Best places to visit in Kenya

Kenya Essentials

The places every first-time visitor to Kenya should know about: a 16th-century Portuguese fort on the coast, wildlife encounters just outside Nairobi, a UNESCO-listed ruined Swahili town, and a beach where the Indian Ocean meets white sand.

Sandro Senn / Public domain

Fort Jesus

A UNESCO World Heritage fort on Mombasa Island, built by the Portuguese in the 1590s to guard the harbor and later fought over by Omani, British, and Kenyan forces.

Mgiganteus / CC-BY-SA-3.0

Gede Ruins

The stone ruins of a once-thriving Swahili trading town, abandoned by the 17th century and now half-swallowed by coastal forest near Watamu.

Michal Vogt / CC BY-SA 2.0

Diani Beach

A long stretch of white sand and turquoise water south of Mombasa, backed by palm groves and coral reefs just offshore.

Krg / CC BY-SA 3.0

Karen Blixen Museum

The former Nairobi farmhouse of Danish author Karen Blixen, who wrote Out of Africa here, now preserved with her furniture and colonial-era farm buildings.

Krg / CC BY-SA 3.0

Nairobi National Museum

Kenya's flagship museum, covering the country's natural history, cultures, and the fossil record of early human ancestors found in the Rift Valley.

amanderson2 / CC BY 2.0

David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

A Nairobi elephant orphanage where rescued calves are hand-raised for eventual release, with a daily public viewing hour for visitors.

CC BY 2.5

Giraffe Centre

A conservation center on the edge of Nairobi where visitors hand-feed endangered Rothschild's giraffes from an elevated platform.

Guillaume 1995 / CC BY-SA 3.0

Thomson's Falls

A 74-meter waterfall on the Ewaso Ng'iro River in the Central Rift Valley, framed by forest and cooler highland air.

Wycondi / CC BY-SA 3.0

Thimlich Ohinga

A UNESCO-listed complex of dry-stone-walled settlements in western Kenya, built without mortar and among the best-preserved traditional enclosures in East Africa.