Wildlife and skyline
Skyscrapers behind.
Alexmbogo — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Harshil Mehta — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Michelle Juma — CC BY-SA 4.0
Kenya's first national park, declared in 1946, and almost the only reserve in the world where you can watch lions, giraffes and rhinos with a capital city's skyscrapers behind them. Only a fence on one side separates the wild plains from Nairobi. Small as it is, the park holds more than a hundred mammal species, including one of Kenya's most successful black rhino sanctuaries, along with buffalo, zebras, antelopes, ostriches and cheetahs, and more than 400 bird species. The park also holds the Ivory Burning Site, where in 1989 Kenya burned tonnes of confiscated ivory as a message to the world against poaching, now a symbol of elephant protection. Beside the main gate is the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's elephant orphanage. The park is ideal if you have no time for a long safari: a morning half-day by vehicle with a guide is enough. The fee is USD 80 per non-resident adult since October 2025, per visitor guides.
Skyscrapers behind.
A symbol of protection.
Among Kenya's most successful.
About 7 km south of central Nairobi, main gate on Langata Road
A morning half-day by vehicle with a guide is enough to see most animals, and you can combine it with the elephant orphanage.