Kenya has some great places to go on safari! If a safari trip is what you want, the lodges, roads and cuisine are a notch higher than in most of Tanzania. But I have had such great safari viewings in Tanzania, that I would still rank Tanzania higher for safaris if your main aim is to see a large variety of wildlife and the big cats (lions, leopards, cheetahs). I re-learned on this trip why safaris call these the Big 5 animals: Rhino, Elephant, Cape Buffalo, Lion and Leopard. It’s not because of size. It was back during big game hunting and those were the most prized trophies – Ugh!!!
We just had a luxurious stay at a lodge in Tsavo West park. It was such a beautiful, idyllic place with top-shelf service. They did our laundry, fed us amazing meals and most importantly, took us on wildlife drives. And we saw some very unique animals that we didn’t see in Tanzania on our drives – honey badgers, monitor lizards, klipspringers, tortoise, melonistic serval cat (very rare all-black serval), scrub hare. So we left there quite elated at all those unique animal sightings.
If it is beach life you crave, then Kenya probably isn’t the right destination unless you opt for a high-end beach resort (which we did not). We just did 10 days moving up the coast of Kenya – from Mombasa to Lamu. Granted that in no way covers all the coast, but it is the popular area for beach-goers (which we really aren’t). There is more pristine, plentiful beach life in other countries, like Zanzibar (Tanzania) and the island nations of The Seychelles and Mauritius.
We also spent about a week in a higher elevation lake area of Kenya. We anticipated being able to run, hike and be away from noisy places or where wild animals live and might attack if you encroach on their territories. Lake Naivasha delivered on some of that, but the Kenya government made it surprisingly expensive for tourists. All national parks of Kenya are very expensive for non-residents to visit. Day trips to these parks cost us more than $100 just for day-use. The Kenyan people are also taken aback by the high costs. While we enjoyed being in the great outdoors and exercising, the cost for this privilege is just too high and we wouldn’t recommend other visitors to go to these parks for that reason.
It is much easier for us to get things done in Kenya than in Tanzania. We appreciate the more modern shopping areas in Kenya. We were able to go to a backpacking store and get hydration bladders and rain ponchos and they have department stores – we didn’t see those in Tanzania. We can use Uber in Nairobi without the Uber drivers complaining or canceling our rides. And I needed to go see a doctor about a persistent dry cough and wheeze I have developed over the last 3-4 weeks. Still don’t know if the medications the doctor prescribed will make me feel back to normal because I just started taking them, but the process of going to a highly rated, walk-in clinic and being seen by a doctor and having a follow-up went surprisingly well and cost me about $35 for the doctor, blood lab and medications. Fingers crossed, it works!
In Kenya we eat food that tastes more like home. Almost all the time we ate food in Tanzania that looked like “western” food, there were distinct differences that made it taste strange. In Kenya they have butter, a variety of western cheeses, meats and fish that are de-boned and more sweet desserts, cookies and ice cream.
We will return to Kenya in mid-January to tackle Mt. Kenya. We had to wait for a better weather window for the mountain so that is why we are leaving and then returning.