternoon game drive in the crater. We ran into some thunderstorms here and eventually cut our game drive short. I wish we would’ve had better weather for this because the crater is really cool!

This was the day one of my camera lens broke due to the bumpy roads.

Accommodation: Ngorongoro Coffee Lodge – one night

Day 11: Tarangire National Park

Ooof. By this time, we were very much much over safari. Enough was enough but we pressed on to do another game drive in Tarangire National Park. Tarangire National Park is known for having a huge population of elephants, plus the iconic baobab trees! On the day we were here, it was really hot and we were tired of the game drives, so we cut it short and went directly to our lodge, where we had some pool time, did underwear laundry in the sink (prices were outrageous in Tanzania!) and packed for our flight to Zanzibar the next morning.

Accommodation: Sangaiwe Tented Lodge

Day 12: Tarangire > Arusha Domestic Airport > Zanzibar

Off to Zanzibar! We took a short domestic flight from the Arusha Domestic Airport to Zanzibar, and went to our resort. I am not a resort person but this was AMAZING after a long safari!

Accommodation: Royal Zanzibar Resort – 2 nights

Day 13: Zanzibar

I arranged a driver for half the day to take us from our resort to Stone Town. We visited Prison Island via a boat ride which was a lot of fun and we were going to walk around Stone Town but neither of us were feelin’ it. We just went back to the resort and relaxed in the pools, which was so much fun!

Day 14: Flight from Zanzibar to Nairobi

Back to Nairobi! We had a 3pm flight back to Nairobi, so we had a little time to wander around the resort in the morning before having to be at the airport (our hotel was on the north end of the island). We flew back to Nairobi and went back to the Trademark hotel once again!

Accommodation: Trademark Hotel – 4 nights.

Day 15: Nairobi – Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage

We had reservations for this day and absolutely loved our visit! We also visited some shops, including the Kazuri Beads Factory. These activities did not take all day, but we were still so burned out on safari that we took it easy the rest of the day. Went back to the hotel, wandered around the mall, and visited the Masaai Market, which was a ton of fun. Later on, we went out to dinner with my husband and some of his colleagues. You can read about our experience at the Sheldrick Wildlife Refuge here.

Day 16: Nairobi National Park / Giraffe Center / Shopping

Yeah, yeah. We went on yet another safari. Nairobi National Park wasn’t huge on my list, especially at this point in my trip where we had already seen everything (except gorillas). But my husband was working in Nairobi and hadn’t had a chance to go on a safari, so we did this, along with two of his coworkers. Again, this was arranged by his work, but Safari Bookings.com has tons of one-day safaris to Nairobi National Park. It was cool seeing the animals against the city backdrop.

After the morning game drive, we headed to the Giraffe Center, where we got to feed the giraffes. And then we stopped off at a few shops.

Day 17: Fairview Estate Coffee Plantation

This was so informative! I wasn’t so sure about this, as this particular coffee plantation isn’t that well-known, but I really loved the tour here. It was so informative – and I still often think about what we learned on that tour every time I drink or purchase coffee. After the tour, we just relaxed at the hotel and walked around the mall (can you tell we enjoyed walking around that mall?!)

Day 18: Kiambethu Tea Farm

This was really nice! We visited the Kiambethu Tea Farm which is an historic tea plantation, where you get a full tour and a delicious lunch with some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had! After our visit, we went back to a few gift shops (in particular Spinners Web which is awesome and I highly recommend) for some final shopping in Kenya.

Day 19: Flight to Entebbe, Uganda, travel to Queen Elizabeth National Park

Up for a quick morning flight to Uganda, where we met our second safari tour operator, Charles. Our plan for the Uganda part of our trip was Queen Elizabeth National Park (to see tree climbing lions in particular) and go on our gorilla trek. This was a very long day in the car – with a stop at the equator for lunch — it was roughly 7.5 hours to our lodge!

Accommodation: Lake Munyanyanwe Caves Lodge – 2 nights.

Day 20: Queen Elizabeth National Park and Kazinga Channel boat ride

We had a morning game drive, which again, at this point in our trip, we were over it. Plus, the game drive in Queen Elizabeth National Park just wasn’t very good in general. We saw some lions, but they were all wearing tracking collars. In the afternoon, we had a Kazinga Channel boat ride safari, which neither of us wanted to do, but it turned out to be a highlight of the trip!

Day 21: Queen Elizabeth National Park to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

This was a very long day in the safari vehicle again! We were going to the Ishasha Sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park, but we didn’t see one single lion, let alone one in a tree. Very disappointing and…eerie. The vibes in this area of the park just felt so off — and we were literally on the (unmanned) border of the DRC.

Trust your gut — there was a reason for this eerie feeling. This happened to an American tourist in the exact same area we were in, just a few years prior!

We suffered through a nasty, nasty drive through the mountains in the rain, slipping and sliding on muddy, cliff-hugging roads. I swear to god, I thought were were going to die. This was probably one of the most stressful experiences I’ve ever had on a trip.

Lodging: Rushaga Gorilla Lodge – 2 Nights

Day 22: Gorilla Trek

In the morning, we had our gorilla trek – the last big ‘thing’ on our East Africa adventure. We weren’t sure how long this would last, but the actual trek we had was only about 20 minutes until we reached the gorilla family we were assigned for the day. Our guide gave us the option to visit a Pygmy village but neither of us wanted to do that. We didn’t do any village visits and I’m 100% ok with that decision. We went back to the lodge and drank our weight in orange Fantas!

Day 23: Drive from Bwindi to Entebbe, flight home

Time to head back to the USA! By this time, we were completely fried. We wanted to go home so badly. But first, we had to endure an extremely long, 8.5 hour drive from our lodge in Bwindi to the Entebbe airport. Our flight didn’t leave until 11:50pm and we did make it in plenty of time to catch our plane – and take a much needed shower in the airport lounge. We said goodbye to our guide, goodbye to Africa, and hello USA (with a layover in Amsterdam).

So that’s exactly what we did on our 3.5 week East Africa trip. It was a LOT. You definitely do not need to do all of this. It was honestly too much — way too much safari.

What would I have changed?

We didn’t need to go so hard on safari. We could’ve just ended the trip at the Masaai Mara and called it good. I would’ve sprung for a luxury comfort level safari, used airplane transportation instead of driving and shortened it to about 3-5 days. That’s all you really need. We didn’t need to see all of these parks — it’s nice that we did but it isn’t necessary, as once you start seeing these animals, you start shrugging your shoulders — ‘oh another elephant.’

This isn’t like going to Yellowstone National Park in the USA and hoping to see a grizzly bear — there, you need luck on your side. On an East African safari, you don’t need luck — these animals are everywhere — in fact, you’ll have a great chance to at least see 4 of the 5 “Big 5” animals even with just a few game drives.

I would’ve spent more time in Zanzibar – I had a list of things I wanted to see but we were just too beat down and worn out from safari that we just wanted to relax at the resort. This is totally unlike me — I am one to go-go-go on vacation and I just wanted to relax. Safari did me in!

I would’ve completely skipped Queen Elizabeth National Park. It just wasn’t that great. Outside of the Kazinga Channel boat cruise, we hardly saw any wildlife. If I could do it again, I would’ve went to Murchison Falls, Lake Bunyonyi, and/or visited a park where we had the chance to see a Shoebill Stork (I didn’t know about that bird until I was already in Uganda!).

That wraps up my trip to East Africa! I hope this helps you in your planning!