Kenya is where most people take their first safari, and it earns that. The parks sit close together, the airstrips and roads work, and the guiding is among the most experienced on the continent. You can be watching elephants four hours after you land.
It is also two trips in one. Plains, then ocean. A week gets you two or three parks; ten to twelve days lets you add the coast without spending the last day in a hurry.
When to go
| Months | What it is like |
|---|---|
| Jan-Feb | Hot and dry. Thin grass, clear skies, strong game viewing. Packed over New Year, much quieter by the third week of January. |
| Mar-May | The long rains. Afternoon storms, black cotton soil that grips a vehicle, and some camps closed. It is the cheapest time to travel and the country is green. |
| Jun-Oct | The main dry season. Cold mornings, dust by lunchtime, animals drawn to water. Migration herds are in the Mara roughly July to October. |
| Nov-Dec | The short rains. Showers, usually late afternoon, rather than whole wet days. Green landscapes, excellent birding, and few vehicles until Christmas. |
Before you go
- Most visitors need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, applied for online before departure. Approval is not instant, so allow a week.
- A yellow fever certificate is required if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever occurs. Malaria tablets are standard for the Mara, the coast and the low-lying parks; Nairobi sits high enough to be low risk.
- The currency is the shilling. M-Pesa runs day-to-day life here, but visitors manage on cards in Nairobi and the coast and cash in small towns. Camps and lodges usually quote in dollars.
- Light aircraft are the sensible way to reach the Mara and Samburu: under an hour, against five to seven hours of driving. Those flights limit you to a soft bag, usually around 15kg.
Everything on this page is ordinary content. Rewrite it in your own voice, add the places you actually run trips to, and delete the rest.
