Kenya: good to know
The general-information half of trip planning: how expensive Kenya feels, what is considered polite, what is not, and the everyday practicalities - alongside our 115 written places.
Safari heartland with entrepreneurial buzz; Hakuna matata is real but so is hustle.
✓ Considered polite
- Greet - Jambo or the cooler Mambo - and learn Asante, thank you
- Tip safari guides and camp staff properly - ask your operator for daily norms, it is real income
- Use M-Pesa or cards - Kenya invented mobile money
- Book migration-season Mara camps far ahead - roughly July to October
✗ Better avoided
- Photograph people or Maasai villages without agreement - arrangements exist, respect them
- Stand up or lean out on game drives - guides' rules are law
- Walk Nairobi streets with phone in hand - snatching happens
- Drink tap water
Worth knowing
- Park fees are significant and card-paid - factor them into budgets
- The SGR train links Nairobi and Mombasa comfortably
- Nairobi traffic is legendary - schedule around it
- Plastic bags are banned nationally - genuinely enforced at entry
Plugs and voltage: Wikipedia, «Mains electricity by country» (after the IEC World Plugs list), read 15 October 2026.
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Keep planning
Customs are living things - regions differ, cities relax, generations shift. Take these notes as a friendly head start, watch what locals do, and when in doubt a smile and a greeting in the local language cover almost everything.