Kenya
Highlights
- Game parks such as Masai Mara, Amboseli, Samburu and Nakuru
- Annual wildebeest migration in the Mara
- Beautiful beaches and coast-line
- Cultural experiences
- Easy to package an itinerary with neighboring country Tanzania
The Republic of Kenya is situated on the coast of East Africa and is bisected by the Equator. She has common borders with Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania. The capital and the commercial center is Nairobi. Other major centers are Mombasa – a centuries old trading port, Nakuru – an important agricultural center, and Kisumu – a port on the shores of Lake Victoria.
The Great Rift Valley, with steep sided walls, its floor littered with lakes and extinct volcanoes, cuts through the country from north to south and lies to the west of Mount Kenya 5,199 m (17,060 ft) the second highest mountain in Africa.
The geography and climate vary from hot and arid semi-desert in the north, and the rolling central highlands with warm days and cool comfortable nights, to the relative humidity of the silvery coastline lapped by the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.
Kenya is an enchanting country and few places in the world can better its varied holiday attractions. It has a flawless coastline, with its palm-fringed, silver-sanded beaches. Sunshine at the coast averages eight hours a day throughout the year.
Specialist safaris in Kenya cater for almost every type of enthusiast. Year by year the network of cross-country roadways improves. New airports of international standard permit the safari arrival and departure of visitors by an increasing number of the world’s airlines. There are landing grounds for light aircraft all over the country. Flying safaris are becoming increasingly popular allowing great distances to be covered in the minimum time. Kenya has been geared for the last Forty years to offering visitors the most sophisticated of facilities, even in the heart of bush-country.
Above all, it is the home of the “Big Five” – the elephant, buffalo, rhino, lion and leopard, which can be seen in most of the magnificent game sanctuaries, these extend through the borders of the Ethiopia, Uganda and down to Tanzania.
The game parks and reserves of Kenya cover every sort of terrain – deserts, semi-deserts, forests, mountains, lakes, open plains and, at the coast, marine parks. All are devoted to the conservation of their indigenous flora and fauna. New areas of conservation are being set aside regularly, and in no way can one ever say, “to have seen one is to have seen them all”.
