Maeneo
Maeneo means places.
Best places to visit in Kenya
Eight regions, each with its own light, wildlife and people.
Eight regions
NairobiNairobiThe only capital with a national park inside it.
MaraMaasai MaraThe greatest wildlife show on earth.- TemboAmboseli & TsavoElephants beneath Kilimanjaro.
KaskaziniSamburu & the northDry country, rare wildlife, extraordinary cultures.
MaziwaRift Valley lakesA crack in the earth lined with pink.
MilimaMount Kenya & the highlandsTea, coffee and Africa's second-highest peak.
ZiwaWestern Kenya & Lake VictoriaRainforest, running country and Africa's largest lake.
PwaniThe coastFive hundred kilometres of Swahili shore.
Five hundred kilometres of Swahili shore.
Finish in Diani, Watamu or Lamu: reef, dhows and a thousand years of trade.
See the coast
Coast towns
NgomeMombasa: Kenya's old port city, what to see and how to get thereGive Kenya's oldest city one full day and it will give you Fort Jesus at sunset and the best biryani on the coast.
MchangaDiani Beach: the complete guide to Kenya's south coastSeventeen kilometers of white sand, a reef that calms the sea and a short flight from the Mara.
JahaziLamu Island: Kenya's oldest Swahili town, explainedA town of donkeys, dhows and carved doors, under two hours by air from Nairobi.
MatumbaweWatamu and Malindi: Kenya's Italian coast, turtles, ruins and reefsTwo towns twenty minutes apart: Watamu for reefs, turtles and quiet bays, Malindi for history, gelato and the airport.
HoriKilifi: the creek town between Mombasa and WatamuA deep blue creek under a long bridge, dhows at anchor below the baobabs, and a coast town that has not hurried in centuries.
SokoniUkunda: the town behind Diani BeachThe airstrip, the bank machines, the market and the matatus: the working town every Diani holiday passes through.
KimyaTiwi Beach: the quiet stretch north of DianiDiani's sand and reef, without Diani's resort strip, a sandy track off the main road.- UpepoGalu Beach: kitesurfing and calm south of DianiWhere Diani's sand gets wider, the hotels fewer and the wind steadier.
MwambaMsambweni: Kenya's remote south coast for villas and quietCoral cliffs, empty coves and a fishing town, half an hour beyond the last of Diani.
MkondoManda Island: Lamu's airport, resorts and the Takwa ruinsThe island everyone lands on and few explore: an airstrip, two resorts and a lost Swahili town in the mangroves.
UkingoKiwayu: the remote end of the Lamu archipelagoDunes, turtles and an empty ocean beach at the far end of the Lamu archipelago.- KaaWasini Island: dolphins, coral gardens and a Swahili lunchAn island with no cars, a boardwalk over fossil coral and the best lunch on the south coast.
MikokoChale and Funzi islands: Kenya's small island escapesOne island for a barefoot resort, one for mangroves and sandbanks, both a short boat ride off the south coast.- PolepoleTakaungu: a slow creek village on the Kilifi coastAn old Swahili village at the mouth of a creek, where the Mazrui of Mombasa once took refuge.
Towns and places
MtumbwiKisumu and Lake Victoria: fish, music and the Luo lakeshoreKenya's third city is its most relaxed: fried tilapia on the beach, boats among the hippos and music that goes on late.
UwandaLaikipia and Nanyuki: Kenya's rhino plateau on the equatorA high plateau of ranches turned conservancies, where you can walk, ride and sleep under the stars among more rhinos than anywhere else in Kenya.
MbioIten and Eldoret: running with champions in the Home of ChampionsA small town at 2,400 metres on the lip of the Rift, where hundreds of runners are on the road before the sun is up.
MajaniKericho: Kenya's tea country and how to tour itGreen in every direction: tea picked by hand, rain on schedule and the factories behind the world's breakfast cup.
NjiapandaNakuru: rhinos, a crater and the Rift Valley's crossroadsKenya's fourth city has a national park at the end of its streets and one of the world's largest volcanic craters on its skyline.
KumbukumbuNyeri: Mount Kenya's foothills, Mau Mau history and Baden-PowellA highland town between two mountain ranges, with Kenya's best coffee on its ridges and a great deal of its history in its graves.
IkwetaNanyuki: the equator town at the gate of Laikipia and Mount KenyaA farming and garrison town on the equator, with Mount Kenya at the end of its main street and Ol Pejeta twenty minutes away.
KituoNarok: the last stop before the Maasai MaraThe Maasai county town where every Mara safari by road stops for fuel, cash, coffee and a jar of honey.
NanasiThika: pineapples, Fourteen Falls and the road northAn hour up the superhighway from Nairobi: pineapple fields to the horizon, two waterfalls in a hotel garden and a buffalo mountain on the skyline.
ReliVoi: Tsavo's railway townA water stop on the old railway that became the front door of Tsavo East, halfway between Nairobi and the sea.
MsafaraIsiolo: gateway to Samburu and the northWhere the highlands end, the camels begin and every road safari to Samburu stops for fuel, cash and a cup of spiced tea.
NgamiaMaralal: Samburu town of the Camel DerbyA cool cedar plateau, a cattle-and-camel market town and, most Augusts, the most chaotic camel race in Africa.
ChemchemiLoiyangalani: the oasis on the Jade SeaWarm springs, doum palms and a fishing town on the shore of the world's largest desert lake, two days' drive from anywhere.- MahindiKitale: Mount Elgon's farming town and the road to Saiwa SwampA maize-and-dairy town in Kenya's breadbasket, with an extinct volcano on the Uganda border and the country's smallest national park down the road.
FahaliKakamega: rainforest, bullfights and Luhya countryA Luhya market town with Kenya's last rainforest on its doorstep and, in the villages around it, bulls locked horn to horn before a roaring crowd.
MasharikiMeru and Embu: the sunny side of Mount KenyaTea, coffee, bananas and miraa on the mountain's eastern slopes, two busy county towns and the park where Elsa the lioness ran free.- KiondoMachakos: Kamba hills an hour from NairobiGreen hills, Kamba farms and one of Kenya's oldest inland towns, a short drive out of Nairobi's traffic.
MpakaniNamanga: crossing from Kenya to Tanzania by roadTwo high streets, one border building and the main road between Nairobi and Arusha, with Kilimanjaro's country on both sides.
VisukukuRusinga Island: Tom Mboya, fossils and the Suba festival on Lake VictoriaA Lake Victoria island tied to the shore by a causeway, where a founding politician is buried and an ape skull 18 million years old was found.
MichoroMfangano Island: rock art and fishing villages on Lake VictoriaNo causeway, no traffic and paintings on the rocks older than any town on the lake.
MashuaNdere Island National Park: Kisumu's half-day boat tripAn uninhabited island national park in the Winam Gulf, about 40 minutes by boat from Kisumu.
KasokoLake Chala: the crater lake under KilimanjaroA deep blue lake in a volcanic crater, cut in two by the border, with Kilimanjaro standing over it.
MwariLake Jipe: Tsavo West's birding lake on the borderA shallow lake of reeds and water birds on the southern edge of Tsavo West, with the Pare mountains across the water and Kilimanjaro behind.
VilimaChyulu Hills: green hills, lava caves and Kilimanjaro viewsA young volcanic range of grass and cloud forest between Amboseli and Tsavo, with Kilimanjaro filling the view.- UmandeMarsabit: a forest mountain in the northern desertMist, crater lakes and elephants on a volcano that rises out of the northern desert.
MchongajiKisii: soapstone carvers, banana hills and the road to the MaraGreen, steep and crowded hills where the soapstone sold in curio shops around the world is dug and carved by hand.