When does the Elephant Orphanage open for visits

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage visiting hour is from 11am to noon daily. Our itinerary is timed to arrive for this window before departing for Ol Pejeta.

Can I adopt an elephant before the visit

Yes, the DSWT allows you to symbolically adopt a baby elephant online before your visit. Your foster elephant will be introduced to you during the visiting hour by a keeper.

Are the northern white rhinos at Ol Pejeta still alive

As of our last update, Najin and Fatu, the world's last two northern white rhinos, are alive and well at Ol Pejeta under 24-hour armed protection. Please confirm their status at the time of booking.

Is this safari good for first-time Kenya visitors

Yes, this is one of the best introductory Kenya itineraries available. It combines Nairobi's iconic wildlife institutions with a genuine bush conservation experience without requiring long drives to distant parks.

Can I extend this safari to include the Maasai Mara

Absolutely. This 3-day combo can be extended by adding two or more days at the Maasai Mara either before or after the Ol Pejeta leg, creating a comprehensive Kenya wildlife safari.

3 Day Nairobi Highlights and Ol Pejeta Rhino Safari Combo

Overview

Itinerary

Cost

FAQs

Map

Review

Overview

Itinerary

Cost

FAQs

Map

Review

Overview

A Nairobi highlights and Ol Pejeta rhino safari combo is the ideal introduction to Kenya for first-time visitors, combining the city’s world-class wildlife attractions with a journey to the most important rhino conservation sanctuary on Earth in a single seamless 3-day experience. Nairobi is uniquely positioned as the only capital city in the world adjacent to a national park, and its wildlife institutions, particularly the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage and the Nairobi Giraffe Centre, are among the most emotionally powerful wildlife encounters available anywhere in Africa. Watching baby elephants being bottle-fed and played with by their dedicated keepers just a short drive from Nairobi’s city centre is an experience that moves virtually every visitor to tears of joy, while hand-feeding the towering Rothschild’s giraffes at the Giraffe Centre is an unforgettable physical encounter with one of Africa’s most iconic animals. The journey then continues north to Ol Pejeta Conservancy, home to the largest black rhino population in East Africa and the world’s last two northern white rhinos, Najin and Fatu, a deeply moving conservation encounter that provides powerful context for Kenya’s ongoing wildlife protection work. Ol Pejeta also hosts excellent Big Five game viewing across its 90,000-acre highland savannah, the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, and lion tracking and night game drive options for those wanting additional thrills. This 3-day Nairobi Ol Pejeta combo delivers an extraordinary breadth of wildlife and conservation experience accessible from Nairobi without the long drives required to reach Kenya’s southern parks, making it the perfect short safari for city visitors, transit passengers, or anyone with limited time who refuses to leave Kenya without a genuine wildlife experience.

Trip Highlights

Baby elephant feeding and interaction at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust
Hand-feeding Rothschild's giraffes at the Nairobi Giraffe Centre
Visit the world's last two northern white rhinos at Ol Pejeta
Black rhino tracking on guided game drives through Ol Pejeta
Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Kenya's only chimp rescue facility
Big Five game viewing across Ol Pejeta's highland savannah
Scenic drive through Kenya's central highlands and Mount Kenya views
Night game drive for nocturnal wildlife at Ol Pejeta Conservancy

Day 01 :

Nairobi Wildlife Experiences & Drive to Ol Pejeta

Your Nairobi and Ol Pejeta combo safari begins with a morning visit to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi National Park, one of Kenya’s most beloved wildlife experiences. The visiting hour from 11am to noon allows you to watch and interact with baby elephants as they are bottle-fed, mud-bathed, and played with by their dedicated foster keepers in an emotionally joyful display that forms one of the strongest wildlife memories of any Kenya trip. From the orphanage, drive to the Nairobi Giraffe Centre where endangered Rothschild’s giraffes are fed from an elevated platform, allowing face-to-face eye-contact and hand-feeding with these magnificent animals in an intimate and unforgettable setting. After a lunch stop in Nairobi, you depart north on the approximately four-hour scenic drive through the central highlands to Ol Pejeta Conservancy, crossing the equator near Nanyuki with Mount Kenya’s snow-capped peaks visible on clear days. Arriving at the conservancy by early evening, you check in to your lodge for dinner as the highland night descends over the savannah plains.

10 hours

Lunch + Dinner

Day 02 :

Full Day Ol Pejeta Conservation Safari

A full day at Ol Pejeta Conservancy begins with an early morning game drive in the first light, when the conservancy’s lion pride is most active and the highland grasslands glow in the golden dawn. After breakfast, you visit the northern white rhino enclosure for a deeply moving guided encounter with Najin and Fatu, receiving a full briefing on their extraordinary story and the ongoing efforts to save the subspecies through advanced reproductive science. A visit to the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary follows, where rescued chimps from Central Africa live in a large forested enclosure with educational exhibits explaining the illegal wildlife trade driving chimpanzee population declines. The afternoon game drive takes you through different sectors of the conservancy where black rhinos are tracked using the surveillance data collected by the dedicated monitoring team, and where elephants, buffalo, cheetah, and Grevy’s zebra are regularly encountered. An optional night game drive at dusk illuminates the conservancy’s nocturnal world, with aardvark, porcupine, and free-roaming black rhinos moving through the darkness under the highland stars.

12 hours

Breakfast + Lunch + Dinner

Day 03 :

Ol Pejeta Morning Drive & Return to Nairobi

An early morning game drive through Ol Pejeta in the crisp highland air gives you the best conditions for encountering the conservancy’s rhinos and predators in the golden morning light. Your guide focuses on the areas most productive for close black rhino encounters and for big cat sightings in the grassland as the sun climbs above the highland horizon. After the morning drive, return to the lodge for a hearty breakfast before checking out for the four-hour scenic return drive to Nairobi, arriving by early afternoon with extraordinary conservation encounters and wildlife memories from one of Africa’s most important wildlife sanctuaries.

7 hours

Breakfast