What to do and Where to Stay in Northern Kenya

Extraordinary Africa>Kenya>Northern Kenya

If there’s something we love more than taking people to special places in Africa, it’s taking them to special places that most travellers have never even heard about, let alone been to.

Kenya’s one of Africa’s best known safari destinations, and yet- if you look at a map, the places most tourists visit are all in the southern part of the country. And they’re welcome to it- the safari there is incredible, but we like to mix up game viewing with experiences that have a little more soul.

Northern Kenya is wild, arid, difficult to access, and at times implausibly beautiful. Landscapes here range from arid volcanic plains to the deep turquoise of the Jade Sea at Lake Turkana. There are mountains that can only be reached by helicopters or days of walking, and remote forests dripping with ferns.

Aside from a few elephant corridors, wildlife is sparse, and local communities make a living herding cattle and camels as they have for centuries. Far from the touristy bomas of (some places in) southern Kenya, this is as an authentic community experience as you can get. You’ll still see people wearing colourful traditional dress and if you’re lucky you might get to visit the singing wells. But likewise- this is very much the 21^st century- many people have mobile phones and can take a much better selfie than the EA team.