Amboseli is the park where you watch elephants walk across an open plain with the snow-capped summit of Mount Kilimanjaro rising behind them. That image, somehow real and surreal at the same time, is what makes Amboseli one of the most photographed parks in Kenya. The park sits in the shadow of Africa’s tallest mountain along the Tanzanian border, about 240 kilometres from Nairobi. Despite being one of Kenya’s smaller parks, it consistently delivers some of the most dramatic wildlife scenes anywhere in the country. The best time to visit Amboseli is during the dry seasons, which run from June to October and January to February. During these months the skies are clearest and the views of Kilimanjaro are sharpest, especially in the early morning before clouds build around the summit. The park can get muddy and some tracks become impassable during the long rains in April and May. Amboseli is famous for its elephants, and rightly so. The park protects one of the best-studied elephant populations in the world, and the herds here are relaxed around vehicles, giving you incredibly close and calm encounters. Lions, buffalos, giraffes, zebras, and wildebeest are all commonly seen, and the wetland areas around Observation Hill attract large numbers of hippos and waterbirds. Getting there is easy. The drive from Nairobi takes about four to five hours through Emali or Namanga. There are also scheduled and charter flights into Amboseli airstrip from Wilson Airport, which takes around an hour. Whether you are a first-time safari-goer or a returning Kenya resident looking for a weekend escape, Amboseli is one of those destinations that never gets old.