My sisters and their family, including 2 young kids, came to Kenya for their first trip to Kenya. We started with Nairobi, then went to Diani, and finished in Naivasha.
In Nairobi we started at the Railway Museum which had a little history plus some fun exhibits for the kids, as well as scrambling around the trains. We then went to a market, the Bizarre Bazaar that takes place every few months at the Kenya School of TVET with a lot of vendors providing food, gifts and the usual touristy items that you'd find at the Maasai market. The evening dinner was at Fogo Gaucho for some good meat (including Crocodile of course) and the wonderful Cinnamon Pineapple.
The next day we started fairly early at Nairobi National Park, although we didn't see that much wildlife unfortunately (there was some Hippos, Giraffes and Zebras by the lake near the Main entrance but not much beyond that unfortunately). We finished the morning at the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage with the orphan elephant and rhino feeding. After lunch at Tin Roof Cafe, we finished the afternoon at the giraffe center feeding giraffes, listening to the educational talk and walking in the nature walk across the road. Back home we made home-made pizzas for dinner,
Day 3 started at Swara Acacia on Mombasa Road out past Mlolongo cycling and walking in the Conservancy with animals; one of the highlights was a herd of Wildebeest running in the distance. After lunch there we then went across town up Kiambu Road to the Fairview Coffee Estate for a tour and tasting, before returning to Nairobi to visit the Nairobi Planetarium with the excellent show and then a brief look through the telescope (unfortunately cloud cover limited how long we had) at the moon at a planet or two.
The next day we flew to Diani where we stayed at the wonderful Villa Savannah, a fantastic 5 bedroom villa that has multiple bar and dining areas, a great pool with loads of deckchairs, a fantastic chef, and a massage table that we made use of two nights (inviting in a masseuse from nearby). In the first afternoon we just relaxed by the pool whilst the next day we went to Mombasa for several hours at the Wild Waters water park and a couple of hours at Fort Jesus.
The following day was spent at the pool and at the beach (we tend to go to Safari Beach Hotel and use their facilities) including a nice afternoon game of beach volleyball, whilst our last day in Diani included a few-hour glass boat tour with snorkelling around the sand bank.
After flying back to Nairobi the next morning we drove to Naivasha to stay at the equally wonderful Otter House in Kilimandege Sanctuary. We had lunch at the Ranch Bistro and then spent the afternoon exploring and seeing the animals at the conservancy; throughout the stay we saw zebras in our front garden, impala in our back garden and heard a lot of birds (we didn't see any hippos at the lake side althoug we did hear some).
The next morning we drove to Kariundusi Museum, a small museum at the site where thousands of stone tools (around a million years old) had been discovered. Unfortunately the museum remains rarely visited, under-invested in and somewhat depressing as there could be so much more educational potential. However it is only a few minutes off the highway to Nakuru so still worth a short visit. We then went to have lunch at the Lake Elementaita Serena Camp that is inside the Soysambu Conservancy (the buffet lunch there includes entry fees to the Conservancy) and the kids did some horseriding in the Conservancy. Late in the afternoon we then did a couple of hours safari in Lake Nakuru National Park. Although we did see a lot of rhinos and other animals they were not that close; but we did have a lion walking casually down the track alongside our car, which was quite suprising and exciting!
The weather had generally been good, but there was a shower here and there. Thankfully our car managed to get through some of the muddy patches whilst on Safari and the weather was good for the whole of the next day when we went to Hell's Gate. The kids climbed Fischer's Tower, and we all then cycled to the Gorge (except my mum who walked most of the way, and took the car part of the way). The gorge walk was great, the viewpoints from the exit were stunning and we continued to see lots of wildlife on the cycle back, including, finally, some Warthogs.
The last day of the trip began with a boat trip on Lake Nakuru seeing hippos and a walk on Crescent Island with more wildlife, then a relaxing lunch and drink at Sanctuary Farm whilst the kids did some more horse riding, and finally the drive back to Nairobi when the holiday ended.
I'd recommend the trip agenda wholeheartedly. We managed to get a balance of being busy and having some down time every now and again, although there was a fair amount of driving. We had considered more time in Nairobi (we didn't do a tour of Kibera, for example, or go to do any more fun things like Maji Magic, walk in Ngong Hills, or explore more the restaurants in Nairobi); and we had also considered more time in the Coast, or at least less beach/Mombasa time and instead a day Dolphin watching (including the Slave Caves and Boardwalk) or visiting other islands. We had also thought about staying in the North Coast instead of Diani, but the Diani beach is better and the AirBnB options are much much better (North Coast is mostly only Hotels).
My mum had come earlier than everyone else and spent 5 days in the Watamu Treehouse relaxing and having some massages and when she was in Nairobi we had taken her to an afternoon at the Horse Racing, coffee and a visit to the Matbronze Wildlife Art gallery, and a visit to the National Archives (which, to be honest, is better done and more interesting than the National Museums of Kenya, especially with the great guides available). She also got to see a show at the Braeburn Theatre, though that was quite fortunate timing!
All in all I think most of the highlights were covered. If we had more time we probably would just have spent more time at each place!
