As part of our recent trip to Kenya, we spent 3 days at Lake Naivasha. This part of the trip leaned into a bit of relaxation while being action and nature packed at the same time. We ate some incredible food and saw some amazing sights. I am so excited to share everything I found and can recommend from my trip to Naivasha.
Lake Naivasha
Lake Naivasha is a freshwater lake about an hour and a half drive North of Nairobi. It is situated in the Great Rift Valley in Nakuru County. Naivasha is a large lake that is well known for its hippo population and Crescent Island.
We stayed for 4 nights and 3 days and while our itinerary was packed, it also felt restful and lovely. I would go back in a heartbeat, so here’s everything we did and where we ate.
Where to stay in Naivasha
Because there were 3 of us on the trip, we decided to stay in a house as opposed to a hotel. We stayed at The Cowshed at Sungura which is an incredible property right on the shore of the lake.
The Cowshed was a stunning property with a full kitchen, fire pit, outdoor bath and a large garden. It has three bedrooms – two huge beds and one room with two single beds. My only complaint was that the upstairs rooms were already hot in August, so I worry it would be way too hot in summer. Even that couldn’t dampen my fondness of the place, though – it was truly one of the better bnbs I have stayed in.
There are a number of luxe bnbs available and some have a pool and probably aircon too. If you have the budget and are going in summer, I’d recommend looking for somewhere with one or both of these to keep cool.
Where you stay also depends on how much time you have and what you intend to achieve. There are also different levels for different budgets. If the budget is slimmer, Camp Carnelley’s looked great and has a fun, delicious restaurant (which we will chat about later). Carnelley’s is located close to the entrance for Hell’s Gate which is a major attraction in the area.
The Sopa is a popular hotel at Lake Naivasha. It is an all-inclusive resort on the bank of the lake, right near where we stayed. It is quite expensive and I think you could book something more unique for the price, but I didn’t stay there myself. I’d love to hear from someone who did and whether they thought it was worth it.
Last thoughts on where to stay in Naivasha
Wherever you choose, I recommend staying on the lake itself if you can. Animals free roam around the shores of the lake and it makes for an incredible experience. We had zebra, waterbuck and hippos graze 100m away from us while we ate dinner (we went inside to leave the hippo undisturbed, though). This was a key element of Lake Naivasha for me personally so I’d highly recommend staying on the water if possible.
It was also very cool to get dropped off at our accommodation via the Hippo Boat. It cost a bit more, but it meant we didn’t need to stress over getting to and from the regular boat launching spot. In the shallows it is very easy to get back into the boat, too.
Restaurant recommendations for Lake Naivasha
The best meal we had in Naivasha was at Kijiko at Sanctuary Farm. The food was absolutely divine and undoubtedly one of the best meals we had in the whole of Kenya. We went for lunch, but the breakfast and dinner menus look great as well.
We had an excellent dinner at Camp Carnelley’s and the dawa (a Kenyan cocktail) was also delicious. I had an A+ paneer masala – you can’t go wrong!
For brunch, it has to be The Coffee Hut. Not only were the food and coffee delicious, but the grounds were gorgeous too. A giraffe wandered over while we were having brunch! Better yet, there is a small collection of shops for you to buy ceramics, handwoven goods or even get your nails done. I would highly recommend this spot for your Naivasha brunch needs.
Because we had a kitchen, we did a bit of cooking ourselves. Buffalo Mall was a great spot for supermarket shopping. We bought a number of frozen meals from The Food Fairy and they were delicious.
Other restaurants that came recommended were Matteo’s for Italian food, Ranch House Bistro and Mother’s Kitchen for Kenyan food.
What to do in Lake Naivasha
Personally, my favourite activity was Crescent Island. Crescent Island is located in the lake and is jam packed with gorgeous, free roaming animals. You can walk around the island and pass right by giraffes, zebra, monkeys, wilderbeest – you name it.
We got to Crescent Island via a Hippo Boat which we organised to pick us up from our accomodation. This was very convenient and also allowed us a different perspective of the area we stayed in.
You can walk around Crescent Island yourself or pay for a guide. We chose to meander around ourselves. We walked the whole island which took about 1 hour 30 minutes from memory. The far side of the island was a bit emptier than the first side. If we had our time again, we both felt that we could have skipped the latter half of the island. This could have been because the ranger had just told us to watch out for the snakes which put us on edge, but I digress.
The cafe on Crescent Island (Island Fever Cafe) makes delicious ice cream and is well worth a stop. The menu looks great, too. Next time I would plan to explore the island and then have lunch and a drink here afterwards.
A Hippo Boat safari is another activity in Lake Naivasha (your accommodation will have a suggested company to book with). We did the Hippo Boat and Crescent Island at the same time. If you are particularly interested in hippo hunting I would suggest splitting them up as activities to get the most out of both. Hippos can be quite dangerous and (my personal opinion, terrifying) so I was happy to see them at a glance.
More things to do in Naivasha
At Sanctuary Farms, you can do a horse riding safari around their property. I was absolutely terrified the entire time because I can appreciate that horses are powerful and entitled to do what they want to do. However, it was an incredibly cool experience. We went after lunch at Kijiko and I can highly recommend it if you like horses. Side note: they have an orphaned baby zebra who follows the staff around like a little puppy. Worth going to the farm for that alone!
Of course, Hell’s Gate is a big tourist attraction in Naivasha. We opted to do cycling tour complete with a hike into the Gorge. We also cycled back which was just doable but certainly sweaty. I’d recommend starting as early as possible or going early to mid afternoon because the animals are more active in the mornings and evenings. It was also hot when we cycled back and I wouldn’t have wanted to go in the height of the day.
In terms of whether I would recommend cycling, I can’t decide. It was good fun but the road is a little bumpy which means you spend more time looking out for rocks than you do looking out for animals. You can walk to the gorge, do the gorge hike and then have a driver pick you up, which is potentially what I would recommend.
The gorge is supposedly what inspired The Lion King writers in terms of where Mufasa dies. Your guide will show you where the rock is and where the wilderbeest stampede happened.
Tips for Hell’s Gate
- Go very early to maximise your chances of seeing animals
- You’ll need to fill out an E Citizen form prior to entry into Hell’s Gate National park. We didn’t know this and so our guide did it for us at the entrance, but it took about 20 minutes. If you have gotten up early to go into the park, this starts eating into your lead time. It would be quicker and easier to do it the night before. I found E Citizen to be an absolute headache but it is the rules.
- There is a decent toilet at the entry to Hell’s Gate national park and one before you start the hike into the gorge. Bring tissues.
- Take cash. If you don’t have an e-sim and MPesa, you never know when you will need cash.
- Check your bike tyres to ensure they aren’t flat. Some of the bikes are a little worse for wear.
- Riding down to the gorge is pretty easy as it’s almost entirely on a slope. Coming up, however, is not that easy. If you are not fit, I would recommend enquiring about being picked up and driving the way back. I am not very fit and I just about survived but it was rough for a minute or two there.
- You may have read that the gorge has fatally flooded on previous occasions. The government have since built a number of emergency exits and safety measures in response to this.
Getting around Naivasha
Kenyans drive on the left side of the road as we do in Australia. The roads around Naivasha were decent but busy and Kenyan drivers really seem to do their own thing. Initially I had intended to hire a car for Naivasha, but on the whole I am glad I didn’t.
We organised taxis via WhatsApp with a local company suggested to us by our accomodation. It ended up being pretty expensive and the pricing schedule was a bit off. We were charged the same rate to drive somewhere, wait for us and drive us home as we were to simply drive us one way.
Anyway, ask your hotel or accomodation what or who they recommend. You can always find a taxi in town and ask for their number for future trips, but you can’t guarantee they will be available.
We didn’t try Uber while we were there because the wifi situation wasn’t great for the return trip. The lines at Safaricom were consistently super long, so we never got the esim we intended to get.
If you do have a driver, they are very happy to wait for you while you get lunch or do whatever you fancy doing. It’s a nice gesture to buy them a drink or lunch while they wait and to tip well.
Tips for Lake Naivasha
- Of all the places to do a bit of resting in Kenya, I found Naivasha to be the best one. It felt a little quieter and we were staying in such a relaxing little spot.
- I found the juxtaposition of our luxurious little stay and how the locals live to be quite tough. The contrast is stark and depressing. Despite this, the locals were warm, welcoming and extremely friendly.
- Tip generously, be kind and learn some Swahili! It goes a long way and people appreciate it.
- Naivasha was the trickiest spot for wifi and transport. An esim would really help here.
- The traffic around the lake and into town wasn’t too bad, but it was rough coming from the Masai Mara into Naivasha.
- When you find a tour guide or driver you like, ask for their WhatsApp. We got most of our recommendations from vendors we had met. Our driver from the Masai Mara recommended us Joe for the Hell’s Gate bike tour. He also organised our driver for our day trip from Nairobi to Amboseli.
- Naivasha used to have a large flamingo population, but the lake no longer supports them. Just in case you are excited to see flamingos (as we were) – they are no longer abundant (we didn’t see any).
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