Kenya Discovery Guide

Kenya invented the safari as an industry and still does it better than almost anywhere, but it is far more varied than the game parks suggest. Mount Kenya carries glaciers on the equator, the Rift Valley lakes hold flamingos in the hundreds of thousands, and the Swahili coast at Lamu and Mombasa is an Afro-Arab culture a thousand years old. It is also the easiest country in East Africa to travel in, with English an official language and mature tourism infrastructure.

The main travel issue

Everyone wants the same months: July to October brings the wildebeest migration to the Maasai Mara, and the good camps are booked a year ahead at the year's highest prices. Park-hopping is done by light aircraft with strict baggage limits, usually around fifteen kilograms in a soft bag.

The solution

Book that far out if the crossings are the point -- or come in January and February, the other dry window, when visibility is just as good, it is calving season, and far fewer people are there. The British advisory excludes Lamu County apart from Lamu and Manda islands, and the Somali border counties.

The classic two weeks

Nairobi, then the Maasai Mara for three or four nights, Amboseli for elephants against Kilimanjaro, and the coast at Diani or Watamu to finish. Fly between them — the roads are long and the light aircraft network is good.

If you want fewer vehicles

The northern parks. Samburu has species found nowhere further south — Grevy’s zebra, reticulated giraffe, the gerenuk that stands on its hind legs to browse. Laikipia’s conservancies allow walking and night drives that the national parks do not.

If you want the coast

Lamu is a UNESCO-listed Swahili town with no cars, donkeys in the lanes and dhows in the channel. Watamu and Kilifi have reefs and creeks; Diani has the beach. Mombasa’s old town and Fort Jesus are worth a day.

If you want mountains

Mount Kenya can be trekked to Point Lenana at 4,985 metres in four or five days without technical climbing. Hell’s Gate, near Naivasha, is one of the few parks you can cycle and walk through.

Kenya has more than forty ethnic groups and a national identity that has been deliberately built on top of them, mostly successfully.

Harambee

Pulling together — the national motto and a genuine practice. Communities fundraise collectively for school fees, hospital bills and funerals, and a harambee is a formal event with pledges read out. It fills gaps the state does not reach.

Ethnicity and politics

Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin, Kamba, Maasai and many others each have their own language and traditions, and ethnicity remains a significant factor in electoral politics — the 2007 violence turned on it. Kenyans discuss this openly and with a good deal of dark humour.

Running

Kenyan dominance of middle- and long-distance running comes overwhelmingly from one highland region around Iten and Eldoret, among the Kalenjin. It has been studied for decades without a settled explanation, and it is a genuine source of national pride.

Money by phone

M-Pesa launched in 2007 and changed how the country transacts. Rent, school fees, market stalls and taxi fares move by phone, and Kenya was doing this a decade before most rich countries. It is the clearest example of the leapfrogging Kenyans point to.

The choice that matters most here is where you stay. Kenya pioneered the community conservancy model — land owned and managed by the Maasai, Samburu and other communities who live on it, leased to lodges that pay them directly and employ them. The conservancies around the Mara and in Laikipia protect more land than the national parks do and keep vehicle numbers low. Choosing one over a park lodge is the single highest-impact decision available.

Vehicle behaviour at sightings is a real problem in the Mara in season, with dozens of vehicles crowding a cheetah kill. Ask your operator about their policy before booking, and be willing to leave a sighting.

Avoid anywhere offering contact with wild animals — walking with lions, cub petting, elephant rides. Legitimate sanctuaries such as the Sheldrick elephant orphanage do not offer them.

Cultural visits to Maasai villages vary enormously. Go through your conservancy or lodge, which will use communities they have a real relationship with, rather than a roadside operation.

July to October is the peak season and the reason most people come: dry, good visibility, animals concentrated at water, and the wildebeest migration in the Mara with the river crossings usually between July and September. Book a year ahead for the good camps.

January and February are the other dry window — hot, clear, excellent for game viewing and calving season in the southern parks, with fewer people than the northern summer.

The long rains run roughly March to May and are the low season: some camps close, tracks become difficult, the landscape is green and the prices are far lower. The short rains, in November and December, are lighter and rarely disruptive.

The coast follows a slightly different pattern — hot and humid year round, best from December to March and July to October, with the heaviest rain in April and May.

What a day costs, by how you travel

Relative cost across the country

Park and conservancy fees are the dominant cost and are non-negotiable. A safari is expensive anywhere in East Africa; the rest of Kenya is not.