10 Best beaches in Kenya

Travelers looking to explore the continent of Africa now have new options when traveling from the United States.Announced this week, Delta Air Lines is expanding it's partnership with Kenya Airways allowing frequent flyers to earn miles on each other's flights when flying on the same itinerary, and provide a more seamless travel experience to 31 destinations in Africa and 57 in North America. Kenya Airways currently operates a nonstop service from their hub at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to New York's John F.

As Lonely Planet’s creative director, I have the privilege of traveling for work and getting to some pretty remarkable places.

Few visitors to Kenya can resist the siren call of its top wildlife-watching area, the Maasai Mara. Its sweeping grasslands ­— blonde and close-cropped in the dry season, green and earthy after rain — stretch for hundreds of miles. Famous for big cats and the drama of the Great Migration, this is the kind of place where a budding interest in all things safari can develop into an addiction.

We’ve all waited in a cramped airport for hours because of a lengthy layover. But what if you could ditch the busy terminal to stretch your legs on an African safari? Kenya Airways is making that fantasy a reality by offering passengers a free safari during stopovers in Nairobi.

Serengeti, Maasai Mara, Kruger – everyone who’s ever dreamt of going to Africa will know these safari big-hitters. Famous for their wildlife, they’re also famous for hordes of visitors that flock to them in convoys of Land Cruisers. If you want to get away from the masses, these are the best little-visited African national parks, each with extraordinary wildlife but far fewer humans.

Northern Kenya is one of the world’s last great wildernesses. This rugged, dusty land is rich in history, cultural heritage and isolated appeal and offers the most epic of adventures for the wild at heart. Here, fiery desert plains give way to luscious jungles; bubbling oasis streams are set against imposing, glorious mountain ranges and black, volcanic lakeshores are trodden by some of the world’s most remote tribes.

With the recent lifting of the British High Commission’s travel ban on parts of the Kenyan coastline, you should once again think about Kilifi when planning your trip to Kenya. At this lesser-known resort around two hours north of Mombasa, you can still sail on dhows in the pristine Indian Ocean and soak up the golden sun on sugar-fine sands. Here, Harriet Constable tells us more about why you should choose Kilifi for a coastal break in Kenya.

Kenya is the safari capital of East Africa. A place where elephants, buffalo and wildebeest roam across vast plains. Flamingo flocks wade in the shallows, lions doze on sun-baked savannahs and herds of hippos graze by river banks. Yet in the scramble to see the country's wildlife, local culture often gets overlooked. Tribal people have historically been marginalised from the financial benefits of their land's natural riches.

The Kikuyu people venerated Mount Kenya as the dwelling place of God. They believed if they climbed to the peaks, they would find spiritual inspiration. Straddling the equator and piercing the clouds, Africa’s second-highest mountain – the eroded remains of a vast, prehistoric volcano, towering 5199m from the plains – is a steeper and quicker climb than Kilimanjaro, and in terms of scenic variety and fauna and flora is perhaps the more inspirational of Africa’s two giant mountains. It’s certainly the less busy.

Welcome to the Rough Guide to 2020! From up-and-coming destinations to old favourites with a new reason to visit, this guide has our pick of the best places to travel in 2020.

Home to the only tropical rainforest in Kenya, Kakamega County is a draw for travellers seeking off-the-beaten-track adventures.