AbiriKenya

a touring guide for kenya

Find New Possibilities

The Madaraka Express train to Mombasa sells out three times a day, proving just how much travellers love Kenya’s coast. It ranks up there among the top five things to do in Kenya. A small coastline with immense natural beauty and unlimited possibilities. An ever-growing number of travellers are coming to the region primarily for a holiday at the coast, with National Parks thrown in as incidentals. From Shimoni northwards, with Lamu as the most northerly beach prospect, the traveller will find that Kenya’s coast has aptly been named “The Coral Coast”.

This virtually continuous coral reef, with breaks at Mombasa and Malindi, runs within a mile of the shore for well over 100 miles, sheltering behind it a salubrious tropical getaway. Beyond it a magical underwater world. Mombasa itself, considered a useful logistic and holiday hub, has a lot to interest the travellers. It is also a popular jumping-off place for fishing the waters north and south of the Island. Importantly, Mombasa has something for every traveller’s lodging needs, from crawl-in tents to the most exclusive beach resorts. The quiet hospitality of the Swahili, amiable charm, and outward-looking spirit radiates everywhere you journey across Kenya.

Although some lodges are rough and ready and others quite plush, they are all, in context of locations and keeping to the local cultures, adequate. Each of the 47 Counties of Kenya has its own architectural inclination and ambiance, and the different approach of locally inspired lodges and hotels should be a joy for the intrepid. Camping is noted where facilities are provided. Inside or near Kenya’s National Parks and Reserves, there are game lodges, sometimes called wildlife or safari lodges, but all meaning relatively small hotels, often of striking architectural design.

In A Nutshell

Self service accommodation, cross country, has blossomed in the past decade, to offer more affordable and flexible alternative to the standard hotel life. Over and above that, the visitor to Kenya with a flexible schedule can drive a good bargain by arriving in the ‘low’ season, that is to avoid the months between December and March. Hotels rates in Kenya vary between visitor and resident and also by season of year – most hotels have a ‘high’ and ‘low’ season rate and may have a ‘mid’ season as well. You can be fairly sure that from the Tuesday after Easter until the first or 15th of July there will be low season rates. Find new possibilities – Rediscover Kenya.