Masai Mara, Kenya
With its rolling grasslands and wide-open savannah, the Masai Mara is the kind of unfettered, sprawling wilderness you will have discovered in Hollywood films set in Africa. Kenya's finest reserve, the Masai Mara pulses with raw energy as an array of animals go about their daily lives.

At certain times of the year the famous Mara throbs to the beat of hundreds of thousands of hooves as the Great Wildebeest Migration takes place.

The reserve is unfenced and borders the Serengeti National Park. The two countries share the vast Serengeti plains, with the wildlife free to roam between Kenya and Tanzania in search of food.

Between July and October millions of wildebeest, zebra and gazelles cross into the Masai Mara from the Serengeti where they gather to graze and relax on the Mara's plains, which - at about one third of the size of the enormous Serengeti National Park, is more manageable from a game viewing point of view. The Masai Mara's open grasslands teem with wildlife in every direction.

The Masai Mara Reserve is rich in Africa's biggest attractions - predators are abundant (lion sightings are incredibly common), and the Big Five are encountered around every corner.

The Mara is a permanent water source for the area's wild inhabitants and so even when the very last wildebeest has tardily set off for the southern Serengeti, massive resident herds remain, offering visitors everything they could want to see on an African safari. A Masai Mara safari provides a year-round safari experience.