Overland region

The Masai Mara by 4x4: local guides and trips

Open savanna of the Masai Mara with a lone tree
Photo: Daniel Case, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Masai Mara is a national reserve in Narok County, in south-west Kenya, contiguous with Tanzania's Serengeti National Park; it includes the Mara Triangle in the south-west, and around it lie Maasai group ranches and community conservancies. It is where the great wildebeest migration arrives, crossing the Mara River from Tanzania. For anyone travelling with their own vehicle it means reaching the reserve from Nairobi through Narok, entering by gates such as Sekenani, Talek, Sand River and Oloololo, and driving open savanna cut by the Mara River and its tributaries. Here are the local guides who work in the area and the trips that cross it.

7 local guides and 7 trips in the Masai Mara on GuideMeet.

On the map

  1. Narok Narok — Town. County capital and commercial centre at 1,827 m, the last major town on the road from Nairobi to the Masai Mara. Pictured: Narok from above. -1.0833, 35.8667 · Google Maps
  2. Sekenani Gate Sekenani Gate — Park. Gate on the eastern side of the reserve, the part most visited because it is the closest to Nairobi. -1.5210, 35.3374 · Google Maps
  3. Maasai Mara National Reserve Maasai Mara National Reserve — Reserve. Covers 1,510 km² at 1,500–2,180 m, mostly open grassland with seasonal streams. "Mara" means "spotted" in Maa, after the bushy trees dotting the plain. -1.4900, 35.1400 · Google Maps
  4. Talek Gate Talek Gate — Park. Gate near the Talek River, one of the rivers that drain the reserve along with the Mara and the Sand. Pictured: rocks on the Talek. -1.4432, 35.2073 · Google Maps
  5. Naboisho Conservancy — Reserve. Conservancy on the north-eastern side of the reserve, part of the Greater Mara ecosystem together with the reserve, the Maasai group ranches and the other conservancies. -1.3841, 35.3112 · Google Maps
  6. Olare Motorogi Conservancy Olare Motorogi Conservancy — Reserve. A 140 km² community conservancy founded in 2006 on land leased from Maasai landowners, bordering the reserve. Pictured: spotted hyenas. -1.3820, 35.1373 · Google Maps
  7. Sand River Gate Sand River Gate — Park. Gate in the south of the reserve, on the Tanzanian border, by the Sand River, which joins the Mara where it enters the Serengeti. Pictured: the gate. -1.6530, 35.2161 · Google Maps
  8. Mara River Mara River — River. The river the herds cross when they enter from the Serengeti, famous for its crossings; it divides the Mara Triangle from the rest of the reserve. Pictured: zebras. -1.5457, 35.0181 · Google Maps
  9. Mara Triangle Mara Triangle — Reserve. The south-western third of the reserve (510 km²), between the Mara River and the Oloololo Escarpment, run by the Mara Conservancy and less crowded than the east. -1.4066, 34.9066 · Google Maps
  10. Oloololo Gate Oloololo Gate — Park. Gate to the Mara Triangle, near the Oloololo Escarpment, 400 m high, which closes the reserve to the north-west. -1.2584, 34.9976 · Google Maps

Local guides in the Masai Mara

Overland trips in the Masai Mara

When to go

The migration usually reaches the Mara between July and October, and the herds head back south around October. The long rains fall in April and May and the short rains in November and December.

Before you go

Photo credits

Photos from Wikimedia Commons, under the licences shown.

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