Masai Mara is a fantastic national park to visit in Kenya over the Christmas. It is largely acknowledged as Kenya's tourism sector's crowning achievement. With over 400 different types of birds and over 95 different species of animals, amphibians, and reptiles, the reserve is regarded as Kenya's most stunning place to watch wildlife. During your Christmas vacation in Kenya, take a safari to the Masai Mara National Reserve to witness the abundant animals, including the dominating resident known as the wildebeests.

Game Drive in Masai Mara

The most frequent and well-liked activities in the Masai Mara and in most African national parks and reserves are game drives, which are by definition excursions across the park in a 4x4 open-roof Land Cruiser while respecting park rules and enjoying a close view of the animals. Typically, game drives follow these three categories;

Morning game drive: The most rewarding game drive is a morning game drive that begins at dawn to catch up with sun risers and observe the African sunrise. All animals are very active and fresh in an open savannah grassland looking for food of the day, and the cats are also in the ambush looking for the food of the day by hunting. When the sun becomes hot, all of the animals flock to the banks of rivers to quench their thirst and cool off, but cats retire to hidden, quiet locations to unwind and rest, making them difficult to find again.

Evening game drive, which typically lasts from 4 p.m. until late at 6:30 p.m., we get the final catch-up on the game while it is out of its hide enjoying its supper and sunbathing, especially the reptiles. Kobs and other herd-based grazers will be congregating for their rest period.

Observing the Maasai Mara's best ecosystem while floating through the air while wearing an eagle's eye is one of the region's most amazing experiences. There are three safari companies that offer hot air balloon safaris in the Maasai Mara, including Governors Camp, The Hot Air Balloon, which is the oldest and has a perfect safety record, and The Sky Ship Company.

The Hot Air Balloon Safari is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that one will never forget. Because of its start-up noise and shaking, guests are typically advised to sit down and cover their eyes as the balloon slowly lifts the basket on air with high heartbeats. You can feel your body moving erratically as the balloon leaves the grounds, but you are powerless to stop it.

The safari begins with a wake-up call for a light breakfast, followed by a drive to the launch site where you will meet the pilot for a briefing before boarding the balloon basket and taking off as the sun rises. Depending on the weather , our floating will take between one and two hours as we take in the birds-eye view of the Great Rift Valley’s undulating beauty and pay close attention to the big cats.

During your visit to the Maasai Mara, you can hire safari land cruisers or simply walk to explore the reserve, which was gifted by nature. Visitors have many opportunities to take leisurely walks both inside the park and around the nearby village because the reserve is overseen and cared for by the local community.

A game ranger armed with a rifle leads nature walks in the Masai Mara, where visitors can get up close views of animals including elephants, giraffes, antelope, buffalos, and other grazers while on pathways less frequented by predators. Researchers prefer this exercise because it keeps them busy during their stay and enables them to learn more about the reserves many plant zones, animal behaviors, and interactions with the local community and the park, among other things.

The Masaai people dominate the reserve and peacefully depart with the wildlife, making Masai Mara one of the few parks and reserves that is managed by the locals. This has benefited both the locals and the visitors, who have access to a variety of activities, particularly those involving discovering new cultures.

One of the greatest civilizations one may experience in Africa is the Masaai culture. The pastoralists who hunt more animals on the go have a distinctive culture that is unmatched anyplace in the world. Even though visitors from all over the modern world frequently migrate with them, this people have lived in the area surrounding the reserve for more than a century and have maintained their unalterable traditions, norms, and practices.

The Maasai village consists of about 50 traditional homes that are built in accordance with all Masaai customs and traditions and surround vast herds of cattle. In addition to helping them reap the benefits of tourism, their increased community projects also help them to leave behind good, sustainable lifestyles and a clean environment.

Cultural safaris or community visits to the Masaai people are some of the most engaging and energetic activities in the Maasai Mara that you shouldn't miss while visiting. These activities range from their distinctive method of milking their native cows, how to draw fresh blood from an animal, cooking, building their local homes out of mud, and many other exciting pursuits.

While there are now safari vans and land cruisers, most visitors still prefer to use horse rides during their game drives, and Maasai Mara is one of those reserves and parks in Africa where horse riding is done as an activity inside the park for the game drive. In the past, this was mostly used by explorers because there were no cars, but today, even though there are cars, most visitors still prefer to use horse rides.

Giving you a free way to travel through other animals on an animal-free vehicle while merely taking in the natural breeze, you may discover the best of the area. As you're followed by a skilled game ranger throughout the migration, the experience is beyond compare. You get to get up up and personal with the animals, even touching their backs, which makes it even more enjoyable.

Walking safaris are one of the easy but most rewarding ways of experiencing Maasai Mara, walking on foot with locals putting on local sandals make out of car tires sharing a lot of excitements as you explore the best of the reserve looking for wildlife. You can reach as far as the Mara River witnessing the migration if you’re in the right season visit.

The largest portion of the Amboseli ecosystem in Kenya is made up of the 392 sq km of Amboseli National Park. The Park is one of the best national parks to visit on your Christmas holiday in Kenya because of its large game, stunning visual splendor, and dominance of the landscape by the majestic Mount Kilimanjaro.

Game drive in Amboseli national Park

Over 80 distinct mammal species, from the tiny (and infrequently seen) spectacled elephant shrew to the enormous mass of the African elephant, are found in high quantities throughout the entire year in Amboseli National Park. With Mount Kilimanjaro as a backdrop, the park makes for excellent elephant photography and films.

On the observation hill in Amboseli National Parks, you can see Mount Kilimanjaro, and you can also get a broad overview of the entire park, including the lovely marshes and elephants that are located below the hill. Elephants, buffaloes, hippos, and a variety of waterbirds, such as pelicans, Egyptian geese, and other water birds, can all be seen in the park.

You will have the chance to learn about the Maasai people's native way of life, see how they live alongside wildlife in the park , and visit them in Amboseli National Park. The vibrant Maasai tribe is Kenya's most well-known ethnic group. Clad in vibrant shukas, these tall, jeweled people travel around Kenya while maintaining their traditional way of life while remaining unaffected by outside cultural trends.

The largest national park in Kenya is Tsavo, which was founded in 1948 and is also known as the Theatre of the Wild. It is a wonderful place to celebrate your birthday in Kenya. The Nairobi to Mombasa railway and road cuts across the Park, dividing it into east and west. The park features beautiful alpine landscapes, fauna, and unique and diverse habitats. Tsavo East is a well-known park that is simple to get to and draws a lot of visitors each year.

Large elephant herds and other wildlife herds, as well as remarkable natural structures and landscapes, are some of its spectacular characteristics. Compared to Tsavo East National Park, Tsavo West National Park has a more varied topography and a wider variety of habitats. You may visit the park's two sides, its fauna, which includes the Big 5 animals and cheetahs, as well as its pristine habitats, which include broad plains that alternate with savannah vegetation and semi-desert scrub and acacia forests.

Another fantastic national park for a safari in Kenya is Lake Nakuru , which is home to the stunning pink flamingos that nest in a small, highly alkaline lake in a scenic setting of woodlands and grasslands close to Nakuru town. One of the greatest sites to watch flamingos is in the park, which also has a stunning scenery with stretches of acacia woods, steep hillsides covered in euphorbia forests, and marsh and grassland sections interspersed with cliffs and outcropsApproximately one-third of the land area of Lake Nakuru National Park is taken up by the lake, while the other two-thirds are covered with savannah vegetation, which is home to a variety of mammals and birds.