The great gamelands of East Africa have a firm hold on our imaginations, perhaps because so many of us have been exposed to African motifs since earliest childhood, perhaps because of something even deeper.
In The Tree Where Man Was Born, the great Peter Matthiessen wrote about the profound effect Africa can have on us:
“The wild creatures I had come to Africa to see are exhilarating in their multitudes and colors, and I imagined for a time that this glimpse of the earth’s morning might account for the anticipation that I felt, the sense of origins, of innocence and mystery, like a marvelous childhood faculty restored. Perhaps it is the consciousness that here in Africa, south of the Sahara, our kind was born.”
One of Micato’s Safari Directors puts it this way: “At the airport, before the flights home, it’s common to see tears in people’s eyes. They feel so deeply touched by Africa. Many of them say they feel as if they’ve finally come home.”
Whatever the source of their allure, the gamelands are dramatically, heart-stirringly unique, the greatest display of star-quality wildlife on planet Earth. The most famous of East Africa’s wildlife kingdoms is the Serengeti-Maasai Mara Ecosystem. The size of Vermont, the Serengeti-Maasai Mara has two names because it straddles two countries. In Kenya, it’s the Maasai Mara, somewhat greener and more riverine than Tanzania’s Serengeti, the “warm sea of life” so beloved of travellers. Almost all of Micato’s guaranteed departure, small-group Classic Safaris, and many–if not most–of our Custom-Designed Safaris visit either or both the Serengeti and the Maasai Mara.
We introduce safariers to famed treasures like Amboseli and Tarangire National Parks, to the Laikipia Plateau, presided over by lordly Mount Kenya, to flamingo-thronged Lake Manyara, and to the great Lost World of the Ngorongoro Crater, one of the most amazing places imaginable. Proudly dedicated to displaying Africa’s best–you aren’t named the world’s #1 Best Safari Operator an unprecedented nine times by Travel+Leisure if you swerve from your commitments–we carry our unstinting commitment to excellence to all our East African destinations, staying in intelligently luxurious camps and lodges tucked away on lush river banks or set high on rocky escarpments overlooking the golden infinity of the African plain. Every Micato safari, Custom or Classic, is escorted from beginning to end by a highly credentialed Safari Director. In short, it’s in Micato’s very genetic code to celebrate East Africa in all its exhilarating majesty.
East Africa’s legendary savannahs: Amboseli, Maasai Mara, and the Serengeti, combined with many of its most magnificent resorts. An unabashedly indulgent, quintessential safari experience.
15 Days from $20,350 per person Explore East Africa: Kenya and Tanzania
A classic safari from Kenya’s dramatic Samburu Reserve and the fabled Maasai Mara-Serengeti to Tanzania’s epic Ngorongoro Crater and Hemingway’s beloved Lake Manyara.
14 Days from $15,750 per person Explore East Africa: Kenya and Tanzania
Leisurely two-night stays in Amboseli, Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti, and the Maasai Mara—with five exhilarating flights to expedite travel—make this comprehensive African Safari one of our most popular.
16 days from $14,800 per person Explore East Africa: Kenya and Tanzania
An exhilarating, luxurious safari to three of the planet’s richest animal kingdoms: the Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire National Park, and the Serengeti.
10 Days from $10,050 per person Explore East Africa: Tanzania
East Africa’s most renowned game-viewing areas: Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater and the vast Serengeti and Kenya’s Maasai Mara, in a compact itinerary of less than two weeks.
12 Days from $11,500 per person Explore East Africa: Kenya and Tanzania
From fizzy Cape Town to East Africa’s legendary game parks, this wide-ranging safari highlights the best of two distinctive and delightfully unique regions.
17 days from $22,600 per person Explore Southern Africa: South Africa, Zambia and East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania
Hand-crafting Custom Safaris is something we do as well as—no, better than anyone in the world.
Explore Anywhere Micato Travels
One of the first and most influential members of the burgeoning Conservancy Movement, Lewa has fiercely and effectively defended African wildlife for more than two decades.
Exploring the land where Humankind was born with the First Family of Paleoanthropology
With its varied and comely landscapes and its famously plentiful wildlife, the Maasai Mara epitomizes all that draws us so eagerly to Africa.
An earthly masterpiece, something of a miracle, the Ngorongoro Crater is thronged by enrapturing African beasts, protected and blessed by nature.
When we think of Africa, many of us–old Africa hands and armchair dreamers alike–think of the Serengeti. For excellent, accurate reasons.
The lofty Laikipia Plateau combines vast sceneries, abundant and fascinating wildlife, and unfailingly gracious people. In two words: Classic Africa.
Amboseli’s animals are legendary, its situation beneath Mount Kilimanjaro is sublime, and its lodges and camps are extraordinarily hospitable and reposeful.
Forced to choose one beautiful, animal- and people-blessed place for a first introduction to Africa, the Samburu would come immediately to our minds.
Tarangire is a landscape lover’s Eden, an animal fancier’s Nirvana, and a balm for lovers of quietude in the midst of great natural exuberance.
Ambling in lush cloud forests, looking out at gargantuan Mount Kilimanjaro, enjoying African-Italian fusion cuisine, are just a few of the Chyulu Hills’enchantments.
Lake Manyara is the beautiful home of mega-throngs of flamingos, as viewers of Out of Africa will know, and want to see for themselves.
Meru National Park, in the shadow of regal Mount Kenya, is sublimely peaceful, less-visited, and graced with the full panoply of African wildlife.
These two flamingo-haven rift lakes bear witness to Africa’s slow geologic upheavals–and to the continent’s flair for large, heart-pumping loveliness.
Kenya takes its name, and thousands of years of inspiration, from lordly Mount Kenya, Africa’s second highest, but most spectacular peak.
Zanzibar, the legendary Spice Island entrepôt, politely lures us with its white sand beaches, quietly jazzy resorts, and its historic Stone Town.
Nairobi is where Micato was born, and our–and our guests’–affection for the city continues to grow as it becomes ever more cosmopolitan and ambitious.
The world’s largest population of chimpanzees, in foothill forests that rise from the greatest of the Great Rift lakes.
An undisturbed playground of beauty reserved solely for the enrichment of its bountiful and truly wild wildlife, The Selous is one of Africa’s natural wonders.
A compelling icon, bursting with regal personality, Africa’s highest peak is the colossal backdrop for many Micato safaris.
Rwanda’s capital city “pulses with African charm,” says the New York Times…and us.
The lushly beautiful, compact nation of Rwanda is in turn the home of an even tinier protected patch that figures among the most beloved of wildlife admirers everywhere.
When you have caught the rhythm of Africa, you find it is the same in all her music.
Out of Africa