Rift Valley

Rift Valley Trips

Twenty million years ago the Earth’s crust tore apart, creating the phenomenal 8,000km Great Rift Valley and giving rise to Kenya’s most spectacular scenery. It’s a landscape distinguished by contrasts: uninhabitable desert, beautiful deep blue and green lakes, arid plains, sheer escarpments and towering volcanic mountains.

Rift Valley holidays have endless possibilities. Drive by a pride of lions or a solitary leopard, watch elephants protecting their babies as they search for food and sit by a lake watching crocs, hippos and rhinos in the mud while witnessing a million and more flamingos taking flight from the lake. See it all on one of our Kenya safari holidays, and if you’ve a head for heights, it’s hard to beat a sunrise balloon ride as the light and warmth of a new day brings the plains of the valley to life below you.

Kenya’s top holiday experiences: The Great Rift Valley

The Rift Valley Lakes: Relax by the freshwater lakes of Naivasha and Baring,o where, as you take in the myriad birdlife, sleepy crocodiles stare sideways at you and fat hippos wallow in the mud. A boat journey onto the lake gets you closer to the birds and you may even get a fish eagle swooping down to your boat in anticipation of food. 

Enter Hell’s Gate: On the drive through Olkaria, natural vents erupt with huge sighs and groans as you pass through to enter Hell’s Gate, one of the most intriguing, surreal places in east Africa. As you’re allowed to walk or cycle unaccompanied through the park, you can come face-to-face with grazing zebras, be looked down on by towering giraffes and stare up at the two huge volcanic towers, sometimes teeming with hyraxes. 

Teeter on the Losiolo Escarpment: When you stand on this knife-edge ridge and look at the 2,000m sheer drop down into the Suguta Valley, the longest drop in the Rift Valley, you’ll understand why it’s also known as the ‘World’s End’. Try to get there just before dawn and as the sun rises: you’ll see the breathtaking views slowly unfolding below.