Solio Ranch

Terrible roads and service

While the ranch is supposed to have a good variety of wildlife including rhinos, we went on New Year’s Eve and we’re thoroughly disappointed.

There were no guides as they were on vacation despite it being purportedly a high season. We bought a map for KES 1500 since we could not a guide, but it is extremely difficult to follow given unmarked roads.

The roads are impassable and the stafff are not helpful. We spent two hours looking for a way to cross past the swampy area and despite seeking direction from four staff members, we ended up in the same spot from different directions and had to eventually give up the effort!

One would have expected better guidance including warnings on tricky roads etc.

We did see some rhinos but were very underwhelmed by the seeming lack of knowledge of the lay of the land and even customer service orientation.

We got some perfunctory apologies and were on our way to nurse disappointment especially for the birthday girl who had to wake up early in vain.

The ranch needs to step up its game. Otherwise please consider Ol Pejeta instead.

Beautiful! Lots of rhinos, beautiful views, scenery can change quite a bit with views of Mt Kenya. Baboons, monkeys, lions, Impala, vultures, etc...

Here you get to see more than 200 rhinos for sure and other wildlife including Lions and Leopard, Water bucks and many more ..covered in heavy bush all over and swampy.

The best place to see rhinos in Kenya

It took us about 15mins to get to Solio Ranch from our accomodation at Sandai Farm. The park entry fee is expensive - $80 per person for non-residents, Ksh2,000 for residents and Ksh1,000 for citizens - but well worth it! Rhinos are almost extinct, but there are more than enough of them in Solio. We decided to self-drive in our 4x4 without taking a guide (but we bought a map for Ksh1,000), which worked well. There are clear paths to follow and the map is quite detailed. We were able to drive up really close to herds of rhinos, buffaloes, zebras, oryx and gazelle. We also saw several families of warthogs trotting around and a jackal.

The best place in the world to study the life of the white and the black rhinos!!

Between 2009 and 2012 we had six gamedrives in Solio and it was always like coming home! Nature and wildlife at its best, very few tourists and excellent accommodations. For a luxury stay you can choose the Solio Lodge in the park, we preferred the normal priced Rhino Watch Safari Lodge 3 km beside. From Solio it´s only one hour drive to Mt. Kenya, the Aberdares or Ol Pejeta Conservancy. The climate at 1800m is very moderate throughout the whole year. That´s also a reason for a big variety of natural goods and very tasty food! The guides at the parks were best educated to explain the wildlife and well trained to find the animals.
We enjoyed every single trip and surely will come back!

very nice, althoug it does not look very wild

In my opinion not really wild, but lots of rhinos.