3-Day Tsavo East & West Safari from Mombasa

Leave the coast behind as you drive from your hotel in Mombasa or Diani into Kenya's wild interior, entering Tsavo East National Park through Bachuma Gate. Almost at once the land turns the color of rust — this is home of the famous red elephants, which coat themselves in Tsavo's red dust, alongside giraffe, antelope and remarkable birdlife.

Game-view your way to the lodge on a mid-morning drive, keeping watch for the Big Five that roam these vast plains. After lunch at your lodge, head out again as the light softens for an afternoon game drive — the best hours for photography and often the liveliest for wildlife.

Be out at first light for a dawn game drive in Tsavo East, when the savanna wakes and lions and elephants are most often on the move. After breakfast at your lodge, travel west by way of Maktau or Voi, watching the scenery change between two of Kenya's oldest and largest parks.

In Tsavo West National Park, walk the shaded paths of Mzima Springs, where crystal-clear water wells up through volcanic rock and an underwater viewing chamber brings you level with hippos and crocodiles in their glassy pools. An afternoon game drive through this greener, more rugged country rounds off the day, and an optional Maasai village visit can be added for a taste of local culture.

If you take the optional early game drive, you have one final chance to find the animals still missing from your list before the day warms up. Then enjoy a hearty breakfast at the lodge and a comfortable drive back toward the coast, your driver-guide pausing for any wildlife that shows itself along the way.

By the time Mombasa or Diani comes into view, you return with red-dust memories of Tsavo East and West — elephants, big skies and open savanna — and the photographs to prove it. Your safari ends with drop-off at your beach hotel.