Lions live 20 minutes from the office blocks. That is only the first morning.
What a half day in Nairobi National Park costs. Whether Amboseli beats the Mara when you have one spare day. Which coast boat actually reaches Kisite. Reviews of every tour you can book in Kenya.
Half a morningNairobi National Park Half-Day Game Drivefrom $36
A long day southDay Tour to Amboseli National Park & Maasai Villagefrom $75
On the coastTusks, Fort Jesus, Old Town, Beach and City Tourfrom $30 A city walk, a giraffe at eye level, three days in the Mara, the Rift by bike.
The four bookings a first Kenyan trip tends to hang off. What each costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The first afternoonHistoric and Modern Highlights Walking TourTwo hours on foot through the old colonial core and the high-rise city that grew over it. The cheapest way to stop feeling new here.
02Eye level with a giraffeElephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center Tour with OptionsLangata in one run: the orphaned elephants at their feeding hour, then a Rothschild giraffe taking pellets off your palm.
03The Mara, properly3 Days, 2 Nights Maasai Mara Group SafariThree days and two nights on the reserve in a shared 4WD out of Nairobi. Long enough to be there at dawn, which is when it happens.
04Down in the RiftDay Trip: Hell’s Gate Bike Ride & Lake Naivasha Boat RideA bike through Hell’s Gate under the cliffs, then a boat among the Naivasha hippos. No vehicle between you and the country.
Four Kenyan parks, four completely different days. Pick by what you have got.
The difference between a $36 morning and a three-day safari is mostly driving. Here is what each park asks of your calendar, and what it costs to get through the gate.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1 Day trip to Hells Gate and Lake Naivasha From Nairobi
Nairobi National ParkHalf a morning. Lion and rhino with the skyline behind them.
Naivasha and Hell’s GateA long day out of the city. The one park you can cycle.
AmboseliDawn to dark. Elephant herds, and Kilimanjaro if the cloud lifts.
Masai MaraThree days minimum. The reserve that earns the drive.
All 115 park days →
Six Kenyan bases, and the best day out of each.
A capital with a national park on its doorstep, a coral-stone port, a south-coast reef strip, the reserve everyone flies in for, a flamingo lake and a quiet Swahili town up the coast. Pick where you sleep and the days follow.
Nairobi: a capital with lions on the school run.
Everything in Nairobi →
Nowhere else does a city of five million keep a national park inside its own boundary. Add the orphaned elephants at Langata, a walk through the streets the colonial city left behind, and you have three days before you leave for anywhere.
Half day in the park, or the full circuit
Lion, rhino and buffalo on open plain with the skyline behind them. The half day covers the park alone; the longer runs add Langata and are back in town by four.
The elephants, then the giraffes
The orphaned elephants are only open to visitors for about an hour late in the morning, so the day is built around it. The giraffe platform up the road runs all afternoon.
Kibera and the community walks
Guided by people who live there, with the income staying in the neighbourhood. Ask before photographing anyone. It is an ordinary place where a million people live, and the guides tell it straight.
What Kenya gives you when you only have a day.
The Mara needs nights and the coast needs a flight, but a single free day in Nairobi is not a wasted one. Everything below leaves after breakfast and has you back in the city by evening, and none of it involves a domestic departure gate.
The Kenyan days out more travellers book than any other.
Every Kenyan tour we have reviewed →The bookings that fill first across the whole country, what each one costs, and why it keeps selling.
1
Nairobi National Park Half-Day Tour; Free Wi-Fi connection
Start with hotel pickup, then spend four to five hours searching Nairobi National Park for rhinos, lions, giraffes, birds, and more. Guides such as Edwin, Peter, Lawrence, and William are praised for sharp animal spotting. The tour also includes bottled water, Wi-Fi, and a short Maasai Market stop, but park entry costs extra.
From · $45
Read our review →
2
National Park & Optional Elephants & Giraffe Center
from $80
3
NAI NAMI: Nairobi Storytelling Tour with Street Children
from $45
4
Nairobi National Park Half-Day Game Drive
from $36
5
Historic and Modern Highlights Walking Tour
from $23
6
Safari Tour; Nairobi National Park
from $43
7
3 Days Masai Mara Group Joining
from $540
8
Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center Tour with Options
from $35
The Masai Mara is worth the nights it costs you.
It is five to six hours from Nairobi on a road that turns to dirt for the last stretch, which is why the honest trips are three days rather than one. From July the wildebeest are usually somewhere on the reserve and the Mara River crossings start; the cats are there the whole year.
Every Mara safari →
Naivasha and Nakuru are the day trips that do not need a flight.
Two hours out of Nairobi the ground drops into the Rift Valley and the lakes start. Naivasha has hippos and a national park next door you are allowed to walk and cycle in; Nakuru has rhino and, when the water is right, flamingo along the shoreline.
- 11 Day trip to Hells Gate and Lake Naivasha From Nairobifrom $110
- 2Day Trip: Hell’s Gate Bike Ride & Lake Naivasha Boat Ridefrom $34
- 35 Days Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru & Naivasha Budget Joining Safarifrom $810
The Kenyan coast is a different holiday from the safari.
Coral-stone streets in Mombasa, a reef an hour south at Kisite where the dolphins are resident, dhows that still sail rather than motor, and Tsavo close enough behind the beach for an overnight. Most people bolt three coast days onto a safari; the ones who plan it the other way round tend to come back.
What a day out in Kenya actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A surprising share of the best Kenyan mornings cost less than the taxi to the airport.
City walks, the Langata animals, coffee and tea farms, and the half day in Nairobi National Park.
Full days out of Nairobi or the coast: Amboseli, Hell’s Gate, the Kisite reef boats, Mombasa city days.
The multi-day safaris. Mara, Nakuru, Tsavo and Amboseli with nights, transport and park fees attached.
- 13 Days Masai Mara Group Joiningfrom $540
- 23 Days, 2 Nights Maasai Mara Group Safarifrom $199
- 3Tour: Giraffe Center and Nairobi National Parkfrom $176
Three things that only happen in Kenya.
Plenty of countries have game parks and a beach. A river crossing on the Mara, an orphan elephant nursery that opens for one hour a day, and a national park you are allowed to cycle through are Kenyan alone.
The Mara River crossings
Wildebeest and zebra move up from the Serengeti in their hundreds of thousands and have to get across the Mara River, where the crocodiles are waiting. Nobody can promise you a crossing on a given morning; the herds decide, sometimes after hours of milling on the bank. Guides work the known crossing points and wait. When it goes, it is the loudest thing you will see in Africa.
- 13 Days Masai Mara Group Joining★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 486 reviews
- 23 Days, 2 Nights Maasai Mara Group Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 394 reviews
- 35 Days Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru & Naivasha Budget Joining Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 229 reviews
The orphaned elephants at Langata
The nursery takes in calves whose mothers were lost to poaching or drought, raises them on formula and walks them back into Tsavo years later. Visitors are let in for roughly an hour in the late morning while the calves are fed and mud-bathed, and that window is the whole reason the Nairobi day is built the way it is. Keepers sleep in the stables with them.
- 1National Park & Optional Elephants & Giraffe Center★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 874 reviews
- 2Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center Tour with Options★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 457 reviews
- 3Nairobi National Park, Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Centre★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 365 reviews
Cycling through Hell’s Gate
Almost everywhere in Kenya you see the country through a windscreen. Hell’s Gate is the exception: no big cats to speak of, so you can hire a bike at the gate and ride in past zebra and giraffe to the gorge, then walk down into it between red rock walls with the steam of the geothermal field drifting over the ridge.
- 11 Day trip to Hells Gate and Lake Naivasha From Nairobi★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 332 reviews
- 2Day Trip: Hell’s Gate Bike Ride & Lake Naivasha Boat Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 251 reviews
- 35 Days Masai Mara, Lake Nakuru & Naivasha Budget Joining Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 229 reviews
Elephants, giraffes and the streets in between.
The half-day bookings that fill a Nairobi stay around the park: an hour at the elephant nursery, a giraffe at eye level, a guided walk through the city or the neighbourhoods the guidebooks skip.
Four Kenyan bookings that will not wait until you land.
Most of this country can be arranged the evening before over a beer. These four run on feeding hours, tides, migration months and a fixed number of seats.
- 013 Days Masai Mara Group JoiningFrom July to October the reserve is at its busiest and the shared 4WD departures fill weeks out. The camps go first, and the road in takes most of a day.
- 02Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center Tour with OptionsThe nursery opens to visitors for about an hour in the late morning and numbers are capped. Miss the window and there is no second one that day.
- 03Dhow Adventure to Wasini Island & Kisite Marine ParkThe dhow days out to Kisite sail on the tide, one departure a morning, and the boats are small. Rough weather cancels them outright.
- 04Hot Air Balloon Safari & Champagne BreakfastSmall-group departures with fixed seat counts and an early start, usually confirmed days rather than hours ahead.
Nairobi, the Rift, the Mara, then the ocean: the run most first trips end up making.
Nakuru
Mombasa
Diani BeachBy place - city, reserve and coast
By kind of day - park, plain, reef or street
The newest Kenyan tour reviews.
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Hop on Hop off and Maasai market Collections Visit
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Hidden Gems and Local Secret Guided Walking Tour
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E-Bike/Cycling Wildlife Safari with Transfer & meal
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Nairobi Giraffe Center Tour with Karen Blixen & Kobe Beads”
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Giraffe Center, Elephant Orphanage, and Beads Tour
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Giraffe Center, Elephant Orphanage and Bomas Tour
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Giraffe Center, Beads Factory & Bomas of Kenya Tour
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