Nairobi National Park

Nairobi National Park tickets and tours: which one to book

Nairobi National Park begins seven kilometres from the city centre, and it is the only place in the world where a game drive fits between a morning meeting and an afternoon flight, so almost everything sold for it is a half-day: a pick-up at the hotel or the airport at six, four hours in the park in a van or a 4×4 with a driver-guide, and a drop-off by eleven, or the same in the late afternoon. The park fee is paid by card at the gate and is usually quoted separately from the vehicle, so check whether a price includes it. The half-day tours that add the Giraffe Centre, the Sheldrick elephant orphanage at its public hour, the Karen Blixen museum or the Kazuri bead workshop are the standard Nairobi day and are convenient, since all of them lie on the park's western edge;

the full-day versions with lunch see the park at its quietest hours and are rarely worth the extra time in the vehicle. Shared group safaris in a minibus are the cheapest way in, private 4x4s with an open roof the most comfortable, and the budget dawn tours the best value. The Nairobi Safari Walk and the animal orphanage at the main gate are separate small tickets for a walk among enclosed animals. Independent visitors with a car can self-drive on the park's good roads, and a KWS ranger guide can be hired at the gate. The many multi-day safaris sold from Nairobi to Amboseli, the Mara and beyond are not tours of this park, only departures from the city.

Visiting Nairobi National Park: what you will see

The park was created in 1946, the first in Kenya, on the Athi plains south of the young city where the settlers had ridden among the game, and it covers about 117 square kilometres of open grassland, acacia scrub, a strip of upland forest and the Mbagathi river gorge, fenced on the three sides that face the city and open to the south towards the Kitengela plains, where the animals still migrate in the rains. Its wildlife is real: lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, eland, hartebeest, wildebeest, ostrich and both black and white rhino, of which the park has one of the most successful sanctuaries in the country, and more than 400 bird species in the dams and the forest; only elephants are absent.

What makes it unique is the backdrop, the skyline of the city rising behind the giraffes and the aircraft descending over the plains, and the sight of a rhino grazing against the towers of Upper Hill is the picture that every visitor takes. The Ivory Burning Site, where President Moi burned twelve tonnes of tusks in 1989, is a monument by the main gate, and the hippo pools at the southern end have a short walking trail with a ranger. The park's future is under pressure from the railway that crosses it on stilts, the roads and the settlements closing in on the southern corridor, and its keepers argue that the city has not yet swallowed it. It is small enough to cross in a morning and rich enough to give a real safari to people who will never reach the Mara.

Nairobi National Park: best time to go, seasons and hours

The gates open at 6 am and close at 7 pm, with the last entry at 6 pm. The dry months from July to October and from January to February bring the game from the Kitengela plains into the park for the water, and are the best for sightings; the long rains from March to May turn the tracks muddy and scatter the animals, and the short rains in November are green and fine. Dawn is the time for the cats and the light on the city; the middle of the day is empty. Weekends and public holidays bring Nairobi families. Allow four hours, or a half-day with the Giraffe Centre and the Sheldrick orphanage. Hell's Gate and Lake Naivasha are two hours north-west, and Amboseli four hours south.