Two elephants wading across a muddy river lined with doum palms

Tsavo East & Tsavo West National Parks

Kenya's largest protected area, split into Tsavo East and Tsavo West, known for red-dust elephants and the spring-fed pools of Mzima Springs.

Overview

Tsavo East and Tsavo West together form Kenya's largest protected area, straddling the road and railway line between Nairobi and Mombasa. Tsavo East is the wider, flatter of the two, open plains of red volcanic soil stretching to a low horizon; Tsavo West is more broken country, with hills, old lava flows and denser bush.

The soil is the reason for Tsavo's most recognisable feature: its elephants dust-bathe in the reddish laterite that covers much of the park, so their hides read rust-red rather than the usual grey, a colour you see nowhere else on safari in Kenya.

In Tsavo West, Mzima Springs is worth building time around: a series of clear, spring-fed pools rising out of volcanic rock, filled by water that has filtered down from the Chyulu Hills, with an underwater viewing chamber that puts you at eye level with hippo and crocodile.

Wildlife highlights

Elephant
Lion
Hippo
Crocodile
Buffalo
Fringe-eared oryx

Best time to visit

June through October and January through February, the dry months when animals concentrate around the rivers and springs.

Getting there

Tsavo sits directly beside the Nairobi–Mombasa highway, roughly four to five hours by road from either city. Voi and both parks also have airstrips served by scheduled flights.

Tsavo isn't ground I've guided on for years the way Laikipia is, but I route plenty of guests through it on their way down to the coast, and that drop out of the highlands into the red-dust country always changes the mood of a trip.