About Us

The Kenya Guide is an independent travel resource built on sustained first-hand experience in Kenya. Between us we have made more than twenty-five trips to the country, covering the Masai Mara during both the wildebeest crossing season and the quieter green months, Amboseli with Kilimanjaro on the horizon, Diani Beach and the Lamu archipelago, Nairobi's neighbourhoods and food scene, and the trekking routes on Mount Kenya. We write the guide we wished existed before our first visit.

Who writes this site

Safari circuit and wildlife writer - a field researcher who has spent over six years working alongside wildlife conservancies across the Masai Mara ecosystem, Amboseli, and Tsavo East and West. He has observed the Great Migration river crossings at the Mara River in four separate years and has direct knowledge of park fee structures, gate opening times, and the practical differences between private conservancy camps and government reserve camps. His coverage of Amboseli includes multi-visit experience of the Observation Hill viewpoint and the swamp areas that draw elephant herds within sight of Kilimanjaro.
Nairobi urban and logistics researcher - a travel writer who has lived in Nairobi for three years, writing about the city's distinct neighbourhoods from Karen and Langata to the CBD and Westlands. She covers practical Nairobi logistics - JKIA arrival procedures, the SGR Madaraka Express to Mombasa, matatu routes, and overnight options before early-morning safari departures - with prices and schedules verified against official Kenya Railways and Nairobi City County sources.
Coast and Lamu cultural editor - a contributor who has spent over four years travelling Kenya's Indian Ocean coastline. He has stayed on Lamu Island for extended periods and knows the UNESCO-listed Lamu Old Town on foot: its Swahili architecture, the donkey-only transport system, and the ferry connection from the mainland at Mokowe. His Diani Beach coverage is based on multiple visits across different seasons, with direct experience of the reef snorkelling conditions and local transport options between Diani and Mombasa.

The Masai Mara and migration timing

The Masai Mara is Kenya's most-visited wildlife destination, and most visitors come for the Great Migration - the annual movement of roughly 1.5 million wildebeest and several hundred thousand zebra between Tanzania's Serengeti and the Mara. The Mara River crossings, which are the most dramatic part of the migration, typically occur between July and October, though the exact timing shifts by weeks from year to year depending on rainfall in the Serengeti. We cover this timing honestly: there is no guaranteed date, and any guide that gives you a fixed window is oversimplifying. Outside migration season, the Mara still holds resident lion prides, leopard, cheetah, and elephant in numbers that make it one of the most productive game-viewing circuits in East Africa.

Nairobi as a destination and a base

Most visitors treat Nairobi as a transit point, which means they miss a city with a genuinely good food scene, several world-class museums, and a national park where lion and rhino can be seen against a city skyline. The Karen Blixen Museum, the Giraffe Centre, and the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage are all within thirty minutes of the airport and work well as a half-day before an onward flight. For those staying longer, the Westlands and Lavington neighbourhoods have the best restaurant concentration, and the SGR train to Mombasa from Nairobi's Terminus station at Syokimau takes around four and a half hours and costs significantly less than flying.

Our editorial standards

We visit in person. Our coverage of the Masai Mara is based on being in the conservancies and national reserve, not summarising other people's safari reports. We verify against official sources: destination and operator information is checked against the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB), weather patterns and rainfall seasons against the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD), and visa and entry requirements against the Department of Immigration Services. We update when conditions change: park fees, e-visa costs, and transport prices are reviewed each quarter, and individual pages carry the date of their last substantive revision.

How we keep the lights on

Some links on this site are affiliate links - if you book through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This keeps the site free and independent. We only link to services we would use ourselves, and affiliate relationships have no influence over which camps, lodges, or operators we recommend.

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