Kenya & Tanzania Combined Safaris: Mara + Serengeti (7-14 Days)

For Migration season, yes - you follow herds across the border. Off-season, going deep in one country usually beats splitting.

Isebania (Mara-Serengeti) or Namanga (Amboseli-Arusha). Visas per country; our teams handle both sides.

The crossings that matter on safari routes: Namanga and Isebania between Kenya and Tanzania, Taveta-Voi on the coast corridor, Cyanika and Katuna between Uganda and Rwanda, and Rusumo Falls linking Rwanda with Tanzania. Posts typically run 6am to 6pm and mornings are fastest. Carry passport copies, printed visas and small US dollar notes for fees. The US$100 East African Tourist Visa folds Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda into one 90-day stamp if you enter through the issuing country first; Tanzania sits outside that scheme, so a Kenya-Tanzania-Uganda circuit needs two authorisations. Your guide handles vehicle papers, you keep the stamps.

Road for scenery and cost on the Mara-Serengeti leg; fly when adding Zanzibar or saving a day.

Match the country to your priority: 7-8 day combos: Mara + Serengeti + crater. 10-day combos: Add Amboseli or extra Migration days. 12-14 day grands: Plus Zanzibar or Samburu. Tell us your month and party and a specialist narrows it to one route.

Guide prices such as 7-8 days (Mara + Serengeti + crater) - From $3,900; 10 days (Add Amboseli or Tarangire) - From $5,200; 12-14 days (Add Zanzibar or Samburu) - From $6,800 are mid-range baselines per person (two travelers), including private vehicle and guide, accommodation, park fees and listed transfers. Peak season and luxury tiers quote higher - every proposal is line-itemed.

Those per-day figures assume two travelers sharing one vehicle in green season; every additional passenger splits the same vehicle bill, and peak-season park tariffs can lift a day by US$30-80 before any upgrade. Treat them as the floor of a mid-range build, not as a ceiling - every proposal we issue line-items the same structure.

All itineraries run solo. Expect a 20 to 50 percent supplement where lodges charge per room; vehicles cost the same whether one or six ride. Ask for the honest supplement math per trip.

Game drives run rain or shine - vehicles have roofs and ponchos, animals remain active, and green-season light is superb for photography. Only true downpours pause activity, and camps flex schedules around them.

Bush flights allow 15 to 20kg in soft duffels; lodges store hard cases free. We route connections with realistic margins and meet you at every airstrip - missed-connection cover is built into fly-in trips.

Travel green season, bring four or more travelers to split the vehicle, choose tented camps over lodges, and drive where flying saves little. Never cut guide quality, Migration-zone positioning or insurance.

The four levers that actually work: green season (published rates 20-40 percent below high season with fewer vehicles at sightings), four or more travelers splitting the vehicle, tented camps over permanent lodges of the same operator, and road transfers under two hours instead of flight sectors. The three that do not: cutting guide quality, cutting Migration-zone positioning, and dropping insurance - the last one being a false economy at US$100-300 for a multi-thousand-dollar trip.