Lake Nakuru

Lake Nakuru National Park is a fenced sanctuary around a shallow soda lake on the floor of the Rift Valley, two to three hours from Nairobi. It is the most reliable place in Kenya to see both black and white rhino, and one of the few where you can do so on the first day of a safari.

Flamingo numbers rise and fall with the lake level, so some years the shoreline is pink and others it is not. The rhinos, the Rothschild's giraffes and the tree-climbing lions are there regardless. Nakuru is a natural first or last stop on the way to the Mara, which is how most of our routes use it.