Budget
The two halves cost nothing like each other
Which is the single most useful fact for deciding how to split your nights.
A safari night is fully inclusive: accommodation, all meals, park fees, guiding, vehicle. A beach night is a hotel room, sometimes with breakfast. They are different products and the price gap is wide.
The safari half
| Level | Per person per night | What it buys |
|---|---|---|
| Fine lodges and classic camps | US$800 – 1,200 | Established camps in genuinely good locations, a private vehicle throughout, light-aircraft hops between parks rather than long road transfers, and guiding that is a profession rather than a job. The entry point to a safari that does not compromise. |
| Private conservancy | US$1,200 – 1,800 | Camps on private land, where the rules change: off-road driving to a sighting, night drives, walking with an armed guide, and a cap on how many vehicles may attend anything. Usually the point at which people stop comparing safaris on price. |
| Owner-run and design-led | US$1,800 – 2,500 | The camps people name when they get home. Six to ten tents, an owner or manager who is present, a guide assigned to you for the stay, and food that would hold its own in a city. |
| Exclusive-use and private-guided | US$2,500 – 4,000 | A guide who travels with you from park to park rather than being handed over at each one, private charters on your own schedule, and small camps taken whole for your party. |
| Whole-camp and villa | US$4,000 and up | Exclusive-use houses and villas with their own staff, mobile expedition camps built for your route, and private aircraft between countries. Bought for privacy and control rather than for thread count. |
Per person per night sharing, fully inclusive: accommodation, meals, park and conservancy fees, guiding, and transport between parks. International flights are not included. Indicative 2026/27 rates. Your quote confirms exact pricing for your dates.
The beach half
Considerably less, and with a much wider spread between simple and extravagant. A good mid-range coastal hotel on a bed-and-breakfast basis is a fraction of a mid-range safari night; an all-inclusive resort or a private villa with staff moves it up but rarely to safari levels.
The practical consequence: extra beach nights are cheap, extra safari nights are not. If your budget is tight, the lever to pull is safari nights, not beach nights.
The arithmetic that surprises people
Cutting one safari night and adding two beach nights often costs less than the original itinerary and produces a better-rested traveller. We suggest it frequently.
What sits outside both
- International flights
- Internal flights between the parks and the coast, a real cost on this shape of trip, so the routing matters
- Entry authorisation and travel insurance
- Tips, on both halves
- Diving, kitesurfing, dhow trips and the balloon flight if you want one
The whole thing
What the whole thing comes to
Per person, land only, in Kenya, at the level we plan at. Per-night bands are how quotes get compared; these are what they add up to, which is the number people are really asking about.
| Trip | From, per person |
|---|---|
| 4 nights in the Mara | about $2,500 |
| 7 nights | about $6,000 |
| 10 to 13 nights, privately guided | $10,000 to $14,000 |
International flights are not included. Inside those totals a luxury camp runs about $1,050 a night, all in, with a private guide and vehicle. Exclusive use runs about $2,700, with private flying between camps. Flying Nairobi to the Mara instead of driving adds about $700 to $850 per person across a trip and buys back most of a day in each direction. Green and shoulder season saves 20 to 30 per cent. Indicative 2026/27 rates. Your quote confirms exact pricing for your dates.
More from our Kenya guides
Specialist guides across our Kenya network
Each of these is a focused guide we publish. Same Kenya specialist behind every enquiry.
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