Kericho Tea Plantations

Kericho sits at around 2,000 metres in country that gets rain almost every afternoon, which is why tea grows here better than almost anywhere, and the landscape is the result: hills covered edge to edge in clipped tea bushes, a uniform bright green broken only by shade trees and the tracks of the pickers. Kenya is among the largest tea exporters in the world and much of it comes from these estates. Driving through is free and the roads run for miles between the fields; estate tours, arranged in advance with the larger companies, show plucking, withering, rolling and drying, and end with a tasting. The old Tea Hotel, built in the 1950s, sits in gardens in the town. Afternoons bring reliable rain, which locals set their day by, and mornings are the working hours in the fields.

What you actually see

• The tea landscape - clipped green hills running to the horizon.
• Pickers at work - hand plucking in the fields, mainly in the mornings.
• Factory tours - processing from leaf to dried tea, by arrangement.
• Kericho town - the tea hotel gardens and the working town.

When to go

Year-round; the fields are green in all seasons. Mornings for picking and for staying dry, since rain arrives most afternoons. Factory tours need arranging in advance with the estates.

Honest expectations

Estate tours require booking and are not always available; casual visitors may only be able to drive through and look. Photographing workers requires asking. The town itself is unremarkable. Afternoon rain is close to daily and can be heavy.

Nearby

Kisumu lies west; Nakuru and the Rift lakes are east.