Top Highlights of Kenya

Maasai Mara National Reserve is widely known as the most popular safari park in Kenya. It may be the most popular park in Africa, with Kruger National Park in South Africa, and the Serengeti which shares the border of Kenya and Tanzania.

Maasai Mara is also known as Masai Mara due to incorrect spelling by British settlers. The park was founded in 1961 and made a National Reserve in 1974; it sits at 580 square miles and 1500 square kilometers. Maasai Mara has a fantastic collection of wildlife; there are lions, cheetahs, leopards, elephants, waterbuck, springbok, giraffes, zebra, crocodiles, ostrich, warthog, hyena; the list is endless.

Of course, there is also the famous wildebeest migration. 

Maasai Mara was also renowned for the Tano Bora, a clan of five cheetahs comprising two brothers and three other males. This is unusual because typically once cheetahs reach maturity, they become solitary or form a pair.

The Tano Bora, which translates to “the magnificent five” in the Maa tongue, is the largest cheetah coalition in the park. The group are also colloquially known as the “fast five” and are extremely efficient hunters. Olpadan (“great shooter” in Maa) was thought to be the leader and a bit of a bully (he is believed to be deceased now).

They were known to mate with the same female which makes it less likely they will kill cubs they come across. I was extremely fortunate in August 2019 on a private three day safari in the Maasai Mara; we came across the group sleeping under a tree.

Their cooperation is truly incongruous with cheetah behavior. Entrance fees to the park for adults are $80 USD and children $45, but entrance fees are almost always included in tours and safaris.

Amboseli National Park is located in Kenya, near the Tanzanian border and is perfected by Mount Kilimanjaro in the background. The highest peak in Africa at 5,895 meters or 19,341 feet, Mt. Kilimanjaro is a famous tourist destination with its ten-day hike (average probably with a rest day) to Uhuru Peak.

The park is about a 3-4 hour drive south of Nairobi. The word “Amboseli” comes from the Maasai, meaning “salty dust.” Amboseli is about 3100 square miles and 8000 square kilometers; it is the second most visited park behind Maasai Mara.

Amboseli is known to have over one thousand elephants and is thought to contain over one hundred lions. There are also six hundred bird species in the park, including over 40 species of birds of prey.

It is considered to be a birding paradise for Kenya. If you visit Maasai Mara, you can probably skip Amboseli, or vice versa, as they are fairly similar. History buffs, Amboseli contains a Pleistocene era dried-up lake.

Lake Nakuru is a lake situated in the rift valley and is a remarkable wildlife park. It measures 45 square kilometers and possesses 450 species of birds. 

It contains both black and white rhinos, an extremely rare occurrence throughout Africa. In fact, the park contains around 100 white rhinos and 50 black rhinos.

Rhinos are in grave danger, due to poaching for their horns, so this park is a great treasure. Lake Nakuru is also renowned for its pink color, made so by the thousands of flamingos that make it their home and feed off the algae.

The water maintains a vibrant blue-green color from the algae. The park is known for being replete with zebra, waterbuck, the Rothschild Giraffe, and buffalo.

Like most of the rest of Kenya, March and April are very wet from the rainy season, and the roads can become impassable. For the movie buffs, Lake Nakuru also offers a hilltop known as the “Out of Africa Lookout”; this steep hill provides amazing views of the park and was used for many shots in the movie Out of Africa.

Another fantastic viewpoint is Baboon Cliff. As the name suggests, you will have to yield some of the view to a plethora of baboons. The bigger males can be aggressive so use caution.

There is no guarantee on the number of flamingos you will see. The flamingos typically crowd the lake when it measures its highest alkaline levels; rainy season tends to decrease alkalinity. The ideal time to visit the lake is the driest, hottest season of January-February, although that is considered off-season for Kenya safaris in most cases. Food for thought. 

Samburu National Reserve is situated in Samburu County, located in the north of Kenya. It is the home to the Samburu tribal people, closely affiliated with the Maasai. 

Samburu people also speak a language derived from Maa, similar to the Maasai. The Samburu historically have been pressured to settle in permanent villages, but they have rejected it, as it goes against their culture. 

Samburu National Park is 64 square miles or 165 square kilometers; it lies 350 kilometers from Nairobi. Samburu has a superb wildlife collection, partly due to the Ewaso Ng’iro river.

It is quite arid and the river ensures the survival of the wildlife that live in the park. All three African apex predators can be found in Samburu; lions, cheetahs, and leopards.

It is particularly well-known for the Samburu Special Five; Somali ostrich, Grevy’s zebra, gerenuk, reticulated giraffe, and the Beisa oryx.

Samburu also has the normal collection of elephants, baboons, buffalo, and hippos. The park was one of the two parks where George and Joy Adamson raised the lioness Elsa made famous in the movie Born Free.

The reserve was also the home of Kamunyak, a lioness famous for adopting six oryx calves. She has not been seen for many years; it is thought she might have starved to death as the calves would not wait somewhere for her to hunt. 

When people ask why Africa is my favorite place, why I love Kenya, it’s because of stories like these. They are plentiful.

Typically you will have to fly into Samburu. It is known to be a spectacular honeymoon destination.

Entrance fees are $70 USD for adults and $40 for children. Usually, flights and entrance fees will be covered in a safari package.

Hells Gate National Park makes up a full one quarter of the Great Rift Valley and contains fierce geothermal activity. You will have the chance to see lions, leopards, buffalo, zebra, hartebeest, and baboons, as well as over 100 species of birdlife.

Lions and leopards do traverse the park but they are on the rare side.

The park is also recognized as the home of a rare bird of prey called the Lammergeyer vulture. While Hells Gate does have its collection of assorted wildlife, it is most recognized for its breathtaking scenery.

The park is a geological phenomenon with amazing topographical features. Fischer Tower is a 75 foot/ 25 meter rocky monolith forged by semi-molten rock cooling and then solidifying. 

Fischer Tower is located near the entrance to the park. The Maasai believe that the tower is actually a Maasai girl who was punished for disobeying her family before her wedding; the purgatory being turned to stone. 

Another splendid draw in Hells Gate is the Obsidian Caves. 

The Obsidian Caves are located in a section of the park called the Buffalo Circuit. The caves provide beautiful obsidian rocks in black, green, and brown colors.

Obsidian rock is a product of rapid cooling of molten lava contacting water while being poured into a lake or ocean. The main attraction of Hells Gate National Park though is the Ol Njorowa Gorge, translated as the Lower Gorge.

The gorge is the home of waterfalls, colored rocks, and hot springs. It was also used to shoot movies such as Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life, King Solomon’s Mines and Mountains of the Moon.

If you have the time and opportunity, I strongly recommend you visit Hells Gate National Park. It very much depends on your priorities, as you may also be interested in going through the Serengeti to Tanzania or down to Zimbabwe, etc.., but you can easily spend three or four weeks touring Kenya without seeing all the hot spots.

Tsavo National Park is located in southwest Kenya, and is so large at 22,000 sq. kilometers, it has been divided into two sections known as Tsavo East and Tsavo West. The park is named for the Tsavo river which flows west to east and borders Chyulu Hills National Park.

Tsavo East is one of the largest national parks in the world at 13,747 sq. kilometers. It is also one of the oldest. Tsavo East became a national park in 1948 and is situated near the town of Voi.

It is separated from Tsavo West by the A109 Nairobi-Mombasa Roadway. Some of the top attractions in Tsavo East are Mudunda Rock, Lugard Falls, Aruba Dam, and Yatta Plateau.

While Tsavo West is smaller, it is the more visited park. This is mainly due to the Mzima Springs, the rhinoceros reserve, and the overall brilliant scenery of the park.

Mzima Springs is an amazing collection of four springs created by volcanic lava rock of the Chyulu Range. The rock of the Chyulu Range is too porous to allow water to flow, forcing it underground.

The springs also accommodates populations of hippos and crocodiles. Tsavo is the site of the man-eating lions made notorious in the movie The Ghost and the Darkness.

The two male maneless lions went on a murderous rampage between March and December 1898. Analysis of the two lions led researchers to believe that the lion labeled FMNH 23970 ate more than twice as many humans as its counterpart.

Examination in 2017 revealed that one of the lions had an infection in one of its canine teeth, which would have made it difficult to grab large prey like zebra. 

Tsavo East and Tsavo West have the same entrance fees at $52 USD for adults and $35 for children.

Lamu Island is located off the northeastern coast of Kenya and possesses a principal town of the same name. Lamu was founded in the 14th century and has a number of interesting attractions, in addition to being one of the best-preserved Swahili colonies in East Africa. 

It is Kenya’s oldest active town and offers the Lamu Museum, as well as the Swahili House Museum. If you walk 30 minutes north of the town you will come to Shela Beach. 

There are no cars on Lamu, but you can take a boat or donkey if you don’t want to walk!

Mount Kenya is an extinct volcano that rose around 3,000,000 years ago and is the highest mountain in Kenya. It is also the second-highest peak in Africa, behind Mount Kilimanjaro.

It is located roughly 150 sq. kilometers or 90 sq. miles from Nairobi; it was established in 1949 and receives about 16,000 visitors each year. Currently, fees stand at $150 USD per adult for a three-day package, $220 per adult for four days, and $300 for five days.

Typically, the cheapest option to summit is using Naro Moru then ascending Sirimon.

David Sheldrick was the first warden of Tsavo East National Park. David and his wife Daphne were both avid anti-poaching activists, who spent over 25 years fighting poaching in Tsavo.

When David died in 1977, Daphne was working in Nairobi National Park and began the precursor to what would become the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. The Trust’s main purpose is its Orphans Project where it rescues, rehabilitates, and eventually releases elephants back into Tsavo National Park.

Today the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust continues to serve Kenya, playing roles in its Orphans Project, a canine unit for wildlife crime, anti-poaching, eco-lodges, and aerial surveillance.

The orphanage is only open one hour a day, from 11am to 12pm daily. The entrance fee is $7 USD and you have the option to “adopt” an elephant for $50 USD annually.

I placed adopt in quotation marks because obviously the elephant will stay in Kenya. You can’t overnight it after it’s adopted to run around Dallas or Phoenix or Nashville.

You can also have a nice, relaxing first full day after arriving in Nairobi.

You begin with breakfast then head to Sheldricks to see the baby elephants. From Sheldricks, head to the next highlight on the list, the nearby Giraffe Park for an hour or two of giraffe viewing and feeding.

Finish your afternoon by tasting a beer sampler at Brew Bistro.

The Giraffe Center is located in a suburb of Nairobi called Langata and was created to protect the Rothschild giraffe, found only in the grasslands of East Africa.

Known as the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife, it was established in 1979 after they were originally discovered by Lord Walter Rothschild in the early 1900s.

The Rothschild Giraffe now exists only in Kenya and Uganda, as they are extinct in Sudan. Currently open from 9am-5pm including weekends and holidays.

Fort Jesus is a major tourist attraction located in Mombasa. It’s currently the third busiest port in Africa and a gateway to Kenya, but also Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda, Sudan, and Somalia.

Construction began in 1593, under orders of King Philip I of Portugal to guard the Mombasa port, which was vital to the spice trade and was completed in 1596. It was designed by an Italian architect named Giovanni Battista Cairati; when viewed from the air the fort is the shape of a man and is considered to be a paragon of Renaissance military architecture.

While the fort is an admired tourist destination, it is also used for research programs, a conservation lab, and conservation offices.