Safari to Shimba Hills

best known for its population of elephants

Shimba Hills is an upland area centred on a small wildlife reserve just 15 km inland from the Diani Beach area of the southern Kenya Coast.

This 300 square kilometres of undulating hills is actually of much greater significance than first meets the eye, being the most northerly section of the Eastern Arc Mountains, an ancient range across East Africa that massively pre-dates the relatively young but much better known Rift Valley landscapes.

Other higher altitude sections of these mountains, notably the Usambara and Udzungwa mountains in Tanzania, are renowned for the extraordinary amount of endemic species that they host. This is not quite so true of the Shimba Hills, but they do remain of significant interest to naturalists.

The most obvious highlights of the area are the good populations of elephants and giraffes, although if you go with a good guide you should also be able to encounter a good deal of lesser but equally interesting flora and fauna.

The main potential negatives are the difficulty in accessing and observing the wildlife in the area, the encroachment of human settlement around the reserve and the fact that, being so close to the busy Diani Beach area, there can be significant minibus traffic in core areas.

There one decent accommodation option in the area is Kutazama, a very intimate and relatively high quality lodge set high in the hills, far from the madding crowds down on the coast.

To be honest we very rarely recommend the Shimba Hills for inclusion in trips, or at least we very rarely include nights here, it’s just too peripheral for the majority of people.

However the area can easily be visited on a day trip if you are staying in the Msambweni, Kinondo and Diani sections of the coast.

usually a day trip from Diani