Best Game Reserves in Kenya

Known For : Mara River Game Drives Balloon Safari

The Mara is the reserve people mean when they say Kenyan safari, and it earns it: big lion prides, resident leopard, and the wildebeest herds that cross the Mara River from the Serengeti roughly July to October. Narok County runs it, not Kenya Wildlife Service. Drives stay on the tracks here, so if you want off-road or a night drive, book a conservancy on the edge instead. Five to six hours from Nairobi by road, or a short flight. Give it three nights.

Best Time: June to October

16 Masai Mara Attractions

Ol Pejeta holds the last two northern white rhinos and is the largest black rhino sanctuary in East Africa, and its Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary is the only place in Kenya you can see chimpanzees. Being a conservancy, it also runs night drives and rhino tracking on foot, neither of which a national park allows. It sits on the Laikipia plateau near Nanyuki, about four hours from Nairobi, with Mount Kenya behind it. Two nights.

Best Time: June - October

Samburu is where the wildlife list changes. North of the equator you get the dry-country species you will not see in the Mara: Grevy's zebra, reticulated giraffe, gerenuk standing on its hind legs to feed, and beisa oryx. Elephants gather along the Ewaso Ng'iro and leopard sightings are good. Isiolo County manages it, and Buffalo Springs and Shaba adjoin it, so most itineraries treat the three as one area. Six hours from Nairobi by road or an hour by air. Two nights.

Best Time: June - October

A private conservancy on the northern boundary of the reserve, leased from the Maasai landowners who take the lease income and graze cattle under an agreed plan. Around 74,000 acres shared between a small number of camps, which is the whole point: vehicle numbers at a sighting are capped, and off-road driving and night drives are allowed here where they are not inside the national reserve. Leopard Gorge is its best known corner.

Lewa is a rhino story. It holds over a tenth of Kenya's eastern black rhino population and the largest single group of Grevy's zebra anywhere, roughly 350 animals, and it hosts a well-known safari marathon each year. Horse riding, camel walks and night drives are all possible here. Laikipia, near Isiolo, about five hours from Nairobi or a short flight. Two nights.

Best Time: July - September, December - March

Naboisho means coming together in Maa, and that is what it is: roughly 50,000 acres pooled by hundreds of Maasai landowners into one conservancy on the eastern side of the reserve. It carries one of the highest lion densities in Africa and a deliberately low number of beds, so sightings stay quiet. Walking safaris and night drives both run here, and neither is permitted inside the national reserve.

The Mara Triangle is the southwestern part of the reserve, cut off from the rest by the Mara River and run by a not-for-profit on the county's behalf. It is the quieter side: better-kept tracks, fewer vehicles, and the river crossings that appear in most wildlife films. Reserve rules apply, so no off-road and no night drives. Enter at the Oloololo gate or fly into the Serena airstrip.

Olare Motorogi is 140 square kilometres of leased Maasai land on the reserve's northern boundary, set up in 2006 and one of the models the other conservancies followed. Landowners are paid per acre rather than per guest, so their income does not swing with bookings. Off-road driving, night drives and walking are all allowed. Two to three nights.

Bogoria is a hot, shallow soda lake that periodically holds one of the world's largest gatherings of lesser flamingos, with around 200 hot springs and geysers steaming along its shore. It has been a national reserve since 1973 and is a Ramsar wetland site. Greater kudu live on the escarpment above it. About four hours from Nairobi and easy as a day stop between Nakuru and Baringo.

Best Time: July - October

Buffalo Springs sits across the Ewaso Ng'iro from Samburu and shares its wildlife, including Grevy's zebra and reticulated giraffe, over more open country. It was first protected in 1948 and is run by the Isiolo County Council. Most people fold it into a Samburu stay rather than booking it separately, and the two share the same lodges and airstrips.

Best Time: June - October

Shaba is the least visited of the three northern reserves, with volcanic hills, spring-fed streams and a fair chance of watching lion with no other vehicle nearby. Joy Adamson spent her last years here and there is a monument to her in the reserve. It lies east of Samburu and Buffalo Springs in Isiolo County. One night added to a Samburu trip is enough.

Best Time: June - October

Ol Kinyei was among the first Mara conservancies, set aside by Maasai landowners who moved their cattle out so the grass could recover. It is small and takes very few guests, so drives feel private, and walking and night drives are permitted. Better as a second stop after the reserve than as a first safari on its own.

Borana adjoins Lewa and the two are run as a single rhino landscape, which gives black rhino a far larger area to move through. It is also one of the few places in Kenya where you can ride out on horseback among wildlife, and mountain biking and guided walks are offered. Laikipia, below Mount Kenya, around five hours from Nairobi. Two nights.

Solio is a fenced private reserve of about 17,500 acres north of Nyeri that has bred black rhino for decades and supplied animals to reserves across Kenya. Rhino sightings here are close to certain, which few places can honestly claim. Around three hours from Nairobi, so it works well as a single night on the way up to Laikipia.

Selenkay is Maasai-owned land north of Amboseli, and it shows plainly what a conservancy adds to a park visit. You drive Amboseli by day for the elephant herds under Kilimanjaro, then come back for a night drive and a guided walk, neither of which the park allows. Around four hours from Nairobi. Two nights, paired with Amboseli.

Loisaba is a large Laikipia conservancy known for its star beds, open platforms where you sleep outside above a waterhole, and for camel-led walking safaris. Wild dog and elephant move through in good numbers. It is remote enough that most guests fly in rather than drive the seven hours from Nairobi. Two to three nights.

Shimba Hills holds Kenya's only sable antelope, around a hundred of them, in coastal rainforest about an hour inland from Mombasa. More than half of Kenya's rare plant species grow here, and the elephant population is large enough that Kenya Wildlife Service, which manages this reserve, has had to move animals out. Sheldrick Falls is a short walk with a ranger. Easy as a day trip from Diani.

Best Time: July - October

Taita Hills is a private sanctuary set up in 1972 beside Tsavo West, and being private it can run night drives and bush walks that the neighbouring park cannot. It sits next to the LUMO community sanctuary and makes a useful stop roughly halfway along the Nairobi to Mombasa road or railway. One or two nights, usually alongside Tsavo.

Best Time: June - September

Kakamega is Kenya's only tropical rainforest, the last remnant of the Guineo-Congolian belt that once crossed the continent, out west near the Uganda border. This is a walking and birding reserve rather than a game-drive one, with guides taking you out on foot for turacos, hornbills and colobus monkeys. Best combined with a trip to Kisumu.

Best Time: June - September

Arabuko Sokoke is the largest remaining coastal forest in East Africa, inland from Watamu and Malindi. It is a birding site first, with several species found almost nowhere else, plus the golden-rumped elephant shrew and Ader's duiker. You walk it with a guide rather than drive it. Half a day from any beach hotel on that stretch of coast.

Bisanadi adjoins Meru National Park on its northeastern side and takes wildlife moving out of it: elephant, lion, buffalo and a long bird list along the Rojewero and Tana rivers. There are campsites but no lodges, so it suits a self-sufficient trip rather than a first safari. The dry months are much easier on the tracks.

Mwingi is part of the Meru conservation area, bordered by Kora National Park and Bisanadi National Reserve, and almost nobody visits. There are no lodges, so this is fly-camping and guided walking country for travellers who want a reserve to themselves. Access is rough and best attempted in the dry months with an operator who knows the tracks.

Mwea is a small reserve in Kirinyaga County where the Tana and Thiba rivers meet, close to the Kamburu and Masinga dams. It is birding country, with more than 200 species recorded including Hinde's babbler, and hippo in the reservoir. There are no lodges inside. Around three hours from Nairobi, which makes it one of the few reserves you can do in a day.

Arawale in the northeast exists mainly for one animal, the hirola, an antelope that survives nowhere else in the wild in any number. There is no tourist infrastructure, and access depends on conditions in the region, so check current advice before planning anything around it. Listed here for completeness rather than as a trip.

Nasolot is a rugged reserve in West Pokot near the Turkwel Gorge, with long views from Nasolot Hill and elephant moving between here and South Turkana. There is no lodge, only camping, and Kitale is the nearest town of any size. Worth a stop if you are already travelling in the northwest rather than a destination in its own right.