Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary

Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary is one of Kenya’s best-kept safari secrets — a stunning private wildlife sanctuary nestled in the ancient and mystical Taita Hills of southeastern Kenya, just a few hours from Mombasa and conveniently located along the main Nairobi-Mombasa highway. Covering approximately 28,000 acres of diverse wilderness ranging from dense indigenous forest and open savannah grasslands to seasonal rivers and rocky hillside terrain, Taita Hills offers an intimate and exclusive safari experience that feels a world away from the busier national parks.
As a private sanctuary bordering the vast Tsavo West National Park, Taita Hills enjoys free-ranging wildlife movement across its unfenced boundaries with Tsavo — meaning the same extraordinary wildlife that roams Kenya’s largest national park complex freely wanders through the sanctuary, offering exceptional game viewing in a completely exclusive and uncrowded environment. With strictly limited visitor numbers and no day trippers, every game drive in Taita Hills feels like a private safari in your own personal wilderness.
The sanctuary supports impressive wildlife populations including elephants, lions, leopards, buffaloes, cheetahs, wild dogs, giraffes, zebras, hippos and a remarkable diversity of antelope species. Birdwatchers will be thrilled by the sanctuary’s extraordinary avian diversity — the nearby Taita Hills Forest is home to several critically endangered endemic bird species found nowhere else on Earth, including the Taita thrush, Taita apalis and Taita white-eye, making it one of Kenya’s most important birding destinations.
Taita Hills is home to two legendary safari properties — the iconic Sarova Salt Lick Game Lodge and the classic Sarova Taita Hills Game Lodge — both of which are among Kenya’s most celebrated and architecturally unique safari experiences. Salt Lick Lodge is built on stilts above natural salt licks and waterholes, attracting elephants, buffaloes and other wildlife right beneath your room day and night — creating wildlife encounters of extraordinary closeness and intimacy that few other lodges in Africa can match. Falling asleep to the sound of elephants drinking just metres below your room is an experience that guests describe as nothing short of magical.
The sanctuary’s location in the Taita Hills adds a dramatic and verdant highland dimension to the classic Kenya safari experience. The hills themselves — among the oldest mountains in Africa — are draped in ancient indigenous cloud forest, with misty peaks, cascading streams and a cool highland atmosphere that provides a refreshing contrast to the hot savannah plains below. The Taita Hills Forest fragments are recognised as one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, harbouring extraordinary concentrations of endemic plants, insects, reptiles and birds in a remarkably small area.
Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary is perfectly positioned as part of a classic southeastern Kenya safari circuit, combining seamlessly with Tsavo East, Tsavo West and the Indian Ocean beaches of Diani or Mombasa for an extraordinary Kenya safari and beach holiday combination. Drive through Tsavo on your way to the coast, stop for a night or two at Taita Hills, and wake up to elephants at your waterhole before continuing to the white sand beaches — the ultimate Kenya experience. Savanna Sojourns Safaris designs bespoke Taita Hills packages that make the most of this magnificent and underrated destination.