Have you been to Kenya for a holiday ? If so what is it like please ?

Any tips or stories about the country will be welcome.

We are going there next April. I am very excited at the prospect.

Hi

We went last year and although we only had a week at a beach rather than including a safari, I am really glad we went. Be prepared though.......... Kenya is an incredibly poor country and what you see could upset you.

Be prepared before you go, take coloured pencils, notebooks and things that you think young children might like. Also if you have any old socks that you are thinking of throwing away, take. We haggled with the beach traders and they would put the prices down if you offered to include socks. I also work for a VW retailer and had some logo'd pens with me. They loved them! So any pens with any logo take - they are another great bargaining tool.

If you are flying into Mombasa, the airport is great fun. You arrive into a huge hall with a row of tables, another row of high benches and then immigration. You have to grab a form from the tables, complete it, get it stamped at the high desk and then go the immigration bit and then get it stamped again....... very beaurocratic. The airport has no airconditioning on arrival either..

Be very prepared for the roads as well. Dependant on where you are staying (we were at Diani Beach, which was wonderful) you may have a bit of travel ahead of you. We had to take a ferry across a big river and it was not for the faint hearted! The roads are full of pot holes and the mini buses definately look like they had better days. But we had such a laugh on ours and it is all part of the experience. (Word of warning though, a lot of the Kenyan drivers don't wear deodorant, so sit further away!)

Our hotel was superb, we could not fault it one bit and the Kenyan staff were so very humble and welcoming, we were made to feel like kings. I have a lot of respect for all the staff, they seemed to be there from very early in the morning to very late at night.

You do get harrassed on the beach quite a lot. You do learn to deal with it. A very firm 'No thank you' done politely is enough. My husband was taken on a walking safari through the sea to a huge sandbank for a very small sum.

You need to remember that these people are really poor and to them we are millionaires, so try and spend your money with the beach sellers rather than in big shops.

We went on a Dolphin Dhow trip and were very very lucky to see them in the wild, that was truly an experience. Then we were taken snorkelling and my husband says it was some of the best he has ever seen in the world. We saw a huge turtle just laying on the sea bed - amazing!

A must is a trip to a local school. We went out to see an orphanage school and they stopped on the way so we could get some supplies. I wish we had known how bad it was as we would have bought more. The children were in such raggedy clothes it was so distressing for me. And then they sang us lovely songs and showed us their school work. That trip was so touching and it bought me right back to reality and made me realise how lucky we really are.

Going to Kenya really changed a lot of things for me. It opened my eyes to a world we don't see very often and made me realise that people who have so little and are still so wonderful.

You will have an amazing time!

I've been to Mombasa. We didn't go outside the hotel complex much to be honest. We were advised not to go too far along the beach for security reasons. It's one of the best holidays I've ever had though. If I had my time again though and with a bit more money I would have gone on a safari. Have fun x

talk it from me born and raised in africa, it will be everything you want and more, the safari the tribes the stories, the religion, the culture all wonderful. there are no stories to be told you go and you make you own to thell others, have fun. check out the tribes

kenya is the best country in the woooorrrlld!!!!!

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