Half-Day David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust - Elephant Orphanage Tour from Nairobi

A tear jerking visit to the Elephant Orphanage. Great to see the love and care that the orphans receive and also lovely to see that they all appear happy and content in their surroundings. Our driver picked us up from our central Nairobi hotel at 9.30am and we arrived in plenty of time for the 11am viewing. We were lucky that it was a Saturday and traffic is much lighter, on weekdays journey times can be double our 40 minutes. The driver ensured that we got to the front of the queue and once inside escorted us quickly to the ring to where the elephants come, making sure that we got a front row position, which was much appreciated. The baby elephants are released first, bounding through the bush to the ring where they are given their milk bottles. They all looked really happy and relaxed and knew their routine. Each one was introduced to us and their backgoround explained. After about 30 minutes, the little ones all leave, to be replaced by the older orphans, many of whom can hold their own bottles in their trunks. The slow process of reintegrating them back into the wild and a suitable herd was explained to us. If you are thinking of adopting an elephant 50 a year, it would be worth while doing some research prior to your visit to familiarise yourself with their names and get an idea of who you might like to adopt. Each one is cute and as they come charging through it's hard to remember their names. Also, whatever the weather, take a hat as you could be standing in full sun for an hour. It was really cloudy and cool when we left the hotel, but when the sun broke through at about 11.15am, it quickly became very hot.

I had booked with trip advisor one day after arriving in Kenya, now that I know how much the trip should have cost, I feel you have sourly taken advantage, the package is way over what the market price is. The Driver was competent and friendly, and I am sure it is not his fault, he had not been communicated our phone number, nor the proper pick up point. When I called at 10am the number listed was in mombasa, by the time I was given the proper contact number and the driver figured out our location we left for the orphanage at 10h30, hence we arrived late missing the feeding. Once there, a large crowd was already surrounding the viewing area making difficult to find a space for myself and my two children. When I saw that the entrance was 500ksh per person for entrance I was peeved, with the price we paid for the trip, there should have been included either a meal or the adoption of an elephant, shame...ps I also wished to point out that though we enjoyed seeing the baby elephants running about the visit right away became a formal one hour presentation, presented in a monotone voice, about why the elephants need to be protected as well as the back ground of all 21 babies, it soon became a search for donations which continued throughout the whole viewing, with much repetition of information. The foundation is doing a wonderful, honorable work but the presentation was too long, boring and not adapted for children.