10 Day Rwanda Kenya Tanzania Safari: Gorillas, the Mara and the Serengeti
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10 Days
Two gorilla treks, the Maasai Mara, the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater in two weeks
Best for: First-time East Africa visitors with two weeks who want gorillas and the Mara and Serengeti in one trip
Itinerary ref: MC-026
A 14 day four country safari covers Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania in two weeks: a mountain gorilla trek in each of the first two countries, three nights in the Maasai Mara, three in the Serengeti and a morning on the floor of Ngorongoro Crater. It works because we fly the long legs and drive only the short ones, so your nights are spent where the wildlife is rather than on the road.
Tell us your dates and group size and we will confirm which flights and permits are available for your 14 day four country safari.
Enquire About This SafariThis is our fast route for guests who want four countries and East Africa's best-known wildlife in two weeks. It follows one logic. Uganda and Rwanda come first, because the two gorilla treks are the most physical days and are best done while you are fresh. Kenya follows, for the Maasai Mara. Tanzania comes last, for the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater.
The order is also a paperwork decision. The East Africa Tourist Visa covers Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda but ends the moment you enter Tanzania, so finishing in Tanzania keeps your visas simple. We explain the details in the entry rules section further down.
Eight of the thirteen nights are spent in just three places, the southern Ugandan forests, the Mara and the Serengeti, so there is time to look rather than only to move. If you would like longer in the forests and a slower pace, see the fuller 18 day version of this route. If you can only spare ten days, the shorter 10 day version without Uganda keeps the Mara and the Serengeti.
Every night of the trip, where you sleep and how you reach it. Distances and flight times are the ones we plan with; we confirm exact departure times when we book.
| Night | Where | Where you stay | How you get there |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Entebbe, Uganda | Sienna Beach Hotel | Arrive at Entebbe airport |
| 2 and 3 | Southern Uganda forests | Volcanoes Mount Gahinga Lodge, or a comparable lodge in Rushaga | Morning flight Entebbe to Kisoro, about 75 minutes, then a short drive |
| 4 | Kinigi, Rwanda | Amakoro Songa Lodge | Cross the border at Cyanika and change driver-guide |
| 5 | Kigali, Rwanda | A boutique hotel in Kigali | Drive of about 2.5 hours after the trek |
| 6 to 8 | Maasai Mara, Kenya | Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp | Flights Kigali to Nairobi (about 1h50), then Wilson Airport to the Mara |
| 9 to 11 | Central Serengeti, Tanzania | Kubu Kubu, central Serengeti | Air, road and air link from the Mara, about 4 hours 25 minutes |
| 12 | Ngorongoro Crater rim | Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge | Drive of 3 to 4 hours |
| 13 | Arusha side | A boutique hotel near Arusha | Crater floor in the morning, then a drive of 3 to 4 hours |
| 14 | Kilimanjaro airport | Departure | Transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport |
Lodges are our standard choice for this route. If one is full for your dates, we place you in a comparable lodge in the same area.
Fourteen days, four countries, five flights, road transfers and two border crossings. Here is how each day runs.
Your driver-guide meets you at Entebbe International Airport and takes you to Sienna Beach Hotel, a short drive away. Day one of the 14 day four country safari is for arriving and resting. Tomorrow starts early, so this evening we go through your luggage (soft bags only for the bush flights, 15 kg each), your permits and the plan for the next two days.
A scheduled morning flight takes you from Entebbe to Kisoro in about 75 minutes, replacing an eight to nine hour drive to south-western Uganda. The Kisoro airstrip only works in the morning, which is why we sleep in Entebbe first. A short road transfer brings you to your lodge for lunch. The afternoon is for resting and for the briefing on tomorrow's trek: boots, gaiters, long sleeves and a walking stick.
After the briefing at the trailhead, rangers assign you to a habituated gorilla family and lead you into the forest with trackers. Treks last from about an hour to most of the day, and once you reach the family you stay with them for one hour. Your trek takes place in the Rushaga sector of Bwindi, or in Mgahinga when permits fall there, depending on what is available for your dates. You return to the lodge with the afternoon free.
After breakfast you drive to the Cyanika border post, the crossing that serves the southern Bwindi and Mgahinga area. You say goodbye to your Ugandan driver-guide at the border and meet your Rwandan driver-guide on the other side. From there the road runs through the volcano foothills to Kinigi, the base for Volcanoes National Park. We keep the rest of the day free because border formalities set the pace. Your lodge is a short drive from the park headquarters where tomorrow begins.
The second trek feels different from the first: steeper volcanic slopes, bamboo and open meadow, and families that range between the Virunga volcanoes. You meet your guides at the Kinigi headquarters in the early morning, trek, and spend your hour with a Rwandan family. After lunch you drive about 2.5 hours (105 km) to Kigali, where you sleep tonight so that tomorrow's flight is a short airport transfer.
You take the first flight of the morning to Nairobi (about 1h50), clear immigration and transfer to Wilson Airport for the afternoon flight to the Mara, a flight of roughly 45 minutes. You land on an airstrip near your camp in time for a late game drive. This is the day the whole 14 days four country safari depends on. It relies on three flights, so we hold a buffer in the schedule and confirm timings with the airlines when we book.
A full day with your guide in the reserve, with an early morning drive, breakfast or lunch in the bush, and a second drive in the late afternoon light. The Mara is home to lions, cheetahs, leopards and large herds of plains game, and the Big Five can all be found here. Your guide decides the route each morning from the latest sightings.
Today we move toward the Mara River, where from roughly August to October herds can gather at the banks and cross. Crossing happens on the animals' schedule, so your guide positions the vehicle and waits rather than chasing. If you prefer a different rhythm, an optional hot air balloon flight at dawn can be added, or a visit to a Maasai village.
A morning flight leaves the Mara airstrip at around 08:05 for Migori in south-western Kenya. A short road transfer crosses the border, with immigration formalities at Isebania on the Kenyan side and Sirari on the Tanzanian side, and a second flight lands you at Seronera in the central Serengeti around 12:30. This link is what keeps the 14 day four country safari to two weeks, saving a full day compared with routing through Nairobi and Arusha. In AirKenya's 2026 timetable it runs daily to the end of the year except 1 April to 20 May, and needs a minimum of two passengers (four from 1 November to 15 December). You are on an afternoon game drive within hours.
The central Serengeti is the best place in the park to see big cats in every month of the year. Today you drive the Seronera valley and its rivers with a packed lunch, returning to camp in the late afternoon. Leopards often rest in the sausage trees along the river, and lions hunt the open plains beyond.
The second full day of this 14 day four country safari lets your guide choose differently from the first: perhaps the kopjes, the plains toward Naabi Hill or a longer day following the herds. Two full days in one place also lets you rest between drives rather than being rushed from one sighting to the next.
After an early game drive you leave Seronera and drive south-east for about three to four hours, on a road that is rough in places, past Naabi Hill gate and through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to the crater rim. You arrive in the afternoon to a lodge with views over the caldera, and an early night, because tomorrow starts at first light.
You descend into the crater at 06:00, soon after the gate opens, and spend the morning on the crater floor, where lions, elephants, hippos and, with luck, black rhino live in a closed area of about 260 square kilometres. After a picnic lunch you climb out and drive three to four hours to Arusha, where you sleep tonight near the airport road.
You have a relaxed morning before your transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your flight home, ending the 14 day four country safari. Most international departures leave in the afternoon or evening, which suits this transfer. We can help with onward flights if you wish to extend your stay in Tanzania.
The two gorilla treks are the reason many guests choose the 14 day four country safari, and they are different experiences. In Uganda you trek in the dense, steep forest of the southern Bwindi or Mgahinga area. In Rwanda you trek on the open volcanic slopes of Volcanoes National Park. We build the route around permits, not the other way round, so permit dates are secured first and everything else is fitted to them.
Permits are priced per person. At the time we checked, on 10 October 2026, a Uganda gorilla permit was USD 800, with USD 600 applying in April, May and November, and a Rwanda permit was USD 1,500. The Ugandan 2027 tariff is reported to be unchanged, but we confirm the figure against the official tariff when we quote. The minimum age to trek is 15 in both countries.
For help choosing between the two forests, read our Uganda versus Rwanda comparison, or our guides to the Bwindi sectors and Mgahinga. If gorillas are the whole point of your trip, our gorilla-only route across Uganda and Rwanda spends the whole week with them.
Two nights in a park is too few, so the 14 day four country safari gives each park three. With three nights in the Maasai Mara and three in the Serengeti you get two full days of game drives in each, plus the half day on arrival, which is where leopards, lions and cheetahs are most likely to appear. Both are covered in our guides to the Maasai Mara and the Serengeti.
The two parks are one ecosystem divided by a border, and we link them with the shortest practical route: an air, road and air connection via Migori in Kenya and Tarime in Tanzania, rather than a day through Nairobi and Arusha. Our safari flight logistics guide covers the link, baggage limits and the fallback in detail.
We base the Serengeti nights in the central area around Seronera, which holds big cats and resident herds in every month. The great herds themselves move with the rains, and in July to October they are mostly in the Mara and the north, which is why the Mara is the migration leg of this two week East Africa safari with gorillas. If you want the northern Serengeti for the river crossings instead, we would build a different route, and the 10 day version is designed for it.
June to October is the strongest window for this route. The forest trails are at their driest, Kenya and Tanzania are in their dry season, and the wildebeest herds are in the Mara from roughly August to October, with river crossings usually peaking in August and September. Crossings are never guaranteed, and we never promise one, but this is when your three Mara nights have the best chance of seeing the herds.
Gorillas can be trekked all year, and the central Serengeti is good in every month. The two parts of the route that are affected by season are the forest paths, which are muddier in March to May and October to November, and the flight link between the Mara and the Serengeti, which in AirKenya's 2026 timetable does not operate between 1 April and 20 May. For those dates we plan the fallback via Nairobi and Arusha, which adds a day.
We cover each country in depth in our guides to the best time to visit Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, and explain the mechanics of the herds in how the Great Migration works.
On the 14 day four country safari we use classic comfort and premium lodges, chosen for their position as much as their rooms: close to the trailhead, the airstrip or the crater gate, so that your transfer times stay short.
If a lodge is full for your dates we use a comparable lodge in the same area and tell you before you pay.
A 14 day Uganda Rwanda Kenya Tanzania safari means four sets of rules, and they change. We keep a dated list of entry and health changes on our entry alerts page, and explain every country's rules in our visa requirements guide. Travel insurance that covers medical evacuation is strongly advised for all four countries; see our travel insurance guide.
These are rules and fees we have checked, not promises. Governments change them, so please confirm on the official portals before you apply.
We quote the 14 day four country safari per person for your dates and group size, so the price is on request. The quote itemises each line below, so you can see where the money goes.
| Cost line | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Gorilla permits | Uganda USD 800 (USD 600 in April, May and November) plus Rwanda USD 1,500, per person, as checked on 10 October 2026 |
| Flights inside the route | Entebbe to Kisoro, Kigali to Nairobi, Wilson Airport to the Mara, and the Mara to Serengeti link, with a 15 kg soft-bag limit on the bush flights |
| Lodges and camps | Thirteen nights at classic comfort and premium level, with meals as listed in your quote |
| Park and reserve fees | Daily fees for the Mara, the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, itemised |
| Vehicles and guides | A private vehicle with a driver-guide in each country, with a change of driver-guide at each border |
| Visas and insurance | Paid by you to the government portals; we guide you through the order |
Our broader guide to what an East Africa safari costs explains how each of these lines moves with the season.
Everything below is included in your quote for the 14 day four country safari unless it appears under not included.
The guides we recommend reading before you decide.
Send us your dates and who is travelling, and we will confirm permits, flights and lodges, and quote the route line by line.
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