Kenya · Luxury Safari

3-Day Luxury Kenya Safari with Nairobi, Naivasha and Lake Nakuru

3 Days Round trip from Nairobi Easy pace

The journey

Trip highlights

01 Explore Nairobi National Park, where wildlife roams against the backdrop of the city's skyline
02 Visit Hell's Gate National Park for stunning cliffs, gorges, extinct volcanoes, and flexible hiking or cycling options
03 Take a boat trip across Lake Naivasha and enjoy a guided walking safari on Crescent Island Game Sanctuary
04 Look out for fish eagles, hippos, giraffes, zebras, and other wildlife around Crescent Island
05 Witness Lake Nakuru National Park's rhinos, Rothschild's giraffes, and brilliant pink flamingos

Experience a luxurious 3-day journey through Kenya's natural wonders, from Nairobi National Park to Lake Naivasha and Lake Nakuru. Spot lions, rhinos, and other wildlife in Nairobi National Park, then head into the Great Rift Valley for a thrilling visit to Hell's Gate National Park. Enjoy a boat trip across Lake Naivasha and a guided walking safari on Crescent Island Game Sanctuary before continuing to Lake Nakuru National Park for prolific game viewing and its famous flamingos. This safari combines dramatic landscapes, rich birdlife, and memorable wildlife encounters.

This safari combines dramatic landscapes, rich birdlife, and memorable wildlife encounters.

From the itinerary

At a glance

What this trip includes

Duration 3 Days

Tour type Private

Activity level Easy

Accommodation Included · Standard

Transport Included

Cities Naivasha, Nairobi, Lake Nakuru National Park, Hell's Gate National Park, Nairobi National Park

Languages English

Day by day

The itinerary

Day 01

Nairobi National Park, Great Rift Valley and Hell's Gate

7:00 AM: We'll pick you up after breakfast for the short journey to Nairobi National Park, just 10 km south of the capital city of Nairobi. The park, Kenya's oldest (1946) and one of its smallest, regularly offers sightings of lions and hyenas.
Spend an important morning of your holiday with our driver-guide, with abundant opportunities to see endangered rhinos, hippos, ostriches, and over 400 species of birds.
From a vantage point, you can also see the city's skyline. Enjoy watching cheetahs, hyenas, zebras, and other animals roaming freely in the open grassland. This is not a city zoo or theme park; it's a reserve. In fact, the annual East Africa migration of wildebeest and zebras passes over the wide-open grassy plains, past acacia bushes, through this unlikely national park.
11:00 AM: Drive out of Nairobi National Park for a Lake Naivasha tour, with a photo stop at the Great Rift Valley escarpment viewpoint.
Descend to the valley floor and arrive at Lake Naivasha Sawella Lodge for lunch and overnight accommodation.
After lunch, visit Hell's Gate National Park for a walk. At Hell's Gate National Park, you can drive, hike, bike, or climb. The experience is sensational!
Hell's Gate has two gates visitors use - the main Elsa Gate and the Olkaria Gate. The latter also serves as the access route to the Olkaria Geothermal Station, located inside the national park.
You'll marvel at Hell's Gate National Park's stunning cliffs, rock towers, extinct volcanoes, and breathtaking gorges. Hiking and cycling are encouraged here.
You'll trek through Hell's Gate Gorge, a steep red sandstone formation carved by water and time.
While walking through this narrow canyon, you can spot the unique volcanic remnants called Fischer's and Central Towers. You can choose activities according to your preference.
Different species of wildlife can be seen here, including buffalo and zebra, as well as vultures nesting on high rocks. Enjoy nature walks near the cliffs, visits to the gorges, and a drive back to the lake shoreline, culminating in a visit to Elsa Meir's and Joy Adamson's home.
Attractions:
Spectacular scenery, including towering cliffs, water-gouged gorges, stark rock towers, scrub-clad volcanoes, and geothermal steam plumes.
Wildlife viewing and raptors nesting in cliffs.
Hot springs and the Olkaria Geothermal Station.
The Mervyn Carnelley Raptor Hide.
Tourist circuits and nature trails.
Return to the lodge for dinner and an overnight stay at Lake Naivasha Sawela Lodge - Luxury.

Day 02

Lake Naivasha Boat Trip and Crescent Island Safari

8:00 AM: After breakfast, visit Crescent Island by boat across Lake Naivasha, where we will explore Crescent Island Game Sanctuary. It's a private game sanctuary where we'll take a guided walking safari.
Crescent Island Sanctuary boasts more animals per acre than any other park in Kenya.
Here, you're certain to trek among diverse herds of wildlife such as giraffes, wildebeests, waterbucks, zebras, and gazelles, among others. Hippos are also known to graze all around the island, and you're sure to spot pelicans, cormorants, and fish eagles as well.
The island is not fenced, and the animals can roam to and from the mainland.
As you enjoy the boat trip, fish eagle birds will most likely cross your path as they catch fish from the water - a great spectacle to behold!
We will have lunch at a hotel in Naivasha while we wait for the onward journey to Nakuru. After lunch, drive to Nakuru and check in at Sarova Woodlands Hotel for accommodation. Relax and enjoy your coffee at the cozy restaurant.
Dinner and overnight stay at Sarova Woodlands Hotel - Luxury.

Day 03

Lake Nakuru Wildlife Safari and Return to Nairobi

8:00 AM: After breakfast, drive to Lake Nakuru National Park for prolific game viewing. Lake Nakuru National Park is simply diverse! It features a variety of landforms, including rocky escarpments, thick acacia forests, waterfalls, and the lake itself. Here, you can find a wide range of wildlife, including lions, leopards, buffalos, rhinos, and many bird species such as flamingoes, pelicans, herons, ibises, and Egyptian geese.
The park offers favourite animal-spotting viewpoints like Lion Hill and Out of Africa, where you may also spot baboons, waterbucks, cheetahs, the rare endangered Rothschild's giraffe, and over 400 bird species.
Our game-viewing safari at Lake Nakuru will take us past hippos, storks, pelicans, and sometimes hordes of brilliant pink flamingos feeding on algae in the saline lake, all while enjoying the shoreline of Lake Nakuru.
The park hosts more than 25 endangered black rhinos and about 70 white rhinos, and we'll make sure to get close to seeing them today. The park has Kenya's largest population of rhinos and is tightly guarded by Kenya Wildlife Service for obvious reasons - their horns and their dilemma! The morning here will be filled with an engaging procession of wildlife.
The surface of Lake Nakuru occupies about a third of the park, supporting a dense bloom of the blue-green Cyanophyte Spirulina platensis. This gives the lake its pink colour and is a food source for flamingos. The colouring matter, once dried, turns the feathers of flamingos pink, giving them their beautiful look.
Attractions:
Flamingoes (Greater and Lesser; their numbers have reduced due to rising water levels).
Other water birds, including various terrestrial birds totalling about 450 species.
Mammals: 56 different species, including lions, leopard, hyenas, white rhinos, waterbuck, etc.
Rare endangered Rothschild's giraffe.
Viewpoints: Lion Hill, Baboon Cliff, and Out of Africa.
Hills: Enasoit, Honeymoon, Lion Hill Ridge, etc.
Waterfalls: Makalia.
Unique vegetation: About 550 different plant species, including the unique and largest euphorbia forest in Africa, picturesque landscapes, and yellow acacia woodlands.
12:00 PM: Return to the hotel for lunch within an hour's time.
2:00 PM: Depart from Nakuru and return to Nairobi, arriving late afternoon at around 6:00 PM.