How to Visit the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Refuge in Nairobi, Kenya

Quite possibly one of the best things to do when visiting Nairobi, Kenya is to visit the orphaned baby elephants at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Here, you can watch the baby elephants get their daily milk bottle feeding as well as see them play and frolic in the mud. Oh, and you can pet them too!

Founded by Daphne Sheldrick in memory of her late husband, David, a renowned naturalist and warden – the orphanage embodies their lifelong commitment to safeguarding Kenya’s wildlife. If you’re interested in visiting the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Refuge in Nairobi, Kenya, read on! I’ll give you everything you need to know about visiting the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant nursery in 2025 – and answer the question “Is it worth seeing?” so let’s begin!

What is the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage?

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant nursery is dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and reintegration of orphaned elephants. Established in 1977, it is one of the most successful elephant rescue and rehabilitation programs in the world. The orphanage provides round-the-clock care for orphaned elephants, many of whom are victims of poaching, human/wildlife conflict or natural disasters. The elephants are raised by a team of keepers, who provide them with specialized care, including milk feedings and medical treatment. The ultimate goal of the orphanage is to prepare the elephants for reintroduction into the wild. Additionally, the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage plays a vital role in raising awareness about the plight of elephants and the importance of wildlife conservation.

Where is the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust?

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is located on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya.

To get here, you can take an Uber, a taxi, get here as part of a safari package or tour, or hire a private driver for the day. We had a private driver.

A few other popular Nairobi tourist attractions are nearby:

Nairobi National Park, which is a great choice if you’re only in the area for a few days and don’t have time for a full-on safari package. But it’s also a good choice if you’re going to the elephant nursery anyway due to a new fee structure, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
Giraffe Center: You can feed Rothschild giraffes here. It’s also where the famous Giraffe Manor is! Lucky you if you get to stay there.
Kazuri Bead Factory: Not really my style, but if you like beads and handmade high quality jewelry, you might want to check it out!

When to visit the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust?

This Nairobi tourist attraction is open all year (except Christmas day), 7 days a week. It opens for tourists for only an hour daily from 11am – noon to see the orphaned elephants get their midday mud bath and milk feeding. You must have a reservation in advance to visit!

We made our reservation about 3 weeks in advance. We were easily able to get the date we wanted. People can cancel so if you don’t see availability for your specific date, keep checking their calendar to see if something opens up.

How much does it cost to visit the Sheldrick Wildlife Elephant Orphanage?

The fee structure for the Sheldrick Wildlife Elephant Orphanage has changed and it is much more expensive (and a bit more complicated) to visit the elephant orphanage than it was when we visited. When booking your reservation, you will need to pay a $20 fee per person. In addition to this fee, you are required to pay a fee for a Nairobi National Park entrance, regardless if you’re going into the park or not. This was not in place when we visited (March 2023).

RELATED: Is Nairobi National Park worth visiting? I’ll break it down!

To add to this, in Jan. 2024, Nairobi National Park nearly tripled its entry fees. What was a $40 (per person, per day) fee, is now $100 per person, per day. You will need to pay this fee to visit the Sheldrick Wildlife Elephant Orphanage whether or not you are going to Nairobi National Park.

So in other words, you have to pay $20 to visit the Orphanage, AND pay a fee to enter Nairobi National Park — which is $100. For a grand total of $120.

This new fee structure makes the Sheldrick Wildlife Elephant Orphanage much, much more expensive to visit. I paid $15 in 2023; visitors now will pay $120 per person!

To pay the Nairobi National Park fee, you will need to pay separate from your booking fee to the orphanage. The Sheldrick website has all of the steps laid out for you.

If you visit the orphanage as part of a tour, you won’t have to worry about securing your entrance fees yourself; your tour operator will take care of it all for you (and of course, pass on the cost to you). If you book this on your own, you will need to follow the steps on their website to get your park pass.

You cannot get around this fee; Nairobi National Park has placed a new entrance at the Kenya Wildlife Service Workshop/Staff gate on Magadi Road, right before the entrance to Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. You will be asked to show your park pass or pay before gaining access to the nursery. If you take a taxi or Uber, your driver will also be asked to pay the fee. The fee for Kenyan citizens is much, much less than it is for foreigners.

Because this is incredibly expensive, if you really want to see the elephants at the orphanage, I highly, highly suggest you add on a game drive safari in Nairobi National Park before or after your visit to the nursery. You’re paying the park entrance fee anyway; might as well get something out of it. You can book a one-day safari package for the elephant orphanage and Nairobi National Park from SafariBookings.com

Related: How to choose a safari tour operator

My Experience at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage

Tourist viewing time is daily from 11am – 12 noon, and you will want to arrive at the orphanage a little bit before they open it up for tourists. Tourists typically line up at the gate and wait for it to open. We were one of the first groups there.

As 11am approaches, a worker will approach each individual, and get you checked in to visit. Angela Sheldrick herself did this on our visit.

When the gates open up, you’ll be lead to a large viewing area, where you will watch the elephants from behind the fence. Because visitation is limited, everyone will get a great viewing spot – you don’t have to worry about jostling other tourists to get a look at the elephants.

A lead keeper will MC the viewing event and explain everything you’re about to see, as well as give you the story of each elephant and why they are here at the sanctuary (you’ll hear stories of poaching as well as elephants being abandoned due to inclement weather, and more). The elephants will come down to the viewing area/mud pit from the forest (it’s so cute to see how they prance joyfully towards the mud pit for their feeding and playtime! They’re clearly very happy!)

The keepers will feed the elephants with milk bottles; some elephants are talented enough to drink out of the milk bottle on their own – it’s so cute! When the feeding is done, the elephants will play around in the mud and many will walk right up to the fencing — when they do that, you are welcome to pet the elephant! It was so much fun! The last part of the visit is reserved for Q&A.

The whole thing lasts about an hour. When it’s finished, you have the opportunity to adopt an elephant for a year ($50) and shop at the gift shop. All in all, it was a blast — definitely a highlight of our East Africa vacation!

RELATED: Going on safari and don’t know where to begin? Read my crash course guide on how to start planning an East Africa safari.

Is Visiting the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Worth It? Especially with the huge fee increase?

I’ll be frank with you. If you are not planning on going to Nairobi National Park, it is not worth the $120/pp fee to visit this elephant nursery. If you were already planning on visiting Nairobi National Park anyway — and visiting it on the same day as the elephant nursery — then yes.

However, I absolutely LOVED visiting the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. It was so much fun – getting to see and pet the elephants up close, seeing them drink their milk out of the bottles, hearing their stories — both my sister and I adopted elephants after our visit. It was the best thing we did in Nairobi! So ultimately, you’ll have to decide if this experience is worth $120/per person.