Tsavo West National Park

Expert Reviews (7)

224 Tsavo West Safaris

Sort By: Most helpful 1-2 of 2 Reviews

Expert

Ariadne van Zandbergen –

Visited: Multiple times

Ariadne is a renowned African wildlife photographer whose work is featured in many well-known guidebooks and magazines.

4 people found this review helpful.

Action at the Water’s Edge

Overall rating

3/5

Wildlife:

Bush Vibe:

Scenery:

Birding:

Unexpectedly, Tsavo West National Park ended up being one of the highlights of our most recent Kenya trip. Animals tend to be a bit skittish and the thick, straggly bush isn’t the easiest for game viewing but the water hole outside our guesthouse attracted a constant stream of animals. We enjoyed seeing the same group of elephant bulls coming and going over two days as well as eland, giraffes, warthogs, yellow baboons, big herds of buffalo, waterbuck and impalas. You must know that Tsavo West is a very seasonal park and the action at the water holes only really picks up from mid-July. As the caretaker of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) guesthouse said, the visitors who were there a week before us didn’t see a thing. We were lucky! Oh, and I did get a pic of a fringe-eared oryx running across the road (only the second time I managed to get a shot of this rare dry-country antelope). So, double lucky!

4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Expert

Philip Briggs –

Visited: Dry season

Philip is an acclaimed travel writer and author of many guidebooks, including the Bradt guides to Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.

3 people found this review helpful.

Kenya’s Best-Known Wilderness Park

Overall rating

3/5

Wildlife:

Bush Vibe:

Scenery:

Birding:

Situated immediately southwest of the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway, Tsavo West is a smaller national park than its eastern namesake, but slightly better for general game viewing. Most people end up in the so-called ‘developed area’ close to Mtito Andei Gate, and this probably hosts the densest wildlife populations, including elephant, giraffe, lion, spotted hyena and the lovely but very skittish lesser kudu. This area also offers access to the 95 sq km Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary, which was created in 1986 to protect the few black rhinos that survived the intensive poaching of the 1970s and now supports around 150 individuals. The sanctuary only opens to day visitors from 4pm to 6pm, when you stand a very good chance of seeing rhino come to drink at a pair of waterholes overlooked by a viewing platform that can also be booked on an overnight basis. Another favourite spot in Tsavo West is Mzima Springs, where fish and sometimes hippo can be seen from an underwater viewing tank. The developed area... Read more also hosts several impressive landmarks of recent volcanic origin, notably the Shetani Lava Flow, an area of bare black boulders whose Swahili name means ‘devil’. On a clear day, the views of Kilimanjaro are stunning. A lesser known part of Tsavo West that I have always enjoyed is Lake Jipe, which lies on the border with Tanzania and hosts plenty of hippo, elephant and waterbirds.

3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Average Expert Rating

3.9/5

Wildlife
Scenery
Bush Vibe
Birding

Write a User Review

Tsavo West National Park

Expert Reviews (7)