Elephant Nursery + Giraffe Centre Day

The two animal experiences children remember, in one unhurried morning. The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust nursery opens to the public between 11:00 and 12:00, and in that hour the orphaned elephant calves come in from the forest to be bottle-fed by the keepers who sleep beside them. Their keepers tell you each calf's story, how it was found and what happened to its mother, and it is told plainly rather than sentimentally. Afterwards it is the Giraffe Centre at Langata, where the Rothschild's giraffes walk up to a raised wooden platform and take food pellets from an outstretched hand. Small children can do this from the arms of an adult. There is one thing about this trip that almost every operator handles badly, so here it is straight. The Sheldrick nursery is inside Nairobi National Park. You enter through the KWS Mbagathi Gate on Magadi Road, and Kenya Wildlife Service requires every visitor to pay full park entry, currently USD 80 per non-resident adult and USD 40 per child, regardless of whether you go on into the park at all. That is on top of the USD 20 Sheldrick donation and the KES 1,500 Giraffe Centre entry. All three are inside the price you see here. When you find this same combination advertised elsewhere at USD 45 or USD 50, that is transport only, and the difference is collected at the gate. Price per person falls with group size: USD 180 at six sharing, USD 195 at four, USD 240 to USD 255 at two, and from USD 330 for one. Children aged three to twelve are charged at seventy-five per cent, and under-threes are free. Two practical notes: the nursery must be booked by email in advance and takes no same-day visitors, and Bomas roadworks on Magadi Road mean we leave early to clear the Galleria junction before 09:45.