Africa

Writer Peter Elia headed to Mount Kenya in search of a less crowded alternative to Kilimanjaro. He and his companions found they had Africa’s second-highest mountain completely to themselves. Shivering is part of life on Mt Kenya, especially at 2:45am at high altitude. As I removed my glove and guided my numb hand to my […]

Going on safari may be Kenya’s biggest attraction, but its 536km (333-mile) Indian Ocean coastline has some of the best beaches in Africa. From the Lamu archipelago in the far north and the resort beaches near Mombasa to lesser-known, quieter shorelines in between, a stint on a Kenyan beach is well worth adding to your

Despite Kenya’s complex cultural influences drawn from as far afield as the Middle East, Asia and Europe, its cuisine is still relatively unknown – at least outside of East Africa. Thanks to a long history of trade along the Swahili coast, spices from India and the Persian Gulf have permeated Kenya’s cooking culture, and the

Between spotting the Big Five on safari and lounging on the white-sand beaches, it’s easy to forget that Kenya has some superb hikes. This country features spectacular scenery: you could be trekking through lush emerald-green forests or hiking along a crater ridge with views over a shimmering lake, spotting colobus monkeys scampering across the path,

National parks and Kenya go hand in hand. It’s home to a whopping 23 of them, as well as four marine national parks. From the unforgettable scene of thousands of wildebeest crossing the Mara River during their migration to the sight of steaming geysers at Hell’s Gate National Park, Kenya certainly has no shortage of

Smarttravelly’s People You Meet series profiles people we think you should meet on your journey – those who make lasting impressions and help you connect more deeply with the destination. When Steve Nkumum was a child herding cows in the Maasai Mara village of Talek, Kenya, he was perplexed to see non-Maasai-Kenyan tour guides dressed

As Smarttravelly’s creative director, I have the privilege of traveling for work and getting to some pretty remarkable places. I usually travel with excess baggage filled with camera equipment, clipboards of paperwork and the frantic feeling in my stomach that (although I haven’t slept in days and there’s no chance of rest on the horizon)

With about half the country on either side of the equator, Kenya’s climate isn’t a straightforward split of dry and wet seasons. In fact, its dry season has a short wet season, and its wet season is interrupted by a dry one – clear as mud, right? What this means practically is there’s not exactly

Smarttravelly Local Chris Griffiths has been photographing Morocco for more than four years and has now settled in Marrakesh, drawn in by the historic architecture mixed with an ever-changing creative scene. Navigating through the maze of the medina, he’s usually on the hunt for cheap eats, refuge from the hustle and bustle and, as a

Tangier, the jewel of North Africa, is a dazzling city that perfectly blends the past, present and future, from the maze-like streets of the ancient Kasbah to the expansive modern coastline complete with palm trees that serve as wi-fi towers. Even as Tangier becomes ever more connected, it still maintains its incredibly rich traditional Moroccan