About us
Guides first, a company second
Samaka Mara Safari was started in 2014 by people who were already driving these roads for someone else, and thought it could be done better.
The name comes from the Mara — the reserve most of our early trips went to, and still the place we send more people than anywhere else. Samaka Mara began with one vehicle, two guides and a phone number, and grew mostly on the recommendations of people who had already travelled with us.
We are Kenyan-owned and Nairobi-based. Everyone who guides for us is licensed, has worked the parks for years, and can tell you the difference between a Thomson’s and a Grant’s gazelle at two hundred metres — but more usefully, they can read a situation, know when to wait and when to move on, and get you to a sighting before fifteen other vehicles do.
We are deliberately not the biggest operator in Nairobi. Staying small means the person who answers your first email is still involved when you land, and the guide who meets you at the airport is someone we have worked with for years rather than a name from a list.
We are members of the Kenya Association of Tour Operators, licensed by the Tourism Regulatory Authority, and fully insured for passenger liability on every vehicle.
- 2014Started with one Land Cruiser and two guides running Mara trips out of Nairobi.
- 2017Added the northern circuit — Samburu, Ol Pejeta and the Laikipia conservancies.
- 2019Began operating cross-border into the Serengeti and Ngorongoro.
- 2022Launched our Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro trekking programme with a dedicated mountain crew.
- TodayFourteen vehicles, twenty-two guides, and trips running in Kenya and northern Tanzania year-round.
How we work
Four things that shape every trip we run
We run our own trips
We are not a booking agent passing you to whoever is cheapest that week. The vehicle is ours, the guide works for us, and if something goes wrong on day four it is our problem to fix, not a supplier's.
We say when something is a bad idea
Four parks in five days is a bad idea. The Mara in late April is a gamble. A budget camping trip with a two-year-old is harder than it sounds. We would rather tell you now than have you find out there.
We pay people properly
Our guides are salaried, not paid per trip. Our mountain porters are paid at or above the rates recommended by the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project, and we cap their loads. Tips are extra, and they go to the crew.
We keep the group small
Seven seats in a minivan, six in a Land Cruiser, and every one of them a window seat. On scheduled departures we cap the group rather than filling the vehicle.
The best trips start with a conversation, not a booking form.
Call us, message us, or send an email. We will ask what you want out of the trip before we suggest anything.