10 Mind-Blowing Kenya National Parks and Reserves You Can’t Afford to Miss
After South Africa, Kenya was Africa’s most visited destination in 2017.
Kenya National Parks are some of the continent’s most beautiful and accessible. They offer a wealth of unique experiences to suit the adventurous traveler.
Here are the top 10 places to get your National Park game experiences in Kenya.
1. Masai Mara
As the stomping ground of the Great Migration in Kenya, this Kenyan National Park attracts thousands of visitors every year. The peak migration months are from July to October but you can see animals year round in this amazing wildlife destination.
It’s also where filming of scenes from the iconic movie, “Out of Africa”, took place. You can see the amazing scenery depicted in this movie on hot-air balloon safaris above the savannas and the Siria escarpment.
Of all the Kenya safari parks, the Masai Mara is the best-known. There are many others for you to discover on your travels.
2. Amboseli National Park
Amboseli National Park nestles at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya and is the site of a large temporary lake during the rainy season. This water feature attracts huge herds of game. The park is one of the best places to see African elephants, with over 900 individuals resident on these grassy plains.
The rocky thornveld, woodland, swamp and marshland habitats are home to a wide variety of species. Some of these include wildebeest, giraffes, monkeys, zebras, hyenas, antelope, and lions.
3. Aberdare National Park
Aberdare National Park offers a change from the usual rolling plains found in this part of the world. The park is mountainous and filled with high moors, indigenous forests, streams, waterfalls and ravines.
The park offers a range of activities including fishing, hiking, and mountain climbing as well as game drives. You may be lucky enough to see endangered black rhino as well as lions, leopards, bongo antelope, Colobus and Sykes monkeys, and baboons.
4. Nairobi National Park
This Kenyan National Park is an enigma, located right outside the country’s capital city, Nairobi, on the banks of the Embakasi River. It is home to a successful black rhino conservation initiative and a great place to see these endangered animals.
Here you could encounter lions, leopards, buffaloes, cheetahs, zebras, wildebeest, hyenas, and giraffes. Over 400 different kinds of birds are on this park’s bird list. Game drives, walking and picnicking are the most popular activities in this small national park.
5. Tsavo East National Park
Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks were the inspiration behind the movie “The Ghost and the Darkness”. It was once the home of Africa’s most notorious man-eating lions and is one of the continent’s oldest national parks. The railway line featured in this movie is now the boundary between these two parks.
It is also one of the largest, although vast tracks of these dry plains, thorny scrubland, and swampy marshes are not open to the public. There’s plenty of room left to explore the park on self-guided game drives to see Kenya’s best-known wildlife, including the Big 5.
The park is close to Mombasa, so it’s ideal for a day trip during your beach holiday on the Kenyan coast.
6. Tsavo West National Park
Located to the West of its sister park, Tsavo East, this vast wilderness takes up 30% of Kenya’s protected spaces. The elephants here are famous for their red-skinned appearance thanks to the rich soils in the area.
Apart from elephant, self-drive safaris in this park can yield sightings of rare animals. These include wild dog, black rhino, Hunter’s hartebeest and Cosen’s gerbil.
Lake Jipe offers a chance for boat safaris to see the many species that gather here to drink. Rock climbing is another popular activity at Kichwa Tembo, the Ivory Tower on Elephant Rock and the Great Tsavo Chimney within this park.
7. Mt Kenya National Park
Mount Kenya National Park is completely different from the other Kenya safari parks. It encompasses the 3 peaks of Kenya’s highest mountain range. This makes it an excellent destination for advanced mountain climbing. Point Lenana is open to amateur climbers.
Despite the bamboo thickets, rainforest, and moorland habitats you will encounter here, you can still come across typical African animals. Elephants, buffalo, and monkeys thrive here.
8. Lake Nakuru National Park
Lake Nakuru’s claim to fame is the vast amount of flamingoes that come here to feed on algae during January and February. The park is in the picturesque Great Rift Valley and is the site of the largest euphorbia forest in Africa.
Hippos, both kinds of rhinos, impalas, buffalo, eland, and Rothschild giraffes are also found here. Lake Nakuru is an excellent destination for bird-watching with 400 species to tick off your list. These include Madagascar pond-herons, Pallid Harriers, Grey-crested helmet-shrikes and greater spotted Eagles.
9. Meru National Park
Meru National Park set the scene for Joy Adamson’s book, ‘Born Free’ and boasts magnificent views of Mt Kenya. Apart from a large pride of lions, Meru National Park has healthy populations of lesser kudu, duiker, dik-dik, elephant, buffalo, hartebeest, giraffe and antelope.
Game drives and bird-watching are the main activities in Meru National Park. Pel’s fishing owl and Peter’s finfoot are among the 300 species of birds recorded here.
10. Saiwa Swamp National Park
This is the smallest of the Kenya parks, but also one of the most interesting. These marshes and swamplands that are home to a host of smaller animals not usually associated with African safaris.
These include genet cats, mongooses, bushbuck, De Brazzas monkeys and sitatunga antelope. The park is only accessible on foot, providing an excellent opportunity to immerse yourself in nature.
Kenya National Parks at Their Best
While most people prefer to visit Kenya during the winter months, Kenya is a paradise for nature-lovers at any time of year. The warmer months are the green season, with dramatic thundershowers almost every afternoon.
Although this isn’t the best time for game sightings, it is the season for abundant birdlife. Over 1090 bird species occur in Kenya. Many of these are migrants which flock here to nest and raise their young during this time of year.
Get Into Africa
There are 54 national parks and game reserves in Kenya. You will also find private animal sanctuaries and community conservancy areas to explore.
Get in touch to book a safari and discover all the Kenya National Parks on your bucket list and more.