Amboseli National Park

Typical early morning and late afternoon game drives are offered in Amboseli National Park. The animals – particularly the big cats – are at their most active in the early hours of the morning, before the sun rises and the temperature starts to rise. This is why game drives start around 6am so that you have the best opportunity to see them. This is also the same reason as to why the afternoon game drives start around 3-4pm. The middle of the day is usually the hottest and the animals are at their least active, so game drives during this time are unproductive. Along with game drives, the safari camps in Amboseli National Park also offer bush walks, community visits, cycling, and walking experiences.

We’d recommend a minimum of three nights on safari in Amboseli National Park. It’s possible to drive to the park from Nairobi, which we can arrange in a private 4×4 safari vehicle with a private driver/guide. This is approximately a 4-hour drive, but there are also airstrips in Amboseli which offer a much more direct route into the park. If you are combing Amboseli National Park with other safari destinations, such as the Masai Mara National Reserve, I’d recommend a split of 3 nights in each. This gives you a good amount of time to enjoy the game viewing activities on offer.

Amboseli National Park is made up of a variety of landscapes including vast, open savannahs, dry and arid plains, and more bushy swamps. These diverse landscapes are home to a range of animals – from huge elephant herds to coalitions of cheetahs. While the park is not home to the Big Five (there are no rhino here), the park has an exceptional reputation for elephant numbers, big cat sightings, and birdlife. The park is also regarded as the best destination for views across Africa’s largest mountain – Mount Kilimanjaro.

There are a handful of safari camps we recommend in Amboseli National Park. Some luxury safari camps are part of a larger portfolio of camps in Kenya, which helps with combining destinations. For example, Tortilis Camp is part of the Elewana Collection, which has sister camps all across Kenya – the Masai Mara National Reserve, the Greater Mara Conservancies, the Laikipia Plateau, and the Kenyan coast to name a few. Combining sister camps and properties can be great value, so do let us know if you are looking to combine multiple destinations and we can curate a luxury trip for you.