Amboseli National Park is located in Loitoktok District, Rift Valley Province of Kenya, south east of the capital city, Nairobi.

The park is 39,206 hectares (392 km2; 151 sq. mi) in size at the core of an 8,000 square kilometres (3,100 sq. mi) ecosystem that spreads across the Kenya-Tanzania border.

The park is famous for being the best place in Africa to get close to free-ranging elephants among other wildlife species. Other attraction of the park includes opportunities to meet the Maasai people and also offers spectacular views of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest free-standing mountain in the world.

Amboseli has an endless underground water supply filtered through thousands of feet of volcanic rock from Mt. Kilimanjaro’s ice cap, which funnels into two clear water springs in the heart of the park.
However, the climatic pendulum can swing from drought to flood, and in the early 1990’s ceaseless rain changed Amboseli into a swamp. A few years later the rains failed and the grass-covered plains turned to dust.

There are two ways to get to Amboseli National Park.

By Road:

Getting to Amboseli from Nairobi will take you about two and a half hours, a distance of 228 kms along  the Nairobi- Mombasa highway.  The road is smooth and scenic all the way to Emali, a small town on the main road to Mombasa, where you branch off to the right at a well signposted junction. Using this route, you will enter Amboseli National Park through the Kimana Gate to the East of the park.

Alternatively on can go through Athi River town along the Nairobi-Arusha highway,  through Isinya, to Namanga Town, a distance of 240 kms. This is a border town between Kenya and Tanzania. From Namanga to the Meshanani Gate will take you about 45 mins to an hour depending on the vehicle you are travelling in. This section of  road  is not tarmac and can occasionally get very rough especially in the rainy season.

By Air:

There are a few air charter companies that fly to Amboseli. It takes roughly half an hour . By far the best way to travel, but you do miss out on seeing more of the country. Look out for the old volcanoes.