MILELE KENYA · GROUP CONSERVATION SAFARIS
Every safari.
A cause worth supporting.
Each Milele Kenya conservation safari is linked directly to a named organization doing vital work in Kenya. A portion of your trip is donated to the named organization.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF SAFARI
Travel that gives back - specifically.
Many safari companies say they support conservation. Milele Kenya goes further. Each of our conservation safaris is directly linked to a named organization — one Denise knows personally and believes in completely. A portion of every booking goes directly to that organization's field work.
This isn't a vague commitment to "giving back." It's a specific relationship between your trip, a real conservation project, and the animals or ecosystems you came to see. You'll understand exactly where your contribution goes, and in many cases you'll see that work firsthand during your safari.
These trips are led by guides with deep roots in Kenya's conservation community — people who don't just drive you past the wildlife, but help you understand the forces shaping its future. You'll leave knowing Kenya's conservation challenges and successes as well as any wildlife researcher — and knowing you were part of the solution.
AT A GLANCE
The conservation safaris
SAFARI NAME
BENEFICIARY
ORGANIZATION
FOCUS
DURATION
BEST SEASON
Connecting the
Spots
ACTION FOR CHEETAHS
IN KENYA
Cheetah conservation &
community coexistence
10-13 days
Year round
Tsavo Giants
TSAVO TRUST
Elephant and Big Tusker
conservation
10-12 days
June - October
Raptors of the
Rift
THE PEREGRINE FUND
Vulture & raptor
conservation
10-12 days
November - April
From Ngare Sergoi
to Lewa
LEWA WILDLIFE
CONSERVANCY
Black rhino & Grevy's zebra
conservation
10-12 days
Year round; Jan-Mar & June-Oct best
HOW IT WORKS
Your safari. Their mission.
01
YOU CHOOSE A SAFARI
Each trip is linked to one specific conservation organization. You choose the safari that connects with the cause you care about most.
02
A PORTION GOES DIRECTLY
A portion of your booking goes directly to that organization's field work — not to a general fund, but to the specific programs described on this page.
03
YOU SEE IT IN ACTION
Where possible, your itinerary includes time with the organization's team, researchers, or community programs — so you witness the work your trip is funding.
04
KENYA BENEFITS
Every guest who travels this way helps sustain Kenya's wildlife and the communities living alongside it — for generations to come.
THE CONSERVATION SAFARIS
Four trips. Four missions.
Each card below contains everything you need to know about the safari, the organization it benefits, and what your booking specifically funds. Inquire about any trip and we'll send full itinerary details and available dates.
CONSERVATION SAFARI 01
ACTION FOR CHEETAHS IN KENYA
Connecting the Spots
A cheetah conservation safari across northern Kenya's most important cheetah habitat
About Action for Cheetahs in Kenya (ACK)
Founded in 2001 by Mary Wykstra, ACK is Kenya's longest-running dedicated cheetah conservation program. Working primarily in northern Kenya — in and around the Meibae Community Conservancy in Samburu — ACK uses field research, community engagement, and innovative tools like scat-detection dogs to monitor cheetah populations and reduce conflict between cheetahs and the pastoralist communities who share their land. Their entire field staff is Kenyan, with more than half drawn from the very communities they work in.
Cheetahs are Kenya's most vulnerable big cat — listed as Endangered under Kenya's Wildlife Conservation and Management Act. They're losing ground not to poachers but to the slow erosion of habitat and the accumulating toll of living in conflict with livestock herders. The solution isn't a fence or a park — it's the patient, relationship-built work of helping communities see cheetahs as neighbors worth protecting.
This safari takes you through the landscapes where ACK has spent two decades building exactly that. In Samburu, you'll spend time in habitat where ACK monitors resident cheetah populations — tracking individuals by coat pattern, documenting territory use, and investigating livestock losses to develop mitigation strategies. You'll meet guides and community members who are the real face of cheetah conservation in Kenya.
Denise has volunteered with ACK for years. This safari reflects that personal commitment — it goes well beyond what any standard itinerary can offer, because Denise knows these people and this place from the inside.
KEY DESTINATIONS
Samburu National Reserve, Buffalo Springs, Shaba, Meibae Community Conservancy, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy
BEST SEASON
Year-round — cheetah monitoring continues in all seasons
TRIP LENGTH
10–13 days
HIGHLIGHTS
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Samburu specialists
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ACK field team
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Reticulated giraffe
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Grevy's zebra
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Cheetah specific
YOUR BOOKING HELPS FUND
Field monitoring operations in the Meibae Community Conservancy, scat-detection dog program running costs, community educator salaries, and livestock protection programs that reduce retaliatory killing of cheetahs.
CONSERVATION SAFARI 02
Tsavo Giants
A safari to protect the world's last viable population of Super Tusker elephants
TSAVO TRUST
ABOUT TSAVO TRUST
Founded in 2013, Tsavo Trust works in close partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service across the 40,000 square kilometer Tsavo Conservation Area — home to Kenya's largest elephant population and arguably the world's last viable gene pool of Super Tusker elephants. Their aerial unit has logged over 1.3 million kilometers of surveillance flights since inception. Through a combination of aerial monitoring, ground patrol teams, and community conservancy programs, Tsavo Trust has contributed to a dramatic reduction in poaching across the ecosystem.
A Super Tusker is an elephant whose tusks are so long and heavy that they drag along the ground. There are fewer than 25 of these animals left on earth — and most of them live in Tsavo. They are the last survivors of a gene pool that was nearly wiped out by the ivory trade. Protecting them is one of Kenya's most urgent conservation priorities.
This safari immerses you in the vast red-dust landscapes of Tsavo East and West — Kenya's largest national parks — where Tsavo Trust's ground and aerial teams operate daily. You'll encounter Tsavo's famous red elephants, whose distinctive colouring comes from the iron-rich laterite soil they bathe in.
Beyond elephants, Tsavo's immense wilderness harbors lions, leopards, cheetahs, black rhinos, and over 500 bird species — making this one of Kenya's most rewarding and least-crowded safari destinations.
KEY DESTINATIONS
Tsavo East NP, Tsavo West NP, Chyulu Hills, community conservancies surrounding the Tsavo ecosystem
BEST SEASON
June–October (dry season — elephants concentrate near water sources)
TRIP LENGTH
10–12 days
HIGHLIGHTS
-
Super tusker elephants
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Red elephants
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500+ bird species
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Vast, uncrowded wilderness
YOUR BOOKING HELPS FUND
Aerial surveillance flight hours in Tsavo Trust's Super Cub aircraft, ground patrol team operations, community conservancy development programs, and anti-poaching equipment for Tsavo Trust rangers.
CONSERVATION SAFARI 03
Raptors of the Rift
A safari in defense of Kenya's disappearing vultures and birds of prey
THE PEREGRINE FUND
ABOUT THE PEREGRINE FUND IN KENYA
The Peregrine Fund has worked in Kenya since the early 1990s, focusing on the conservation of vultures and other birds of prey. Their Vulture Protection Network connects nearly 50 trained individuals who respond rapidly to poisoning events — the single greatest threat to vultures in Kenya. Since a mass poisoning of 45 vultures in the Maasai Mara in 2018, the network has reduced the number of vultures poisoned by more than 50 percent. They have trained over 1,050 people across Kenya in wildlife poisoning response, and built more than 660 predator-proof livestock enclosures (bomas) to reduce the retaliatory poisoning that kills vultures by the hundreds.
Vultures are disappearing from African skies faster than almost any other group of birds. In Kenya, they face two existential threats: livestock owners who poison predators like lions and hyenas — with vultures dying in huge numbers as collateral casualties — and poachers who deliberately poison vulture carcasses to prevent circling birds from alerting rangers to an illegal kill.
Most safari guests never think about vultures. By the end of this trip, you'll see them differently. As the ecosystem's clean-up crew, vultures prevent the spread of disease from carcasses that would otherwise contaminate water sources and kill livestock. Losing them doesn't just impoverish the sky — it destabilizes the entire food web.
This safari takes you through the landscapes where The Peregrine Fund's Kenya team works — from the Rift Valley lakes where vultures gather in spectacular numbers to the Maasai Mara, where poisoning incidents have been most severe and where the Vulture Protection Network is most active. You'll encounter not just vultures but Kenya's extraordinary diversity of raptors — from Martial Eagles and Bateleurs soaring over the savannah to the ancient Verreaux's Eagle hunting the rocky escarpments of the Rift Valley.
KEY DESTINATIONS
Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru, Lake Baringo, Hell's Gate, Samburu, Rift Valley escarpment
BEST SEASON
November–April (migrants present, best raptor diversity); also July–October for Mara raptors
TRIP LENGTH
10–12 days
HIGHLIGHTS
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6 vulture species
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Rift Valley scenery
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Eagle species
YOUR BOOKING HELPS FUND
Vulture Protection Network operations, rapid response to poisoning events, community training programs in wildlife poisoning intervention, and predator-proof boma construction for communities surrounding the Maasai Mara and northern Kenya.
CONSERVATION SAFARI 04
From Ngare Sergoi to Lewa
Tracing the remarkable journey that saved Kenya's black rhinos
LEWA WILDLIFE CONSERVANCY
ABOUT LEWA WILDLIFE CONSERVANCY
Lewa's story begins with one woman's fury at what was being lost. In the early 1980s, Anna Merz arrived in Kenya to retire and instead encountered the carcasses of rhinos slaughtered for their horns across a national park. She could not walk away. Using a family inheritance of $750,000, she partnered with David and Delia Craig — owners of a vast cattle ranch at the foot of Mount Kenya — to fence 5,000 acres and establish the Ngare Sergoi Rhino Sanctuary in 1983. That sanctuary has since grown into the 65,000-acre Lewa Wildlife Conservancy — a UNESCO World Heritage Site, home to over 14% of Kenya's black rhinos, and one of Africa's most celebrated conservation models.
The name of this safari tells the whole story: from Ngare Sergoi — the small, fenced sanctuary that one woman's outrage and inheritance built — to Lewa, the world-renowned conservancy that her vision made possible. It is a journey from the brink back to abundance, and one of conservation's most extraordinary success stories.
Kenya's black rhino population had crashed from an estimated 20,000 in the 1960s to fewer than 300 by the mid-1980s. Today, over 1,000 survive — and Lewa has been central to that recovery. The conservancy has translocated more than 30 rhinos to seed new populations across Kenya, most recently sending 12 animals to Loisaba Conservancy in 2024. Lewa and neighbouring Borana now protect what has been designated a "Key 1" black rhino population — meaning it is stable, growing, and of continental importance.
This safari takes you into that landscape alongside Lewa's rangers, rhino monitors, and community educators. You'll track black rhinos on foot with an armed ranger — reading the landscape the way Anna Merz's trackers once did. You'll encounter Grevy's zebra, whose world population has fallen below 3,000 and whose largest single concentration exists here at Lewa. And you'll understand how the conservancy's deep investment in surrounding communities — schools, healthcare, water, livelihoods — has made local people the most powerful force protecting this wilderness.
KEY DESTINATIONS
Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Borana Conservancy, Ngare Ndare Forest, Samburu / Buffalo Springs
BEST SEASON
Year-round; January–March & June–October offer the best wildlife viewing and tracking conditions
TRIP LENGTH
10–12 days
HIGHLIGHTS
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Black & white rhinos
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Mount Kenya views
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UNESCO World Heritage site
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Community programs
YOUR BOOKING HELPS FUND
Lewa's anti-poaching unit operations, rhino monitoring and ear-notching programs, canine unit running costs, ranger training and equipment, and community development programs including the Lewa Education Programme which supports 28 schools and approximately 9,100 students in surrounding communities.
WHY WE DO IT THIS WAY
Named partners. Real accountability.
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SPECIFIC, NOT VAGUE
Each safari is linked to one named organization with a specific mission. You know exactly who receives the contribution and what they do with it.
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YOU SEE IT FIRSTHAND
Where possible your itinerary includes time with the organization's field team — so the contribution isn't abstract. You witness the work your trip is funding.
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REAL RELATIONSHIPS
Denise doesn't just partner with these organizations on paper. She has worked alongside ACK for years and has deep personal connections to Kenya's conservation community.
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IT STAYS IN KENYA
Every conservation contribution goes directly to Kenyan field operations — to the rangers, researchers, and community educators doing the actual work on the ground.