1 Day Trip to Amboseli National Park from Nairobi
1 Day Trip to Amboseli National Park $190
Nairobi – Amboseli National Park (232km: 3.5Hrs)
Amboseli 1 day trip from Nairobi includes transport in a safari minivan or 4×4 jeep, buffet lunch, park fees, water. A 5-hour game drive in Amboseli national park is included in this one-day visit to Amboseli. You will need to make advance booking but most companies also take last minute booking for Amboseli 1-day trips.
Drive to Amboseli National Park on a 1-Day Trip
Your driver guide will pick you from your hotel at 5.00am just before dawn. You will drive south eastwards along the A109 Nairobi- Mombasa highway for about 2hours. Arrive at Emali town and you can have some hot coffee or a full breakfast and a bathroom break. From here, you will turn right into C102 Emali – Oloitoktok road for another 1-hour to arrive at the Kimana junction. Take a right turn into Kimana gate road and get to the gate in 30 minutes of dirt road.
The early morning drive to Amboseli national park can have some pleasant surprises like hundreds of antelopes and giraffes grazing along the road. There are several private game sanctuaries along the way. On a clear morning, you will be able to see the Mt Kilimanjaro from miles away once you join the Emali – Kimana road. You can ask your driver to stop at any one point to allow you to take pictures of the mountain. Kilimanjaro is a very shy mountain and you need to take your shot when you can.
You will arrive at Amboseli national park for your one-day trip at around 0930hours. You will finalise with gate formalities and ready to start your game drive in under 10 minutes at the Kimana gate. Make sure your driver or Tour Company has paid for your tickets well in advance through the e-citizen KWS park fee portal. This avoids wastage of valuable time at the gate jumping the hoops of the online card payment system.
If you want to make the park fee payment by yourself, ensure that your credit card is authorized to make payment. Otherwise, you may experience a long morning when your card is rejected due to whatever reason. Refer to Murphy ’s Law here.
Game Drive in Amboseli National Park One-Day Trip
Your Amboseli 1 day game drive starts at around 0945hrs with a drive from Kimana gate towards the lush swamps in the middle of the park. Since it’s still early in the morning, most cats will be out and about looking for their breakfast. You are likely to stumble upon Lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas and jackals. The tick forest at the gate gradually gives way to the savannah grasslands and you will see the buffalos, zebras, elands, gazelles and other plains game. Your Amboseli 1 day game drive includes viewing fauna, birds species, different bio diversities and habitats, animals, plants, water fowl and a 50yr long elephant conservation project. The Amboseli natural forests, savannah and swamps include hundreds of animal and bird species and some snakes as well.
Make sure to look out for Mt Kilimanjaro in its splendor in the morning sun. This mountain is usually visible between dawn and 1100hrs. So take the opportunity to take as many pictures as you can with the parks wildlife in your foreground. The most iconic pictures of an authentic African safari were taken by Hemmingway’s and included a picture of giant elephants grazing in the Amboseli savanna with the Kilimanjaro forming the background.
At some areas, the elephant herds will be in their hundreds surrounding your car while at some hundreds of buffalos will stop feeding to stare at you only afew feet away. Watch the hundreds of hippos fully immersed in the ponds or while grazing around the water. If you are lucky, you will see hyenas feeding on a carcass and cracking bones. In January and February, when the wildebeests are breeding, the brown colored calves are in their thousands and the cats follow them everywhere for the easy pickings.
Hotels to Take Lunch in Your 1-Day Amboseli Trip
The best lodges to have a sumptuous buffet lunch inside the park are Serena lodge and Ol Tukai lodge. These are the only lodges inside the park and offer a convenient place to have lunch without having to go out of the park. There are however many other options right outside the Amboseli park gate where one can have good lunch including Kibo safari lodge, Sopa lodge, AA lodge among others.
These are also the most frequented and you may consider them if you are looking for a lodge, resort or any accommodation near Amboseli national park for 1, 2, 3 nights stay. They include variety of rooms, different restaurants, rustic buildings, lodgings, amenity, hostels, boutique hotels, homestays, budget tented camps and camping grounds.
A buffet lunch is served in most of these Amboseli lodges and it is usually a great experience in your 1-day Amboseli trip from Nairobi. You have a collection of local foods to include, meats, fruits, vegetables, deserts, soups and bread. They cater for vegetarian diets as well as other dietary options.
Visit the Observation Point On Your Amboseli 1 Day Trip
You will also get a chance to go up the observation hill and get that vantage viewpoint of the whole park. Watch the animals below you and the distant lake Amboseli. From here you can see the elephants feeding on water grass immersed in water and the large herds of elephants drinking water in the swamps.
It’s also a great place to get the fresh mountain air and enjoy the quiet atmosphere if the baboons are not in attendance. Being a wildlife area, you may even stumble on a rock python minding its own business along the hike up the mountain.
1 Day Birding Trip to Amboseli National Park From Nairobi
Amboseli national park bird watching day trips are very rich in identification of birds. There are basically three birds habitats that you will be able to go to including the forest area near Kimana gate, the savanna grass lands and the waterways including the swamps, ponds and lake Amboseli.
This Amboseli birdwatching day trip is popular with ornithologists from American Bird Association and British Trust for Ornithology, royal society for the protection of birds, American twitchers, British twitchers on a 1 day birding excursion.
The Amboseli birdwatching day trip includes photography, walking, hiking, tripod setups, bird ID charts, Bird identification iPhone and android applications (apps) usage, professional bird guides, binoculars, east African birds guidebooks among other things. A 7 hour birding/birdwatching drive within the park bird ecosystems is included in an Amboseli 1 day birding trip.
Contact Robert for more details on planning a 1 day trip to Amboseli national park on whatsapp +254722661827 or email us on info@sojournsafaris.co.ke