Travel advisory: The US currently advises reconsidering travel to Tanzania, and the UK advises against all but essential travel within 20 km of the Mozambique border (Cabo Delgado). The sights below lie in the north and on Zanzibar. Check the US State Department and UK FCDO advice for the latest before you book. Tanzania’s scenery is built on volcanoes. A snow-capped giant, a collapsed crater, a rift wall and a plain that stretches to the horizon all trace back to the same geology, and each has its own way of being seen.

Three days in the Mara in August cost US$600 per adult in park fees before the lodge, the driver or the vehicle is paid for. Multi-day trips in Kenya are best planned from the entry fees outward, so here is the arithmetic and the logistics for each circuit. The Mara: fee by fee Narok County charges non-resident adults US$100 per day from January to June and US$200 per day from July to December.

Children usually pay about half in Kenya, and the discounts follow set age bands, so a family budget is easier to build than it first looks. Here is what each outing costs for children and how to fit them into a day. Child prices at a glance Giraffe Centre: KES 750 for ages 3 to 12, under 3 free (adults KES 1,500). Sheldrick elephant nursery: US$5 donation for under 12, adults US$20, in cash.

Travel advisory: The US State Department currently urges reconsidering travel to Tanzania. The UK Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel within 20 km of the border with Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, which is far from the lodges and beaches below. See the US State Department and UK FCDO pages before booking. Romance in Tanzania is about timing: the first light over a plain, the low tide on a sandbar, the last hour before dinner.

Within two hours of Nairobi the land drops into the Great Rift Valley, and three outings fill a day each: a lake with hippos, a volcano crater and a gorge you can cycle through. These are the trips that work in a day, and the one famous reserve that does not. Lake Naivasha and Crescent Island Naivasha lies about 2 hours north-west of the capital. Boat rides last about an hour, cost KES 2,500 to 4,000 per person, and pass hippo pods and fish eagles.

Travel advisory: Before planning, note that the US advises travellers to reconsider travel to Tanzania and the UK advises against all but essential travel within 20 km of the Cabo Delgado border with Mozambique. Safari parks and Zanzibar are outside that strip. Look at travel.state.gov and gov.uk travel advice for Tanzania before you pay deposits. Children in Tanzania are best sorted by age band, because that is how lodges, tour operators and the mountain authority sort them.

Elephant calves appear at 11:00 sharp and are gone by noon, so the order of your morning in Nairobi matters more than the length of your list. This plan runs the Karen attractions in the sequence that works, then moves to the coast for the one big sight there. 09:00 Giraffe Centre Begin when the gates open at 9:00 and the platform is quiet. Non-resident adults pay KES 1,500 and children from 3 to 12 pay KES 750.

Travel advisory: The United States asks travellers to reconsider travel to Tanzania, and the United Kingdom advises against all but essential travel within 20 km of the Mozambique border at Cabo Delgado. Day-trip bases such as Arusha, Moshi and Stone Town are outside that border strip. Confirm current wording at the US State Department and the UK FCDO before booking. Which Tanzanian parks fit into one day depends on where you sleep.

The easiest Kenyan walk is also the free one: a beach at low tide, with the Indian Ocean warm and nothing to pay. From there the options climb in effort, up through city markets, forest trails and a volcanic gorge to a crater rim at 2,776 m. Easy: beach sand at Diani and Watamu Public access runs below the high tide mark, so walking either beach costs nothing. At Watamu, sandbars appear at low tide, and the water is shallow and warm.

Couples in Kenya tend to remember three moments: the sky at dawn, the fire at dusk and the long empty beach after both. The sections below follow that rhythm through the day, using only options that exist and can be booked. Dawn: a balloon over the Mara Balloon flights lift off before sunrise from the Mara plains and finish with a breakfast in the bush. Secondary listings put prices from about US$450 per person, with peak months from July to October costing more, and flights are booked many months ahead.