Safaris & Wildlife in Kenya National Parks & Reserves

Amboseli National Park
City/Region: Eastern
Amboseli National Park is legendary for its herds of elephants roaming with the backdrop of Africa's highest and snow caped mountain, Mt Kilimanjaro. Situated along the borders of both Kenya and neighboring Tanzania it is a relatively small park with wide stretching in all directions. Observation Hill rising around the axis is perfect for spectacular views of the park and Mt Kilimanjaro.
Mt Kilimanjaro Meaning 'Place of Water' in the Masai language, has a natural water replenish from Kilimanjaro's snowmelt, forming underground springs that feed the swamps which attract the hippos and a great variety of birds. Predators like the jackal and hyena are spotted around the large numbers of grazers such as wildebeest, zebra and gazelles on the grassy plains. The tall necked giraffes are always busy nibbling on the thorn trees. There are several ways of enjoying the scenery and among them by way of a noiseless flight, either from Nairobi or the Amboseli airstrip, by hot air balloon or a 4X4 Drive. There is a wide range of accommodation in and around the park for those wanting to extend the adventure.

Mount Kenya National Park
City/Region: Central
This national park is situated in Central Kenya and surrounds Africa's second highest mountain, Mt Kenya, an extinct volcano mountain rising to altitudes that condense atmospheres creating snow-caped peaks. The mountain is honoured by the local Kikuyu people who call it Kirinyaga or 'Place of Light' holding the belief that their Supreme Being, Ngai lives on its summit. The mountain is a lure with its outstanding variation of plant life due to the changes in altitude and its position on the equator. Bamboo, moorland and alpine vegetation and higher on rock and glaciers are a spectacular view. The equatorial snow on the mountain is one of the world's rarest sights. The slopes with their thick forest are home to a variety of animals including the black leopard.
The summit is an adventurous climb, with point Lenana as a popular trekkers' target. It is the third highest peak that can be reached by a number of different scenic routes, lasting from three to five days. Apart from the climb the park offers a pristine wilderness, lakes and glaciers and is good for game viewing and hiking.

Masai Mara National Reserve
City/Region: Nairobi
Masai Mara is Kenya's most eminent park. It offers expansive savannah grasslands and is an extension of the Serengeti Plains in neighboring Tanzania. 'Out of Africa movie' was actually filmed here and the award winning movie just displays an ion of the real spectacle. The park offers wonderful views and an extraordinary concentration of wildlife, including the 'Big Five'. It has the largest population of lion, and large herds of grazers which attract many other predators such as cheetah and hyena.
What has become a among the few great wonders of the world is the Great Wildebeest Migration, creating one of the world's supreme natural spectacles, with an estimated two million animals forming one large herd and leaveing the dry plains of Tanzania to seek greener pastures in the north, arriving in the Mara from late June onwards and returning again in September. Their entrance into the Mara makes a breathtaking spectacle, as they cross the crocodile infested waters of the Mara River. A once in a lifetime way to experience the magic of an African dawn over such a wilderness is by hot air balloon. These can be booked through us and operate daily from several of the lodges in the reserve. The Masai village is a cultural attraction within the park that features traditional dances and music as portrayed by the famous masai tribe living around the Masai Mara National Reserve. The proud warriors have become a symbol of tribal Kenya with their beadwork, feathers, spears, decorated gourds and red blankets.

Lake Naivasha
City/Region: The Great Rift Valley

Renown for its birdlife and beautiful scenery lake Naivasha which is just an hour’s drive from the international airport and capital is a great getaway. The nearby attractions of Elsamere and Hell's Gate National Park make it a popular destination. The lake is a glittering waterscape of floating hyacinth with the brightly colored kingfishers darting occasionally into the waters from their papyrus perches. The marabou storks march along the shoreline like soldiers oblivious of the bird watchers. The trees are home to Columbus monkeys and at night the silence is stirred by the movement of grazing hippos. The fertile soils and fresh water supply have made this one of the major horticultural regions in Kenya where farmlands and flower farms surround the lake giving way to forests of acacia on the mountain slopes. The southern shore of the lake is arrayed with hotels, campsites and guesthouses, prettily situated either on the shore or higher up on the slopes of the mountain with fantastic views over the lake. Boat trips are a popular way to explore the lake and also the private Crescent Island Game Sanctuary.

Elsamere Conservation Center
City/Region: The Great Rift Valley
'Born Free' a book written by naturalist and painter Joy Adamson is a bestseller that has earned itself international acclaim. Elsamere Conservation Center, incorporating a guesthouse and a small museum are the former home of this famous author who lived along this southern .Visitors are invited to join the guests daily for a sumptuous tea on the lawns of the beautifully peaceful lakeside setting, occasionally joined by the mischievous Columbus monkeys with a taste for cheesecake. The museum has displays portraying the true story of Joy and the lioness Elsa that she raised from birth, and her attempts to return her to the wild, as well as her paintings and personal artifacts. Game movie lovers are also treated to a video shown about the story of Elsa the lioness.

Hell's Gate National Park
City/Region: The Great Rift Valley

The two massive red cliffs of the Njorowa Gorge that encloses a geothermic area of hot springs and steam vents give this park it’s name since the place looks like an opening to the abyss of the earth. Hell's Gate is one of the two parks in Kenya that allows visitors to explore on foot, making it an ideal place for hiking, cycling, camping and rock climbing. It is famous for its natural steaming geysers, and the towering cliffs that provide both eagle and vulture breeding ground. The wide plains are home to numerous animals, such as zebra, buffalo, eland, gazelle, hartebeest and other grazers.. Lion, leopard and cheetah are also present but hardly ever seen.

Lake Nakuru National Park
City/Region: The Great Rift Valley
This park is small compared to the larger sister parks that the country has to offer. However the park has huge concentrations of game with everything except elephant, and is one of Kenya's important rhino sanctuaries. There are several prides of lion and it is the best place to spot leopard. The lake covers about a third of the park and the saline concentration supports a blue-green algae that attracts thousands of flamingos. This effervescent pink carpet covering the edges of the lake is a breathtaking sight and at any disturbance the air above becomes a noisy confusion of long pink legs and reddish wings in flight. Large flocks of pelicans are also attracted to the rich food source in the lake and waterbuck and the rare Rothschild giraffe are common along the shores. The park has several high points with good lookouts and waterfalls with monkeys and baboon frequenting the rocky cliffs.

Nairobi National Park and Daphne Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage
City/Region: Nairobi

Nairobi National Park Kenya's first national park was established over six decades ago. Inimitably situated right nest to the capital it is a well-kept and gorgeous area of plains and wild bush containing a large number of Africa's best-known animals. Vast herds of zebra, wildebeest, buffalo and giraffe roam the plains. Other attractive inhabitants are the black rhino, ostrich, baboons, cheetah and the jungle kings the lions. The park also consists of the Animal Orphanage where sick, wounded and abandoned animals are cared for and rehabilitated. An educational Center featuring a Safari Walk are some of the tour activities that make every excursion a discovery chance. The Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage is also within the precincts of the park. Here infant elephant and rhino (orphaned because of poaching activities) are adopted and eventually returned to the wild. The center is anelephant lovers’ attraction with visitors watching the calves bathing in the mud hole and being bottle fed by their human surrogate mothers every day.

Samburu Game Reserve
City/Region: Northern Kenya

Samburu is a journey of about 220 miles north of Nairobi in Kenya’s arid, northern scrub lands. This tiny park is only 64 square miles but in its boundaries is the best game viewing the North Country has to offer. A Samburu native, is fond of saying “the animals in the north are more beautiful” – and while there’s certainly some regional pride in this statement, there’s also quite a lot of truth. You will see species here you won’t see anywhere else and yes, they are uniformly beautiful. Reticulated giraffe, boldly marked blocks separated by the finest of lines, delicately browse through acacia branches. Grevy’s zebra, fine lined patterns that seem to merge to gray from a distance, is easily distinguished from its Burchell (common) zebra cousin – besides the finer patterning the Grevy is larger with more of a domesticated horse conformation; front and back ends seem more in balance. Grevys also seem to have a bit more self possession, less of the Burchell’s spookiness, and maybe that comes from the higher self esteem good looks bring about? One of our favorites is the gerenuk, the gracefully long-necked “giraffe” antelope, who’s perfectly capable of stretching full height on his hind legs to snatch an acacia morsel. That strikingly marked huge antelope, Beisa oryx, lives here as well, as do elephant." 

Shaba National Reserve
City/Region: Northern Kenya

Shaba is part of three small adjoining Savanna National Reserves that lie on either side of the Northern Ewaso Nyiro River, 340km North, North East of Nairobi (Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba). They were established in 1948 as the Samburu Isiolo Game Reserve, part of the once extensive Marsabit National Reserve. Now they are managed by their respective county councils, Samburu and Isiolo.<br><br>
The reserve consists of a low lying, semi arid plain on the southern bank of the Northern Ewaso Nyiro river. It lies 9 km east of Buffalo Springs National Reserve, from which it is separated by the main road from isiolo to Marsabit. The reserve was gazetted in 1974 and is administered by the Isiolo CC. Its Northern section includes a 34km stretch of the Ewaso Nyiro river; here and elsewhere in the reserve are numerous springs and swampy areas, although some have bitter tasting water.<br><br>

The starkly beautiful landscape is dominated by Shaba hill to the south, at the foot of which is a rugged area with steep ravines. The sandy soils are volcanic in origin"

Tsavo National Park
City/Region: Coast

Tsavo National Park an hour's drive from Mombasa along the main highway to Nairobi is divided into the East and West Park. Covering 8,422 sq miles (21,812 sq km), the park hosts giraffes, buffalos, antelopes, monkeys, many exotic birds and Kenya's largest herds of elephant. This park is the inspiration of the movie ‘The man eaters of Tsavo’ and visitors are likely to see the lions that roam the territory. Rhinos which were wiped out by poachers in the 1980s have since been repopulated to about 200, with most being found in the Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary. In one of the park's pools is an observation tank from where visitors can get a close-up view of hippos, crocodiles and tropical fish in their natural habitat.