The best things to do in Kenya with kids

In this series, Lonely Planet’s team of writers and editors answer your travel problems and provides tips and hacks to help you plan a hassle-free trip. When it came to a question about a 4WD self-drive safari in Africa, we knew Namibia-based guidebook writer Mary Fitzpatrick would have the answer.

Go2Africa recently announced what purports to be the world’s most expensive wildlife safari. For $690,000, a family of four will visit six African countries (including Kenya, South Africa and the Seychelles) over 24 days. The luxurious accommodations range from tented safari camps to beachfront villas, and remote wellness retreats. The package also includes hot air balloon rides, gorilla trekking—even a personal film crew to document the journey.

Yes, it's true that some of the world's best all-inclusive resorts cost thousands of dollars per night. Still, there are also plenty of affordable vacation properties available for every type of traveler. Whether you are planning a Maldives trip on points and miles, a safari with the kids or a rejuvenating getaway to the Caribbean — and need to stick to a budget — you'll be happy to know that affordable all-inclusive resorts exist in all these dreamy destinations.

Every year since 2009, the World’s 50 Best Bars has released its list of top tipple temples from across the globe. Not once has a single bar from Africa ever qualified for that list. It actually remains the only habitable continent on earth to be denied such a spot. And it’s not for lack of trying. There are countless candidates from Morocco all the way down to Cape Town befitting of the merit. None are knocking on the door quite so loudly as Hero Bar in the heart of Nairobi, Kenya.

Pelicans preen and glide. Jacana birds, precise as ballerinas, point their improbably elongated toes. Pied kingfishers flit in and out of their lakeside nest holes, saddle-billed storks patrol the grassy banks and skimmers speed across the silver-blue water, scooping up beakfuls mid-flight. Everywhere I look, there are birds in abundance. The safari boat is the perfect platform from which to watch: open-sided, smooth and near-silent.

No country has it all, but the Swiss are justified in feeling pretty smug about their lot.

Kenya is not generally considered an expensive place to travel, but its developed tourist industry means prices can be a little higher than other African countries.

Before you book that dream safari trip to the Masai Mara, start planning beach time in Mombasa or working out which of Nairobi’s cool bars you want to enjoy a cold beer at, make sure you’ve got your visa to visit Kenya figured out. 

A trip to Kenya is synonymous with safari, and rightfully so. Its national parks teem with wildlife, with the most famous being the Masai Mara Game Reserve, famous for the Big Five – lion, leopard, black rhino, elephant and buffalo – and the Nilotic Maasai tribe with their distinct red traditional shuka (checkered cloth).

The largest ski resort in the United States is now one of the nation's most accessible. 

How to Travel Better is a new monthly column with Condé Nast Traveler’s sustainability editor Juliet Kinsman. In this series, Juliet introduces us to the sustainability heroes she meets, signposts the experiences that are enhancing our world, and shares the little and big ways we can all travel better.

Lara Jackson is an award-winning wildlife photographer, conservation biologist and presenter who documents critically endangered species for NGOs and conservation organisations. Her work spans more than a decade and has taken her to some of the world’s wildest places, including the tropical rainforests of Belize and the dry savannahs of East Africa. Here, she shares the story of Kenya's white rhinos and why this sunset shot means so much to her.