Things to Do

Here are some recommendations of the places and restaurants we’ve been to. It’s by no means exhaustive so worth asking friends for recommendations or reading articles. Please share any good ones with us!

Diani:

Diani is the location of our wedding. It has vast, beautiful, white sandy beaches. A perfect place to spend a week, taking it easy and moving between the beach and pool and some of the local sites. The restaurants aren’t out of this world but the food is good and reasonably priced.

  • Snorkelling & Diving: it’s worth comparing hotel prices to what they offer on the beach

  • Dhow trip: a dhow is a traditional Kenyan boat. It can be booked from your hotel or directly from the beach

  • Wasini Island & Kisite Marine Park to see the dolphins

  • Tsavo East Safari Park: It’s unlikely you’ll see all of the big 5 but this is a good alternative if you don’t have time to do a safari in the bigger parks

  • Colombus Conservation: Monkey Sanctuary

  • Bora Bora Wildlife Camp: Cheap and cheerful nature park

  • Shimba Hills: A wildlife park that’s 1.5 hours drive from Diani. You’ll see elephants, giraffes, antelopes, rhinos and zebra.

Cafe’s & Restaurants:

  • Sail’s: nice hotel restaurant. Part of the Almanara resort

  • Salty Squid: relaxed beachfront restaurant

  • Nomad’s: casual beachfront restaurant (pictured)

  • Ali Babar’s Cave: a cave with a massive hole in the ceiling, nice to sit under the stars when you eat. We didn’t rate the food but might have had a bad experience. Worth going for a drink

  • Asha Bistro: casual, hotel restaurant on the beach with bistro style food

  • House of Wood Fired Pizza: …pizza

Nairobi:

Only worth being in for transit, wouldn’t recommend staying more than 24-48 hours.

Cafe’s & Restaurants:

  • The Talisman: voted Nairobi’s best restaurant by the New York Times

  • Carnivore: very touristy but also novel. All types of meat including crocodile and ostrich

  • The Kitchen at Ololo: this restaurant is in the middle of Nairobi National Park which means you might see some lions on your journey there. Delicious restaurant, made with ingredients from their farm which is onsite

Malindi & Watamu:

Watamu and Malindi are two towns about 20km apart to the north of Diani. The area can be reached by road or flight. Similar to Diani, worth visiting if you have lots of time in Kenya.

Things to do:

  • Snorkelling and Diving: get prices at your hotel or on the beach

Restaurants

  • Crabshack: highly recommend. A local restaurant on Mida Creek. Excellent food, cheap and scenic. You have to try the crab samosas

  • Lonno Lodge: Italian food

  • Lichthaus: waterfront bar with hammocks over the water

Safari:

The main places to do a safari are The Masai Mara, Amboseli, Lake Naivasha, Lake Nakuru, Samburu and Laikipia. Here are some articles and itineraries. Personally, we wouldn’t recommend more than 3 days:

Manda Island & Lamu:

Manda and Lamu are two islands of the Lamu Archipelago. I’ve only visited Lamu but I’ve heard great things about Manda Bay. There are no cars on Lamu and it epitomises the pole pole (slowly slowly) mentality. Full of beautiful Arab architecture and surrounded by water. Highly recommend a visit. Very religious place - dress conservatively

  • Shopping and exploring in Lamu Old Town

Restaurants: