Elephant Orphanage & Giraffe Centre Half-Day Tour, Nairobi

The Elephant Orphanage

The elephant orphanage lies at the edge of Nairobi National Park off Magadi Road and is the best-known elephant rescue project in Africa. Calves orphaned by drought, poaching, human conflict or accidents are flown here from across Kenya and raised by keepers who sleep beside them, feed them special milk every few hours and walk them into the bush each day until, years later, they are reintegrated with wild herds in Tsavo. The nursery also looks after orphaned rhinos.

The public can visit for one hour only, from 11:00 to 12:00, which is why our morning is built around it. During the hour the calves arrive in groups, drink their bottles, play in the mud wallow and sometimes come close to the rope line, while a keeper introduces each elephant and explains the rescue work. Entry is included on this tour; the national park fee required to reach the orphanage gate is paid on the day.

The Giraffe Centre

The Giraffe Centre in Langata was created in 1979 to save the Rothschild's giraffe, a pale-legged subspecies that had been pushed to the brink in western Kenya. Giraffes bred here have since been released into several national parks, and the centre doubles as a conservation education site for Kenyan schoolchildren. Visitors stand on a raised wooden platform at the height of a giraffe's head and hold out food pellets; the giraffes take them with long grey tongues, which is the moment everyone photographs.

The centre is open daily from about 09:00 to 17:00 and the visit takes about an hour, with time for the warthogs below the platform, the information centre and the short forest trail across the road if you wish. Your entry ticket is included. The Giraffe Centre is worth visiting at any age, but for children it is usually the highlight of Nairobi.

Langata and Karen

Both sites sit in the south-west of Nairobi, where the suburbs of Langata and Karen spread under tall trees towards the Ngong Hills. This is the greenest, quietest side of the city and holds most of its conservation and cultural attractions: the Bomas of Kenya cultural village with its afternoon dance performances, a colonial-era farmhouse museum, craft workshops where clay beads are rolled and painted by hand, and the main gate of Nairobi National Park.

Because everything is close together, the half-day tour is easy to extend. The options on this page add a beadwork workshop and Bomas of Kenya, a beadwork workshop and the museum, or an early game drive in the national park before the orphanage. With private transport our guide can also suggest a lunch stop in Karen before returning you to your hotel.

Nairobi National Park at the Gate

The road to the elephant orphanage runs along the boundary of Nairobi National Park, the only wildlife park in the world inside a capital city, and the orphanage gate is reached through park land, which is why a park entry fee is charged even on the half-day tour. The park was created in 1946 and holds lions, black and white rhinos, buffalo, giraffes, zebras and cheetahs across roughly 117 square kilometres of plains and acacia woodland.

If you have the morning free, the option that adds a game drive starts at 06:00 with a two- to three-hour drive through the park before continuing to the orphanage and the Giraffe Centre, making full use of the entry fee you pay anyway. Sightings are never guaranteed, but the early hours give the best chance of rhinos and lions with the city skyline behind them.