A safari charged by the day, not by the trip — a reserve whose gate fee doubles in July, while a whole trip costs only half as much more
Kenya is a country where the price of the trip is decided by the date: entry to the Masai Mara costs €173 per person per day from July to December, and half that from January to June. Everything else — an eTA instead of a visa, the coast at the end — is easier than people assume about Africa.
There is no visa, but there is an electronic permit. Kenya scrapped visas in 2024 and brought in an eTA for everyone: the form is filled in on the official site etakenya.go.ke at least three days before travel, costs €26, and arrives by email. A yellow fever certificate is not required when arriving from Europe — only if you enter via Ethiopia or another risk country, which matters if you connect in Addis Ababa. Jomo Kenyatta airport (NBO) is 13 km from Nairobi as the crow flies.
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A safari here is charged per day and per person, and that line is bigger than the accommodation. The Masai Mara charges €173 per foreign adult per day in high season, July to December, and €86 the rest of the year. Amboseli is €78, Nairobi National Park €69. That means three days in the Mara in August — during the migration — cost six hundred dollars in entry alone, before the tent, the vehicle and the guide. Anyone who does not have to go in August goes in February: the animals are there, the migration is not, and the bill is half.
The country splits into safari and coast, and the two join easily. Nairobi is the hub from which you go west to the Mara or south to Amboseli; Mombasa and the beaches south of it are on the Indian Ocean, five hours from Nairobi on the SGR train or an hour by air. The classic fortnight is three or four days of safari then a week on Diani, in that order — the reverse is not done, because nobody gets up at five after a week at the sea.
How it actually was when we were there, and what was worth it.
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A million and a half wildebeest and a few hundred thousand zebra circle between the Serengeti and the Masai Mara all year, following the rain. They are in Kenya from July to October, when they cross the Mara river — and that is the only part of the loop people call the migration.
Seven kilometres from the centre, fenced on three sides, with the open south letting animals in from the Kitengela plains. Giraffes are photographed with skyscrapers behind them, and it is not a montage.
The oldest finds of the genus Homo — Turkana Boy, over a million and a half years old — came from the shore of Lake Turkana in the north. The museum in Nairobi shows a cast; the original is kept in its vault.
M-Pesa, payment by mobile without a bank account, launched in Kenya in 2007, years ahead of Europe. Market stalls and taxis take it today, but small purchases and tips still call for shillings in cash.
Simba is lion, twiga giraffe, tembo elephant, and 'hakuna matata' is a real sentence, not just a song. English is the second official language and everyone a visitor deals with speaks it.
The plantations on the highlands around Kericho and Limuru cover the hills like a green carpet. You drive through them on the way to the Mara, which is why the tea in Kenya is good while the coffee it also grows is mostly exported.
This isn't a ranking — it's a route. Any one of these could carry a whole trip.
A soda lake in the Rift Valley, three hours from Nairobi, known for flamingos that come and go with the water level — some years a million, some years none. What is constant are the rhinos, both white and black, and often both are seen in a day.
The dry north, six hours from Nairobi, with animals the south does not have: the reticulated giraffe, Grevy's zebra, the gerenuk that browses on its hind legs. A tenth of the people of the Mara, and the Samburu still live as they did. For a second visit.
Africa's second highest, 5,199 metres, with glaciers on the equator. Point Lenana at 4,985 metres is walked in four days without climbing gear, and it is the cheaper, emptier version of Kilimanjaro. Best in January–February and August–September.
The largest desert lake in the world, green with algae, in the far north on the Ethiopian border. Two days by 4x4 from Nairobi, or a flight. This is not a trip but an expedition, and for most travellers it stays on the list for someday.
The largest park in the country, cut by the Nairobi–Mombasa road and railway, with elephants red from the dust. Done on the way to the coast: a two-day safari in Tsavo East, then on to Diani. Fewer animals per kilometre than the Mara, but no crowds and a third of the entry fee.
The Great Rift Valley runs through Kenya, where the African plate is splitting in two. In a few million years the eastern part of the continent will separate and an ocean will lie between them.
The equator cuts across Kenya, so near Nanyuki you can stand with one foot in each hemisphere. Despite sitting on the equator, Mount Kenya has glaciers, at 5,199 metres.
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
A visa no, an eTA yes — an electronic permit applied for on the official site etakenya.go.ke at least three days before travel, costing €26. Without it you are not boarded. No yellow fever certificate is needed when arriving from Europe.
July to October, during the migration in the Masai Mara — but entry is then €173 a day and everything is booked months ahead. January and February are dry, warm, half the price and have every animal except the wildebeest on the move.
Masai Mara entry is €86 a day from January to June and €173 from July to December, per person. On top of that come the vehicle with guide, accommodation and food: a modest camping tour works out around USD 200–300 per person per day all in, a lodge two to three times that.
Keep going — these destinations and stories pair well with this one.
The Serengeti, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar in one country — and three different bills: the safari by the day, the mountain by the night, the island by an insurance paid at the door
A country of long distances and reversed seasons, driven on the left throughout
A country you drive rather than visit: about four people per square kilometre, gravel roads without end, and a safari done in your own car as in Kruger — only without the fence
The whole of Kenya fits into one query — six questions and you know which of them suits you.
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All photographs come from Wikimedia Commons and are used under the licence stated beside each one.
