Beyond the game drive.
A Savanna Secrets safari is built around what you want from your time in East Africa. For many clients that is wildlife. For others it involves the coast, the ocean, local history, or simply a different pace. What follows are some of the experiences we offer alongside our safari packages.
An evening on the Indian Ocean.
Mombasa’s coastline has a character all its own, and one of the best ways to understand it is from the water, on a traditional dhow, at the hour when the Indian Ocean turns gold.
The Tamarind Dhow Safari pairs sailing along the coastline with a seafood dinner prepared and served on board. The dhow is elegantly fitted, the cooking is built around fresh coastal produce, and the backdrop is the kind of sunset that reminds you where you are. It is unhurried, genuinely beautiful, and tends to become the thing guests mention first when they get home.
Seven centuries of history on the coast.
Kenya’s coast is not only beaches. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited coastlines in the Indian Ocean world, and the evidence of that history is still standing. Malindi is a town where Swahili, Arab, and Portuguese history overlap in the architecture, the markets, and the waterfront, the Jami Mosque, the Old Town quarter, and the rhythms of a place that has been a trading hub for centuries.
Gedi is something else entirely: the ruins of a fourteenth-century Swahili city, abandoned and absorbed by forest for reasons historians still debate. Walking through the stone houses, the palace complex, and the Great Mosque with a knowledgeable guide turns a site visit into something closer to a conversation with a civilisation that disappeared and left its architecture behind.
The landscape at walking pace.
Game drives cover ground. Walking safaris cover detail. On foot, the East African bush reveals itself differently: the tracks in the soil, the bark of a fever tree, the sound of a hornbill before you see it, the grasses that look identical from a vehicle but each have a name and a role. A skilled guide is not simply pointing at animals, they are reading a landscape, and bringing you into that reading.
We offer walking safari experiences in selected locations within Kenya, guided by experienced naturalists and conducted where it is safe and permitted to be on foot. They suit clients who want to add a different dimension to a safari already built around game drives. Walking safaris are built into specific itineraries on request, enquire and we will advise on which destinations and timing work best.
Kenya’s coast. Before or after the savanna.
The Kenya coast is one of the most natural endings, or beginnings, to a safari. After days in the bush, the Indian Ocean has a particular appeal. After time at the coast, the transition into the savanna carries its own energy. We design safari and beach combinations that treat both parts of the trip with equal care; the coast is not an afterthought tagged onto the end.
The northern coast, from Mombasa through Kilifi, Watamu, and Malindi to Lamu, offers distinct personalities at each stop. The south coast, including Diani Beach, is among the finest stretches of Indian Ocean coastline in the country. We know the coast the same way we know the bush: from years of operating here and staying in these properties ourselves.
Our itineraries are starting points, not catalogues.
If you have a specific experience you are hoping for, tell us. We have likely done something similar before.
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