Amboseli National Reserve 

Overview: 

The land of the Giants – Amboseli is home to one of the most icon­ic scener­ies across the whole of Africa, with this stun­ning­ly beau­ti­ful park lying against the back­drop of the mighty Kil­i­man­jaro – and offer­ing the unique chance to both view and cap­ture unique mem­o­ries of African Wildlife against the tow­er­ing peak undoubt­ed­ly being the quin­tes­sen­tial rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Africa. Along­side this breath-tak­ing image, Amboseli Nation­al Reserve is a unique won­der in its own right – with the Nation­al Park stretch­ing 392 Kilo­me­tres across the plains of Kenya and being com­posed of five wildlife habi­tats – aca­cia wood­land, marsh­land, rocky bush, plains and swamps – which are home to more than 800 dif­fer­ent mam­mal species and 400 bird species – mak­ing Amboseli Nation­al reserve a true haven for wildlife and an undoubt­ed won­der of the world.  

Tak­ing its ‘Land of the Giants’ name from the thou­sands of giant herds of Ele­phants – and their mighty tusks – that roam the plain, Amboseli is one of the few East-African Land­scapes and parks that trav­el­ers can explore on a self-dri­ve and off road adven­ture, with the plains of Amboseli being open to both game dri­ve, walk­ing safaris, by boat and by air – mak­ing it tru­ly one of the great safari des­ti­na­tions on the plan­et.  

Home also to mem­bers of the Maa­sai com­mu­ni­ty – the wildlife of Amboseli are depen­dent on its vast nat­ur­al resources to flour­ish, none more so that the great lake basin of lake Amboseli — which is fed by an under­ground water sup­ply from the melt­ing peak of the neigh­bour­ing Kil­i­man­jaro.  

Despite this, droughts and floods do still remain a con­stant threat to both the ani­mals and beau­ty with­in this park, and this has been the case ever since the area was set aside as a reserve for the Maa­sai peo­ple in 1906 and estab­lished as a nation­al park in 1974, with con­stant mon­i­tor­ing and flood pro­tec­tions now in place to pre­serve its nat­ur­al beau­ty. Along­side these pro­tec­tions a strict poach­ing ban exists and is enforced across the park – which helps to pre­serve the life that calls these plains home.

Explore: While such a ban came too soon to main­tain and pre­serve the Rhino’s who wan­dered with­in Amboseli – who as a con­se­quence of both poach­ing and nat­ur­al rea­sons are sad­ly absent from this week or found in the near­by Tsa­vo West Nation­al Park mak­ing re-intro­duc­tion a pos­si­bil­i­ty – in addi­tion to the thou­sands of ele­phants who are known at times to roam the plains of Amboseli in herds of hun­dreds, you’ll find a pletho­ra of wildlife with­in Amboseli includ­ing Lions, Leop­ards, Buf­fa­lo, Giraffes, Zebra’s, Wilde­beests, Chee­tahs, Hye­nas,  Gazelles, mon­keys and curi­ous yel­low Baboons.  

You’ll also find swathes of wildlife grouped around Amboseli’s rivers, lakes, and swamps – includ­ing an array of Hippo’s and Croc­o­diles as well as hun­dreds of dif­fer­ent bird species ‑with the bright pink flamin­gos stand­ing tall as the most recog­nis­able and easy to spot amongst them. For the keen eyed you’ll also be able to spot an array of pel­i­cans, king­fish­ers and the mighty Goliath Herons – as well as a series of birds of prey includ­ing Eagles and Fal­cons who are known to glide over both the swamps and the plains in search of prey.  

A tru­ly mag­i­cal place – par­tic­u­lar­ly for Ele­phant spot­ting and research – with each Ele­phant is known to rangers and indi­vid­u­al­ly cod­ed and named – mak­ing a sight­ing of them par­tic­u­lar­ly against the back­drop of Kil­i­man­jaro all the more spe­cial, the mag­ic of Amboseli is also found in how trav­ellers can explore it, with this being one of the only East-African Parks that explore it both by them­selves dur­ing the day and night in a self-dri­ve vehi­cle and even go off road – allow­ing them to get extra close and have a more inti­mate expe­ri­ence with wildlife for an awe-inspir­ing expe­ri­ence.  

Amboseli is also a pho­tog­ra­phers par­adise – not just due to the icon­ic Ele­phant stand­ing tall against the back­drop of Kil­i­man­jaro shot – but also thanks to the incred­i­ble African Sun­sets you’ll wit­ness against the plains and a range of scenic vis­tas includ­ing the Sinet Delta, Lake Amboseli and the well named Obser­va­tion Hill – from where you can get an ariel view out over the park.  

These vis­tas are also at the heart of Amboseli’s mag­ic, with the spots becom­ing reli­able places to spot wildlife, with self-dri­ve or guid­ed safari’s spend­ing their time tra­vers­ing the vis­tas around the lake and the plains with almost guar­an­teed sight­ings. The lakes them­selves also allow for the unique expe­ri­ence of boat­ing across the waters of Amboseli – help­ing explor­ers get up close and per­son­al to the mag­ic life team­ing with­in team and observe first-hand the raw­ness of life in the African wilder­ness – as you watch croc­o­diles and birds of prey attack.  

For those who want to tru­ly immerse your­self in the beau­ty of Amboseli, we’d rec­om­mend stay­ing for a cou­ple of days, and you’ll find an array of incred­i­ble lodges spread through­out the park – where if you’re lucky you may find your­self wok­en by a curi­ous Ele­phant trekking out­side your win­dow. It’s from these lodges that many of the great hik­ing trails – that can be under­tak­en on foot or by horse or camel orig­i­nate from where you can get close – but not too close – to the great wildlife found across the plains of the Nation­al Park.  

A tru­ly mag­i­cal place, thanks to the incred­i­bly diverse eco-sys­tems that sus­tain the hun­dreds of dif­fer­ent and flour­ish­ing ani­mal species, the stun­ning scenery of Amboseli Nation­al Reserve and it’s year round guar­an­teed ani­mal pop­u­la­tion also makes it one of the great­est places in the world to take to the skies in a hot air bal­loon safari – with the chance to soar over the plains of this great nation­al park at sun­rise and wit­ness heards of Ele­phants, Lions, Buf­fa­los, Hip­pos and Croc­o­diles below as you gen­tly glide towards the beau­ty of Kil­i­man­jaro with the ris­ing sun for com­pa­ny being tru­ly spe­cial and one of the undoubt­ed great ways to expe­ri­ence this true nat­ur­al par­adise and great won­der of the world.  

Where:

Con­sid­ered one of the great­est and diverse nation­al parks on the plan­et and famed for its stun­ning wildlife and diverse scenery, Amboseli Nation­al Park is found in the south­ern part of Kenya close to the bor­der of Tan­za­nia.  

Lying in the shad­ow of the mighty Moun­tain of Kil­i­man­jaro – which gives Amboseli its nat­ur­al water sup­ply from melt­ing ice, feeds into Amboseli lake and the Sinat Delta and of course con­tributes to its famed beau­ty and icon­ic views, trips to Amboseli are com­mon­ly com­bined with fur­ther safaris into the beau­ti­ful Serengeti in Tan­za­nia, the Tsa­vo east and west parks and the Masai Mara Game reserve fur­ther North with­in Kenya.  

Estab­lished in 1974 as a nation­al park – although home to the Masai peo­ple long before that, the park of Amboseli cov­ers 392 square kilo­me­tres and is often favoured as a day-trip for those short on time (although we’d rec­om­mend stay­ing longer) and with it lying just over 200 miles south of the Kenyan cap­i­tal of Nairo­bi, this stun­ning park and its many curi­ous, pho­to­genic and beau­ti­ful ani­mal inhab­i­tants, are eas­i­ly reached and explored.  

 Getting There: 

Despite rep­re­sent­ing true wilder­ness and one of the great nat­ur­al and diverse par­adis­es on the plan­et, it’s incred­i­bly easy to get to Amboseli Nation­al Park – with this jew­el of Kenya eas­i­ly reached by direct flight into the park, flight and road, by road or through a series of tour com­pa­nies from across East Africa.  

By Plane:

First off and the most eas­i­est and direct way to reach Amboseli – you’ll want to fly into the Kenyan capital’s air­port of Nairo­bi and the fan­tas­tic and well ser­viced Jomo Keny­at­ta Air­port (just expect to climb some stairs when you arrive) with the Jomo Air­port being ser­viced by a series of major inter­na­tion­al air­lines glob­al­ly and act­ing as a major hub for trav­el across East Africa.  

Once at Jomo air­port, you’ll then have the most direct option to take a flight to the Amboseli airstrip which lies with­in the nation­al park itself. This route – which is used also as the fly­ing doc­tor route in the case of emer­gen­cies – will require you to trans­fer from Jomo air­port to the pri­vate airstrip of Wil­son air­port – then board a pri­vate jet and final­ly make your way into Amboseli in style.  

A great option for those for whom mon­ey isn’t an issue – and cer­tain­ly a route that gives you an incred­i­ble view out over the plains of Amboseli on your approach – fly­ing direct­ly into Amboseli on your own pri­vate plane will stretch any bud­get, so for a more cost friend­ly and pop­u­lar way to get to this incred­i­ble park, we’d advise fly­ing into Jomo Air­port with­in Nairo­bi and then head­ing by road on a self-dri­ve trip to Amboseli.  

This route, which will see you have to self-dri­ve across Nairo­bi to the gates of Amboseli should only be under­tak­en in the day light and not by sin­gle female dri­vers and will cer­tain­ly test your patience and dri­ving abil­i­ties as you nav­i­gate the heavy Nairo­bi traf­fic and then head out on the main A104 or A109 high­ways towards the park – cov­er­ing the 200 miles in around four hours if traf­fic is on your side.  

Once at the park the main access if through the Naman­ga or Nairo­bi to Arusha road – which will take you into Tan­za­nia through the Serengeti if you con­tin­ue to fol­low it – and you will then have a choice of sev­er­al gates of the park through which to enter – with the Meshanani Gat being the most pop­u­lar and well devel­oped and rec­om­mend­ed for those trav­el­ling from Nairo­bi.  

Tour / Self-Drive:

For alter­na­tive access into the Amboseli Nation­al Park explor­ers have the option of trav­el­ling and approach­ing from the south, cross­ing the Tan­za­nia bor­der out of the main town of Arusha fol­low­ing a tour from the Ngoron­goro crater Crater and the Serengeti on the Tan­za­nia side of the bor­der. This route – which will see you explore two of the incred­i­ble nation­al parks of Tan­za­nia and no doubt encounter the big five, as well as pass through some increi­d­ble scenery, requires explor­ers to get them­selves to Arusha and from there take a dri­ve through the Nation­al Parks of Tan­za­nia even­tu­al­ly hit­ting the Arusha to Naori­boi high­way of A104 which will take you across the bor­der to the Amboseli gate of Olkelun­yi­et and from where you can enter the park.  

Along­side fly­ing into Amboseli or fly­ing into Nairo­bi and then self-dri­ving, there is of course the option of a series of guid­ed tours and safari’s that will com­plete­ly take the has­sle out of get­ting to Amboseli and nav­i­gat­ing the some­times-tricky Kenyan traf­fic. You can expect the major­i­ty of tours to leave from Nairo­bi – and you’ll find a series of day trip, mul­ti-day trips and extend­ed trips that com­bine the fab­u­lous won­der of Amboseli with some of the oth­er nat­ur­al high­lights in East Africa – includ­ing the plains of the Ser­gen­ti and Masai Mara parks.  

Getting Around: 

One of the undoubt­ed thrills of Amboseli – along­side see­ing and snap­ping the incred­i­ble wildlife and stun­ning scenery – is the free­dom to explore this nation­al park on a self-dri­ve tour, with explor­ers hav­ing the option to explore the park at their own pace in their own vehi­cle on a series of self-defined roads that allow you to tru­ly go off the beat­en track.  

While cau­tion and care should be exer­cised – and explor­ers are strong­ly encour­aged only to exit their vehi­cles at a designed point, the thrill of defin­ing your own Safari in Amboseli is like no oth­er, and for the absolute best expe­ri­ence we’d encour­age you to invest a lit­tle when pick­ing your rental car and at the very least make sure you get a car with work­ing AC and a sun­roof – to make your expe­ri­ence as enjoy­able as pos­si­ble.  

Along­side self-dri­ving – or explor­ing the park in a true safari car with an expert guide for those vis­it­ing Amboseli on a guid­ed tour, you’ll also find three oth­er incred­i­ble ways to explore the park – on foot, by boat and by air.  

First­ly, on foot – and Amboseli is one of the few parks that allows explor­ers to hike on foot on des­ig­nat­ed trail paths – with the walk­ing route up to the top of Obser­va­tion hill being one of the high­lights of any jour­ney through Amboseli from where you can see sweep­ing views out over the nation­al park and even encounter wildlife on your jour­ney to the sum­mit.  

Comb­ing these walks with night walks and safaris from lodges for those stay­ing overnight, dur­ing the wet sea­son there’s also the option to explore the wildlife and scenery of Lake Amboseli and the Sinat Delta by air­boat – trav­el­ling freely across the riv­er in search of some of the spec­tac­u­lar birdlife on the rivers, as well as the water dwelling ani­mals – such as hip­pos and croc­o­diles and enjoy­ing the thrill of the mam­mals of Amboseli com­ing to drink from the waters – with the heards of Ele­phants in par­tic­u­lar­ly known for their love of graz­ing by lake Amboseli – giv­ing you a tru­ly close up view of these incred­i­ble ani­mals.  

Final­ly, and one of the undoubt­ed best expe­ri­ences and a must do across Amboseli is to take to the skies and get an ariel view of this incred­i­ble park – wit­ness­ing the many beau­ti­ful Ele­phants and wildlife below you and tak­ing in the stun­ning scenery below you against the back­drop of Kil­i­man­jaro with the ris­ing African Sun. An expe­ri­ence that requires you to get up ear­ly – and be pre­pared for the cold con­di­tions of an African morn­ing and the occa­sion­al bump as you take off and land in your hot air bal­loon – the true and unique thrill of sail­ing over the beau­ti­ful plains of Amboseli look­ing down at the increi­d­ble scenery and life below you is unpar­al­leled and undoubt­ed­ly one of the most incred­i­ble ways to expe­ri­ence the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is Amboseli Nation­al Reserve.  

Best time to Visit: 

While Amboseli is open year-round from 6am to 6pm – and you can bank on depend­able weath­er at a warm 28 degrees dur­ing the day which will drop to a chill­i­er 10 degrees at night – the best time to vis­it is undoubt­ed­ly in the dry sea­son which runs from June to Sep­tem­ber whilst also includ­ing the months of Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary,  

Dur­ing these months you’ll find wildlife view­ing at an absolute pre­mi­um, with the thou­sands of wildlife with­in Amboseli depend­ably flock­ing to the water holes with­in the park fol­low­ing the rainy sea­son – and sight­ing of Ele­phants, Lions, Leop­ards, Hippo’s, Zebra’s and Giraffes almost guar­an­teed at the Sinet Delta, marsh­es and at the incred­i­ble Lake Amboseli.  

Com­bine this as well with almost clear skies – which makes Kil­i­man­jaro viewe­ing at a pre­mi­um with­in the park, and cer­tain­ly helps with pho­tog­ra­phy and vis­it­ing dur­ing the dry sea­son is undoubt­ed­ly when you’ll find Amboseli at its absolute best. 

Yet it is still pos­si­ble to go dur­ing the rainy sea­son, and for those who fan­cy an unpre­dictable adven­ture – with min­i­mal crowds and a chance to see the incred­i­ble scenery and five dif­fer­ing stun­ning­ly scenic wildlife habi­tats at their green­est and most beau­ti­ful then it may be worth con­sid­er­ing going dur­ing the months of Novem­ber – Decem­ber and March to June – which is also when you’ll find prices at their most afford­able – although for those vis­it­ing in April and May espe­cial­ly you’ll need to be pre­pared for com­plete­ly tor­ren­tial rains and areas of the park being washed out.  

There­fore, while you can vis­it in the wet sea­sons – for the absolute best expe­ri­ence at Amboseli and for the best chance of wildlife viewe­ing we’d advise vis­it­ing in the dry sea­son between the months of from June to Sep­tem­ber and Jan­u­ary to Feb­ru­ary. 

How long to stay:

Amboseli Nation­al reserve is billed as one of the great­est day trips on the plan­et – and while it cer­tain­ly lives up to the hype we’d rec­om­mend stay­ing for at least 2 days and 1 night – with the opti­mal time to stay undoubt­ed­ly being 3 days and 2 nights.  

For those who are lim­it­ed on time then it’s pos­si­ble to explore this stun­ning park and the high­lights on a day trip from Nairo­bi – with pack­ages avail­able to pick you up from both the city cen­tre and air­port ear­ly in the morn­ing – and then see you take on the 4 hour dri­ve to Amboseli before hav­ing lunch and a game safari across the park before depart­ing in the late evening on your way back to Nairo­bi.  

Whilst this option will see you expe­ri­ence the won­der of Amboseli – you’ll have to get very lucky to see the four mem­bers of the big 5 that reside in Amboseli – and you’ll be miss­ing out on a hot air bal­loon expe­ri­ence over the plains and undoubt­ed­ly on snap­ping the icon­ic shot of an Ele­phant against Kil­i­man­jaro – mean­ing that your time at Amboseli will not be every­thing that it could be.  

It’s for this rea­son that we rec­om­mend a mul­ti-day expe­ri­ence at Amboseli – with the extra time that mul­ti­ple days with­in the park afford­ing you the chance to tru­ly see the best of this incred­i­ble won­der and its habi­tant – allow­ing you more oppor­tu­ni­ties to spot the incred­i­ble wildlife with­in the park includ­ing the four of the big five and the Giraffes, Hip­pos, Zebra’s, Wilde­beest, croc­o­diles, Hye­nas – and a range of bird life across the Sinet Delta and  Amboseli lake as well as explore the five dif­fer­ing stun­ning­ly scenic wildlife habi­tats; aca­cia wood­land, marsh­land, plains, rocky thorn bush and wood­land for a mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence.  

Com­bin­ing this with the chance to see at least one sun­set and sun­rise with­in Amboseli – and the thrill of a hot air bal­loon against the back­drop of Kil­i­man­jaro – and by spend­ing at least 2 days 1 night – but prefer­ably 3 days and 2 nights – you’re guar­an­teed to get the absolute best of this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

Top Tip:

One of the world’s most stun­ning nat­ur­al won­ders – that affords trav­ellers not only a chance to see both the big five and oth­er incred­i­ble African wildlife across five stun­ning diverse habi­tats, but also offers one of the great­est and most icon­ic pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties on the plan­et – trav­el­ling across the plains of Amboseli is a breath-tak­ing and awe-inspir­ing adven­ture that leaves explor­ers in true won­der at the beau­ty of this stun­ning nat­ur­al reserve.  

Ful­ly explorable in a range of ways – both in the air, on foot, across the waters – and unique­ly on a self-dri­ve off road Safari – Amboseli is a true nat­ur­al par­adise. Yet this stun­ning park also comes with it a series of poten­tial risks that have the poten­tial to tru­ly take the shine off your adven­ture – not least among them the risk of Malar­ia and Yel­low Fever and stay­ing safe across Kenya.  

Com­bine these health risks with ever chang­ing tem­per­a­tures dur­ing the day, the unpre­dictabil­i­ty of ani­mals and of course the need to ensure that any self-dri­ve Safari to Amboseli is con­duct­ed safe­ly and there’s a lot to con­sid­er to ensure that your jour­ney to this incred­i­ble par­adise is as enjoy­able and safe as pos­si­ble.  

So, to help make sure all goes well when explor­ing Amboseli and that you get the absolute best out of this stun­ning reserve while encoun­ter­ing as many of its res­i­dents as pos­si­ble, we’ve round­ed out our tips for vis­it­ing Amboseli Nat­ur­al Reserve: 

- Getting There: Visa, Health & Cash:

While Amboseli Nation­al Reserve is eas­i­ly accessed and found, you’ll need to ensure you’ve tak­en care of a cou­ple of admin and health fac­tors before set­ting off. First up is the visa – and you’ll find there’s con­flict­ing advice across the web and on dif­fer­ent Gov­ern­ment sites about get­ting a visa and the require­ments.  

Hav­ing tak­en this route before – the eas­i­est option is to go for the visa on arrival – which despite the advice on some sites can be giv­en by immi­gra­tion offi­cers on arrival – and costs $15 USD for a 90 day stay in Kenya. As an alter­na­tive option we’d rec­om­mend con­sid­er opt­ing for the East Africa visa – which is avail­able on arrival in Rwan­da, Ugan­da and Kenya and which lets you trav­el in and out of the three stun­ning East African Coun­tries at your own pace with min­i­mal has­sle – with this being a great option for those who are plan­ning com­bin­ing their Safari in Kenya with Goril­la Watch­ing in either Rwan­da or Ugan­da.  

Mak­ing sure that your pass­port is with­in the six month expiry peri­od, trav­ellers head­ing to Amboseli will also need to make sure they come pre­pared with plen­ty of US Dol­lars in cash on hand – as you’ll find no ATM’s in the park – with our rec­om­men­da­tion being to bud­get $100 Usd in cash for each day, although for those stay­ing in the lux­u­ry camps, you’ll find that card pay­ment is avail­able although it might be hit and miss as to whether it will go through.  

Final­ly, it’s nec­es­sary also to make sure all your vac­ci­na­tions are u‑to-date before head­ing into East Africa – with Yel­low Fever an essen­tial require­ment for those enter­ing the region, and trav­ellers strong­ly rec­om­mend­ed to pick up some Malar­ia tablets before head­ing to Kenya to ensure their stay in this beau­ti­ful coun­ty is as healthy as pos­si­ble. 

Safety:

Along­side ensur­ing that you have the nec­es­sary paper­work and health require­ments to enter Kenya – we’d also encour­age you to trav­el to Amboseli with one eye on your safe­ty, not­ing that crime in Kenya and par­tic­u­lar­ly around the areas of Nairo­bi is unfor­tu­nate­ly com­mon and can range from pick­pock­et­ing to car­jack­ing, kid­nap­ping and even vio­lent inci­dents lead­ing to death.  

Because of this it is essen­tial that trav­ellers take extra care when trav­el­ling in Kenya – first­ly by ensur­ing that they have appro­pri­ate trans­fers lined up at the Jomo air­port when they arrive into Kenya and then by ensur­ing they fol­low basic safe­ty tips when in the coun­try – such as keep­ing doors locked, hid­ing valu­ables, declin­ing offers of assis­tance and espe­cial­ly not trav­el­ling at night – which is espe­cial­ly impor­tant for solo trav­ellers and females.  

It’s also essen­tial that any­one doing a self-dri­ve Safari to Amboseli comes in an appro­pri­ate vehi­cle that has been well ser­viced, and sticks to the basic rules of Safari – which include not dri­ving too close to ani­mals, not exit­ing the car in any pro­hib­it­ed area and not doing any­thing that could ruin the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment of Amboseli – with those who find them­selves in crash­es sub­ject to heavy fines from the Amboseli rangers and those who in any way inter­fere with the ani­mals and envi­ron­ment sub­ject to both fines and poten­tial jail sen­tences. 

Length of Stay & Lodges:

While Amboseli Nation­al Park is often adver­tised as one of the great­est day trips on the plan­et – and cer­tain­ly lives up to that rep­u­ta­tion with the stun­ning wildlife that call the park home and view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, to get the absolute best out of this park – and to hope­ful­ly snap that icon­ic pho­to of an Ele­phant against the back­drop of Kil­i­man­jaro we’d strong­ly advise bud­get­ing at least 2 days 1 night – if not longer to explore all that this stun­ning park has to offer.  

Extend­ing your stay will not only see you get the chance to spot more of the incred­i­ble wildlife that roam the plains of Amboseli but also give you the chance to take a hot air bal­loon safari over Amboseli – tak­ing on the true buck­et list expe­ri­ence of watch­ing the sun rise over Amboseli as you drift towards Kil­i­man­jaro – to get the absolute best out of your expe­ri­ence at this stun­ning won­der. For those who do choose to stay at least one extra night at Amboseli be sure to stay at one of the many tent­ed camps around Amboseli – where you can enjoy hot food and show­ers in a warm bed while look­ing out over the incred­i­ble vis­tas of Amboseli – for a tru­ly stun­ning expe­ri­ence.  

 What to Bring & the Rainy Season:

While the weath­er in Amboseli stays con­stant over the year – you can expect the rainy sea­son – which occurs between Octo­ber to May (although Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary are good to vis­it) to see lim­it­ed oppor­tu­ni­ties for wildlife view­ing and chal­leng­ing con­di­tions for self-dri­ve vehi­cles as a result of con­stant long rains – so we’d advise vis­it­ing dur­ing these times.  

For those who do vis­it Amboseli at any point of the year – you’ll need to come pre­pared for dry weath­er and in par­tic­u­lar­ly cold nights and morn­ings, with the drop­ping of tem­per­a­tures being some­thing that has the poten­tial to catch explor­ers out and take the shine off their vis­it to Amboseli. For this rea­son we rec­om­mend brin­ing a good jumper and hood­ie, as well as some long safari style trousers for the night time and cool­er weath­er, and a cou­ple of t‑shirts, shorts and a long sleeve loose fit­ting jumper for the warmer days. Be sure to twin this with a good hat, sun­glass­es and plen­ty of sun­screen to pro­tect against the ris­ing African Sun – and to make the absolute most of your time at Amboseli – we’d also advise bring­ing a good set of binoc­u­lars and a cam­era capa­ble of catch­ing shots from long dis­tance  — to ensure you go home with incred­i­ble mem­o­ries of the won­ders of Amboseli Nation­al reserve.  

Hot Air Balloon Tour:

Final­ly, and as a rec­om­men­da­tion to get the absolute best out of Amboseli – we’d real­ly rec­om­mend tak­ing on a hot air bal­loon Safari – with the thrill of soar­ing above the incred­i­ble plains of this stun­ning nature reserve and it’s reflec­tive lakes and delta as you drift towards Kil­i­man­jaro whilst spot­ting ani­mals below you – being undoubt­ed­ly one of the great­est ways to explore, appre­ci­ate and great incred­i­ble pho­tos of this stun­ning reserve. 

An expe­ri­ence that you will like­ly have to bud­get for – as hot air bal­loons start from $500 Usd  a head – and one that requires you to get up ear­ly, as the bal­loons start at the same time as sun­rise – the thrill of glid­ing over the plains and look­ing down at herds of Ele­phants espe­cial­ly is one of the tru­ly great expe­ri­ences and best ways to see Amboseli – and is an expe­ri­ence we’d real­ly rec­om­mend to enjoy this stun­ning won­der of the world.

Cost:

Both eas­i­ly acces­si­ble and eas­i­ly found, the beau­ty of Amboseli Nation­al Park and explor­ing the incred­i­ble five dif­fer­ent eco­log­i­cal habi­tat and the thou­sands of res­i­dents that lie with­in it is also incred­i­bly afford­able – with the parks options of doing self-dri­ve Safari’s mak­ing it one of the most unique, fun and bud­get friend­ly safari parks across the whole of both East Africa and on the plan­et.  

Get­ting there & Self Dri­ve: Start­ing with what will be the major cost for most explor­ers – and get­ting to Kenya, the air­port of Jomo Keny­at­ta Air­port is well ser­viced from across plan­et, with those with­in Africa encour­aged to bud­get at least $300 Usd to get into the air­port, and those com­ing from out­side Africa advised to bud­get at least $1000 Usd on trav­el expens­es – with those on short bud­gets rec­om­mend­ed to take a longer ari­al route into Kenya – with flights that pass through India but which take an extend­ed amount of time a great way to cut back on costs.  

For those who are com­bin­ing a vis­it to Amboseli with a trip into any of the oth­er incred­i­ble coun­tries across East Africa – and par­tic­u­lar­ly Rwan­da, Ugan­da or Tan­za­nia – there is also the option to get a bus direct­ly into Nairo­bi which can cost as lit­tle as $5 Usd and rep­re­sents a great to cut back on costs if being a lit­tle bumpy.  

Hav­ing got your­self into Kenya and Nairo­bi – and account­ed for the $15 Usd for the Visa – the next expense will come down to how you choose to get to Amboseli and begin explor­ing the park. For those on a hefty bud­get and short on time who want to arrive in style, then one glam­orous option will be to char­ter a pri­vate plane direct­ly into the airstrip of Amboseli – which will set you back a few thou­sand dol­lars at least.  

For those with­out access to a pri­vate plane and want to keep their costs down as much as pos­si­ble then a self-dri­ve Safari into Amboseli will be the best option – and you’ll find a range of rental options at the air­port and with­in Nairo­bi or Arusha that can take you to the plains of Amboseli.  

We’d strong­ly advise get­ting a 4 x4 car when rent­ing and being sure to take it steady when nav­i­gat­ing the bumpy roads towards Amboseli. But account­ing for car hire, petrol (jer­ry cans are a must as petrol is lim­it­ed with­in the park) and insur­ance you can expect to pay around $100 Usd a day for your trip to Amboseli – which giv­en there’s the option to both self-dri­ve round the park and go off road with­in it is an incred­i­bly afford­able and enjoy­able way to explore the park.  

By Tour: For those who don’t fan­cy self-dri­ving to Amboseli – and want to ensure they get the best expe­ri­ence of this stun­ning park with an expert guide to point out the incred­i­ble wildlife before them with no wor­ries about the dri­ving con­di­tions on the Kenyan roads, then a guid­ed tour will undoubt­ed­ly be the best option – and there’s a range of options avail­able to suit trav­ellers on all bud­gets and time scales.  

Start­ing with the day trips of Amboseli – and undoubt­ed­ly this stun­ning park is one of the great­est day trips on the plan­et – you can get a one day Amboseli nation­al park tour for as lit­tle as $150 and ris­ing to $300 Usd – with these trips leav­ing from either Jomo air­port or Nairo­bi and show­ing you the high­lights of the park and typ­i­cal­ly fea­tur­ing a long dri­ve from Nairo­bi into Amboseli and then a game dri­ve before retun­ing late at night.  

While a one-day trip to Amboseli will undoubt­ed­ly be mag­i­cal – and is a great option for the bud­get con­scious trav­eller, we’d real­ly rec­om­mend spend­ing either 2 days and 1 night or 3 days and 2 nights at Amboseli to expe­ri­ence all that this incred­i­ble park has to offer – includ­ing mul­ti­ple game dri­ves afford­ing you a chance to spot all of the stun­ning wildlife with­in the park, wit­ness­ing a stun­ning African sun­rise and sun­set, under­tak­ing a hot air bal­loon ride and even giv­ing your­self a chance to snap the icon­ic pho­to at Amboseli.  

 For those who opt for this expe­ri­ence on a guid­ed tour you should expect to pay between $200 Usd to $450 Usd for a shared tour and $400 to $800 Usd for a pri­vate tour – with the tours includ­ing all food and also accom­mo­da­tion in one of the park lodges – and we’d encour­age you to do your research before set­tling on a guid­ed tour of Amboseli.  

Avail­able also as an option on an extend­ed tour across the East African Safari parks – which include the Serengeti, the Maa­sai Mara, the Ngoron­goro Crater and the Tsa­vo Parks – which can stretch from a week to 21 days in length and vary in price from $1000 usd to $5500 Usd – there tru­ly is a tour and bud­get for every­one vis­it­ing Amboseli – mak­ing this stun­ning park tru­ly afford­able.  

Whichev­er way you choose to get to Amboseli – either on a self-dri­ve or guid­ed tour – you’ll have to pay the entrance fees to access the park, with the fees being pay­ing on the gate and cur­rent­ly being set at $60 Usd a day – although being known to be sub­ject to chance at ran­dom inter­vals.  

Acco­mo­da­tion: For those stay­ing for more than one day at Amboseli – which is some­thing we’d real­ly rec­om­mend, then tak­ing to the skies above the plains in a hot air bal­loon tour and look­ing down at the herds of ele­phants and ani­mals below you as you watch the ris­ing African sun come up to greet you and you slow­ly drift towards Kil­i­man­jaro is one of the undoubt­ed great expe­ri­ences at this won­der of the world. So for those for­tu­nate enough to be at Amboseli for more than one day we’d real­ly sug­gest putting aside $500 Usd per per­son and book­ing a hot air bal­loon over this incred­i­ble nation­al park – for an expe­ri­ence that is tru­ly breath-tak­ing.  

Fac­tor­ing in $100 Usd for food and guide tips – as well as sou­venirs – and vis­it­ing Amboseli for those com­ing from Africa can be achieved for as lit­tle as $250 Usd for a one day self-guid­ed tour and can range up to $8000 Usd for those com­ing from a far into Kenya and then embark­ing on an extend­ed Safari.  

But for our rec­om­men­da­tion of vis­it­ing for 3 days and 2 nights on a self-guid­ed tour includ­ing a hot-air bal­loon tour, accom­mo­da­tion, meals and gifts – we’d advise set­ting aside $1500 Usd for the total of your trip not includ­ing flights into Kenya to vis­it the incred­i­ble won­der of the world of Amboseli Nation­al Park.  

Fun Fact: 

Con­sid­ered one of the largest East-African Safari Parks, the depend­able wildlife with­in Amboseli – where you’ll find almost 100 dif­fer­ent mam­mal species and more than 400 dif­fer­ent bird species – has made it one of the most spec­tac­u­lar and reli­able parks on the plan­et for wildlife spot­ting.  

This is helped in no small part to the five dif­fer­ent habi­tats found across the park (aca­cia wood­land, marsh­land, plains, rocky thorn bush and wood­land) which cre­ate not only stun­ning scenery but which are also home to the Maa­sai peo­ple, who can be fre­quent­ly seen across the park thanks to their bright red cloth­ing and sticks.  

It is in pro­tec­tions of the Maa­sai that the land that encom­pass­es Amboseli was cut from 8,000 square kilo­me­tres down to the cur­rent length of 392, to ensure the tribes sur­vival and pro­tec­tion of their her­itage, with the name Amboseli even derived from the Maa­sai lan­guage mean­ing ‘salty dusty place’ which accu­rate­ly describes the plains of Amboseli.  

Along­side this, the more than thou­sand ele­phants that roam the lands of Amboseli – and are often seen in herds of 100’s – are, some­what remark­ably, indi­vid­u­al­ly known and tracked by researchers – with Amboseli being one of the great­est places on the plan­et for Ele­phant Research with the habits of the more than 60 fam­i­lies and 300 inde­pen­dent adult males who have sep­a­rat­ed from herds being stud­ied and offer­ing a fas­ci­nat­ing insight into the lives of these gen­tle giants.  

A spec­tac­u­lar park, that – with the excep­tion of infre­quent droughts — flour­ish­es thanks to the abun­dance of water flow­ing down from the peak of Kil­i­man­jaro, Amboseli is also unique in that it’s one of the only East-African Safari parks that allows for both self-dri­ving, off road dri­ving and even walk­ing safaris – which allows for explor­ers to both get up close and per­son­al to wildlife – and snap stun­ning pho­tos – with the quin­tes­sen­tial and icon­ic heart of Africa – the shot of an Ele­phant against the back­drop of Kil­i­man­jaro found in the beau­ti­ful and incred­i­bly scenic won­der of the world that is Amboseli Nation­al Park. 

 Top Sights & Best photo spot: 

A nat­ur­al par­adise – the scenic beau­ty of Amboseli is a true pho­tog­ra­phers dream – with the diverse eco-sys­tem com­posed of five dif­fer­ing stun­ning­ly scenic wildlife habi­tats; aca­cia wood­land, marsh­land, plains, rocky thorn bush and wood­land lend­ing itself to a flour­ish­ing and depend­able envi­ron­ment in which to spot and cap­ture more than 80 mam­mal species and hun­dreds of bird species – for some of the best wildlife pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ties on the plan­et in some of the world’s best beau­ti­ful scenery.  

Cou­ple this incred­i­ble wildlife oppor­tu­ni­ty with dra­mat­ic sun­ris­es – snapped from both the ground and in a hot air bal­loon – glow­ing African Sun­sets and some of the clear­est night-time con­stel­la­tion and star view­ing across the con­ti­nent and along­side wildlife pho­tog­ra­phy, Amboseli offers a unique chance to cap­ture the best and mag­ic of Africa’s nat­ur­al won­ders.  

Home also to the icon­ic pho­to of Africa – the chance to cap­ture one of the thou­sands of Amboseli Ele­phants grace­ful­ly march­ing against the back­drop of the snow-capped peak of Kil­i­man­jaro – which is tru­ly spe­cial and one of the worlds great­est pho­to­graph oppor­tu­ni­ties – and the won­der of Amboseli Nation­al Reserve is an undoubt­ed par­adise for pho­tog­ra­phers.  

With shots of the stun­ning wildlife – includ­ing the four of the big five and the Giraffes, Hip­pos, Zebra’s, Wilde­beest, croc­o­diles, Hye­nas – and a range of birds of prey that call this nation­al park home down to a lit­tle bit of luck and the ani­mals them­selves, cap­tur­ing the best of Amboseli can be chal­leng­ing and requires and immense amount of patience. So, to make things a lit­tle eas­i­er we’ve round­ed out some of our top pho­tog­ra­phy rec­om­men­da­tions and spots to help you cap­ture the absolute best of Amboseli and its res­i­dents: 

The Land of the Giants:

Chief amongst the most spe­cial wildlife pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ties are undoubt­ed­ly those pro­vid­ed by the great herds of Ele­phants – who have come to sym­bol­ise the wildlife par­a­site of Amboseli. In fact, so vast are the Ele­phants in this nation­al park – who are believed to be in the thou­sands in num­bers and can trav­el in great herds of up to a hun­dred – that Amboseli has earned a rep­u­ta­tion as one of the great spots on the plan­ets to cap­ture pho­tos of Ele­phants – with each Ele­phant indi­vid­u­al­ly tracked and known to guides, afford­ing for incred­i­ble pho­tos of these gen­tle giants.  

Best found near water­ing holes – includ­ing the Lake of Amboseli – when bring­ing the cam­era be sure to take your time and patience when snap­ping them, as you’ll find that the younger ele­phants tend to cling close­ly to their par­ents, mak­ing cap­tur­ing a shot of them a lit­tle tricky. Yet with a lit­tle patience – and giv­en the guar­an­teed sight­ings of these majes­tic ani­mals at Amboseli, if you take your time then you can walk away from Amboseli with some tru­ly mag­i­cal pho­tographs of these African Ele­phants.  

Mammal Photography:

Along­side snap­ping the majes­tic Ele­phants – you’ll find fur­ther incred­i­ble wildlife pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ties across Amboseli – with three more the big five –  the buf­fa­lo, Lion and Leop­ard all fre­quent­ly vis­i­ble through­out the park – help­ing to make your safari across East Africa tru­ly spe­cial. Be sure also to bide your time and grab snaps of giraffes, hip­pos, zebras, wilde­beest, chee­tahs, warthogs, croc­o­diles and hye­nas – with the hye­nas in par­tic­u­lar­ly known to be incred­i­bly active in hunt­ing – pro­vid­ing raw wildlife nat­ur­al shots.  

While you’ll find the more than 40 mam­mal ani­mal species that call Amboseli home across the park – we’d rec­om­mend head­ing for both the Sinet Delta and the Lake Amboseli for incred­i­ble snaps, where not only can you see croc­o­diles attack­ing their prey but with both the lake and delta – thanks to its nat­ur­al water sup­ply – being a fan­tas­tic spot to snap pho­tos of both the three of the big five roam­ing Amboseli and the larg­er ani­mals that call this park home – with pho­tos of the ani­mals roam­ing the lakes being one of the tru­ly great shots of African Mam­mal life on the plan­et.  

Bird Photography:

Amboseli is not just a par­adise for mam­mal pho­tog­ra­phy, but is also one of the worlds pre­mier pho­tog­ra­phy des­ti­na­tions for birdlife, with the diverse scenery – par­tic­u­lar­ly the wood­lands – comb­ing with the Sinet Delta and Amboseli Lake – mak­ing the area a bird sanc­tu­ary, and see­ing it home to more than 400 dif­fer­ent species of birds.  

Chief among these – and those which in our view are the most pho­to­genic are the colour­ful – are the large num­ber of Flamin­gos you’ll find at the lakes, as well as the mighty Goliath Heron, flocks of Pel­i­cans, Crowned cranes, Love Birds  — and flocks of Ostrich­es both sip­ping from the lakes and roam­ing freely across the plains. Cou­ple this with flocks of birds of prey – includ­ing eagles and vul­tures – and you’ll find your­self in a true bird­ing par­adise.  

Best pho­tographed in our view at sun­rise or sun­set – when you can cap­ture the majes­tic birds tak­ing flight against the back­drop of the glow­ing African sun, Amboseli is one of the most spe­cial places on the plan­et to snap pho­tos of diverse and colour­ful birdlife and you’ll no doubt be leav­ing with a series of incred­i­ble pho­tos.  

Game Viewing Safari:

Our tip for snap­ping the best pho­tos of the mam­mal and bird life across Amboseli, under­tak­ing a game view­ing safari with a pro­fes­sion­al guide is a sure way to guar­an­tee that you get incred­i­ble snaps – with the guides who oper­ate the view­ing safari hav­ing not only fan­tas­tic knowl­edge of the ani­mals with­in the park and able to brief you on the life before you – but also being able to advise on pho­tog­ra­phy tips and set­tings, which can be essen­tial when snap­ping ani­mals in the dis­tance and mak­ing sure you get the actions shot of the mam­mal and bird life.  

See­ing you fer­ry round in spe­cial safari jeeps – with open roofs, which can give you advan­ta­geous pho­tog­ra­phy angles when com­pared to self-dri­ving tours, Game view­ing dri­ves with­in Amboseli are extra spe­cial as it is one of the few parks across East Africa where you can go off-road – with the chance to go off road giv­ing pho­tog­ra­phers even more mag­i­cal shots as they get tru­ly up close and per­son­al to the stun­ning scenery and life with­in Amboseli. 

Observation Hill:

Famed for it’s incred­i­ble panoram­ic views – from which the stun­ning scenery and wildlife across Amboseli can be both viewed and snapped, the well name pyra­mid shaped view of Obser­va­tion hill with­in the park is a fan­tas­tic spot to grab mes­meris­ing pho­tos across Amboseli.  

The home also of walk­ing safaris with­in the park, which allow pho­tog­ra­phers to get tru­ly up close and per­son­al to wildlife – giv­ing chances to snap the res­i­dents of Amboseli tru­ly up close, the sum­mit of obser­va­tion hill is reached from a wind­ing and what can be a tough ascent – if made on foot and under the African Sun – but the views from the top are tru­ly breath-tak­ing as you stare over the mag­nif­i­cent vis­tas of Amboseli, spot­ting it’s incred­i­ble res­i­dents against the back­drop of Kil­i­man­jaro for some sim­ply stun­ning pho­tographs.  

Sun­rise and Sun­set with­in Amboseli

While the pho­tog­ra­phy focus with­in Amboseli nation­al park is under­stand­ably on snap­ping it’s incred­i­ble wildlife, lush scenery and of course hunt­ing the icon­ic pho­to of an ele­phant against the back­drop of Kil­i­man­jaro, Amboseli is also blessed with incred­i­ble African sun­ris­es and sun­sets – with both the ascend­ing and descend­ing events cast­ing incred­i­ble bright glow­ing orange shades over the plains of the nation­al park – which make for stun­ning pho­tog­ra­phy oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

Best seen in our view from either the top of Obser­va­tion Hill – where you can get an ele­vat­ed panoram­ic view of the spec­tac­u­lar events – or from the Sinet Delta where if you’re incred­i­bly lucky you might be able to snap a pho­to of an Ele­phant across the descend­ing sun at sun­set for a troy spe­cial pho­to — an African sun­rise or sun­set is tru­ly spe­cial in its own right, but wit­nessed and snapped against the stun­ning scenery and wildlife with­in Amboseli it’s tru­ly mag­i­cal and makes for some mes­meris­ing pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties.  

Sun­rise Hot Air Bal­loon Safari:

For an extra spe­cial expe­ri­ence and pho­to­graph oppor­tu­ni­ty, the views from the air of a hot air bal­loon safari across Amboseli are tru­ly stun­ning and afford some of the most beau­ti­ful pho­tographs any­where on the plan­et – as you set off at sun­rise and with the glow­ing African sun slow­ly ris­ing behind you, glide over the plains of Amboseli spot­ting herds of Ele­phants and wildlife below you while drift­ing clos­er to the mighty peak of Kil­i­man­jaro.  

A tru­ly stun­ning expe­ri­ence, the unique ari­al van­tage point of Amboseli in a hot air bal­loon affords explor­ers incred­i­ble pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties of all of Amboseli – with the Sinat delta and Amboseli lake being par­tic­u­lar­ly beau­ti­ful from above – and the chance to snap and spot typ­i­cal­ly cam­ou­flaged wildlife – includ­ing tree dwelling Lions – whilst also snap­ping fel­low bal­loon rid­ers against the ris­ing African sun – mak­ing a Hot Air Bal­loon Safari not only an incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence and one of the tru­ly great ways to see Amboseli – but also one of the best ways to snap this beau­ti­ful won­der of the world.  

The Iconic Amboseli photo:

Final­ly no pho­tog­ra­phy jour­ney to Amboseli would be com­plete with­out attempt­ing to snap not only the icon­ic Amboseli Nation­al Park pho­to – but one of the most icon­ic pho­tos of the plan­et that rep­re­sents the best of Africa – the shot of an Ele­phant grace­ful­ly approach­ing you against the back­drop of Kil­i­man­jaro.  

A tough pho­to­graph to cap­ture – giv­en that the is 5,895 metres moun­tain of Kil­i­man­jaro fre­quent­ly hides between clouds – and so you’ll need not only per­fect weath­er, but also the Ele­phants them­selves to align for you to grab this shot, for those intent on cap­tur­ing this shot we’d advise first­ly giv­ing your­self a cou­ple of days with­in Amboseli for the con­di­tions to line up – and also head­ing out in the ear­ly morn­ing on a game dri­ve, as with a bit of luck this will be the time when the cloud around the moun­tains is at its clear­est and the Ele­phants are most active.  

A tru­ly stun­ning and spe­cial pho­to – and one that cap­tures the full beau­ty of both Amboseli and Africa – you’ll need plen­ty of luck and patience to cap­ture this pho­to, but for those who are for­tu­nate enough to snap this icon­ic pho­to you’ll have snapped not only one of the tru­ly great pho­tos on the plan­et but the absolute best of the stun­ning won­der of the world that is Amboseli Nation­al Park.