Official Narok County Government rates
Masai Mara National Reserve entry fees
The Masai Mara is a national reserve owned by Narok County, not a KWS park, so the KWS fee card and eCitizen do not apply. The county sets the price in its own finance law, and it charges by season: $100 a day for a foreign adult from January to June, $200 from July to December. The reserve's own documents spell it Maasai Mara; this guide uses Masai Mara, the spelling people search for.
If you only want the answer
A non-resident adult pays $100 per day from 1 January to 30 June and $200 per day from 1 July to 31 December, under the Narok County Finance Act 2023. Children aged 9 to 17 pay $50, children 8 and under enter free, and a car with fewer than six seats costs KSh 1,000 a day. A day is the window from 06:00 to 18:00 whatever time you enter, and camping adds $40 per adult per night on top.
Entry per person, per day (06:00 to 18:00)
| Non-resident adult, 1 January to 30 June | $100 | low season in the Act; in force since 1 January 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Non-resident adult, 1 July to 31 December | $200 | high season in the Act; charged since 1 July 2024, and it includes the wet months of November and December |
| Non-resident child 9 to 17, or student | $50 | same all year; children 8 and under free in every class |
| East African resident adult (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi) | KSh 2,500 / KSh 5,000 | January to June / July to December; child KSh 1,000 / 2,000; expatriates with a Kenyan work permit pay this rate |
| Kenyan citizen adult | KSh 1,500 / KSh 3,000 | January to June / July to December; child or student 9 to 17 KSh 300 / 500 |
| Narok resident adult | KSh 1,000 / KSh 2,000 | child 9 to 17 KSh 200 / 500 |
The Act defines the fee as a charge for entry from 6.00 am to 6.00 pm, time of entry notwithstanding. Arrive at 15:00 and you pay the same as at 06:00, and the ticket does not carry over the night. The Act does not say how guests sleeping inside the reserve are billed, so ask your camp how many days it will charge for your stay.
Updated 6 October 2026
Why other sites quote $70, $80 or a single $200
The fee has changed three times in five years. Under the 2019 Act a foreign adult paid $70 if sleeping inside the reserve and $80 if sleeping outside. From 1 January 2023 the Finance Act 2022 set $80 for everyone. The 2023 Act raised it to $100 from 1 January 2024 and introduced the $200 high-season rate from 1 July 2024. Pages quoting $70 or $80 are at least two years old.
Several 2025 and 2026 sites say the $200 rate began on 1 July 2025, or that high season runs only from July to October. Both are wrong: the Act's high season is 1 July to 31 December, and the county started charging $200 on 1 July 2024. Others say you pay for each 12-hour block, day and night; there is no night ticket, because the reserve has no night activities.
Smaller errors circulate too: KSh 400 for a car (it is KSh 1,000), $30 for camping (it is $40), a separate Kenya-resident rate of KSh 4,500 (residents pay the East African rate of KSh 2,500 or 5,000), and the claim that the whole reserve is cashless (only the Triangle says so). Sites such as maasaimara.ke, masaimara.ke and masaimarapark.com look official and are not run by the county or the Mara Conservancy.
One open question: in July 2026 tour operators asked the county to cut the October to December rate, and the Governor defended the increase at a meeting on 12 July 2026. No change had been published by October 2026.
Vehicle entry, per vehicle per day
| Fewer than 6 seats | KSh 1,000 | about $8 at KSh 129 to the dollar; the same for every visitor class |
|---|---|---|
| 6 to 12 seats (safari van, Land Cruiser) | KSh 1,500 | about $12 |
| 13 to 24 seats | KSh 3,500 | 25 to 44 seats KSh 4,500 |
| Lorry 1 to 3 tonnes | KSh 1,000 | per entry from outside; KSh 1,500 per night inside |
The car charge doubled in the 2023 Act, from KSh 500 to KSh 1,000. In the Mara Triangle a vehicle ticket lasts 12 hours with unlimited exits and re-entries, and vehicles passing through to somewhere else get two hours before fees apply. On the Narok side a June 2024 memo banned private vehicles from game drives; whether a hired self-drive 4x4 counts as private has not been clarified in writing.
Updated 6 October 2026
Camping (per person, per night, on top of entry)
| Non-resident adult | $40 | child 9 to 17 or student $20; 8 and under free |
|---|---|---|
| East African resident adult | KSh 2,000 | child or student KSh 1,000 |
| Kenyan citizen adult | KSh 1,000 | child or student KSh 200 |
| Night security at a private campsite | KSh 5,000 | two rangers at KSh 2,500 each; required at the Triangle's private sites, not at its public ones |
| Special campsite reservation, Narok side | KSh 15,000 per week | cancellation KSh 15,000; the Triangle charges its own booking fees for private sites |
The cheapest legal night inside the reserve for a foreign adult is $140 from January to June ($40 camping plus $100 entry) and $240 from July to December. The three public campsites, Oloololo, Iseiya and Eluai, are all in the Mara Triangle and work on a first come, first served basis with no booking fee.
Updated 6 October 2026
Other charges you may meet
| Balloon landing fee | $80 | per adult per landing, child $35; normally built into the balloon price |
|---|---|---|
| Ranger or guide, under 6 hours | KSh 1,500 | over 6 hours, up to 12, KSh 3,000 |
| Horse riding, Mara Triangle | KSh 1,500 | per horse per day |
| Conservancy fee, Mara North, Olare Motorogi, Naboisho | $130 | per adult per night in 2026, child $65, as charged on Kicheche's 2026 rate sheet; outside the reserve and collected by the camp |
| Night game drives in the reserve | not permitted | night drives and walks happen in the conservancies outside the boundary |
Some camps inside the reserve add a separate line: Governors' Camp's 2026 rate sheet charges a Masai Mara community fee of $50 per person per night. The rate sheet does not say whether that passes on a county levy, so check what your own camp adds.
Updated 6 October 2026
Something this page does not answer?
Fees are the one thing park authorities change without telling anyone, and some of them publish nothing at all.
Ask us. We answer questions about the park itself, and we can usually tell you which camps work on one route and who to write to. If what you want is a trip someone else arranges, we will say so and hand you to an operator we know, and we earn a commission if that becomes a booking.
Nothing on this site sits behind the form. Every figure we have is already on the page.