Few places can rival Kenya for the safari experience, and few sights are more impressive than the Great Migration, the annual movement of more than two million wildebeest, zebra and other grazing herbivores across the fertile grasslands of the Masai Mara, which in turn provide the protein for leopards, cheetahs and vast prides of lions. Whether viewed from the back of a safari jeep, the basket of a hot-air balloon or on foot with a Maasai warrior, Kenya’s legendary game reserve never fails to disappoint. Away from the Mara, Kenya’s parks and reserves are many and varied. North of Nairobi, Laikipia is at the centre of Kenya’s conservation efforts, its vast plains home to some of the country’s highest populations of endangered species, including African wild dog, black rhino and Grevy’s zebra. Elephants walk in Kilimanjaro’s shadow in Amboseli National Park. Samburu offers species found nowhere else in Kenya, including Besia oryx, blue-legged Somali ostrich and reticulated giraffe. Flocks of pink flamingos have returned to the shores of Lake Nakuru. And Meru National Park has changed little since George and Joy Adamson famously raised the lion cub Elsa among its the Hemingway-esque hills in the 1950s.

Away from the wildlife, towering Mount Kenya is widely considered to be a more rewarding climb than rival Kilimanjaro, while the powdery sands of the Kenyan coast make for a scintillating sea and safari combo.