Tsavo West National Park

Tsavo West was the most beautiful place, and we saw so many wonderful animals there.

An unforgettable life experience

Uniglobe Let's Go Travel organized our tailor-made 21 days Kenyan safari. In addition to Tsavo West (Voyageur Ziwani), we visited Amboseli ( Serena Lodge), Mt. Kenya National Park (Serena Mountain Lodge), Samburu (Intrepids Tented Camp), Lake Baringo (Island Camp Resort), Lake Nakuru (Flamingo Hill Tented Camp), LakeNaivasha (Sopa Lodge), and the Masai Mara (Entim Tented Camp). Everything about our safari was wonderful: our driver/guide, the weather, the accommodations, the wildlife, and all the varied scenery. We preferred the tented camps to the Lodges, however, in all places the service and food were memorable. We are now planning a return to Africa and are lookimg forward to another perfect experience.

Tsavo West lies between the main Nairobi to Mombasa road and Mount Kilimanjaro.

The area is best known for its broad red plains, whose endless acacia scrub and occasional waterholes provide sustenance to a population of elephants

a unforgettable safari - this was pure adventure!

It was perfect! kenya is such a great place to having a good chance seeing the Big Five! I have been in South Africa in Kruger Nationalpark and it was nice too. But you can not compare this. kenya is so a lovely country - very friendly people, great food, wonderful accommodations.. even our guide was talking in german...In africa! (: See my video on youtube: http://youtu.be/QlkHCs54Amw

The Tsavo experience indeed!!

This was a really thrilling trip for us. We had been to the Masai Mara before which was really exciting. We wanted a change, but was a little worried that Tsavo wouldn't live up to the Masai experience. How wrong we were! We had four of us in a jeep with a driver called Sam. He was a friendly chap and so knowledgable like most of these drivers are. They are in radio contact with other drivers as well, so even more eyes to help when an interesting sighting occurs. It was a real jeep safari just as you would expect. We drove alongside all of the usual animals and really felt part of them, we were that close. The weather was fabulous, very warm and clear blue sky with breathtaking scenery. Having said that, wet weather would not have put us off going. We have had some really exciting safaris charging through mud puddles in pursuit of rhino! Our only regret was that we didn't stay longer but we met wonderful people and we left with wonderful photographs, wonderful video and wonderful memories.

Tsavo West - the mountainous rustic gem of the Kenyan safari parks.

Tsavo West was one of three national parks we visited while in Kenya, along with Amboseli and Tsavo East. Each of these parks has its own special characteristics and charms. Of the three, Tsavo West is certainly the least visited, which helps to give it a more secluded and natural feel. The relative lack of tourists means that even when impressive groups of animals are spotted, only a few safari vehicles will converge, and so are less likely to spook them away. Additional plusses for Tsavo West are that the terrain provides a beautiful backdrop as this park is the most mountainous of the three, and that there was the opportunity to see animals that we were not able to spot elsewhere. For example, Tsavo West was the only park where we observed leopards, hippos (at the Mzima Springs pools within the park), and several kinds of monkeys. Mzima Springs in particular was an exceptional treat since it was one of the few opportunities on safari to leave the jeep while in a park, though in exchange, the guides needed to be armed just in case a hippo or other large animal decided it did not like our presence. Luckily, incidents almost never occur, so the result is just that one can get closer to the natural environment and have a slightly elevated sense of adventure while doing it. Tsavo West also contains a black rhino preserve, though we were unable to see any rhinos while there. Not being able to see a rhino was perhaps the only major downside with our visit, though I am sure other visitors don’t have this kind of bad luck. Others potential criticisms of the park are that because it is so remote, the lodging services are a little rougher and that because of the terrain, there are no locations to get expansive photos of hundreds of animals of different species together as far as the eye can see. We personally found the lodging in the park to be pleasantly rustic, and thought the change of background scenery provided a good compliment to the other parks on the trip. Assuming you can fit it in your itinerary, a visit to Tsavo West is certainly recommended along with the other fine parks in the Kenyan park system.

A lot of variation in 1 park

Tsavo west is a very variously. I liked the different vegation in het park, althougt in some parts its very hard to spot animals because off the dense vegatation.In this park lives a lot of animals, but you do not see tem all. In other, less vegatated, parcs it's easier to spot animals. But sometimes the animals are crossing the roads, we almost hid a giraffe, because we didn't see it coming because of the vegatation. Luckaly our driver didn't drive to fast.if you only visiting 1 parc and you want to see a lot of animals, you better choose a different parc. But if you're visiting more parc, Tsavo west is a lovely suprising change to other parcs. To bad there is very long fence next to 1 of the roads. This fence is neccesary because of the elephants, but it's a pity that it's directly besides the road.
In Tsavo West you can also spot some history, like bridges who are builed in the 2nd world war. Whe had a very good guide from Pollmans, he had a lot of stories about the places the Germans fought with the British people. Do'nt know if it was all truth, but you have to believe your guide...
When your in Tsavo West you really have to go to the places with the black lava. It's like your on the moon or something, everywere you can see it's all black...

Amazingly Beautiful and Wild Landscape

Tsavo West was the last stop on our 12 day honeymoon safari through Kenya with Natural Tours and Safaris. We had first visited Samburu, Mt. Kenya, Aberdares, Mara, Lake Naivasha, Lake Nakuru and Amboseli. Despite having been to so many amazing locations, we found Tsavo to be amazingly beautiful and unique. The landscape is a striking mix of rocky hills, greenery, black volcanic lava flows and red dirt that makes for some spectacular scenery. It also felt like the most 'wild' of the parks. We lodged at Rhino Valley which was very comfortable, set in a beautiful location and had some of the best food of our trip. There seemed to be a good chance of seeing leopards there (we saw 2), and the 'red' elephants are also quite cool. The one downside was that because it's so wild, hilly and brushy, wildlife can be harder to spot and so we went on a number of drives where we didn't see too much. Despite that, I still think Tsavo West is well worth the trip - just not if it's your only chance to see wildlife.

Once in a lifetime experience that needs to be done again.

I was surprised at the beauty and luxury at Tsavo. From the tents overlooking the river, which were rustic but luxurious, to the amazing dining facility with incredible selection, everything exceeded expectations. When I got to my tent, I could see hippos in the river from my patio. On the safari, we saw elephants, cheetahs, wildebeests, hippos, hyenas, and a pride of lions eating a water buffalo. Incredible experience. I travel to Kenya every summer to work with humanitarian organizations, and this year the safari was a special treat. I hope to do it again.

An amazing experience. I would recommend it to others.

I saw a Leopard quite by chance. I also saw giraffes, buffalo, elephants,and various other animal. The weather was hot and dry. There was a lot of dust. The lodge was brilliant with lovely clean rooms and a good al a carte menu in the restaurant.