Things to Do in Kenya

Quick facts: Every year around 1.5 million gazelles and 200 thousand zebras pour into these savannas in the final stage of the great migration that lasts months. More than 95 mammal and over 470 bird species are the permanent residents of these lush green meadows.

Highlights: In late July and August, as the migrating herds cross the river where crocodiles wait, thousands of hooved animals plunge into the water within seconds. Seen from the sky, these herds advance like a giant black-and-white carpet covering the savanna, laying the groundwork for extraordinary predator activity throughout the year.

Quick facts: In this basin where around 1,500 elephants roam freely, the 5,895-meter snow-covered peak rises like a crimson curtain in the first light of morning. When the salty bed of the drying lake is covered by rains, hundreds of flamingos feed in the puddles, while the spring waters on the lakeshore attract zebras and gazelles.

Highlights: Every member of these elephant families, observed by Cynthia Moss for half a century, is known by name and their family trees are documented, so you can learn on the spot how old the female in front of you is. Beyond the salty ground cracking beneath your feet, the peak's meltwaters seep underground and surface as noisy hot springs, and on the banks of that water, elephants bury themselves in mud and roll around with delight.

Quick facts: Dust hangs in the late-afternoon light as grazing herds and a solitary rhino move across open grassland, a distant skyline making the scene feel unexpectedly surreal. Visitors often spot over 100 bird species on a single walk and can encounter lions and cheetahs within a short drive, creating thrilling, highly accessible wildlife encounters.

Highlights: On a 117-square-kilometer plain you can watch giraffes nibble dusty acacia leaves while a steel skyline shimmers on the horizon, and guides will point out more than 400 bird species by song and feather, down to the flash of the lilac-breasted roller. After the poaching crises of the 1980s rangers began radio-tracking and naming dozens of black rhinos, a habit that means a guide will sometimes say "watch Tank over by the kopje" and everyone will know which individual with the bent horn they mean.

Quick facts: This structure, whose walls are built of coral rock and lime mortar, absorbs incoming cannonballs rather than shattering them; thanks to this feature it has stood for centuries. Its star-shaped bastions overlooking the Indian Ocean have witnessed the changing shadow of the Portuguese, Omani and British flags over four centuries.

Highlights: When you climb the stone stairs to the bastions, the sailing ships and signatures carved into the wall by sailors and captives who stood watch here 400 years ago can still be read. Beneath the corridors swept by the salty wind, while listening to the sound of water rising from the defense wells, you will feel as if you are in a completely different century.

Quick facts: The tide's shift of up to 4 meters transforms the 17-kilometer beach into a completely different scene twice a day. The receding water reveals coral reefs you can reach on foot and brings tropical fish right up to your ankles.

Highlights: More than 400 black-and-white colobus monkeys live in the forest just behind the beach; at dawn you can watch the families passing through the treetops up close. Green sea turtles grazing in the shallow waters of the coral reef are visible so clearly from 20 meters offshore that you can count the spots on their shells.

Quick facts: This extinct volcano, 17 kilometers in diameter, is Africa's second highest point with its 5,199-meter Batian peak. Carrying glaciers just above the equator defies belief; between the 13 separate peaks on its slopes stretch alpine meadows covered with giant rosette plants.

Highlights: The Kikuyu people call this mountain 'Kirinyaga,' meaning 'mountain of light,' and consider its peak the throne of the god Ngai. At dawn the mountain's shadow falls across the savanna for 160 kilometers, and the glaciers turning from orange to pink put on an extraordinary play of light together with the equatorial snowscape.

Quick facts: Its alkaline water is full of microscopic algae that host more than 400 bird species and turn hundreds of thousands of flamingos into a pink painting. One of the first protected areas established for the black rhinoceros, this park today is home to around 60 black and white rhinos.

Highlights: As the water level rises and falls, the flamingo army changes location every few weeks, and at its most crowded moments the 1.5 million birds on the shore turn into a single pink strip. While the wind laden with the smell of salt hits your face, you come upon the lazy glances of lions stretched out in the treetops.

Quick facts: Lean over the raised feeding platform and feel a rough, prehensile tongue wrap around a carrot, a startlingly intimate way to meet a giraffe. Guided conservation programs helped raise counts of the endangered Rothschild's giraffe through captive breeding and reintroduction, and playful calves are often visible during walks.

Highlights: Climbing the wooden feeding platform and holding out a handful of pellets feels like a dare: a dark purple tongue about 45 centimeters long curls around your palm and the rasping lick leaves a ticklish, gritty sensation. Founded by conservationists Jock and Betty Leslie-Melville to save endangered Rothschild's giraffes, the place runs playful education sessions where local schoolchildren crowd the rails to feed curious calves while keepers jot each animal's growth on handwritten cards.

Quick facts: You can cycle shoulder to shoulder with zebra herds and pedal among the clouds of geothermal steam rising from the slopes. The basalt columns that inspired the giant rock King in The Lion King form the heart of this volcanic landscape.

Highlights: Accompanied by the smell of steam bursting from the cracked earth, as you pass among the zebras in the shadow of giant basalt towers along the 25-kilometer valley, you will think you are on a movie set. Local Maasai guides, while telling the history of the ancient caves in the valley, also show the region's millennia-old cattle trails.

Quick facts: The signs at the city's entrance read 'no cars'; nearly 3,000 donkeys are the only means of transport, and goods, belongings and even brides are carried on their backs. The number of carved wooden doors exceeds 900, and each home's door tells of its owner's wealth and the craftsman's skill.

Highlights: At the Maulidi festival, over 100 racing boats come into the harbor at dawn and the drums do not stop all night; this celebration is the region's oldest religious festival. Walls carved from coral stone keep the interiors cool throughout the day, and on the facades no one has painted, centuries of moss and salt traces have accumulated layer upon layer.