When planning to come to a Kenyan Safari, one of the destinations on your list might include Lake Nakuru National Park. Being a small park and a bit of a distance from the capital, Nairobi, you may have wondered if Lake Nakuru National park is worth visiting.
Lake Nakuru is only worth visiting if you have not yet gone to the Masai Mara or one of the other larger parks. This is because Lake Nakuru National park is a small park which you can view in about 3 hours. It will feel anticlimactic if you visit it after spending several days in one of the other larger national parks like the Masai Mara and the long drive to get there may not be with it for you. In this article, I will talk about when I think Lake Nakuru is not worth visiting. I will also give the pros and cons of the park to help you figure out if this park is for you. It’s been a while since I visited this park so to improve the quality of this article, I looked through a number of forums and also made a call to the Kenya Wildlife Service to get their take as well.
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Visit Lake Nakuru Before Going to the other parks
Lake Nakuru National Park, being a smaller park is most worth visiting before going to bigger parks like the Masai Mara. It will give you a good taste of the wildlife you expect to see at the Mara and will create a sense of expectation for the days ahead.
Conversely, if you visit this park after being in the Mara for 3 or 4 days, the few hours you will spend there will feel like a waste compared to how long it would take you to drive up to Lake Nakuru from the Mara.
Should I spend more time at the Mara or share it with lake Nakuru?
If you are torn in between more time at the Mara vs going to Lake Nakuru, always go for the Mara. You will get more bang for your buck and time spending an extra night at the Mara. Part of my reason for saying this is because the long drive from the Mara to lake Nakuru will mainly comprise of just roads and nothing interesting to see along the way. In the end you just spend about 3 hours in lake Nakuru National Park after having spent about five hours on the road to get there.
Pros of Lake Nakuru National Park
Black and White Rhino
Lake Nakuru national park is home to both the black and white rhino. This makes it an attractive tourist destination because of these rare and endangered species
Flamingo
Although the population of flamingos has been dwindling there over the years, lake Nakuru national park is one of the few places in Kenya where you can find them. This makes it popular for tourists who want to see flamingos
Near Hell’s Gate National Park
Lake Nakuru national park is around two hours away from the Hell’s Gate National Park. Compare this with the 5 hours that it would take you to get to lake Nakuru from Masai Mara and Hell’s Gate feels quite near. With beautiful gorges that provides an interesting and challenging hike, Hell’s Gate national park is worth visiting if you will be visiting lake Nakuru as well.
Views of Rift Valley on your way there
If you will be driving from Nairobi to lake Nakuru National Park you will enjoy a lot of beautiful views of the Great Rift Valley and you will get to stop at one of the many viewpoints on the escarpment. For me, a view of the Rift Valley from this vantage point is always the highlight of any of my trips to the Rift Valley.
Cons of Lake Nakuru National Park
Small Park
Lake Nakuru national park is much smaller than many of the bigger parks like the Maasai Mara. You can easily view most of the park in one day and this makes the park less attractive for tourists who want to spend several days in one National Park
Won’t get to see the big five
While lake Nakuru National Park hosts rare and endangered species like the rhino, it has much fewer numbers of some of the other big 5 like the leopard and the lion
Not on your way to the Mara
To get to lake Nakuru National Park you would need to detour from the way that takes you to the Maasai Mara. The detour would take you about 2 hours away from the normal route to the Maasai Mara. This means that you will have an extra four hours on top of the 5-hour drive from Nairobi to the Mara.
Complaints on some of the accommodations
When doing research for this article I found a number of people who complained about the quality of accommodations in and around the National Park. While the particular complaints were posted a few years ago, it would be a good idea to check if the conditions are the same before booking your rooms there.
Alternatives to Lake Nakuru National Park
Well the lake Nakuru national park is unique here are a few alternatives that would give you a relatively similar experience and may have either greater diversity of wildlife or better proximity to Nairobi.
Nairobi National Park
this park is best for anyone who is near Nairobi (Kenya’s Capital City and where you will land when arriving in Kenya) and does not have the time to travel to some of the bigger national parks. It is located just a few minutes from Nairobi’s Central Business district and is perfect for a game drive that lasts a few hours.
Amboseli National park
The amboseli is about 5 hours away from Nairobi but it provides a great diversity of animals and it’s bigger than lake Nakuru National Park so you can spend a day or two compared to the few hours that you would spend in lake Nakuru. It gives you the opportunity to view more of the Big five than Nakuru and if you’re lucky you might catch a glimpse of mount Kilimanjaro.
