Nairobi5 min read
Weekend trips from Nairobi, for anyone staying a while
If you are here for weeks rather than days, the weekends are the point. Four places within reach of Nairobi, and how long each realistically takes.
A month in Nairobi contains four weekends, and what you do with them is most of what you will remember. The city is unusually well placed for this: the Rift Valley starts about an hour away, and some of the best known places in Kenya are a morning’s drive.
Distances below are honest rather than optimistic. Kenyan roads vary and the first hour out of Nairobi is the slowest part of any journey.
Naivasha — the easy one
Ninety minutes to two hours north-west, down the escarpment into the Rift Valley. A freshwater lake with hippos, birdlife everywhere, and a string of lodges and campsites along the shore. Hell’s Gate national park is beside it, and is one of the few parks in Kenya you can cycle or walk through.
This is the standard Nairobi weekend and deservedly so: close enough to leave on Saturday morning without losing the day.
Nakuru — flamingos and rhino
Two and a half to three hours, further along the same road. Lake Nakuru national park is compact, fenced and reliable for rhino, with flamingos on the lake in variable numbers depending on the water level — do not travel expecting the photograph.
Amboseli — Kilimanjaro from the Kenyan side
Four to five hours south, and the reason to go is the mountain. Amboseli sits directly beneath Kilimanjaro, and on a clear morning the view of elephants against the snow line is the one everybody has seen. It is also the least reliable part: the mountain hides in cloud for much of the day, and dawn is your window.
Worth a full weekend rather than a day. Leaving Nairobi on Friday evening makes the Saturday morning viable.
The Maasai Mara — the big one
Five to six hours by road, or under an hour by light aircraft from Wilson airport in Nairobi. If you are going, fly: the road is long and the last stretch is rough, and the flight turns a two-day journey into two full days in the reserve.
The wildebeest migration is broadly a July-to-October event, but the Mara is extraordinary year-round and considerably quieter outside it.
Book park accommodation well ahead for anywhere beyond Naivasha, particularly over Kenyan public holidays and the July-to-October window. Day trips to the Mara are technically possible and almost always a mistake.
Practicalities
- Hire a driver rather than self-driving unless you know the roads. It is not expensive, and a driver who knows the route is worth every shilling on the escarpment.
- Leave early. Getting out of Nairobi before seven turns a three-hour drive into two.
- Carry cash. Park fees and small towns are not card country — see money in Kenya.
- Bring a jumper. The Rift Valley at altitude is cold in the early morning, whatever the equator suggests.
And if you only have a Saturday
Nairobi National Park is fifteen minutes from Upper Hill and has lions in it. That remains the best return on a free morning anywhere in the city — covered alongside the rest in what to do between meetings.