The basics:

• It's from 10 to 14 November 2026, just inside Sekenani Gate, the main gate of the Maasai Mara (The Standard).
• It moves to a different county every year (Samburu in 2024, Kajiado near Amboseli in 2025), so this is the first time it's back in the Mara since the first one in 2023.
• President Ruto is expected at the closing ceremony on Saturday 14 November, which will be the busiest day.
• November is the short rains, so pack a rain jacket.

I wrote up everything we know so far about the festival itself (the dancing, the beadwork, what happened at the earlier ones) on the Mara Hilltop blog. This post is about how to build a trip around it.

Samburu women, one of the Maa communities that come to the festival. Photo: Joseph KimaniT, CC BY-SA 4.0.

A 5-day trip: Naivasha, the Mara, back to Nairobi

This is the trip I'd do. Lake Naivasha first, then three nights in the Mara so you're there for the last three days of the festival, including the closing.

• Wednesday 11 Nov: your driver meets you at the airport in Nairobi, and it's about two hours to Lake Naivasha, depending on Nairobi traffic. In the afternoon you take a boat across to Crescent Island and walk among the giraffe and zebra. Crescent Island is one of my favourite places. Night at Lake Naivasha Resort.
• Thursday 12 Nov: about four hours to the Mara, in time for lunch at Mara Hilltop. Afternoon at the festival, which is five minutes down the road.
• Friday 13 Nov: sunrise game drive in the reserve, back for breakfast, festival in the afternoon.
• Saturday 14 Nov: another morning game drive, then the closing day of the festival. It'll be the busiest day with the President there.
• Sunday 15 Nov: back to Nairobi, about five hours on the road.

Crescent Island at Lake Naivasha, where you walk instead of drive. Photo: Peter Dowley, CC BY 2.0.

For two people sharing, our planner prices this at about $2,960 to $3,070 in total, so roughly $1,480 to $1,540 each. That includes

• full board at Lake Naivasha Resort and Mara Hilltop (Standard Room),
• a private car and driver for all the road legs (usually a Toyota Noah, with air conditioning),
• two days of game drives with a local guide,
• the park fees for the game-drive days.

No entry price for the festival has been announced yet. We'll update this as soon as we know.

You can open this exact trip in our planner and change it. The team confirms the final quote on WhatsApp, usually within two hours (7am to 10pm Kenya time). If you'd like a luxury tent at Mara Hilltop it costs more, ask us and we'll price it.

More time? Add Amboseli, then the coast

If you have more time, you should probably try to add in Amboseli as well. It's the park with the big elephant herds and Kilimanjaro right across the border, and last year's festival was there too, at Kimana Gate. Two nights is good.

And if you have more time from that, I would recommend you do a trip to the coast as well, Diani or Watamu. The easiest way down is from Nairobi, by the train or a short flight.

Mara Hilltop is in the festival's backyard

The festival is happening right in the backyard of Mara Hilltop, our lodge, which is run by the same team as RafikiGo. It's 2.5 km from Sekenani Gate. Our team is very excited to be hosting a lot of guests during this time to attend this event.

Mara Hilltop from the air at sunset.

It'll be a busy week around Sekenani, so if you're thinking about it, book early. WhatsApp us or start in the planner, and we'll plan the week with you.

— NJ

Cover photo: Samburu women in traditional dress, by Marta Panco, CC BY-SA 4.0.

I used to plan trips in Kenya for my friends, and not just the itinerary. I'd organise the best drivers I know and the best places to go, and run the actual trip itself. My family and I have been living in Kenya for a long time, and we've helped many friends take some incredible trips here.

And honestly, I have that itch of always wanting to show people the best of Kenya. I've travelled all over the world and I think Kenya is one of the most blessed countries in the world, and I want people to experience that. So that's why I wanted to start a tour operations business as well. It's called RafikiGo. Rafiki means friend in Swahili. We picked it because this all started with planning trips for our friends, and we want to plan every trip the way we'd plan one for a friend.

Mara Hilltop, our lodge in the Maasai Mara, started with the same passion, and we've helped so many people since it opened in 2025 (more than 1,500 guests), with some amazing reviews. I'd like to do the same for RafikiGo.

Who handles your trip

This is not a big business. It's three of us: my brother Nikhil, me, and Anupam, who's been a close friend of the family for years and is like a brother to us. We love travelling and showing Kenya to our friends and people in general.

Nikhil, who plans every RafikiGo trip, on a game drive in the Mara.

• Nikhil, my brother, runs Mara Hilltop and plans every RafikiGo trip. He answers WhatsApp himself, usually within two hours, from 7am to 10pm Kenya time.
• Anupam, our cofounder, handles your deposit and the paperwork.
• I price the lodges (we hold rates with 80+ of them) and built the trip planner.
• Your driver meets you at the airport with your name on a sign. For road transfers we usually recommend a Toyota Noah, which is very comfortable with air conditioning throughout the trip, and for families it feels perfect. Bigger groups go in a 10-seater or 14-seater van, and if you'd like a 4×4 for the entire trip, we can do that too. For the game drives you go out with local guides from the region who know the place, like local Maasai guides in the Mara or Amboseli. The trip is private, game drives included, and if you'd like to share a safari with other guests we can help with that too.

It's the same WhatsApp thread from your first question until you fly home. If something goes wrong on the trip, you message that thread and Nikhil sorts it out with the lodge directly.

Maasai guides on a Mara Hilltop nature walk.

An example: the Mara and Amboseli in one trip

Say your plan has the Maasai Mara and Amboseli back to back. Both directions are fine, there's no one better than the other, and we have done trips both ways. What I would recommend is to include Naivasha along the way. Mara to Amboseli direct is almost eight to nine hours, which is too much.

With Naivasha in the middle it's about four hours from the Mara to Naivasha, then about six hours from Naivasha to Amboseli. So Naivasha works as a halt, and it's another good spot to stay. You can take a boat out on the lake to see hippos, or cycle through Hell's Gate. For Amboseli itself we generally recommend two nights.

Hippos, one mid-yawn.

How to check any tour company in Kenya, including us

There are tons of tour companies in Kenya. Some are good, some not too good, and there's not enough information out there. I want to make Kenya more accessible. The goal is to become one of the most trusted travel brands in Kenya and East Africa, and with Mara Hilltop's reviews we've had a great start already.

What we'd ask any tour company in Kenya, and our answers. The first two are what Kenya's Tourism Regulatory Authority tells travellers to check.

The lodge's own website also has a page saying RafikiGo is run by the team behind Mara Hilltop.

• Mara Hilltop is the only lodge we own. Every other lodge on your trip is independent, and we book it for you.
• Kenya only, for now.
• We're not KATO members yet. KATO (the Kenya Association of Tour Operators) only takes companies after a year of trading.

A few trips to start from

If you don't know where to start, start with one of these and change it.

A topi mid-leap.

There are eight trips on the site, and the planner prices any of them for your dates. Park fees are part of the estimate, but you pay them at the gate and the rest to RafikiGo (how the Mara's park fees work).

The price covers your lodge nights, road transfers, game drives with local guides and the airport pickup. International flights are never in it. If you want to see where the money goes, there's a line-by-line cost breakdown of a Mara safari on the Mara Hilltop blog.

How to start

The planner lets you try a route and see a rough budget before you talk to anyone. When you're ready, Nikhil checks every lodge has space and sends the written quote, and you pay half by bank transfer to hold it.

Or skip the planner and message Nikhil on WhatsApp with your dates, how many of you are travelling, the kids' ages if any, and a rough budget. Not just for Mara, we plan trips to other parts of Kenya too (Amboseli, Samburu, Naivasha, Diani and more). Let me know if you have any questions.

— NJ

NJ Singh: photographer, digital nomad, co-owner of Mara Hilltop and co-founder of RafikiGo. More of my Kenya photos are on Instagram.