Kenya: Ten Attractions and Natural Wonders

The home of the safari

Kenya, on the equator on the east coast of Africa, is the classic safari country, and it remains one of the best places in the world to see big wildlife. It has about 54 million people, dozens of ethnic groups, the Great Rift Valley running down its middle, Africa's second-highest mountain, and a long Indian Ocean coast with a distinct, ancient Swahili culture. Nairobi is the regional hub for business, aid, and travel.

The ten below run from the famous parks through the highlands to the coast. The dry seasons (roughly June–October and January–February) are best for game viewing; the wildebeest migration reaches the Mara from about July to October, and the coast is warm year-round with a rainy spell around April–May.

1. The Maasai Mara

The Maasai Mara, the northern extension of Tanzania's Serengeti, is Kenya's flagship reserve — open savanna with high densities of lion, cheetah, elephant, and buffalo year-round, and, from about July to October, the arrival of around 1.5 million wildebeest and zebra, with dramatic crocodile-lined crossings of the Mara river. The surrounding community conservancies offer quieter game viewing and walking and night drives.

It is reached by a short flight or a rough five-hour drive from Nairobi.

2. Amboseli

Amboseli, in the south near the Tanzanian border, is a small park with a big backdrop — Africa's highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, rising across the plain, most often clear at dawn and dusk. Its swamps draw large elephant herds, studied here since 1972 by the researcher Cynthia Moss, and the people living around the park are mainly Maasai.

It combines well with the Tsavo parks, which lie between Amboseli and the coast.

3. Lake Nakuru and the Rift Valley lakes

The floor of the Great Rift Valley holds a chain of shallow soda and freshwater lakes. Lake Nakuru, ringed by a national park, is famous for flocks of flamingos (numbers vary with water levels) and is a stronghold for both black and white rhino; Lake Bogoria has hot springs and its own flamingos; and Lake Elmenteita and Lake Baringo are birding hotspots. Several are jointly listed by UNESCO.

Nakuru is about three hours from Nairobi and an easy first or last stop on a safari loop.

4. Mount Kenya

Mount Kenya, an eroded extinct volcano just south of the equator, is the country's namesake and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its rocky twin summits, Batian and Nelion, need technical climbing, but the third peak, Point Lenana (4,985 m), is a strenuous multi-day trek through bamboo forest, giant heather, and otherworldly afro-alpine plants, with glaciers (shrinking fast) near the top. The forested lower slopes are ringed by highland farms and lodges.

Several trekking routes approach the peaks, among them the long-used Chogoria route from the east.

5. Samburu

Samburu, Buffalo Springs, and Shaba, on either side of the Ewaso Ng'iro river in the dry north, offer a different safari — arid scrub and doum palms, and dry-country animals such as Grevy's zebra, reticulated giraffe, gerenuk (a long-necked antelope that browses standing up) and oryx. Lions, leopards, cheetahs and elephants are found along the river.

The Samburu people, related to the Maasai, live around the reserves.

6. Nairobi

Nairobi, the capital, is Kenya's largest city and the main economic hub of East Africa, and, unusually, has a full national park on its doorstep — lions, rhino, and giraffe against a backdrop of skyscrapers. In and around town are the David Sheldrick elephant and rhino orphanage, the Giraffe Centre, the Karen Blixen Museum (her home in the Out of Africa years), the Nairobi National Museum, and the Bomas cultural village.

Most visitors spend a night here at the start or end of a safari.

7. Hell's Gate and Lake Naivasha

Hell's Gate, north-west of Nairobi, is one of only two Kenyan national parks where hiking and cycling are allowed, among zebra, giraffe and gazelle, through a dramatic gorge of red cliffs, volcanic towers and hot springs (the setting of The Lion King was heavily modelled on it). Next to it, freshwater Lake Naivasha has hippos, boat trips, and Crescent Island, where visitors walk among grazing wildlife.

The two make an easy overnight from Nairobi.

8. Diani Beach and the south coast

Kenya's coast is warm, reef-protected, and lined with white sand. Diani, about 30 kilometres south of Mombasa, is the best-known resort beach; the Kisite-Mpunguti marine park, south of Wasini Island, has dolphins and turtles; and inland, the Shimba Hills reserve has around 700 elephants. Mombasa itself has a Swahili old town and the Portuguese Fort Jesus.

North of Mombasa, Watamu and Malindi add more reef, the Gede ruins, and the Arabuko-Sokoke coastal forest.

9. Lamu

Lamu, on an island in the far north, is a car-free Swahili town of coral-stone houses, carved doors, mosques, and donkeys, largely unchanged for centuries and inscribed by UNESCO as the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa. Life runs on dhow sailing, the seafront, and festivals like Maulidi. Nearby Shela has a long dune-backed beach.

It is reached by a short flight to Manda island and a boat across the channel; check current travel advice, as the far-northeast coast near the Somali border has security concerns.

10. Lake Turkana and the north

Lake Turkana, in the far north, is a startling jade-coloured lake in black volcanic desert, with crocodiles, Nile perch, and the fossil beds that produced "Turkana Boy" and other landmark early-human finds — its national parks are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, placed on the danger list in 2018 because of the effects of Ethiopia's Gibe III dam upstream. The wider north — Marsabit, the Chalbi Desert, the Ndoto and Mathews ranges, and the culture of the Turkana, Rendille, and El Molo — is Kenya's least-visited region.

It is a serious overland expedition (or a charter flight); go with an operator and check security.

A classic Kenya trip is a week to ten days combining two or three parks (the Mara plus Amboseli or Samburu, and a Rift Valley lake), flying between them, then a few days on the coast at Diani or Lamu to unwind.