Best Masai Mara safaris - Tips by travel authority Howard Hillman

Masai Mara safaris

Safari tips you can trust

Masai Mara
tips & insights

Kenya's best

The Masai Mara is the best Game Reserve in Kenya. But the Serengeti in neighboring Tanzania is superior because it provides visitors with a better overall safari experience.

Kenya vs Tanzania for details

Serengeti relationship

The Masai Mara is a natural extension of Tanzania's Serengeti National Park, with which it shares the famous Serengeti Migration.

Animal crossings

The above two game venues also share a fenceless international border, though the hordes of migrating animals are oblivious to the Kenyan-Tanzanian boundary as they cross it twice a year.

Name

This game reserve was once called the Serengeti. In 1961, it was renamed Masai Mara in honor of the Masais, the indigenous tribal people who still herd their cattle and goats within the game reserve.

Similarities

In many ways the Masai Mara is similar to its southern neighbor, the Serengeti National Park. For example, it has rolling grassland hills with scattered acacias. Forests occasionally interrupt the open landscape. And, all the major safari animal species can be found in it.

Dissimilarities

Key exceptions to the similarity are size (the Masai Mara is eight times smaller), safari tourist congestion (it's worse), and peak migration times (see my animated migration map on page two).

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