Nairobi National Park

A must to visit when in Nairobi - wildlife at the doorstep of a metropole

We visited the part on a Sunday morning, where traffic through town is light. It is a fantastic experience to be on the Savanna in wild Africa in just 30 minutes from your hotel downtown. There was lots of wildlife, and the part was not too crowded (off season). Paying with credit card at gate was easy and fast. The drivers were polite and competent. And the booking from the agency smooth.

This is a must do when in Nairobi.

Amazing outings with the team over a weekend

We had only one and a half day in Nairobi and we wanted to make the most of it.

James and Gabriel organised for us the visit of Nairobi National Park, lake Naivasha and Hell's gate with bicycles. The perfect mix of adventure and game seeing over a weekend.

Organisation was just perfect and the programme adapted to our requests. We had a really good time with my friends but also with the organising team. The driver and the guides were super professional, creating the perfect atmosphere for fun, exchange and learning about Kenyan wildlife.

Highly recommended !!

It was Amazing. I have seen Lion from so near which was an adventure for me.

Everything was good.

Our Guide was having fully knowledge about the park which made our trip easy.

Amazing wildlife experience right on the edge of the big city

My wife and I went on a ten-day safari to Kenya and northern Tanzania in September 2019. We visited the Masai Mara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, and Tanagire and Amboseli National Parks. The adventure involved a lot of sitting in safari vehicles, but the trip was amazing overall. Upon returning, I realized that perhaps the smartest thing we did in planning the journey was to start by visiting Nairobi National Park, just outside Nairobi itself. This is a small but amazing preserve in which we saw an impressive variety of wildlife and birds in just a few hours. It was the only place we saw a rhinoceros during the entire trip, and we also saw lions, zebras, impalas, hartebeest, vervet monkeys, baboons, giraffes, buffalo, warthogs, Ostriches, Little bee-eaters, White- bellied bustards, and a huge variety of other birds. There are no elephants in this park, but that is hardly a major issue in light of how many animals do live within the reserve. There was a "hippo pond" that comprised perhaps the highlight of the park. There we saw birds galore, including Malechite kingfisher, Sacred ibis, Blacksmith lapwing, Black-winged stilt, and African fish eagle, as well as a large monitor lizard and of course, hippos. The park is relatively small, and our driver gave us what seemed like a complete tour within a couple of hours.

The entrance to the park is a little intimidating, as there are armed guards and, as is typical of Nairobi generally, a high degree of security. Since we were with a professional guide, however, we were able to just hang back and let him take care of the payment, paperwork, and direction. Overall, the Nairobi National Park proved an amazing place to spend an afternoon, and I recommend it to anyone visiting Nairobi or beginning a safari in that city.

good place for birding near Nairobi

I saw more animals here than on the other safaris, including lions, rhinos, a hippo, crocodiles, impalas, gazelles, giraffes, warthogs, buffalo, storks, cranes... While not as pretty as other locations, the backdrop of Nairobi city is interesting, and it is easy to get to this park, and still leave time in a day for visiting some other location in Nairobi.

Great start! We just loved it as a first approach to wild life.

For being so close to the city it is amazing. If you can’t get out in a safari this is the next best thing.

A great park when you have very young kids.

Good selection of wildlife, easy enough to get the iconic shot (picture) of Giraffe and the Nairobi skyline in the background. Rhino both Black and White were easy to see when we were there, they even had a calf. A great variety of water birds, we also saw a pair of fantastic Crested Crane. Marabou stork were wandering around as if they owned the place. Loads of cheeky Baboons and other monkeys trying to steal chocolate bars and ice creams just made it a very good day out . Make sure you get good guide/driver with a 4x4. The one thing that you need to know is that cash for the entrance fee is not taken( that's in all the parks) either have a credit card or M-Pesa we found that it took a while to activate, so we ended up using a credit card.

Wildlife in my backyard

East Africa has an incredibly rich biodiversity, with variety of habitats such as the savanna, forests and grasslands, homes to the countless flora and fauna kingdom. Being part of the supercontinent Gondwana, many areas resemble the areas found on the western coastline areas of India.
We landed at Nairobi Airport and not wanting to waste time drove off directly to the Nairobi National Park which was about half an hours drive from the Airport.
Here we got the first glimpse of what Kenya beholds for the wildlife photographers.

At the parks entry gate we were greeted by none other than the Superb Starling, a beautiful bird showing off its metallic blue-green shoulder feathers with strong white eyes, later on I came to know this bird is quite a common and a nuisance sometimes, its found all over Kenya.

Bird species were a plenty at the Nairobi National Park, and we saw Pin-tailed Whydah, speckled mouse-birds, grey crowned cranes, bee eaters, egrets, Marabau storks, vultures, ostriches and many more.

Out in the open plains between small bushes we saw two young lions taking a nap, around some acacia trees we saw some white rhinos, one was with her young a calf, Masai Giraffes, Plain Zebras, buffaloes, Antelopes and Gazelles lazily moving around.

The two hours drive in the park drove away the fatigue of travel from India to Nairobi.

The Land cruiser driver cum guide was well versed with the area and the details of the vegetation and the animals seen, he was very friendly and cooperative and would stop and spot for us the well-camouflaged birds and animals of the area.

I would recommend that two sessions should be done at Nairobi national Park, one early morning and one late afternoon to justify it.