Elephant Orphanage & Giraffe Centre Tour: Experience Wildlife Conservation in Action

Spend the day visiting David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage to observe baby and young orphaned elephants: viewing is strictly between 11am and 12pm. you’ll visit the Giraffe Center to experience a supervised feeding session.

NB: On Christmas Day 25th December - David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage will be closed for Holiday, we will offer alternative

Duration: 6 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Giraffe Centre - The tour begins with a pick-up from your hotel or home in Nairobi. You’ll be driven to the Giraffe Centre, where you can feed Rothschild giraffes under the guidance of keepers. Since its opening in 1979, the center has rescued, hand-reared, and released about 500 orphaned giraffes back into the wild. This attraction allows you to hand-feed the endangered Rothschild’s giraffe and provides an excellent education on their physiology, behaviors, and habitat preferences.
  • Sheldrick Wildlife Trust - Next, you’ll be driven to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, where you can walk through the center from 11am to 12pm in an open space with a rope fence around it. The youngest elephants come out of the bush to greet their keepers, who are ready with giant bottles of milk. For the next 10-15 minutes, you can watch each little one drink their milk. Then, you’ll have time to observe the elephants play. You’ll learn about their ages when they arrived at the orphanage, where they were rescued from, and the circumstances that led to their rescue. Common reasons for being orphaned include mothers being poached, falling into wells, and human-wildlife conflict. After the youngest are fed, they are led back into the bush, and it’s the turn of the 2-3 year-olds. Some can feed themselves, while others are still fed by their keepers. Watch them interact with their keepers, munch on branches of their favorite acacias, and play with water and mud in half drums.
  • KOBE TOUGH beads & leather - The next stop is a visit to the Kazuri Bead Factory/Kobe Beads Factory, a pottery company that creates some of the world’s most beautiful beads. You’ll be shown all the stages from start to finish. This unique factory employs single mothers from poor neighborhoods, providing them with a livelihood to support their families. The pottery, ceramic, and bead factory employs single mothers to create its beautiful gifts and souvenirs, which are now exported worldwide. There is a gift shop that stocks some of their wares. Please note that the workshop is closed on Saturday afternoons and all day Sunday, but the gift shop is open seven days a week.
What's Included
  • Elephant Orphanage Entrance fee
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
  • Professional guide
  • Small Group Tour
  • Giraffe Center Entrance fee
What's Not Included
  • Food and drinks
  • Pay extra $45 per person for Nairobi National park which is mandatory to access elephant orphanage
Additional Information
  • $ 45 per person for Nairobi national park since it’s under KWS and it’s located inside the park. Its conservancy fee
Location
Giraffe Centre
Duma Rd
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.6
(197 Ratings)
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Gina_v
Aug 25, 2024
Well organized and easy/fun day! - I'm so glad i did this tour! I only had the one day to be a tourist and it was perfect. Seeing the baby elephants (so sweet), feeding the giraffes, visiting the local bead factory, relaxing over lunch and dancing at the Bomo (add-on) were all perfect! Stephen was our driver/guide and was friendly, patient (I'm a tourist, and one of very many he deals with), and shared with us some background on the culture and where best to stand to see the elephants. He even took the occasional photo :) Thank you, Stephen, for sharing your Kenyan hospitality and making the day even more enjoyable!
Review provided by Viator
Linda_s
Aug 18, 2024
A special morning in Nairobi - Both the Giraffe Centre Tour and Sheldrick's Elephant Orphanage were wonderful experiences were wonderful. Our driver was on tine, organised and friendly. So special
Review provided by Viator
Lawsonmatthew
Aug 13, 2024
A Must Go! - A must do. Its not only fun to see the wee orphans but the rhino is also the star of the show. Its very informative as well, the (1) hour overview as to why each elephant and rhino is an orphan is very interesting. I would go again in a heart beat.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Kenneth_p
Aug 11, 2024
A great tour - This is a fun and educational experience. You see the babies rush out to receive big baby bottles with baby formula. They hang out for a while and you may to get to pat and feel their tough skin. We combined this with the Giraffe Center and Kobe Tough bead center which were also excellent. Our guide, Steven, was fun, knowledgeable and considerate!
Review provided by Viator
Leonora_h
Jul 26, 2024
The best in Nairobi - Steven was a great guide, taking pictures for us at the giraffe center and helping us get the best viewing spot at the elephant sanctuary. He was thoughtful and knowledgeable. We thoroughly enjoyed the tour!
Review provided by Viator
Satyen_p
Jul 24, 2024
Sweet & Sour - Sights were a great experience. Local your drivers split is into 3 cars, one car had two people from another group, and were late in going tge two other cars of our group. Not a good idea, as we were delayed everywhere.
Review provided by Viator
Advisor-ladyj
Aug 31, 2024
Price tag for tour is not all, international visitors have to pay $50 more - The elephant orphanage itself is a great cause and i didn't mind paying a very high fee to visit since it is a good cause. What is upsetting is that you can't even go with the tour you buy! You have to buy a separate access fee to the park, which is $45 US dollars. Once again, a good cause, but it feels dishonest to pay over $100 and then be told that you need to pay 50% more. Just charge the full price from the start...
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Debbie_g
Jul 12, 2024
Pleasurable experience but needs work on the administration of the park entrance payment. - Feeding the giraffe was lovely and the elephant orphanage was very informative. Unfortunately we arrived late because paying the park entrance fee was problematic due to WiFi connection. The only way to pay the fee was through our driver's park account, using our credit card details. I was even asked to pay for the other 2 people to save time! We had thought that it was a private tour but we were picked up in a minibus with 2 other clients.
Review provided by Viator
Denis_s
Jul 30, 2024
OK way to spend the morning but very overpriced - Nice way to spend a morning but way overpriced for what you get! We were picked up at our hotel on time and the driver was very nice. We went to the giraffe rescue first as it opened at 9 AM. Basically you enter your given some food to feed the giraffes. You feed the giraffes for about 10 minutes. Take some photos And you’re done. We then were taken to a massive tourist souvenir spot to apply for the permit to enter the park lots of selections but massively massively overpriced. We then went to the elephant. Sanctuary greeted by a very friendly staff taken down to the “show” area , and watch them feed about 20 elephants with a presentation when I started asking for money and donations which just they should, we left. We then went to the third part of us to a bead making factory, which, as expected you were shown how they made beads the woman sing a song for the group and then you were escorted into a showroom to buy what we considered very very overpriced but yet very nice necklaces , and items made of beads. If you have young kids, I think they would absolutely love this but as two adults I thought there was a lot of better ways. I could’ve spent $250.
Review provided by Viator
Mandingo_w
Jul 23, 2024
Elephants and Giraffes were nice - I had great time with the animals but I did not like going to bracelet making shop. I was told where were going to go and not given a choice. So I am very mad and would not recommend this excursion to anyone. This place was not even advertised. Then we stop at some tourist trap info center. Where they jack the prices on items to foreigners.
Review provided by Viator
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up to 15 guests
1 Adult
September 2024
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