--- title: "Top 10 Things To Do in Kenya (City Guides) | Wimup" description: "Browse Wimup's Top 10 guides across Kenya: Nairobi, the Rift Valley lakes, the Maasai Mara and the Swahili coast. When to go, how to get around, and where to start." url: https://wimup.com/country/kenya type: Country guide updated: 2026-10-05 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Top 10s across Kenya Big-game country **an hour** from an international runway, a **Rift Valley** of soda lakes down the middle, and a **Swahili coast** that has been trading for a thousand years. Kenya is the most practical first trip in East Africa. ## Quick answer 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. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** Jan · Feb · Jul–Sep - **Ideal length:** 10–14 days - **Budget per day:** $100–260 - **Language:** Swahili and English - **Getting around:** Light aircraft, a driver in the parks, the coast train - **1** City guide - **47,564,296** People - **1** Video guide - **47** Counties Kenya works as one trip or three. Nairobi is the hinge, because almost every route in and out passes through it. The Rift Valley lakes sit a couple of hours west, the Mara plains a short hop beyond them, and the Indian Ocean coast is a flight or an overnight train away. ## 1 Kenya city guide 1. [Nairobi](https://wimup.com/city/nairobi.md): Africa · 10 picks ## Know before you go - **Population:** 47,564,296 - **Area:** 580,876 km² - **Density:** 81.9 / km² - **Capital:** Nairobi - **Major cities:** Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret - **Tourism board:** Official site - **Currency:** Kenyan shilling (KES) Cards work in hotels, malls and city restaurants. Nearly everything else runs on M-Pesa, Safaricom's mobile money since 2007. Carry small shilling notes. Parks and lodges quote US dollars. - **Language:** Swahili and English Both are official. English runs government, business and schools, so visitors get by on it everywhere. Swahili is what the country talks in, with Nairobi's Sheng on top. Learn asante and karibu. - **Calling code:** +254 Prepaid SIMs and eSIMs are sold at airports and operator shops, and registration needs your passport. Coverage is strong on highways and in towns, patchy in the parks and the north. - **Power:** 240V, 50Hz, plug type G The British three-pin plug, so European and US devices need an adapter, and US ones must handle 240 volts. Off-grid camps run on solar and often cut power overnight. Charge at dinner. - **Emergency:** 999 or 112 Both reach police, fire and ambulance. Response outside the cities is slow, and in a park the ranger post or your camp is faster. Kenya Wildlife Service rangers handle incidents in its parks. - **Visa:** An eTA, applied for online Visas ended on 1 January 2024. Everyone needs an Electronic Travel Authorisation, children included, at least 72 hours ahead. East African Community citizens are exempt. Use the government site. - **Getting around:** Flights inland, a driver in the parks Light aircraft link Nairobi to the Mara, Amboseli, Samburu and the coast in about an hour. In the parks, hire a driver: tracks are unsigned. The Madaraka Express is the overland leg to Mombasa. - **Driving:** On the left Kenya drives on the left. Plan around Nairobi's morning and evening peaks, and expect matatus to set their own rules. Outside towns, avoid night driving: unlit vehicles, livestock and potholes. - **Time zone:** East Africa Time, UTC+3 No daylight saving, and the equator holds the day near twelve hours all year. Sunrise a little after six and sunset a little after six is what dawn game drives and beach evenings are built around. - **Health:** Check the requirements before you fly Yellow fever proof is required if you arrive from a country with transmission risk. Malaria precautions apply on the coast, by Lake Victoria and in most parks. See a travel clinic weeks ahead. - **Park fees:** Set per park, and they change Charged per person per day, by park, season and residency. Reserves outside the Kenya Wildlife Service system, the Mara among them, set their own. Most gates are cashless. Check the current rate. - **Tipping:** Expected, and separate from the bill Round up, or add about ten per cent where no service charge applies. Tip the safari guide and driver at the end of the trip, and use the camp staff box for everyone else. Pay in shillings. ## When to visit - **Jan** (best) - **Feb** (best) - **Mar** - **Apr** - **May** - **Jun** (good) - **Jul** (best) - **Aug** (peak) - **Sep** (best) - **Oct** (good) - **Nov** - **Dec** (peak) ## 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 - **Myth:** Kenya is one long safari **Reality:** The 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. - **Myth:** The migration is a river crossing you book a date for **Reality:** From 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. - **Myth:** It is hot everywhere, all year **Reality:** Nairobi 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. - **Myth:** You need a thick roll of cash and a fistful of dollars **Reality:** Kenya 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. - **Myth:** Swahili is a language you can skip **Reality:** English 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. - 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**: Founded the Green Belt Movement. First African woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 2004. - **Eliud Kipchoge**: Olympic marathon champion in Rio and Tokyo. First under two hours, in Vienna in 2019. - **Lupita Nyong’o**: Actor, awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for 12 Years a Slave in 2014 - **Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o**: Novelist who argued in Decolonising the Mind for African languages, then wrote in Gikuyu. - **Jomo Kenyatta**: Independence leader, and the country’s first president from 1964 - **Faith Kipyegon**: Middle-distance runner, Olympic 1500 metres champion in Rio and Tokyo - **Richard Leakey**: Palaeoanthropologist who ran the National Museums, then the Kenya Wildlife Service. - **David Rudisha**: Ran 1:40.91 for 800 metres to win at London 2012, then took the title again in Rio - **Kipchoge Keino**: Won the 1968 Olympic 1500 metres in Mexico City and opened Kenya's run of distance titles. - **Catherine Ndereba**: Marathon runner, four-time winner in Boston and twice an Olympic silver medallist - **Paul Tergat**: Distance runner, five straight world cross-country titles through the 1990s - **Vivian Cheruiyot**: Distance runner, Olympic 5000 metres champion at Rio 2016 - **Binyavanga Wainaina**: Writer whose essay How to Write About Africa took apart how the continent gets described. - **Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor**: Novelist, author of Dust and The Dragonfly Sea - **Grace Ogot**: Short-story writer and politician, among the first Kenyan women published in English - **Meja Mwangi**: Novelist of the Nairobi street, best known for Going Down River Road - **Wanuri Kahiu**: Filmmaker, director of Rafiki, the first Kenyan feature screened at Cannes - **Edi Gathegi**: Actor, born in Nairobi, a fixture of American film and television - **Judy Kibinge**: Filmmaker, and founder of Docubox, the East African documentary fund - **Ayub Ogada**: Nyatiti player and singer, whose Kothbiro carried the eight-string lyre far past Kenya - **Sauti Sol**: Nairobi Afro-pop band, the country's biggest musical export of the past two decades. - **Eric Wainaina**: Singer and songwriter, whose Nchi ya Kitu Kidogo made petty corruption a pop subject - **Nyashinski**: Rapper and singer, once of Kleptomaniax and now one of the most played solo acts at home - **Louise Leakey**: Palaeoanthropologist working the Turkana Basin, third generation of the family that dug it - **Thomas Odhiambo**: Entomologist who founded the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology. - **Dedan Kimathi**: Mau Mau field marshal, and the face of the armed struggle against colonial rule - **Tom Mboya**: Trade unionist and independence-era minister, assassinated in Nairobi in 1969 - **Mekatilili wa Menza**: Giriama leader who organised coastal resistance to British recruitment in 1913 ## Must-try Kenyan food - **Ugali**: Maize flour and water, stirred stiff. The plate everything else is eaten with, by hand. - **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. - **Nyama choma**: Goat or beef roasted over coals and cut at the table. Kenya's default celebration. - **Mutura**: Sausage of minced meat, offal and blood, grilled and sold by the piece after dark. - **Kachumbari**: Raw tomato, red onion, chilli and coriander. The acid that makes roast meat work. - **Pilau**: Rice cooked in spiced stock with meat, coast style. Cardamom, cumin and cinnamon lead. - **Biryani**: The other Swahili rice dish, layered instead of cooked together, and richer than pilau. - **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. - **Chai ya maziwa**: Tea boiled together with milk and sugar, the way it is drunk everywhere. - **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. ## Films - [Nairobi on Foot](https://wimup.com/watch/nairobi.md), 10:04 ## FAQs ### Do you need a visa for Kenya? Kenya replaced its visas with an Electronic Travel Authorisation on 1 January 2024. Almost every visitor applies online before travelling, children included, and the immigration service asks for it at least 72 hours ahead. Citizens of the East African Community partner states are exempt. Apply on the government site and skip the agents. ### How many days do you need in Kenya? Ten to fourteen covers Nairobi, one safari region and the coast without rushing. A week is Nairobi plus either the Mara or the Rift Valley lakes. Five days makes a good safari with a night in the capital at each end, as long as you leave the coast for another trip. ### When is the wildebeest migration in the Maasai Mara? The herds are usually in the Mara between July and October, having come north out of the Serengeti, and they start back south from late October. The river crossings people come for are unscheduled, because the animals follow the rain. Book the window, not a date, and plan enough game drives that one quiet morning does not decide the trip. ### Is it better to fly or drive between the parks? Drive when the leg is short and the road is tarmac, fly when it is neither. Nairobi to the Mara is a long day on the road or about an hour in a light aircraft, and the same choice repeats for Amboseli, Samburu and the coast. The train between Nairobi and Mombasa is the one long overland stretch that is a pleasure. ### What should you pack for Kenya? Layers, because altitude sets the temperature here. Nairobi and the highlands are cool after dark, a dawn game drive is cold and the same vehicle is hot by ten, and the coast is humid all day. Add neutral colours for the parks, a hat, an adapter for the British three-pin socket, and something that covers shoulders and knees for the coastal towns. ## Related countries - [Morocco](https://wimup.com/country/morocco.md) - [Algeria](https://wimup.com/country/algeria.md) - [All of Africa](https://wimup.com/africa) Part of [Africa](https://wimup.com/africa.md) ## Sources - [Tourism board](https://magicalkenya.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Emergency](https://www.kws.go.ke/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Visa](https://www.etakenya.go.ke/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Getting around](https://krc.co.ke/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Driving](https://www.ntsa.go.ke/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Health](https://www.health.go.ke/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.