The Maasai Mara
The Mara is Kenya's most celebrated wildlife reserve and it earns the reputation. The savannah here supports year-round populations of lions, elephants, leopards, cheetahs, and hippos, and from July to October the Great Migration crosses the Mara River in one of the greatest animal spectacles on earth. The crowds in peak season are real — dozens of vehicles at a popular crossing point — but the wildlife is extraordinary enough to make you forget them. Go early and go often; the animals don't keep a schedule.
The Swahili Coast
The coast from Mombasa to Lamu is a different country in all but name. The food is spiced with cardamom and cloves, the architecture is Arab and Persian, the call to prayer echoes over narrow alleys, and the Indian Ocean laps white sand beaches fringed with coral. Lamu is the jewel: a medieval Swahili town that has barely changed in 400 years, accessible only by small plane or a very long bus ride, and all the better for it.
Rift Valley Lakes
The Great Rift Valley slices through Kenya from north to south, leaving a chain of extraordinary lakes in its wake. Lake Nakuru turns pink with up to a million flamingos. Lake Naivasha is freshwater, ringed with fever trees and hippos wading at dusk. Lake Bogoria has geysers shooting from the lakeshore. Lake Turkana, the Jade Sea, stretches vast and otherworldly in the northern desert. You could spend weeks moving between them.
Nairobi
Nairobi gets a bad press for crime, but it is also one of the most interesting cities in Africa. The David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage — where baby elephants mud-bath for an hour each morning in Karen — is one of the most affecting wildlife experiences anywhere. The Nairobi National Museum is excellent. The food scene has grown enormously, with Kenyan, Ethiopian, Indian, and international restaurants of genuine quality. And Nairobi National Park, 7km from the city centre, lets you watch rhinos graze with skyscrapers in the background.
Mt Kenya
Africa's second highest mountain is a genuine trekking challenge and vastly less visited than Kilimanjaro across the border. The Naro Moru and Chogoria routes take 4–6 days to reach Lenana Point at 4,985m — no technical climbing required, just altitude and determination. The upper moorlands, with their giant groundsels and lobelias, look like the set of a science fiction film. The mountain sits on the equator; you can stand in snow and look down at tropical forest.
Samburu National Reserve
If the Maasai Mara is Kenya's most famous park, Samburu is its most distinctive. The semi-arid north of Kenya holds species found nowhere else in the country: reticulated giraffe (taller and more geometrically patterned than the southern variety), Grevy's zebra, gerenuk (an antelope that stands on its hind legs to browse), and Somali ostrich. The Ewaso Ng'iro River cuts through the middle, drawing everything to drink. Far fewer tourists than the Mara, and memorable for it.
Lamu Old Town
A UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlements on the East African coast. The donkeys are the main form of transport — no cars fit in the alleys. The carved wooden doors are extraordinary, each one different. The food at the waterfront restaurants is excellent: grilled fish, pilau rice, coconut curries. Stay several days. The island slows you down and that is the point.