Product Description

The Rough Guide Map Kenya is the most detailed and comprehensive map to this alluring country. A hugely popular destination for independent travellers and escorted tourists alike, both for its beaches and the safari parks of the interior. The scale of 1:1,000,000 is large enough to make the map easily managable whilst also showing enough detail to pinpoint buildings and dirt tracks. The map is designed for all visitors, whether travelling by car or public transport as it includes train lines and stations, petrol stations, airports, distances between towns, road numbers and details of road surfaces.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #688296 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-03
• Format: Folded Map
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Map
• 1 pages

Review
The knowledgeable Rough Guide to Kenya was a constant companion during my visit The Times

About the Author
Produced in association with the World Mapping Project.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Where to go

Where to travel clearly depends on your personal interests, and the time you have available. Nairobi (p.79) is usually only used as a gateway. The coast (p.408) and major game parks (p.356) are the most obvious targets, and if you come to Kenya on an inclusive tour you're likely to have your time divided between these two attractions. If you like the idea of walking or climbing, there's the hot, dry Rift Valley (p.232) and the high forests and moors of the Central Highlands - Mount Kenya itself is a major target and feasible for most people (p.190). For the best immersion in Kenyan life and culture, the western region (p.270) stands out as accessible and untouristy. For serious adventure, the north (p.545) is one of the most spectacular and memorable of all African regions.

More detailed rundowns on the specific character and appeal of each area are given in the chapter introductions. There too, and at times within the main text, you will find brief backgrounds on the various Kenyan peoples. The ten main language groups can no longer be wholly identified with the regions (and moves towards the cities and intermarriage are blurring distinctions), but some understanding of cultural differences is worth achieving. See also "People and Languages" (p.71) and "Religion and Etiquette" (p.73) in Basics.

When to go

As far as climate is concerned, Kenya has complicated and unpredictable shifts. Broadly, the pattern is that January and February are hot and dry, while from March to May it is hot and wet - this period is known as the "long rains". From June until October the weather is warm and dry, and then come the "short rains", making November and December warm and wet.

Temperatures, though, are determined largely by altitude. Nairobi's are surprisingly moderate compared with, say, London's (see box opposite). You can reckon on a drop of 6C (or 11F) in temperature for every 1000m you climb from sea level. The low-lying coast and the north remain hot all year round, while the highlands (which range to over 4000m and peak above 5000m) are generally warm or mild during the day but much cooler at night. Nairobi, higher than the Cairngorms or the Appalachians, can drop to 5C (41F).

At the highest altitudes, it may rain at almost any time. Western Kenya has a scattered rainfall pattern influenced by Lake Victoria. Temperatures tend to climb towards the end of the dry seasons, particularly in late February and early March, when it can become very humid before the rains break. It's worth noting that Kenya's climate has been drying out in recent years - the chart opposite paints a slightly rainier picture than you'll find in the country now.

The main tourist seasons tie in with the rainfall patterns: the biggest influxes are in December and January and, to a lesser extent, July and August. Dry season travel does have a number of advantages, not least a greater visibility of wildlife as animals are concentrated along the diminishing watercourses. July and August are probably the best months, overall, for game-viewing. October to January are the months with the clearest seas for snorkelling and diving - especially November. In the "long rains", the mountain parks are sometimes closed, as tracks are no longer drivable. But the rainy seasons shouldn't deter travel unduly: the rains usually come only in short afternoon or evening cloudbursts, and the landscape is strikingly green and fresh even if the skies may be cloudy. There are bonuses, too, in the lack of tourists: hotel and often car rental prices are reduced and people generally have more time for you.

If you're concerned about being part of a horde of tourist arrivals, don't let it bother you too much. Kenya's million-odd annual visitors are few compared with the tens of millions that descend on many Mediterranean countries. There is nothing to prevent you escaping the predictable bottlenecks and tourist "oases" for a completely separate experience and, even on an organized tour, you should not feel constrained to follow the prescribed plan.

Customer Reviews

Forget Lonely Planet and Let's Go.
The Rough Guide Kenya is an indispensable guide and is useful for first-time and veteran travellers to Kenya. Sections on literature and history complement excellent, detailed, and often witty coverage of nearly the entire country. The best thing about this book is the author's attempt to introduce the reader to the social and political realities of modern Kenya which lie behind the facade of safaris and curio shops.

Revamped, looks better - but where's the spirit?
Rough Guide definitely looks smarter today than it used to. Typeface and design overhauled, and even their hideous logo (which STILL looks like a fire exit sign) has been jazzed up into a more agreeable fuzzy pharmaceutical-looking symbol. There are more photos, and better ones. Information, from what I could see, is accurate, and there good practical tips, as usual.

The problem is their writing. They say in their preface that Kenya is a hugely rewarding country to visit - but there is no evidence of the authors having a good time. The text is dry, uninspired, shallow; again, it reminds you of tax return guidance notes.

It does not FEEL like they liked the country; and, while it is evident that a lot of effort has been put in, it does feel like a 'contractual obligation product' rather than an inspired writing from someone who is genuinely connected with Kenya.

While I found hotel descriptions helpful, dining advice is the most disappointing aspect. People who know Kenya better than I do confirmed to me, with bewilderment, that restaurants appear to have been picked at random or, worse, still, their names have been copied from leaflets lying around in upmarket hotels. It is a real shame in a country where you can have the best Ethiopian meal outside Addis.

The section on getting to Kenya is hardly helpful - essentially lots of hot air on theoretically available airline options, prices which were out of date before the guide was even printed and a stubborn refusal to admit that these days, if anyone is too thick to check the price on the net, perhaps that person would be better off staying at home.

It is commendable that the guide is more open to all kinds of readers and does not presume that everyone only has twenty dollars a day to spend, but its value is diminished by the lacklustre writing. An informative and accurate guide does not need to be this boring.

very rough on some Kenya roads
While I've come to depend on Rough Guides for travel in Africa, the 7th edition of this guide proved embarrassing when I recommended that my safari drivers take the "tarred lakeshore road" that it describes as "an excellent, fast highway" from Katito to Kendu Bay. In the summer of 2003, this was probably the worst road I've ever traveled in Kenya. Conversely, while the guide describes the Mombasa Highway as so "pot-holed, narrow ... and dangerous" that "you should count on two days to cover Nairobi-Mombasa comfortably," this was the best road I've traveled in Kenya, at least to the village of Mackinnon Road, enabling us to have breakfast in Nairobi and a late lunch in Mombasa. Shortcomings such as these result when some areas of the country are too infrequently revisited to yield accurate reviews in a subsequent edition of the guide. A design flaw in recent editions of Rough Guides is the placement of cost-estimate figures in white within small circles of color, rendering many figures difficult to discern. Furthermore, the thin type face makes reading Rough Guides more challenging than their predecessor Real Guides. These criticisms notwithstanding, I still consider Rough Guides the best available introductions to wonderful destinations.