Here is a list of the Best Picnic Sites in Nakuru County. Nakuru County is beautiful and it’s one of Kenya’s most visited and highly recommended tourist destinations of all time.
With Nakuru’s unique locations, beautiful destinations, and parks, you can choose from a variety of natural havens for picnics, sundowners, and relaxation with your loved ones, family, or friends. If you can’t decide where to put your picnic blanket, try one of these popular spots.
List Of Best Picnic Sites In Nakuru County
1. Menengai Crater
If you enjoy picnicking, Menengai Crater should be on your to-do list. It is a massive volcano with one of the world’s largest calderas on the Rift Valley floor. It formed approximately 200,000 years ago, and the prominent 12×8 km caldera formed approximately 8,000 years ago. So, what might someone do in a caldera? For starters, the view from Menengai Crater is spectacular. If you are interested in the amazing formation of the Rift Valley and the volcanic forces that resulted in the crater, you can test your knowledge as part of your picnic. This is a good picnic site for camping and bird watching.
2. Lord Egerton Castle
Also known as the “Castle of Love”. Lord Maurice Egerton of Tatton built the architectural marvel in the 1930s. Lord Egerton arrived in Kenya in the 1920s and settled in the Nakuru region, where other royals, such as Lord Delamere, resided. Later, he constructed a four-room cottage to impress the Austrian princess he was about to marry. The young lady, on the other hand, was unimpressed and only stayed for two hours in the compound. This prompted Egerton to build a larger house, and in 1938 he laid the groundwork for the 52-roomed castle.
The magnificent mansion still did not fit the lady’s status, and she left for England in 1954, refusing to marry him. Visit this magnificent site to learn the full story of Egerton’s heartbreak and devastation. You’ll also hear how he pinned notes to tree branches to warn women not to enter his compound. On a busy day, there are different kinds of people, from families and friends on picnics, church groups, romantic couples, dance and youth groups, tourists and single people too. They have a very humble outlet with chips, soda and things like that. The gardens are okay and clean and the llamas are in the back.
3. Hyrax Hill Pre-historic Site and Museum
Hyrax Hill, located opposite Naka Estate, has a sublime view at the top of the hill. It is an excellent place to spend time with your loved one because it is not crowded. It is important to note that Hyrax Hill is a prehistoric site. It is a rocky spur with a summit elevation of approximately 1,900 meters above sea level. Louis Leaky discovered the site while excavating in 1926. It was named after a small mammal that lives in rocky areas. The animals were once common in the area, but their numbers have declined due to urbanization. There is a picnic area, a camping area, a nature trail, a beautiful view of Lake Nakuru, and a Tortoise Pit. Hyrax Hill is in the centre of the Rift Valley, about 4km from Nakuru town.
4. Hell’s Gate National Park
Hell’s Gate National Park is located on Lake Naivasha’s southern shore. This incredible park is well-known for its naturally formed rock towers. This destination’s high cliffs and eroded gulleys must be quite soothing. The best thing about this national park is that it is made up of two extinct volcanoes named Olkaria and Hobley. Furthermore, the Hell’s Gate Gorge contains two volcanic plugs known as the Central Tower and Fischer’s Tower. The Central Tower is identified as the smaller gorge that runs south to the hot springs.
This park is a great place to go sightseeing because it has a diverse range of flora and fauna. You can easily see zebra, buffalo, eland, giraffe, hartebeest, Thomson’s gazelles, baboons, and the exquisite Chandler’s mountain reedbuck. This park also has lions, cheetahs, and leopards. More than 100 species of birds have been discovered here, including Verreaux’s eagles, vultures, swifts, and augur buzzards. Klipspringer, a shy antelope that has adapted to living on rocks, lives among the massive cliffs.
Hells Gate National Park is among the beautiful places in Kenya to have a picnic experience, the park has a beautiful picnic site found at the ranger’s post and another one at the bottom of Fischer’s Tower. While on your picnic experience, be careful with your packed lunch as there are bold monkeys on the sites that can snatch your meals.
5. Lake Nakuru National Park
Lake Nakuru National Park is one of the most visited game parks in Kenya, attracting thousands of travellers every year. The park is famous for its flamingos, Lake Nakuru is also home to other bird species, wildlife, and attraction sites. There are bushy green parts in the park that you don’t see in Maasai Mara. Highlight the White Rhinos. We highly recommend this Park if you are short on time or prefer short and easy game drives. When visiting this park, expect to see rhinos, giraffes, zebras, baboons, and other wild animals. There are also several tourist attractions in the park, such as Makalia Falls and picnic sites such as Baboon Cliff and Lion Hill. Picnicking in Lake Nakuru National Park is very ideal and perfect for anyone who wants to get away from the city noise, take a vacation or even just enjoy the wild. The popular picnic sites in Lake Nakuru National Park are:
It is a picnic site near the western shores of Lake Nakuru in the northwestern part of the park, it’s high on the edge of a cliff and it’s a great place for sightseeing, bird watching and interacting with baboons as they are always around the cliff.
It is a picnic site on the northeastern shores of Lake Nakuru and it offers distant views of the lake but delightful views of the surroundings and animals, especially the lions.
It is a picnic site at the southwestern shores of Lake Nakuru at the western end of the park, with the most scenic views of the lake and the park’s surroundings. This picnic site is very popular for its scenic views that were captured in the movie of the same name
Other less popular spots are the Acacia Picnic Site and Pelican Picnic Site. All picnic sites are accessible by car from the park’s different gates and they all have sanitary facilities, sitting areas and parking areas. All the highlighted picnics are raised above the ground, thus bird watching and game viewing are at their best and the visitors will be availed to most areas where the animals and birds can be spotted. Couple visitors can use these picnic sports to enhance their picnic experience by providing better photo moments, couples can also cut the cake at these wonderful picnic spots or areas.
Tourists can picnic in Lake Nakuru National Park at any time they want throughout the year; however, it is more appealing when you have a picnic in Lake Nakuru National Park during the dry season when there limited chance of rainfall. The dry months include January, February, June, July, August, and September. It is always good to have your best picnic between 10 to 5 pm when the weather is cool with moderate sunshine. This provides the perfect environment for refreshments and relaxing as you chill on the raised ridges.
6. Kariandusi Pre-historic Site
Kariandusi is an archaeological site located on the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway, east of Lake Elementaita. It was discovered in 1928 by Louis Leakey, a well-known palaeontologist, during one of his first visits to the central Rift Valley. The location is well-known for its heavy hand axes, cleaver specimens, excavated fossils, and volcanic glass knives. Other tourist attractions in Kariandusi include a museum exhibition hall and an archaeological site. There is a gorge, a cave, a picnic area, and a nature trail among them.
7. Crescent Island Game Conservancy
There is just one “Crescent Island Game Sanctuary”. Located on Lake Naivasha, in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya. It is one of the most beautiful parks in Kenya and is often called Naivasha’s best-kept secret. Surrounded by water, it is a peninsula and is currently only accessible by boat from the East or West side.
So head over to Crescent Island spend the morning, and afternoon or bring a picnic and spend the whole day with the beautiful birds and graceful animals. The shores host abundant birdlife including pelicans, cormorants, and fish-eagles with their haunting cry. There are more animals per acre than in any other Kenyan Park, hence many film companies have been to the Island to film the herds of Wildebeest, Waterbuck, Zebra, and Gazelle. Take a short boat ride and you are among the animals. Sit among the giraffes and zebras and just contemplate life.
8. Lake Elementaita
Lake Elementaita is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Great Rift Valley. Lake Elementaita is home to over 400 bird species including the famous flamingos and for that reason, it’s a protected area to help conserve the birdlife on the lake plus the lake is listed as a UNESCO heritage site so it needs to be protected; Lake Elementaita is also a Ramsar site. The lake’s location is a short distance from Gilgil Town. The best way to see different species of birds, as well as gazelles, warthogs, and elands, is to explore this region on foot. Love the colourful scenery. Several hot springs will be visible as you travel south of Lake Elementaita. Locals enjoy activities such as fishing and picnicking. Have a meal in the bushy plains around the lake, you can choose to have a picnic in the bushes or have a candle-lit dinner as you view the lake waters glowing in the evening. You can also camp out under the sky in the bushy plains as you experience the lake’s weather and surroundings, listen to the bird sounds and if lucky see zebras pass by up close.
