My wife has decided she wants to go on a photo safari to Africa next year. It is going to be led by a well know wildlife photographer that my wife has become friends with over the past couple of years. The trip will be 11 days in Kenya, One day in Nairobi, 3 days each at 3 different luxury safari camps then a day at a giraffe rescue. She is excited about this, me, not so much. I can think of a lot of other places in the world to visit but my wife as said this is her dream even though she has never really mentioned visiting Africa before.
At this time she has found conflicting information about what is needed. We have found that a visa to Kenya is easy to get when you have an airplane ticket out of the country. One website I found talked about a lot of bad (pickpockets, scammers) and very little about the good. My wife found a long list of vaccinations one should get before traveling.
Has anyone ever travelled to Kenya? I would like info from those that have been there.
I visited Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania back in 2016. Overall it was an amazing trip and I highly recommend it.
I had actually applied for an East Africa Tourist Visa, a multi-country visa accepted by Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda, but the Ugandan immigration official at the airport screwed up and just gave me a regular Ugandan visa (Which in hindsight I should have caught when I handed her $100, and she said no, it’s only $50 – that’s the price of a just a regular Ugandan visa). So that left me with no visa for Kenya, but as a US citizen I had no problem applying for a visa at the border.
For vaccines, you will need a yellow fever vaccine, as you will have to show proof of vaccination at the airport. When you get the vaccine they’ll give you an official internationally recognized vaccination card, one that’s much more official looking than the COVID vaccination cards the CDC issued. Speaking of which, I have no idea what their COVID requirements are, since I was there in the before times. The yellow fever vaccine was the only I got specifically for that trip, although I got a bunch of other ones for a work trip to India a few years prior.
I will point out that Kenya is the most economically developed country in that part of Africa. While it’s not nearly as developed as the US, it was noticeably more developed than its neighbors. It felt about like India to me terms of economic development (and they are both in “medium” category on the Human Development Index).
Oh, and pretty much all of the touristy type accommodations were walled off with security at the gate, so I wouldn’t worry about being robbed at your camp. The only place I encountered scammers was on the beach in Zanzibar.
Kenya is very easy to travel to and within! I went with my wife and teenage children (so 4 of us) and had only a minor hiccup as my daughter was 16 (so adult for Kenya but minor for U.S.) and we had to get her visa upon entry at Nairobi. My biggest recommendation is to have a couple thousand in US $20s and $100s for visas and tips- it was surprising how quickly it goes! Your tour agency will likely pick you up at the airport and you will not be alone until departure- or you can easily arrange for such a driver+Nairobi accomodations through your tour. And even when Simon dropped us off at our hotel for the last night when we were going shopping and touring Nairobi the next day before flying out, he talked to the front desk and gave them his contact and made sure that the front desk had a good taxi company especially for us.
But I agree with WildaBeast in that it is truly an amazing trip and literally incomprehensible until you seen the animals and landscapes - wild elephants, rhinos, and ostriches are HUGE and abundant with good guides. I’ve been to 50 countries and Kenya is on my list to go back to twice more before I’m done!