Laikipia and Lewa are Kenya’s conservancy country, a high plateau between Mount Kenya and the Rift Valley that holds the finest rhino viewing in Kenya, both black and white, along with the last two northern white rhinos on earth at Ol Pejeta. Here you can walk, ride, track and drive after dark in ways the national parks forbid. Laikipia is not a park but a mosaic of private and community conservancies covering some 9,500 square kilometres of central Kenya.

Rhino Safaris in Kenya’s Conservancy Country

A Laikipia rhino safari is as close to a sure thing as rhino viewing gets in Kenya. The plateau holds roughly half of the country’s black rhino and strong numbers of white rhino, spread across a run of fenced and unfenced conservancies where dedicated ranger teams watch them around the clock. On a morning drive at Lewa, Ol Pejeta, Borana or Solio, your guide can usually find a black rhino browsing the scrub or a white rhino grazing the open plains, often with time to sit and watch rather than snatch a glimpse.

This did not happen by accident. Much of Laikipia was cattle ranching a generation ago, and the turn back to wildlife started when a handful of landowners set aside land to protect black rhino and found that careful tourism could pay for it. That model has since spread across the plateau and north into the community lands beyond. Our Laikipia Rhino Conservancies and Samburu route is built around exactly this run of rhino country.

Lewa Wildlife Conservancy Safaris

The Lewa Wildlife Conservancy is the best known name on the plateau, and a UNESCO World Heritage site listed alongside neighbouring Mount Kenya. A cattle ranch turned over to black rhino in the 1980s and formally a conservancy since the 1990s, Lewa became the template that much of northern Kenya has since copied. It carries a large share of the country’s black rhino, both white rhino, and the single largest population of Grevy’s zebra in the world, that finer-striped, mule-eared northern zebra you will not see in the Mara.

Lewa also gave rise to the community conservation movement that now reaches far to the north, funding schools, clinics and water projects for its neighbours from tourism and its famous June marathon. A stay here buys into all of that, and the guiding and rangers are as good as any in Kenya. Lewa shares a dropped fenceline with Borana, so the two run as one wildlife area, and lodges like the ones we favour sit quietly within it.

Ol Pejeta Conservancy Safaris and the Chimpanzees

An Ol Pejeta safari pairs superb Big Five viewing with a conservation story unlike anywhere else. This 360 square kilometre conservancy on the plateau’s southern edge protects the largest black rhino population in East Africa, and it is the only place on earth to see the last two northern white rhinos, Najin and Fatu, kept under armed guard in a large enclosure after the last male of their kind died. A booked visit to see them, with the rangers who protect them, is a sobering hour few forget.

Ol Pejeta is also the only place in Kenya to see chimpanzees, at a refuge for apes rescued from traffickers, since chimps are not native to the country. Add lion tracking, guided walks with rangers, cycling and night drives, and it is the most activity-rich patch of Laikipia, which is why so many first trips to the region start here. Cattle graze alongside the wildlife as part of the plan, not against it.

The northern white rhino visit, the behind-the-scenes chimpanzee experience and lion tracking at Ol Pejeta all need booking a day or so ahead, and each carries a small extra fee on top of conservancy entry. Ask your camp to arrange them when you book, since slots are limited and the teams stand them down in poor weather.

Northern Five Game Drives: Grevy’s Zebra and Reticulated Giraffe

Laikipia sits on the seam between the southern savannah and the dry country of the north, which puts animals on your game drive that the southern parks never see. The so-called Northern Five, Grevy’s zebra, reticulated giraffe, beisa oryx, gerenuk and Somali ostrich, are all here, along with Jackson’s hartebeest and the odd-looking lesser kudu. The reticulated giraffe, with its clean map-of-tiles coat, stands in for the Maasai giraffe of the south, and the plateau guards more than two-thirds of the world’s remaining Grevy’s zebra.

The predators are here too, in good numbers and relaxed on the private land: lion, cheetah, spotted hyena and, along the wooded rivers, leopard. Laikipia is also one of the last strongholds in Kenya for African wild dog, and, most unusually of all, one of the very few places on earth where a wild black leopard has been reliably filmed. Sightings of that rare cat are never promised, but the fact that it lives here at all tells you what kind of country this is.

This is safari for people who have already done the Mara: quieter, wilder, and closer to the animals that made northern Kenya famous.

Walking, Horseback and Camel Safaris

Because Laikipia is private land rather than a gazetted park, the rulebook is different, and the activity menu is the widest in Kenya. You can set out on a guided walking safari with an armed ranger and read the bush at ground level, ride out on a horseback safari that lets you move right in among the plains game, or travel the old way on a camel safari, walking alongside the string as northern herders have for centuries. Night drives turn up aardvark, bat-eared fox, genet and other creatures the daylight hides.

The plateau is full of set-piece touches, too: Loisaba’s star beds, wheeled four-poster beds rolled onto a raised deck for a night under the open sky above a waterhole; mountain biking through the acacia; and simple mobile fly-camps for those who want to sleep out properly. Which conservancy suits you comes down to which of these matters most, and a good operator will match the two. The art-filled Segera Retreat is one of our benchmarks for turning all of this into a single, unhurried stay.

Conservation and Community on a Laikipia Safari

More than anywhere else in Kenya, a Laikipia safari lets you see conservation actually working. The plateau is a working patchwork of private ranches, family conservancies and community-owned land, run together as one wildlife country where cattle and wild animals share the grazing under careful management. Your bed night funds the ranger patrols, the fences, the vet teams and the water projects, and on community-owned ground like Il Ngwesi it flows straight to the Maasai and Samburu families who own the land.

That link between wildlife and livelihood is the whole point, and it is why the region draws people who want their travel to count for something. Many camps will take you out with the anti-poaching teams or the tracker dogs your stay pays for, and the honesty of it, the plain sight of people and wildlife making a living from the same ground, tends to stay with guests longer than any single sighting.

Best Time to Visit Laikipia and Lewa

Laikipia rewards a visit at any time of year, because the wildlife is resident and the permanent rivers and waterholes keep animals around even in the dry months. The clearest game viewing comes in the two dry spells, from June to October and again from December to March, when the plateau is at its busiest and priciest. The rains fall long from April into May and shorter around November, greening the plains, filling the birding and dropping the rates, with the trade-off of some muddy tracks and a 4×4 for the remoter camps.

Long Dry Season, June to October. The prime window, with fine weather, easy game viewing and animals drawn to water. It runs alongside the Mara migration, so book ahead. Best for rhino, predators and the widest choice of walking and riding.

Short Dry Season, December to March. Warm, largely dry and a little quieter, with strong resident wildlife and good conditions for every activity. A fine time to pair Laikipia with a beach finish on the coast.

Green Seasons, April to May and November. The rains bring green country, newborn game, the year’s best birding and the lowest prices. Expect a few wet afternoons and softer tracks, and take a 4×4 for the remoter conservancies.

Getting to Laikipia and Lewa

Laikipia is one of the easier safari regions to reach from Nairobi. Scheduled light aircraft leave Nairobi’s Wilson Airport through the day for Nanyuki, Lewa Downs and Loisaba, a flight of roughly 45 minutes to an hour, and most lodges fold the airstrip transfer into your stay. By road it is around three and a half to four and a half hours up good tarmac to Nanyuki, the gateway town, from where the closer conservancies are a short drive and the remoter ones a longer one on rougher tracks. Take a sturdy 4×4 if you are going beyond the main roads.

The region pairs naturally with the wilder country to its north and the famous plains to its southwest. Most guests run it alongside Samburu for a northern circuit, or before the Maasai Mara for a contrast of conservancy calm and big-cat plains. You can see how it all fits together across our wider Kenya safaris.

How much does it cost to visit Laikipia’s conservancies?

Each conservancy sets its own fee. Ol Pejeta charges non-resident adults in the region of 110 US dollars for a 24-hour visit, with children about half, and its special experiences such as the northern white rhino visit or lion tracking add roughly 70 US dollars each. Most other conservancies, Lewa, Borana, Loisaba and the community lands, bundle a conservancy fee of around 80 to 150 US dollars per person per night into your camp rate rather than charging at a gate, so it is worth asking your operator what is already included.

How much do Laikipia lodges and camps cost per night?

The range is wide. Simple camps, self-catering cottages and community lodges run from around 35 to 150 US dollars per person, comfortable mid-range camps sit between roughly 150 and 300, and the all-inclusive luxury conservancy lodges, where the fees and activities are built into one price, run from about 600 to well over 1,400. The higher rates fold in your guiding, meals, drives and the conservancy fee together.

Can I see the Big Five in Laikipia?

Yes. Elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo and both black and white rhino are all present across the conservancies, and rhino viewing here is among the best anywhere in Kenya. On top of the Big Five you get the northern specialities, Grevy’s zebra, reticulated giraffe and the rest, plus cheetah and, for the very lucky, wild dog or even a black leopard.

Where can I see the last two northern white rhinos?

Only at Ol Pejeta, in Laikipia. Najin and Fatu, the last two of their kind on earth, live in a guarded enclosure there, and you can book a short visit to see them with the rangers who protect them. Ol Pejeta is also the only place in Kenya to see chimpanzees, at a refuge for rescued animals, so the two experiences are easy to combine in a single stay.

How do I get to Laikipia from Nairobi?

The quick way is a scheduled flight from Nairobi’s Wilson Airport to Nanyuki, Lewa Downs or Loisaba, about 45 minutes to an hour, with your camp meeting the plane. The alternative is a road transfer of roughly three and a half to four and a half hours to Nanyuki on good tarmac, then a shorter run to your conservancy. A 4×4 is worth having for the remoter camps.

How many days should I spend, and what pairs well with it?

Three or four nights lets you settle into one or two conservancies and make the most of the walking, riding and rhino tracking rather than rushing. Laikipia sits perfectly on a northern route with Samburu just beyond it, and it also works as a calm, active opening before the big-cat plains of the Maasai Mara.

How you shape a Laikipia and Lewa safari, which conservancies, how many nights, how much walking or riding, is yours to decide, and there is no single right answer. Ancient Africa Safaris is owner-led and East Africa is all we do, so you deal with people who know these conservancies and guides first-hand and will tell you plainly what is worth your time and money. Once you are ready, the flights, the conservancy fees and the fine detail are quietly ours to carry.

There is no rush. Whenever the timing feels right, write to us at Ancient Africa Safaris, and one of our team will reply in person.

Laikipia & Lewa