Bio-Ken Snake Farm & Laboratory
Watamu
This humble-looking place is one of the world's most renowned snake research centres. Bio-Ken specialises in antivenin research and acts as an emergency…
Must-see attractions in East Africa
Tsavo West National Park
Rising more than 600m above the valley floor and to a height of over 1800m above sea level, this jagged ridgeline ranks among the prettiest of all Tsavo…
South Coast
This sanctuary is a good example of community-based conservation, with local people acting as stakeholders in the project. It was opened in October 1995…
Lumo Community Wildlife Sanctuary
Kenya
The innovative community-run Lumo Community Wildlife Sanctuary covers 657 sq km and was formed from three community-owned ranches in 1996, but only opened…
Kenya
This estate has been cultivating coffee since 1928, and its five-hour tours (which must be pre-booked) are outstanding, taking in an explanation of the…
Diani Beach
This forest, sacred to the Digo people, is the only one of the area's sacred forests that's open to visitors. Visiting this small grove is a nature walk,…
Rwanda
This outstanding museum was given to the city as a gift from Belgium in 1989 to commemorate 25 years of independence. While the building itself is…
South Coast
These Swahili ruins, just north of Mtwapa Creek, have as much archaeological grandeur as the more famous Gede ruins. Jumba la Mtwana means ‘Big House of…
Malindi
One of the more intriguing sights inland from the north Kenyan coast is Hell’s Kitchen or Nyari (‘the place broken by itself’). About 30km northeast of…
Uganda
Uganda’s largest national park is one of its very best; animals are in plentiful supply and the raging Murchison Falls, where the Victoria Nile crashes…
Uganda
Offering some of the most stunning scenery of any protected area in Uganda, Kidepo Valley National Park is hidden away in a lost valley in the extreme…
Nairobi
An interesting diversion in Karen, this craft centre was started by an English expat in 1975 as a place where single mothers could learn a marketable…
Tsavo West National Park
About 4km west of the Chyulu gate of Tsavo West National Park, on the road to Amboseli, are the spectacular Shetani lava flows. ‘Shetani’ means ‘devil’ in…
Kampala
Built in 1922, this small palace is the former home of the king of Buganda, though it has remained empty since 1966 when Prime Minister Milton Obote…
Lake Naivasha
Stippled with sisal, yellow fever trees and candelabra euphorbia, this is the former home of the late Joy Adamson of Born Free fame. She bought the house…
South Coast
This lovely wildlife sanctuary, part of the Baobab Adventure complex, includes a fish farm and reptile park. Guided walks around the park last about 1½…
Kilifi
Just outside the village of Takaungu, you fly on the back of a motorbike down dirt roads, past spiky fields of sisal and giant baobabs towering above…
Diani Beach
Notice the monkeys clambering on rope ladders over the road? The 'colobridges' are the work of the Colobus Conservation Centre, which aims to protect the…
Lamu Archipelago
What sets these ruins, the remains of a city that existed between the 15th and 17th centuries, apart from other archaeological sites on the coast? Quiet…
Kenya
This extensive collection of 13th- to 17th-century coral palaces, mosques and town houses – some of Kenya's most important Swahili ruins – lies quietly in…
Kenya
This 420-sq-km tract of natural forest – the largest indigenous coastal forest remaining in East Africa – is most famous as the home of the golden-rumped…
Watamu
This excellent organisation protects the approximately 50 hawksbill and green turtles that lay their eggs on Watamu Beach. The centre provides much-needed…
Laikipia Plateau
This 283-hectare drive-through enclosure next to the Morani Information Centre is home to the last three remaining northern white rhinos (one male and two…
Lake Naivasha
This private island sanctuary can be reached by boat, or by driving across the narrow, swampy causeway from Sanctuary Farm. It's one of the few places in…
Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary
Entebbe
This sanctuary in Lake Victoria is home to around 50 orphaned chimps that have been rescued from elsewhere in Uganda and are being rehabilitated as much…
Lake Victoria
The best thing to do in Musoma is visit Matvilla Beach at the tip of the peninsula, with its pinky-grey granite boulders. It’s prime sunset-watching-with…
Nairobi
The Go-Down Arts Centre, a converted warehouse in Industrial Area, contains 10 separate studios and is a hub for Nairobi's burgeoning arts scene, bringing…
Kisumu
Kisumu’s main market is one of Kenya’s most animated markets and certainly one of its largest – it spills out onto the surrounding roads. If you’re…
Burundi
Bujumbura’s Lake Tanganyika beaches are some of the best urban beaches of any landlocked country in Africa. The sand, though not exactly pristine white…
Burundi
As is pretty much standard with French cultural institutes the world over, this one hosts a diverse and exciting array of cultural events which take in…
Northern Tanzania
At 19km wide and with a surface of 264 sq km, Ngorongoro is one of the largest unbroken calderas in the world that isn’t a lake. Its steep walls soar 400m…
Masai Mara
The world-renowned Masai Mara National Reserve needs little in the way of introduction. Its tawny, wildlife-stuffed savannahs are familiar to anyone who…
Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary
Eastern Uganda
Located 23km southeast of Entebbe in Lake Victoria, Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, or 'Chimp Island', is home to over 40 orphaned or rescued…
Southern Highlands
Here, in the late 1950s, amid a dramatic landscape of eroded sandstone pillars, archaeologists unearthed one of the most significant Stone Age finds ever…
Western Kenya
Straddling the Ugandan border and peaking with Koitoboss (4187m), Kenya’s second-highest peak, and Uganda’s Wagagai (4321m), the slopes of Mt Elgon are a…
Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor
Southern Highlands
The Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor ('Ushoroba' in Swahili) joins the Selous Game Reserve with Mozambique’s Niassa Reserve, forming a vast conservation…
Southern Highlands
Mikumi is Tanzania’s fourth-largest national park, and the most accessible from Dar es Salaam. With almost guaranteed year-round wildlife sightings, it…
Northern Tanzania
Lake Manyara National Park is one of Tanzania’s smaller and most underrated parks. While it may lack the size and variety of other northern-circuit…
Rwanda
Nyamagabe (formerly called Gikongoro) and the satellite town of Murambi was the site of one of the most unforgettable horrors of the 1994 genocide…
Southwestern Uganda
This fabulous national park is on nearly all itineraries, and while you'll never be far from other safari groups, you're guaranteed to see a large range…
