Amboseli

Amboseli is famous for two things above all: its large, well-studied elephant herds, and postcard views of Mount Kilimanjaro rising across the Tanzanian border.

Amboseli National Park lies at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, and on clear mornings — typically before mid-morning cloud builds up — the mountain's snow-capped summit provides one of the continent's most photographed backdrops to grazing elephant herds.

The park has been the site of long-running elephant research since the 1970s, and many of its resident elephant families are individually known to researchers. Swampy wetlands fed by underground rivers from Kilimanjaro keep the park green even in dry season, drawing large concentrations of elephant, buffalo, and plains game.

Amboseli is commonly paired with Tsavo West or the Masai Mara as part of a multi-park Kenya itinerary, since it sits within a manageable drive of Nairobi.