Samburu National Reserve

I loved Samburu National Reserve for my first view of animals I have never seen before, Grevy's Zebra, Gerenuk, and the Somali Ostrich.

we saw huge herds of elephant up very close .The Samburu National Reserve is located on the banks of the Ewaso Ng'iro river in Kenya. We stayed at Larsens tented camp here and we extremely happy with the whole experience

Great Safari Destination!

My entire safari tour took me to 3 different reserves/parks in Kenya, but overall I think I enjoyed Samburu National Reserve the most. The landscape is beautiful and we saw a wide variety of wildlife; lots of elephants, many types of antelopes, giraffes, buffalo, warthogs, crocodiles, lions, cheetahs, ostriches, grevy's zebra (different from a regular zebra, and this type is only found on Samburu if I remember my safari guide correctly). Samburu is particularly great for elephant viewing (they are my favorite animals). We saw many herds on our game drives and my personal highlight was the morning they took us to watch all the elephants trek to the river for their morning drink/bath. We parked our jeep and watched as an endless number of elephants (including some adorable little babies) passed in front of us probably less than 20 yards from our vehicle! Our safari guide was fantastic; incredibly knowledgeable about all the wildlife and had reference books to consult when unsure of the names of some of the many types of antelope or birds we saw. The lodges we stayed in were wonderful. I was really expecting to "rough it" so I was pleasantly surprised by the lovely upscale tents on raised wooden floors we got to stay in complete with all the amenities of a nice hotel room. There were lots of baboons wandering around the camp and just outside our tents, which provided fun viewing from the decks. The food provided was pretty good and all the bottled water we needed was always available. The dirt roads throughout the park were in much better condition than I was expecting, but the roads throughout Kenya which you need to drive on to reach the reserve are pretty bad (important to note if you get motion sick like I do- make sure to bring motion sickness remedy with you.) The weather in March was fantastic, being the end of the dry/hot season and just before the cold/rainy season. It was sunny and 80-90F the entire time! Not very many mosquitos at that time either. The entire experience exceeded my expectations. I highly recommend making Samburu National Reserve a stop on your safari!

A truly unforgettable experience

I never imagined it was possible to get so close to wild animals! Elephants were crossing the road right in front of our vehicle, a leopard was enjoying a meal of an impala under an acacia tree, a cheetah was taking a siesta in the bush right by the side of the road and a lioness was taking her three young cubs for an afternoon stroll. There were reticulated giraffe, Grevy's zebra, gerenuk, dik dik, oryx, and lots and lots of birds! Our guide knew all about these animals, and also knew just where to find them. We stayed at the Samburu Game Lodge, which was very charming, if a bit run down. The food was mediocre, but there were several vegetarian selections, so no one went hungry. Samburu is hot, so bring light clothing, sunscreen and bug spray, and prepare to be amazed!

Fanstastic experience which exceeded our expectations.

My wife, 14 year old son and I stayed at Samburu Intrepids camp and were treated like royalty from the moment we arrived to the moment we boarded our safari plane to leave. I cannot think of anything we didn't like about the camp. We had a safari jeep and a guide, whose name was Jelly, all to ourselves. Jelly was excellent and went out of his way to find the animals for us. Before every game drive he would ask if there was any particular animal we wanted to see and he never failed to find the animals we mentioned. The scenery was beautiful with hills and escarpments and the wildlife was plentiful but we often felt like we were the only people on safari there. Usually only when there was a 'special' sighting would we see other safari vehicles and we sometimes had these special sightings all to ourselves. Like the time we watched 3 cheetahs from the same family behaving aggresively towards another lone cheetach, a video of which is on YouTube. I have rated every aspect of the safari as 5 stars apart from the wildlife which I gave 4 and that is only because we also went to the Masai Mara where the wildlife was even more plentiful.

Beautiful Safari, Exotic Animals

We went to Africa for our honeymoon/first anniversary. Samburu was our first stop and it did not disappoint. We stayed at Saruni Samburu and it was amazing! Highly recommend it! Our suite overlooked a watering hole and the African plains. It was indoor/outdoor and huge with dining and living areas seperate from the bedroom and bath. The staff took amazing care of us while we were there.

The safari was great we saw leopard and her cub, lionesses hanging out in a tree, crocs, ellies and countless others. We rarely saw another car. It felt like we had the entire reserve to ourselves. Highly recommend Samburu National Reserve. It has five types of animals you will not see anywhere else.

Opportunity to see unique wildlife, such as the Grevy's zebra. Overused, but still a magical place.

Also a very quiet NP with a lot of animals and birds

An Exciting place for every kind of visitors with hihg density of animals and excelent services

My general impression is a place to see animals on their real habitat on very close situations. I personally stayed at the Samburu Serena Lodge. They are really friendly and accommodations are great. Also the food at the buffet.
The reserve is a very small place but the river is the meeting point for all kind of animals. The secret is to get a good guide with experience in a vehicle on good conditions.
I did all my trip to Africa helped locally with Abercombie & Kent and for sure they are the best on the continent. I think the most important think is do arrangements with a local company plenty of experience capable on connections and services continuity from one park to another.

Varied, remote country from rugged hills via dusty slopes down to the river. Flora & fauna to match.

Samburu has varied country from the rocky hills, through the dry and dusty slopes down to the Ewaso Ng'iro river. The fauna and flora were equally varied but there was evidence of stress from the changing climate. Samburu had suffered from drought and then, around the river, serious floods.
Our trip was just off-season so the park had few vehicles and the lodge had few guests. We saw big game (lion, cheetah, elephant etc) and numerous smaller animals. Although some trees had died, there were signs of recovery and those in flower were beautiful. The clear air meant it was easy to see birds.
The park is remote, from an outsider's point of view. We reached it by plane from Nairobi Wilson to Samburu airport and were picked up by a Samburu Lodge vehicle. So the first game drive was on the way to the Lodge! The guide was excellent. Later, we witnessed the aftermath of a kill, returning several times to see the animals and birds that turned up at different times.
The accommodation was excellent; food and service couldn't be faulted.