Nairobi National Park

Nairobi's Backyard Wildlife Park

Having been to most of Kenya's more well known wildlife parks Nairobi NP equally compares to Kenya's top parks for wildlife viewing and photography. I have been to Nairobi NP a few times. In my experience, especially If your staying in or near the city center, arrive at 6am when the park opens to avoid Nairobi's traffic, to be amongst fewer park visitors, to see active and possibly more wildlife, and to use the morning sunlight for optimal photography. What makes this park unique is that you can be driving along in full view of Nairobi's cityscape in the background and in the next minute the cityscape disappears and you feel like you're in the wilderness or bush, miles from any city. The park has a diverse range of habitat also, from dry scrub savannah to lush riparian areas with giant acacias hovering over a perennial river to scenic gorges and rocky outcrops. Besides the park, other must see destinations that are super close to the park's main entrance are the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and Giraffe Manor—all three can be visited in one day.

A quiet drive with rhino and lion on the move.

Even though we had an inexperienced driver who got lost, we had a lovely day. But we saw a lot of animals on the savannah. Zebras, ostriches, antelopes, giraffes but also rhinoceros and a single lioness hunting. Female lion was suddenly on the road in front of our jeep. It was special to be Nairobi National Park with city skyline in the background. I would highly recommend people to visit the park.

We stayed at the Nairobi Tent Camp in Nairobi National Park. Really nice accommodations. Hot water bottles in the beds and morning french-pressed coffee delivered to tents was a really nice touch. We saw black and white rhino within the first 24 hours of entering the park. Two visits to David Sheldricks Wildlife Trust center in Nairobi was life-changing.

The best chance to see a black rhino in Kenya

Nairobi National Park is the only option of gamedrive entertainment while in Nairobi. It is fenced and the city center skyline and tidy roads always recall you that you are in an urban area. There are most of times antelopes like zebras,coke hartbeasts, impalas, giraffes, and also warthogs, and a good variety of birds, including eagles and ibis as the most interesting. Despite there are a couple of lion prides, including big males that they keep track of, we could never seen one single lion in our 4 visits to this park, and then the most interesting animal to spot there is the black rhino, a rare and critically endangered species that is easy to spot in the park, so this is the best attraction of the park. Guides provided by the lodges and camps are usually not good spotters, in our experience. We have tried already the Nairobi Tented Camp and the Emakoko, both inside the park. The Emakoko is in a beautiful site and the accommodations are excellent and food as well, we recommend it as the first choice, but be careful with their arrangements to take you to/from airport as their location in the very inner portion of the park it may have roads restrictions that require them to cross long distances to reach the park gates (just add a good time contingency to avoid losing flights, we almost lost ours!). Nairobi tented is fine too, but food is not so good as in Emakoko, and the staff is less prepared as well, accommodations are good enough.

An amazing experience with a wide variety of wildlife

We took a friend's van into the park and drove ourselves all over. As far as I know, this is the only national park in Kenya where this is allowed. Just minutes into our drive, we encountered a large, male rhino that jumped out into the road directly ahead of us. A few turns later, we found ourselves surrounded by a herd of at least 40 African buffalo! We saw many lions, giraffes, baboons, and zebras. The opportunities to see wildlife seemed endless, especially at water holes. Not having a guide, we chose our routes using "dumb luck" and it worked out well for us. We had to plan very carefully, since there are few toilets available and no food in the park. The weather was very comfortable and pleasant. Given the chance, I would definitely return to this park.

Convenient

Nairobi National Park is pleasant, but its biggest perk is its closeness to the capital city of Nairobi. There was a reasonable variety of animals, such as zebra, giraffe and antelope. There were reportedly some lions nearby, but we weren't able to see them.

Good for a day trip, but if you want a more thorough safari experience you will have to go further afield.

Not so far, but so good

I arrived in Kenya last December. I'm a country representative for a NGO working in Soweto slum, Kahawa West. There is no much time to travel and enjoy the beauty of this country. Still, being here I've been collecting a bunch of business cards from tourist agencies - just in case. At the beginning of July, with two volunteers and my best friend, we decided to take a Sunday off to the Nairobi National Park. After a long run of calls to the above-mentioned agencies, we found the one offering the best deal.
At 9 am, we were entering the main Park's gate and after few hundred meters the first hippo and a crowd of white big birds welcomed us nearby a pond. We had a minivan with an opening roof, the view was stunning with the skyscrapers contrasting with the wildlife around us. Plenty of giraffes, zebras, gnus, elands, gazelles and impalas are to be seen all around the park. The giraffes are incredibly elegant and charming while the zebras are covered with the most fashionable animal dresses: much better than a parade in Milan or Paris.
When the sun rose high in the sky, the animals were gathering around water basins. We approached a stunning black rhino and, at the sun peak, we saw three young lions (two females and a male) leaving the shadow of the tree and heading towards a fresher place.
The park is quite magical and seeing the capitol's skyscrapers in the background is such a rare contrast.
Tips: find a smart driver who knows the areas within the park and animals' behaviors.

Often described as a good introduction to the wildlife and birds of Kenya, this park is a must see.

We were originally planning to skip Nairobi National Park in favor of other destinations, but something came up forcing us to remain in Nairobi an extra day. I'm very glad we visited. It's so much more than just the juxtaposition of megafauna in view of the Nairobi skyline. We saw nearly 100 species of birds in a few hours, and we got to see a lot of large mammals easily, including a lion with blood dripping from its mouth, having just come from a kill. You can actually get out of the vehicle and walk around the hippo pools trail -- the park has a guard at the trailhead who will take you for a tip -- which allowed us to see insects, a nile crocodile, and a number of birds up close in the tall acacias there. It was great because visitors aren't allowed to leave their vehicle in many Kenyan parks. If I make a return trip to Kenya, I will make a point to visit Nairobi National Park again.

Nairobi National Park is a wonderful introduction to East Africa - beautiful animals & environment.

I was pleased to find an area with abundant visible African mammals, birds and reptiles so close to Nairobi. It was easy to arrange transportation and a guide who drove me through the area pointing out large mammals and typical east Africa birds. My rhinoceros sighting in Nairobi National Park was the best of the trip. I also saw zebra, lions, bateleur, and many more often in a nicely photographable setting. I have recommended this area to friends traveling to East Africa and will continue to do so. I hope to return.

We loved it.

Being so close to the city it was amazing to see so many wild creatures. The park does not have the numbers other parks do and there are no Elephants there at all. But it can only hold so much with the restricted landscape. They could use an infusion of some species though. And it turned out to be our best place to get close Vulture images.
Lions were seen on every trip in there and it was fun to hang at the waterhole for long periods as many animals come & go. After a three week safari in other parts of the country we did see our only Mamba here !
For anyone who does not have time to visit other parks, it is a great place to go.
It was kind of weird having a Giraffe image with large city building & landing planes in the background.