Attractions

Nairobi

Kenya's capital is cosmopolitan, lively, interesting and pleasantly landscaped. Its central business district is handily compact and it's a great place to tune into modern urban African life. Unfortunately, it's also a great place to get mugged. Security, especially at night, is a definite concern.

Often touted as the birthplace of humanity Nairobi has artefacts galore in some very classy museums. If you'd prefer to look at exhibits that aren't stuffed there are plenty of rhinos, snakes and giraffes roaming in parks around the city - some you can even feed!

Amboseli National Park

At 392 sq km, Amboseli has huge herds of elephants, and to see a herd of them making their way sedately across the grassy plains, with Tanzania's Mt Kilimanjaro in the background, may be a real African cliche but it's an experience that certainly leaves a lasting impression.

Lamu

Lamu is a place of fantasy and other-worldliness wrapped in a cloak of medieval romance. With an almost exclusively Muslim population, Kenya's remote and self-contained oldest living town has changed little in appearance or character over many centuries.

This once thriving port town is now a gloriously relaxed and relaxing destination. No other Swahili town, other than Zanzibar, can offer you such a cultural feast and uncorrupted traditional style of architecture - if you can ignore the TV aerials.

Masai Mara National Reserve

The Mara is the most popular wildlife park in Kenya. Abounding with wildlife and joined to the Serengeti, this 320-sq-km reserve is anything but plain.Few visitors miss roaming at least part of its vast open savanna grasslands - or leaping out of the way of the annual wildebeest stampede.

The western border of the park is the spectacular Esoit Olooloo (Siria) Escarpment where the concentrations of wildlife are the highest. Lions are found in large prides everywhere and it's not unusual to see them hunt. Elephants, buffaloes, zebras, antelopes and hippos also exist in large numbers.

Mombasa

The largest port on the coast of East Africa, Mombasa is hot, steamy and historical. Its earliest history dates back to the 12th century. Mombasa proper sprawls over Mombasa Island which is connected to the mainland both north and south of the city.

A Muslim haven for centuries, it was attacked by the Portuguese in 1505 and burnt to the ground. It was quickly rebuilt only to be reduced to rubble again by an embattled Mombasan ruler during the long fight against the Portuguese. Mombasa's Old Town is testament to this tumultuous era.