JW Masai Mara Safari – Booking on Points
This post will be all about the logistics.
My family and I just got back from the JW Masai Mara and it was truly the trip of a lifetime. Not just because any safari would truly be a bucket list trip, but because the people at this camp and the care in which this camp was designed is bar none.
Booking JW Masai Mara
We took our trip in mid June 2025. I booked this resort in July 2024. At the time I booked, the points ranged from 105K – 130K nightly. Since then, points have gone up significantly. When I booked, I took this screen shot of the cost if paying with cash:
The pricing you’ll see with points is for 2 people per room. We needed to add my son (13). To do that was a HUGE additional nightly fee ($2250). But I priced out other high end safaris for the 3 of us, and found pricing to be about $25K – $30K, so decided paying for just him and visiting JW was the way to go.
HOT TIP: With Marriott, if you book 5 consecutive nights on points, the 5th night is free. If you can’t find 5 consecutive nights, email the hotel. My friend @amanda.exploring did this for her trip.
Logistics
Finding business class award flights to Africa for a family can be difficult. Finding 1 award ticket is usually a cinch. And finding 2 is easy if you are flexible. After that, you need to be extremely flexible and creative. My goal was to get as close to Kenya as I could using points & flying business class. I wasn’t flexible with the date (had to be summer). So I was open to doing a multi city trip with a stop in Cairo, Dubai or Doha. I knew if I could get to these cities, then I could fly us to Nairobi in economy the rest of the way.
Getting to Nairobi:
Booked both flights via Aeroplan/Air Canada (pricing is per person)
Denver – Toronto – Dubai
Air Canada 1st class on the Denver to Toronto leg
Emirates Business class on their A380 Toronto to Dubai leg
105K + $85 (with a 20% transfer bonus that was happening at the time)
Cash price $5039
Nairobi – Istanbul – Denver
Turkish Airlines business class
92K points + $122 (with a 20% transfer bonus that was happening at the time)
Cash price: $4846
As you can see, that 1st flight only got us to Dubai. So then I booked a separate ticket from Dubai to Nairobi
Dubai – Nairobi
Emirates economy
15K points + $120
Cash price: $345
Getting from Nairobi to Masai Mara
Your options to get to the safari camp from Nairobi are bush plane or drive.
Bush Plane pros & cons
- It’s more expensive – ours was $435 roundtrip each
- You can only have 35 pounds total (luggage & book bag) per person on the bush planes
- Luggage must be soft sided
- On the way to the camp, we had a 12 seater plane and it was pretty nerve wracking
- Flying is quick – even with 1 stop we got there in less than 1 hour
Driving to camp pros & cons
- You get to pick your exact schedule
- It’s cheaper
- No luggage weight requirements
- It takes longer to get there (6 hours?) but people say the drive is nice
We chose to fly.
When you fly to Nairobi, you land at NBO which is the international airport. From here, you’ll need to get yourself to Wilson Airport – which is where the planes for the safaris leave from.
Things to know about the bush planes
- You MUST check in 1 hour prior to departure
- They almost always leave early – our flight was at 10AM and we were taking off at 9:30AM
- Give the safari camp your flight information (or book through the camp) so they are there to pick you up upon arrival (it’s another hour drive from landing to the camp)
- The 2 airline options for us were Safari Link & Air Kenya – we chose Safari Link because we heard they were more reliable
- The Safari Link building has a little cafe downstairs – you don’t need to empty water bottles to go through security – security took us about 2 minutes
Before & After your safari
We chose to stay at the Hyatt House Nairobi for one night prior to the stay. This hotel is brand new, spotless, adorable and only 6500 points/night when we were there. The breakfast room is large, bright, great service, tons of food options & a made to order omelet station. They also have a roof top pool which was neat.
After our safari, we stayed at the Hyatt Regency Nairobi. We decided to switch it up because I wanted to try & report on both hotels AND because there’s a club lounge at Hyatt Regency Nairobi so I knew we could have dinner here. Because we have Hyatt Globalist status (Hyatt’s top tier status) we were able to have breakfast in the restaurant included plus the lounge included. This hotel was 9500 points/night when we were there.
My recommendation: Hyatt House Nairobi hands down. We were upgraded at both to 1 bedroom suites. But the lobby & bathrooms & newness of the Hyatt House was superior to the Hyatt Regency.
Getting around Nairobi, Safety & Nairobi Airport
Getting Around:
HOT TIP: Ask your driver to take the express way. It’s so much faster and only adds maybe $1 to the ride.
I’d read multiple times that Ubers in Nairobi were perfectly safe. When we arrived to NBO late at night, we ordered an Uber. It is super super chaotic outside this airport. You need to exit, turn left then ask a guard where the Ubers are to make sure you are in the right spot. Our Uber driver was amazing and friendly and we had a great chat with him.
The next morning we again booked an Uber to get from the hotel to the Wilson Airport. This was a completely different experience. The route, the conversation, his express way toll pass not working and needing to stop on the side of the road for 10 minutes, the weirdness with the tip – it was all bad.
It was so bad that we decided to hire a private transfer (booked via Hyatt Regency) for our car ride from Wilson to Hyatt Regency and for our card ride from Hyatt Regency to NBO.
Safety:
When you arrive at your hotel in Nairobi, your car will be stopped and they will do a mirror check under the car. Then they will scan all of your bags and you will go through a body scanner before entering the hotel.
At one point during the day, my husband wanted to walk to the mall to pick up some snacks. He was told by the employees at the hotel it would not be safe for him to walk there. He’d be safe if he took an Uber or cab but that he should not walk on the streets.
Nairobi Airport:
Arrival: Passport Control was probably the slowest I’ve ever seen. The lines were not long when we got there. We were maybe 7th in line. But it took nearly an hour.
Departure: Our flight was at 3am out of NBO. So I think that actually really helped us with the airport not being crowded.
Security check 1: As we approach the airport in our private transfer vehicle, it looks like we are about to go under a toll booth, but the driver pulls to the side and says, please exit the vehicle, go through that building and I’ll meet you on the other side. It’s after midnight. And we are clueless but grab our book bags and do what he says. You go into the building, you are scanned and your bag is scanned.
Security check 2: Walking up to the doors of the airport, we see people standing around with guards and there are bags on the ground. We are instructed by the police to lay our bags flat on the ground and step away. The bags are sniffed by dogs. All is okay, we are given the go ahead to proceed.
Security check 3: As soon as we walk into the building, there is a person & bag scanner to go through, again.
Security check 4: After getting our boarding passes, we go through the standard security screening like you would any other airport.
Security check 5: When it’s time to board, they first let you into a boarding waiting room. After they check your boarding passes to get in the room, they go through 1 person’s book bag/carry on and then do a swab of your phone.
One nice thing about Nairobi airport is that the lounges are 24 hours. I guess 3am flights are pretty common there, because shops & food vendors were open. We had our choice of lounges thanks to having Priority Pass membership through many of our cards, but we went to the Turkish Airlines lounge because I heard it was the best. There’s food, drinks, comfortable seating & clean bathrooms. Nice, yes. Great, no.
What vaccines do you need for Kenya safari?
To enter Kenya from the US, no vaccines were necessary. However, we were transmitting through Dubai. This was confusing to me if that meant we’d need yellow fever vaccine. The other thing that worried me was if for some reason our flight was rerouted and we went through an African country that did require it. So for that reason, we all got the yellow fever vaccine. We were never asked to show it, so apparently we didn’t need it. I originally made appointments to get this vaccine at a local health place and they were going to charge $600+ PER person! Luckily I found a local Walgreens that could do the yellow fever vaccine and by using our insurance it was only $30 per person!
The other question a lot of people asked as if we took Malaria pills for our JW Masai Mara safari? We did not. We’d read that cases of malaria were very low in this area. So we took nothing.
Do you need a visa for Kenya safari?
Yes. We did this online a few weeks before our trip. It’s the Electronic Travel Authorisation. You WILL show this upon arrival at the airport when doing passport control. Be sure you have it ready on your phone.
Want to hear more about our trip?
Check out this blog post with all of the details on the safari camp, the drives, what’s included and more!
