Afrinkong
Nature & LandscapesThe Great Rift Valley
The escarpment drops away below the Naivasha road, holding a chain of soda lakes and dormant volcanoes.
Photo Sanjeed Quazi / Pexels
KENYA · Tourism
Where the Safari Was Invented
The Mara migration, Amboseli elephants under Kilimanjaro, the Rift Valley lakes, the Swahili coast and a capital with a national park on its doorstep.
East AfricaRegion
27Tourism experiences
Where the safari was inventedKnown for
01
Featured destinations
Where the country actually takes you.
Nature & Landscapes
Mount Kenya, 5,199 m
Equatorial glaciers, giant lobelia, and a trekking route to Point Lenana that needs no technical climbing.
WaterfallsThomson's Falls
The Ewaso Ng'iro drops seventy-four metres into a fern gorge at Nyahururu, on the way north to Samburu.
Photo Никита Шелайкин / Pexels
Flamingo Country
Nakuru, Bogoria and Elementaita hold soda water, hot springs and flamingo in numbers that change by the season.
The Swahili Coast
Diani, Watamu and Lamu: white sand, warm Indian Ocean, and a coastline that traded with Arabia for a thousand years.
Photo Zebari Visuals / Pexels
Kakamega, the Last of It
The only Kenyan remnant of the Guineo-Congolian rainforest that once ran clear across the continent.
02
Wildlife & safari
What lives here, and how you see it without disturbing it.
Wildlife
Wildlife on the Savannah
The Big Five, plus the reticulated giraffe and Grevy's zebra that live nowhere south of here.
The Great Migration
Between July and October a million wildebeest cross the Mara river, and the crocodiles are already waiting.
Photo Hugo Sykes / Pexels
Rhino, Counted Daily
Ol Pejeta and Lewa run some of Africa's most closely monitored rhino populations, funded by the beds on the property.
Photo Twilight Kenya / Pexels
03
Culture & heritage
The part of a country you cannot photograph from a vehicle.
Culture
Maasai and Swahili
Two Kenyas: the cattle-keeping highlands and the coral-stone, Arabic-inflected coast.
Photo Mr Sketch / Pexels
Samburu and Maasai
Samburu in the northern drylands, Maasai in the south, both still moving cattle between seasonal grazing.
Photo josh_ dago__ / Pexels
Nyama Choma and Ugali
Goat roasted over charcoal, maize meal, sukuma wiki, and coastal biryani that came in by dhow.
Photo Justin Brian / Pexels
Festivals & CelebrationsLamu Cultural Festival
Dhow races, donkey races, henna and taarab music in the alleys of a town with almost no cars.
Photo Taryn Elliott / Pexels
Traditional Arts & CraftsBeadwork and Kisii Stone
Maasai beadwork, Kisii soapstone carving, and kiondo sisal baskets made the way they always were.
Photo Micah DeYoung / Pexels
Historic SitesFort Jesus, Mombasa
Portuguese, built 1593, taken and retaken nine times — now UNESCO World Heritage above the old harbour.
HeritageLamu Old Town
The oldest continuously inhabited Swahili settlement, carved doors, coral rag walls and no room for a car.
Photo Keegan Checks / Pexels
04
Cities & everyday life
Where people actually live between the landmarks.
Nairobi, Green City in the Sun
The only capital on earth with a national park inside the city limits, and lions in sight of the skyline.
Photo Twilight Kenya / Pexels
Coral Stone and Carved Doors
Swahili coral-rag houses with inner courtyards, and doors carved in Lamu and shipped up the coast.
Photo ROMAN ODINTSOV / Pexels
Matatus and Markets
Painted, over-amplified matatus, Maasai Market on rotation through the week, and tea at every stop.
Photo Justin Brian / Pexels
The Conservancies
Community conservancies lease grazing land back for wildlife, and the lease pays the schools around the Mara.
Photo Lloyd Alozie / Pexels
05
Adventure & outdoors
For travellers who would rather walk it than watch it.
Adventure
Balloon Over the Mara
Up before dawn, an hour over the plains at treetop height, and breakfast on the grass where you land.
Photo Fali Poncha / Pexels
Outdoor ExperiencesWalking Hell's Gate
The one Kenyan park you can walk and cycle through, with gorge scrambling and geothermal steam.
Photo Justin Brian / Pexels
Luxury TravelCamps on the Mara
Small tented camps on private conservancies, night drives and off-road access the main reserve does not allow.
Photo Image Noise / Pexels
06
Travel inspiration
The frames people come home with.
Kilimanjaro from Amboseli
The mountain is in Tanzania; the view of it is in Kenya, and it is only clear for an hour at each end of the day.
Photo Ken Mwaura / Pexels
Chalbi and Marsabit
The desert north: Chalbi's salt pan, Marsabit's forested crater and the road down to Lake Turkana.
Why Visit This Country
Magical Kenya
Migration, glacier, reef and desert inside one border, with the infrastructure to see all four in a fortnight.
Magical Kenya
Migration, glacier, reef and desert inside one border, with the infrastructure to see all four in a fortnight.
Build a journey