There is nothing like a walk in the hills and these, being so close to Nairobi, are just unmissable. Looking down into the plain is awesome and it is, of course, the burial site of Dennis Fitch Hatton of Out of Africa, played by Robert Redford. The only downside is that you must have a guide/guard as the "bandits" can be very active, ie it can be dangerous up there.

As with all the reviews, it is a great place to hike, no scree, and much on grass. Yes at the entrance , they say you need armed escort ($) from one of their "rangers".... if you are going to 4th Hill. ...just say NO. Whilst in the past some young Massai may have conducted a robbery or 2 on 4 th hill (the one with a bit of tree cover), me think this is excuse for them now to get a pair to "lol, guide"you. The biggest problem on weekends is number of people and school kids and church groups.If you happen to be alone, at the start of 4 th hill is where some buffalo roam, so caution advised, more so than robbers, It is great to be at 8400 feet and the vistas of Rift Valley are great...air is clean !!!

Ngong Hills is a very historical site in Kenya, situated about 2 hours on road from Nairobi city. This place was put on the map by Karen Blixen’s bestseller book “Out of Africa”, which later became a renowned movie. Having watched the movie and read the book, I was really looking forward to hiking these famous hills.

This is not a free hike. There is an entrance fee of around US$ 8 dollars at the gate of this National Park. There are also armed rangers, who will charge tourists around US$ 50 dollars (a huge amount in Kenyan currency!) to accompany them on the hike and protect them from possible thieves. These rangers can be very pushy and intimidating, trying to persuade tourists to hire their services (at least this was our experience with them).

For those not wishing to hire the services of rangers or hiking guides, it’s highly recommended to go on big groups, mixed with male and females. This is to avoid bad experiences, such as being mugged by thieves hiding in the bush, as this has happened to some of our friends in the past.

I highly enjoyed hiking Ngong Hills. The views from the seven hills are amazing!

To see photos of the Ngong Hills visit my trip blog: www.trottingallaround.blogspot.com

We did a lot of research on hiking the Ngong Hills before we went and what we read online appeared to be very untrue, after we hiked the Hills for ourselves. If you are not a citizen or resident of Kenya this can be a very expensive ordeal. When we arrived in Ngong, we located the Kenya Wildlife Service, expecting that this was where we would find a guard to accompany us. Instead, they directed us to the building next door which was we think a Kenya military building. It was full of Kenyan military soldiers. We were told by the commander that we (2 of us) had to be escorted by 2 Kenyan military soldiers that cost 1,500 ksh a piece to escort us. We reluctantly paid with some argument, considering that there were only two of us and two soldiers was very unnecessary. Our total bill so far was 3,000 ksh. We then left with the soldiers heading up to the start of the actual hike, where we again had to pay a fee, this time to the Kenyan Wildlife service. For a foreigner it costs 800 ksh per person. Our total bill ended up being 4,600 shilling for two of us to climb Ngong Hills. It was gorgeous, but the soldiers were definitely not needed. We also saw that every other group only had 1 soldier, so we did indeed pay more than we needed to. We went on a Saturday and there were many groups of students, and other events that were happening along the hills. We felt very safe. If you do not take a guard (I am not completely sure if you can go without one, but I would recommend trying) and are concerned about safety, I would recommend staying on the first 3 hills, because they are very open and for us felt extremely safe.