Your Asante Tours representative meets you at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and transfers you privately to your hotel. You receive your welcome pack and a full briefing on the journey ahead.

The rest of the day is yours to rest and adjust after your flight before the safari begins in earnest tomorrow.

Drive south from Nairobi towards the Tanzanian border, arriving at Amboseli National Park in time for lunch. The snow-capped dome of Kilimanjaro rises across the plains.

An afternoon game drive introduces you to Amboseli's famous elephant families, moving in long lines across the dry lake bed with the mountain behind them.

A full day exploring Amboseli — morning and afternoon game drives across the marshes and open pans that make this one of the best places on earth to watch elephants at close range.

Lions, cheetahs, buffalo and more than 400 bird species share the park, and Kilimanjaro provides the backdrop to it all.

Drive to the Namanga border post, complete the crossing into Tanzania, and continue through Maasai country towards the Ngorongoro Highlands.

In the afternoon, a guided walk through a working coffee farm and kitchen garden — a gentle, grounded introduction to highland Tanzania before tomorrow's crater descent.

Descend 600 metres to the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater — a collapsed volcano that holds one of the densest concentrations of wildlife anywhere in Africa.

Black rhino, lion prides, elephant, hippo, flamingo and vast herds of zebra and wildebeest live within the crater walls. A picnic lunch is taken beside a hippo pool.

The drive to the Serengeti climbs over the crater highlands and out onto the short-grass plains of the southern Serengeti — game-viewing all the way as the horizon opens up.

Depending on the season, this is where the wildebeest herds gather in their hundreds of thousands. Arrive at your lodge in the late afternoon.

A full day in the Serengeti — morning and afternoon game drives across the plains, along the seasonal rivers and around the granite kopjes where lions rest and leopards drape themselves in the trees.

Your guide reads the movement of the herds and the predators that follow them, positioning you for the best of the day's sightings.

Cross the invisible line where the Serengeti becomes the Masai Mara — the same ecosystem, a different country. The border formalities are handled at Isebania.

Arrive in the Mara in the afternoon with time to settle in before dinner. The Mara's rolling grassland is Kenya's finest big-cat country.

Morning and afternoon game drives across the Mara's open plains and along the Mara River, where hippo and crocodile crowd the pools and — in season — the wildebeest make their dramatic crossings.

The Mara has the highest lion density in Africa and excellent chances of cheetah and leopard.

A second full day in the Mara to go deeper — following a specific pride, spending time at a river crossing point, or heading to a quieter corner of the reserve with your guide.

This evening, a traditional boma-style dinner around the fire brings the safari community together under the stars.

A final morning in the Mara before the drive back to Nairobi, climbing out of the Rift Valley with the plains falling away behind you.

Arrive in Nairobi with time for lunch and last-minute shopping in the leafy suburb of Karen before your onward flight. Kwaheri — until next time.