Tsavo West National Park

its the biggest national park in kenya where you can see all types of wildlife, the views, the bush, and lots of lodges to stay and places to see like mizima springs.

It was an OK experience, but not more.

In the summer of 2011 I visited Tsavo West National Park in Kenya. I was there for two days and I had for some reasons my own driver with no other tourists in the same vehicle. I spent the night at Kiliguni Serena Safari Lodge, which is located in the park.

As I went to the park I imagined the park of consisting of a big savannah with a dense of population of animals. This picture was totally spoiled as I came there, because instead of a savannah there were only some roads through a landscape characterized by a lot of trees and bushes. This had two consequences. Firstly, it was not to easy to discover the animals and when we have found them, the threes and the bushes covered them so that I could not see them clearly and after a while they could be hidden again. Secondly, there were no opportunities to drive close to the animals and really encounter them. It was only possible to drive on the roads and the animals were hardly close to the road.

Concerning animals I observed many of the animals I had expected, but I could never observe the series of the big five. Rhino and leopard lacked. I could only see lions once and they were then quite far away. If the lack of rhinos and leopards and the only single encounter of lions were just bad luck or an indication of not so many interesting animals in the park, I do not know for sure. However, I think that the case was the later and that is also what I heard, when I spoke to locals. I also had the opportunity to leave the vehicle and take a walk with an armed ranger along a water source connected to a river. It was a little bit exciting to walk in the park, because I never knew what would happen. At the same time, I felt safe and I felt that I could trust the ranger. By the river we saw one small crocodile and a hippo.

Concerning accommodation, I really liked the Kiliguni Serena Safari Lodge. The hotel has high standards and I had buffet for breakfast, lunch and supper. The food is good and I really liked the supper with its rich supply of different kinds of foods and desserts. One side of the dining room consisted of a big balcony, from which I could observe animals from my table as the same time having my dinner. Quite close to the balcony there is a little water source and animals came there to drink. My best experience of the trip was at supper, when approximately ten elephants of different sizes came to drink. At one side of the source there is a spotlight, so that it was possible to the see the elephants in action. This is a memory that I never will forget.

To summarize, the trip had some highlights, but I also visited another National Park in Kenya, namely Masai Mara and Tsavo West does not due to its landscape offer the what I expected in terms of encountering of animals and my purpose of going there was of course to do that. If the choice was between Tsavo West and Masai Mara I would definitely chose Masai Mara. So, if somebody planning to go to Tsavo West I would recommend to evaluate the options of parks.

Africa's last remaining jewel

Breathtaking landscapes, but shy wildlife due to infamous history of poaching. Despite that fact we saw many animals, one needs to be patient. Ngulia Safari Lodge offers a magical view of the families of elephants, buffalo bathing in a floodlit water holes and of course a famous Leopard dinning tree, an awesome eye to eye experience. As a regular traveler to Kenya and a member of Kenya Museum Society, I get to meet a lot of guides, but I would like to highlight two names: Collins Okello Japesa and Stanley A. Komoras, best guides ever.

Where the "wild west" takes on new meaning

The smaller and quieter of the two Tsavo parks, Tsavo West fits that old cliché: it really is an undiscovered gem. “Undiscovered” because, although together with Tsavo East it forms part of Kenya’s biggest park, Tsavo West seems to enjoy far fewer visitors than its larger cousin, and a drive through the park, particularly the further west you go, will have you believing you’re the only people for hundreds and hundreds of kilometres.
If you head to the far south-eastern border of the park, where Kenya meets Tanzania, you’ll find yourself in a very remote area on the shore of Lake Jipe. There is an abundance of wildlife in this area, and we saw huge herds of waterbuck, eland, gemsbok, elephants, and troops of baboons.
There is a camp site and bandas on the shore of the lake. We camped alongside a large herd of waterbuck; had hippo grazing past our tent in the evening, and woke in the morning to views of Kilimanjaro. A short drive along the lake, where we breakfasted on top of our Land Cruiser, we spent more than an hour watching a herd of elephants moving over to an island in the lake.
Within an hour, this park had become one of my favourites in all of Africa.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.