Start in Nairobi and give it two nights: a national park inside the city boundary, the National Museum and a restaurant scene that has outgrown the guidebooks. Then pick a direction. The Rift Valley run is the easiest, through Naivasha and Nakuru to the Maasai Mara past Narok. The coast means Mombasa, the reefs at Diani and car-free Lamu. The highlands mean Nanyuki under Mount Kenya. Go in January, February or July through September, the dry months.
1 Kenya city guide
Fun fact
Nairobi National Park was gazetted in 1946 as Kenya’s first national park, and its 117 square kilometres still sit inside the capital’s boundary.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realityThe parks are why most people come, and they are a fraction of the country. Five of Kenya's eight UNESCO sites are cultural: Lamu, Fort Jesus in Mombasa, the Mijikenda kaya forests, Thimlich Ohinga above Lake Victoria and the forest-swallowed town of Gedi. The Maasai Mara is not on the list.
The realityFrom roughly July to October more than a million wildebeest move north out of the Serengeti into the Mara, with zebra and gazelle behind. Rain sets the timing and the herds spread across the plains. Crossings come twice in a morning or not for days. Book the season and treat a crossing as a bonus.
The realityNairobi sits close to 1,800 metres and gets cold enough on July nights that fleeces sell on the street. The coast is humid, the north is desert and the moorlands on Mount Kenya freeze. Altitude decides what you pack, so an equatorial trip can need a jumper and a swimsuit in the same week.
The realityKenya runs on mobile money. M-Pesa arrived in 2007 and now pays for a matatu fare, a market stall and a plumber, and cards cover the hotels and malls. Visitors manage on a card and an ATM. Inland the currency is the shilling. US dollars are for park fees and safari camps.
The realityEnglish and Swahili are both official, and English carries you through hotels, airports and park gates. Swahili is what the country talks in, from the coast into eastern Congo, with Nairobi's Sheng on top. A dozen words changes how a conversation opens. Try asante for thanks and pole for sorry.
Cultural notes that actually help
- Greet before you ask. A jambo or a habari, and a pause for the answer, comes before the question. Opening with the request reads as rude.
- Address seniority. Mzee for an older man and mama for an older woman are respectful, not familiar, and a two-handed handshake goes with them.
- Ask before photographing anyone, and expect the answer to sometimes carry a fee. Maasai and Samburu communities are photographed constantly, and a portrait is a transaction.
- Do not photograph government buildings, police, airports or a presidential motorcade. This is enforced, and it is not an argument you will win.
- Keep the left hand out of a handshake and out of shared food. It matters more on the coast than in Nairobi, and it costs nothing to remember.
- The coast dresses more modestly than the capital. Shoulders and knees covered away from the beach in Mombasa, Malindi and Lamu, and swimwear stays on the sand.
- Pole pole means slowly, and it is a worldview as much as a phrase. A meeting time is a rough intention, and visible impatience about it gets you nothing.
Famous Kenyan faces
Wangari Maathai
Eliud Kipchoge
Lupita Nyong’o
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Jomo Kenyatta
Richard Leakey
Kipchoge Keino
Catherine Ndereba
Vivian Cheruiyot
Binyavanga Wainaina
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
Wanuri Kahiu
Edi Gathegi
Judy Kibinge
Tom Mboya
Faith Kipyegon
David Rudisha
Paul Tergat
Grace Ogot
Meja Mwangi
Ayub Ogada
Sauti Sol
Eric Wainaina
Nyashinski
Louise Leakey
Thomas Odhiambo
Dedan Kimathi
Mekatilili wa Menza
Must-try Kenyan food
Ugali
Maize flour and water, stirred stiff. The plate everything else is eaten with, by hand.
Nyama choma
Goat or beef roasted over coals and cut at the table. Kenya's default celebration.
Kachumbari
Raw tomato, red onion, chilli and coriander. The acid that makes roast meat work.
Biryani
The other Swahili rice dish, layered instead of cooked together, and richer than pilau.
Chai ya maziwa
Tea boiled together with milk and sugar, the way it is drunk everywhere.
Sukuma wiki
Collard greens, onion and tomato. The name means push the week, which says what it costs.
Githeri
Maize and beans stewed together, the school-lunch dish that grew up into a restaurant one.
Mukimo
Potato mashed with peas, maize and greens. Central highlands cooking, served under a stew.
Chapati
The Kenyan version is rolled with oil into layers and cooked on a dry pan. Sunday food.
Mutura
Sausage of minced meat, offal and blood, grilled and sold by the piece after dark.
Pilau
Rice cooked in spiced stock with meat, coast style. Cardamom, cumin and cinnamon lead.
Samaki wa kupaka
Whole grilled fish finished in coconut and tamarind sauce. Mombasa and Lamu at their best.
Wali wa nazi
Rice cooked in coconut milk, and the base under most coastal plates.
Viazi karai
Potato in turmeric batter, deep fried, eaten out of a paper cone with tamarind chutney.
Mahindi choma
Brazier-roasted maize rubbed with chilli, salt and lime. The country's commonest snack.
Smokie pasua
A split sausage stuffed with kachumbari, born at a street cart and now on every corner.
Bhajia
Sliced potato in spiced gram-flour batter. A Kenyan Indian staple, with chilli sauce.
Samosa
Beef or lentil, folded and fried. Sold at every kiosk, and better than that sounds.
Mandazi
Lightly sweet fried dough, often with cardamom or coconut. Breakfast, with tea.
Mahamri
The coastal mandazi, made with coconut milk and yeast, eaten with a bean stew.
Kaimati
Small fried dough balls in sugar syrup, from the Swahili and Omani side of the kitchen.
Kenyan coffee
Highland-grown, mostly exported, and now taken seriously in Nairobi's roasteries.
Dawa
Vodka, honey and lime over crushed ice, with a wooden stirrer. The name means medicine.
Mursik
Kalenjin milk fermented in a soot-lined gourd, served to runners home with medals.
