Kenya: Regions, Cities & Travel Guide

What is Kenya known for?

Herds and predators roam the savannah of parks like the Nairobi National Park, the birdlife crowds the Rift Valley lakes, and the sandy beaches of the Indian Ocean coast draw travellers to the warm water. The country wears many landscapes at once. Snow-capped peaks, dry deserts, and the great freshwater expanse of Lake Victoria all lie within its borders, while its Swahili heritage on the coast gives East Africa one of its most storied cultures.

Where is Kenya?

Kenya lies in East Africa, its land rising from the warm shore of the Indian Ocean to the high plateaus of the interior. The Great Rift Valley splits the country from north to south, a broad trough studded with lakes: Lake Naivasha and Lake Baringo, the vast desert basin of Lake Turkana in the far north, and the freshwater sea of Lake Victoria on the western border. Water shapes the land.

Snow-capped mountaintops and cool forests crown the western Rift Valley counties, while dry plains and deserts stretch across the north and east. The country's borders trace a wide arc across the region. Going clockwise, Kenya meets South Sudan to the northwest, Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, Tanzania to the southwest, and Uganda and Lake Victoria to the west.

This range of altitude and rainfall gives the country its variety. Cold highlands, temperate farmland, hot arid scrub, and true desert all lie within one nation, and that spread of climates underlies the parks, the lakes, and the coast that define East Africa's best-known safari land.

What is the history of Kenya?

Kenya's human story runs deeper than almost anywhere on earth. Long called the home of humankind, the land holds some of the oldest traces of early people, found in the basins of the Rift Valley and around Lake Turkana in the arid north. Trade came later to the coast.

For centuries the Swahili towns of the Indian Ocean shore, chief among them Mombasa on Mombasa Island, traded with sailors from across the ocean, weaving the coast into a wider world of goods, faiths, and language. The old port anchored the whole region. Kenya became an independent republic in 1963, drawing its many peoples and regions into one nation.

Nairobi rose as the capital and the country's largest city, a young inland hub set among the highlands, while Mombasa kept its place as the oldest city and the great port on the Indian Ocean. Growth spread beyond the two. Nakuru and Kisumu on Lake Victoria, Eldoret in the west, and the farms and parks of the Rift Valley all took their part, and from that long mix of ancient roots, coastal trade, and modern nationhood Kenya grew into one of the best-known countries of East Africa.

What is Kenya like?

Kenya's culture is layered and diverse, shaped by many peoples across East Africa. The Swahili heritage of the Indian Ocean coast is the most storied thread, a blend of African and seafaring traditions carried down the shore through the old port of Mombasa on Mombasa Island. Swahili is the language of that coast.

It is spoken across Kenya and far beyond, binding the country to the wider world of East Africa. Inland, the highlands and the Rift Valley hold communities whose languages, music, and ways of life differ from place to place, from Nairobi in the centre to Kisumu on Lake Victoria. Wildlife runs through the national story as much as through the parks.

Kenya is often called the home of humankind, and the safari draws on that deep past, shaping work, art, and travel across the country. Song and story bind the nation too. The Swahili traditions of the coast, the wildlife of the great parks, and the markets and festivals of Nairobi, Nakuru, and Eldoret all feed a shared identity that reaches from the Indian Ocean beaches to the shores of Lake Victoria.

What is the climate of Kenya?

Kenya has a tropical climate that shifts sharply with altitude and rainfall. The highlands and the western Rift Valley counties stay cool and green, with cold, snow-capped peaks above forests and farmland, while the coast along the Indian Ocean is hot and humid through the year. The north tells a drier story.

Arid scrub and true desert stretch toward Lake Turkana, and long dry spells alternate with rains that green the plains and fill the Rift Valley lakes across this varied land of East Africa.

How do you get to Kenya?

Kenya is the main travel hub of East Africa, reached most often through Nairobi, the capital. International flights land at the city's airports, road and rail run down to the coast at Mombasa on the Indian Ocean, and buses and light aircraft carry travellers on to the parks and the Rift Valley. The coast is a second entry.

Mombasa handles ships and flights of its own, while the lakeside city of Kisumu on Lake Victoria and towns such as Nakuru and Eldoret open up the west and the highlands to anyone crossing the country.