Reviews of The Cliff

"The Cliff is a fenced property which means it is safe to walk around without escort, even at night. It’s in a lovely location overlooking Lake Nakuru.

The staff were all very helpful and friendly. The food was of a very good standard and we enjoyed staying there.

The room was very large and well appointed.

There is no air conditioning but given the altitude it is not needed." See all these reviews: 15n in Kenya

"We (my wife Nancy and I) enjoyed staying at The Cliff very much, even for just part of two days and one night. The location at the edge of a cliff looking east over Lake Nakuru meant that we had an incredible view of the sun rising over the lake. Our tent was very spacious, the largest one that we had during our 3 weeks in Kenya and Tanzania.

The food at lunch and dinner was excellent - all of the menu options were appealing and our selections were healthy and tasty. I especially appreciated that the menus included fish entrees. The tables were well spaced throughout the dining area. Staff were very professional, friendly, and helpful. The facility had a very spacious, comfortable bar/living area. We also noticed that the lodge had a very nice swimming pool which we did not have time to use.

We came to Lake Nakuru primarily to see the bird life. I had visited the lake more than 20 years earlier on one of my first visits to Kenya for work and remembered being impressed by the number and variety of birds.

While our pre-trip research indicated that ecological changes in the lake had reduced the flamingo population, we were not disappointed. Maruska, our incredibly helpful trip planner at Expert Africa, arranged for us to do an ornithological safari on the second day of our visit. Cliff staff took us onto the lake in a pontoon boat for more than two hours early in the morning. We saw many different types of birds - pelicans, flamingos, cormorants, eagles - many of them very close-up. We even saw hippos swimming in the lake. The guides on the boat, especially Mary, were very knowledgeable about bird life which enriched our experience, as did the breakfast that we ate on the boat.

We also enjoyed the drive from Nairobi to the lake. Our guide chose the scenic route which overlooked the Rift Valley for quite a while, providing us very interesting views.

The game drive that we did on the first afternoon and then again on our way out of the park on our return to Nairobi was a huge bonus. We saw the big five, the only time that we saw all five in one place during our safaris in six different national parks in Kenya and Tanzania. We saw more than nine rhinos. Our guide also drove along the lake front so that we could observe the bird life close to the shore.

Finally, our private guide Peter was excellent. We enjoyed his company very much for a few reasons. First, he was very knowledgeable about the flora and fauna in the park and knew where we were most likely to see the land-based wildlife that we were most interested in - lion, leopard, elephant, and rhino.

Second, Peter had wide-ranging interests and was a good conversationalist. During our almost 8-hour round-trip drive from Nairobi and back we had a lively conversation about life in the U.S. and Kenya, the history of the places that we passed along the road, and other topics.

While we enjoyed the drive to Lake Nakuru, it seems important to point out that the traffic on the scenic route was very heavy, resulting in a longer-than-expected travel time to Lake Nakuru. The road is used heavily by large lorries transporting goods from Nairobi toward Uganda. The fact that schools were on vacation that week - we saw many families with children on the road - also may have contributed to the traffic congestion." See all these reviews: 9n in Tanzania; 1n in Kenya