Kenya · Tanzania
Kenya & Tanzania Luxury Private-Guide Safari
A single expert guide accompanies you across both countries, building genuine rapport and tailoring each day to your interests.
From $15,600per person
13 Days 
A luxury East Africa safari with one local team: small lodges and camps in the best wildlife areas, a private guide and vehicle, and flights and transfers planned so the days run smoothly.
The short answerA luxury East Africa safari puts you in small, high-end lodges and camps in the places that matter most for wildlife: the Masai Mara in Kenya, the Serengeti in Tanzania, and the forests of Uganda and Rwanda for mountain gorillas. Many routes use light aircraft between camps to save road time, with a private guide and vehicle, and then finish with a beach in Zanzibar or the Seychelles. We are a Uganda-based tour operator: we check lodge and permit availability first, then send one quote for the whole route.
In East Africa, luxury is mostly about where you sleep, who guides you and how much of the day is yours. It means small camps and lodges with few rooms, views over the plains or the forest, a private guide and vehicle, and a pace set by you instead of a group timetable. Some of the finest camps sit in private conservancies or reserves, where fewer vehicles share each sighting. Our guide to Kenya's private conservancies explains how they work.
Luxury also looks different from place to place. Bwindi Lodge in Uganda is a forest lodge of ten bandas, Angama Mara has tented suites looking over the Masai Mara plains, and The Residence Zanzibar has beach villas with plunge pools. We tell you what each stay really is, so you choose on facts.
These are the luxury-tier lodges and camps we have written about in detail, from the forests of Uganda and Rwanda to the Masai Mara, the Serengeti, Zanzibar and the Seychelles. Each page gives the rooms, what is included and how to check your dates.
| Lodge | Where | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Bwindi Lodge | Buhoma sector, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda | About Bwindi Lodge |
| Wilderness Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge | Just outside Volcanoes National Park, north-west Rwanda | About Wilderness Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge |
| Angama Mara | Oloololo Escarpment, about 1,000 ft above the Mara plains, Kenya | About Angama Mara |
| Lamai Serengeti | Kogatende, far northern Serengeti, Tanzania, close to the Kenyan border | About Lamai Serengeti |
| Singita Sasakwa Lodge | Sasakwa Hill, Grumeti Reserves, northern Tanzania | About Singita Sasakwa Lodge |
| The Residence Zanzibar | South-west coast, near Kizimkazi fishing village, about an hour from Stone Town | About The Residence Zanzibar |
| North Island | Private island, about 30 km north-west of Mahé, Inner Islands | About North Island |
Gorillas: Bwindi Lodge sits in the Buhoma sector of Bwindi in Uganda, and Wilderness Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge is about a 20-minute drive from the park headquarters at Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. A gorilla permit for foreign non-residents is USD 800 in Uganda and USD 1,500 in Rwanda at the time of writing, and the park authorities can change those prices. See gorilla permits for how booking works.
The migration: in the far northern Serengeti and above the Masai Mara, camps put you within reach of the Mara River crossings, which usually happen from July to October. Crossing dates change every year and cannot be guaranteed. Our Great Migration safari guide shows where the herds are in each month.
The beach: a few days on Zanzibar or a private island in the Seychelles finish a safari well. The Seychelles lodge we feature is reached by a short helicopter transfer from the main island, and our Zanzibar luxury resort has private villas on its own beach.
Between camps, light aircraft can replace long drives, which gives you more time in the bush. Read fly-in or road safari to see what each choice means for your days.
Our journeys are private, so your route and pace are your own. If you are weighing it against joining others, private or group safari compares the two, and first-time safari planning covers the basics.
Many guests choose luxury for the two or three places that matter most to them, such as the gorilla forest and the migration, and mid-range lodges elsewhere on the route. We lead with luxury and mid-range and say clearly which is which, so you always know what you are choosing.
A luxury route can be one country or several. For routes across the region, see our page on East Africa safaris and tours, which links to every country, lodge and guide.
Ready-made routes you can book as they are or change to suit you. Every one is private and can be adjusted to your dates and interests.
A single expert guide accompanies you across both countries, building genuine rapport and tailoring each day to your interests.
Private guides, mobile camps that follow the herd, and a private-island-style Zanzibar villa — no detail left to chance.
Private mobile camps through the migration, then a full ten nights on a private-island honeymoon resort.
Exclusive traversing rights, night drives and walking safaris across the private conservancies bordering the Maasai Mara.
A tightly-focused 9-day pursuit of the Mara River crossings from both the Kenyan and Tanzanian sides.
Bwindi's forests, the Mara's plains, and six final nights on a private Seychelles island reachable only by boat or seaplane.
A private-guide safari through Uganda's forests and Kenya's plains, closing with a barefoot-luxury Zanzibar honeymoon week.
Our longest, most immersive route: extended time in every ecosystem, and five unhurried nights to properly unwind in Zanzibar.
Send us your dates and group size. We check availability first, tell you exactly what is open, and only then ask you to commit. A specialist answers within 24 hours.