Amboseli National Park

Beautiful Kiliminjaro overlooking a small but wildlife-rich National Park teeming with beasts.

My road research proved correct as there is only one road from Nairobi to Amboseli and that is the C103 off the A109 Mombasa Road. It was a smooth tarmac road offering fantastic views of the South Rift Valley. Amboseli itself is a compact park - easy to navigate and drive around - and it was the first of Kenya's game parks to actually offer me an illustrated map, which was really useful.

Barely through the gate and you see wildebeest and ostrich...then giraffe, impala and then a herd of elephants. I had a pass for 48 hours and the first day I drove one loop around the park concentrating on the animals - as Mount Kilimanjaro was typically shrouded in cloud for the day. There is usually only an hour at dawn and an hour at dusk when the peak is visible. True enough, the following morning it was clear at 6am but clouded over shortly after. On my third day of the trip, things were delightfully different. The peak stayed could-free until 8:30am which allowed me to re-enter the park and take some coveted photographs of wildlife and mountain in harmony. This was definitely the highlight of the trip. Other Kenya parks are flat but Amboseli serves up Mount Kilimanjaro which actually ticks many travellers' life-ling ambitions - mine included.

The accommodation, AA Lodge, was perfect - self-contained chalet / bandas are very private and quiet. It didn't matter to me that I was outside of the Park as my resident Park fee was valid for 48 hrs. The pool was essential; it was so dry and hot that the dip in the water was a necessity. There were very few guests and the food was plain but the service was faultless. Such friendly staff.

This was a beautiful, five star experience, the staff and facilities were amazing and impressive!

I can't say enough about Amboselli park. The grounds are beautiful and well manicured. The staff was all around excellent, the food was delicious and plentiful. The suites were out of a movie beautiful! The fact that you can sit in the back yard , have a cocktail while watching beautiful animals like zebras and elephants pass by was a dream! Once in the safari, there were so many jiraffes , elephants, wilder beasts, lions, hyenas, monkeys and other animals that we were amazed and pleasantly surprised! The weather was perfect, and our transportation and guide made our trip most enjoyable! The fact that We were able to see Mt. Kilimanjaro was the huge cherry on top of the cake!! It was incredible and I can't wait to return.

Outstanding

Amboseli national park is a fantastic place, we seen lots of fantastic animals, like lions, gnus, elephants, hippos, flamingos, impalas, thomson's gazelles and grant's gazelles. The scenery is outstanding, so emotional too! is like being in a magic place. Our guide was amazing and explained everything that we need to know (Safari Dream ltd). The weather was little cold but nothing to moan about, was very suitable.

Well rounded

The setting, scenery and wildlife is exquisite. It's the kind of experience we only see in films. The earthy energy was palpable. It put layers of balm on my nerves. In just two days I came back grounded and calm.
I stopped counting at 100 Elephants - too many to count :-). I was fortunate to be in the park at a good time of the year. I'm sorry I didn't see Kilimanjaro but therein lies the gift and authenticity of nature.

My guide, Leonard, was very knowledgeable across a lot of different subjects which made it really special for me. We discussed from wildlife, to nature, culture, personalities regardless of nationality, the origin of different nationalities across the world, Corinne Hoffman’s book “The White Maasai” etc… Leonard was attentive and picked up on the things that would make a difference to me and then made sure I experienced them – for example climbing up a hill to a truly special view point…..

Kibo Lodge was awesome.. It is truly authentic and the food was fresh and the staff so friendly and helpful

Amboseli is all about the fantastic backdrop of Kilimanjaro and the Elephants. In high season it is very dusty. Go January to March and It will be a lot greener and full of birdlife.

both for the landscape and the animals

My first glimpse of African wildlife, extraordinary wildlife and beautiful landscapes

Well, Amboseli was our first stop of our 13 day expedition in Kenya. Something that we read when planning our trip was that most people try to skip Amboseli and Aberdare and spend more time in Maasai Mara, but we decided not to and yes, we were rewarded. You don't get the same type of giraffes in Maasai to begin with, so you'd lose out on that.
Amboseli was simply great, really loved the landscapes which included Mt. Kilimanjaro. We were lucky enough to see herds of elephants, giraffes, zebras and a group of flamingos. The weather was chilly during the day and rather cold in the night (I'm from Sri Lanka and it gets pretty hot here, 34 degrees during the day). My highlight at Amboseli was when we tried taking photographs of the milky way over Mt. Kilimanjaro at about 1AM. It was freezing, but I managed to get a few shots of the night sky in all its glory. (must do, if you're a photographer). One of the travellers in our group (my mother) is a bird watcher and she spotted quite a few number of birds in Amboseli.

We stayed one night and that was at the Amboseli Sopa Lodge. The hotel was good and the food was excellent. A small note to travellers coming in from hot climate countries, you might want to wear winter clothes when you go to bed since it gets very cold during the night. Transportation and guides were brilliant, they were the same two guides we had for the whole stay in Kenya. We travelled about in two safari ready luxury coaches with plenty of space for the eleven us + baggage.

Remember - Do not skip Amboseli :)

Most Exciting part of our safari - Amboseli park

Wildlife - The abundant number of elephants was astounding. we saw herds of Elephants roaming freely and many crossing the roads right in front of us.
Weather was extremely cool and cloudy, Scenery - With Mount Kilimanjaro the background was great.
Accommodation was in tented camp and the facilities like water and electricity were taken care very nicely.
Transport - The vehicle provided was Toyota van with flexible roof opening which was in perfect condition. even though it had a seating capacity of 6 people Kenya Walking provided the entire van for our exclusive use.
Guide- Our driver Mr. Zakari doubled up as our guide with in-depth knowledge of animals and birds. What's more his eyes never missed an animal or bird, man we could not see with naked eyes till we zoomed our cameras.
Highlights - We saw one lioness with 2 grown up cubs , 2 herds of Elephants coolly walking past our vehicle on two different occasions, Giraffes, Hyenas, Hippos, Zebras, Wild beasts, Gazelles, Impalas walk past our vehicle. Wild buffaloes and wart hogs were sighted within a few meters.

If seeing the big five and their various cousins is your goal, this is certainly the place.

Amboseli embodies much of what we think about Kenya: scenic land, kind and attentive people, good food at the Serena hotel, and exciting views of many of the animals of Africa, moving freely and naturally on their own land. (Views of Killimonjaro just add to the delight.) Our guide was a splendid endless source of information and humor (he referred to us as a "cocktail of characters"). Yes, the roads are dirt, bumpy and sometimes rutted. So? If you want paved roads, go to the zoo. Paved roads would just tempt people to zip by too fast to see what is at the Park. The way guides from competing companies cooperate on animal sighting ("hyena in its den" "wildebeasts on the move" "giraffes moving to their night stay" etc. makes the visit even richer. The Serena was very comfortable and in just the right spot.

I had a wonderful wildlife experience at Amboseli National Park

We were a group of 8 photographers, and we stayed at Amboseli Serina lodge for two nights. We were very pleased with our accommodation and food at the lodge. As we went just after the rains, the park was lush green everywhere. The wild animals had babies with them and it was a pleasure to watch the baby elephants with their mothers and their families. The bird life was less than we had expected , but the ambience of this park with the Mount Kilimanjaro at the background was breath taking. We photographed elephants blowing dust at each other and also baby elephants playing in the mud. The scenery was wonderful and we took sunset and sunrise photos at Amboseli with elephants and water holes in the foreground.
We experienced good weather, no rain and the temperatures were cooler than I had expected. The climate was very pleasant indeed. We travelled with Arunga tours and we had two very capable drivers /guides for our two four wheel drive vans. I would recommend Amboseli National Park to any traveller who appreciate wildlife