Backpacking Kenya – The introductory guide.
Wild and exotic, a country where you can travel with a really low budget. Where you can enjoy backpacking solo without problems. Country that will create an intense cultural shock where the organization doesn’t exists and the smile and greetings are the law.
In every city we found at least 8 or 9 couchsurfers wanting to host us so there was not hostel cost at all, don’t expect to stay in european house. This is for the people that want to experience the real Kenyan life, with warm and humble people, without luxury and trying local food. The street food costs 2 to 4 Dollars per person. For vegan you will alwasy find Ugali (made of corn, similar to polenta), beans, vegetables and the always amazing CHAPATI!!!
Our itinerary was really simple we went from Nairobi to Naivasha (Hell’s gate national park – Bike Safari) and back to the capital city to take the Train to Mombasa to enjoy the coast and their beaches.
If you are planning to go to Tanzania after, we thought that the obligated route for us was to go from Nairobi, but instead of that we took a bus from Mombasa in 9 hours and for just 12 Dollars.
The estimated cost per day per person was around 10 dollars including the excursions.
If you are not planning to do everything solo and want to contract some tour in Nairobi contact Malvic Tours, the owner was our couchsurfer she knows a lot of things of her country and the prices are way lower than others.
With a lot of things to do, our 20 days backpacking Kenya experience was busy but enough, we left the country feeling that we did most of the things that we wanted to do around the country and that’s a really nice sensation.
The Kenyan Shillings value is 103 to 1 Dollar.
Tips for your Trips:
Ø Naivasha is a small town but really nice, cheap and full of nature.
Ø Plastic bags are totally forbidden.
Ø It’s extremely hard to find Wi Fi connection.
Ø The Credit and Debit cards are not really usefull because almost everything is paid cash or with MPESA.
Ø The bike Safari is a MUST!!!