Kenya Travel Guide - Going Out

Meat in the country is outstandingly good, as is the wide variety of tropical vegetables and fruits. Inland, a local freshwater fish, tilapia is popular and tasty. On the coast the Swahili style of cuisine is delicately flavoured with spices and coconut milk and features fragrant rice, grilled fish and seafood curries. Indian and Middle Eastern food is available in most areas, and there is a wide range of international restaurants in Nairobi and Mombasa. The tourist hotels along the coast and the large lodges in the game reserves and national parks offer buffet meals. Hotels in smaller towns offer restaurant service, but this is usually a dish of the day, such as chicken and chips or stew and rice.

National specialities:
• Some game park lodges serve game, including buffalo steaks marinated in local liqueurs and berries, often garnished with wild honey and cream.
• Nyama Choma literally means roasted meat, and is one of Kenya's best-known specialities. It is usually served with a spicy tomato relish.
• Most Kenyans eat a stiff porridge made from maize meal called ugali.
• At the small ‘hotelis', chai (tea boiled with milk and sugar) and mandazi (doughnuts) are popular.

National drinks:
• Tusker and White Cap (locally brewed beer).
• Kenya Cane (spirit distilled from sugar cane).
• Kenya Gold (a coffee liqueur).
• Uki (traditional beer made with honey).
• Changaa (locally made spirit distilled from maize).

Tipping: This is not required. Most hotels include a 10% service charge in the bill. If the service charge has not been included, a small tip is usual, although the amount is entirely at the visitor's discretion.

Legal drinking age: 18.

Most of the major hotels in Nairobi and the holiday resorts along the coast have dancing with live bands or discos each evening. There are also a few individual local nightclubs in Nairobi and Mombasa that stay open until dawn but these can get very crowded and prostitution abounds - go in a crowd and take a taxi. Increasingly, modern multi-screen cinema complexes are appearing in Nairobi and Mombasa, which show mainly Hollywood movies, while in the smaller towns are old colonial-style cinemas showing old Kung Fu or Indian films. Theatre is popular in Nairobi. There is a National Theatre and several small groups of dramatic companies; probably the best-known is the Phoenix Players. Quite often, traditional tribal dancing and drumming is performed in the game lodges and beach resorts.

  The city and town centres usually have markets that sell curios such as African drums, old brass and copper, batiks, soapstone knick-knacks, carved chess sets, and large wooden carvings of animals or salad bowls carved from a single piece of teak, mninga or ebony. Masai items such as beaded jewellery, decorated gourds and the distinctive red-checked blankets worn by all Masai men make good souvenirs. Khanga, kitenge and kikoi cloths are ideal to use as sarongs (common in East Africa for both men and women), and Kenyan baskets made from sisal and leather are also popular. Most of the tourist areas have abundant stalls and markets selling these items; you will be expected to haggle good-naturedly over prices.

Shopping hours: Mon-Sat 0830-1230 and 1400-1730. Some Muslim supermarkets and other businesses close on Friday afternoons.

Note: The exportation of souvenirs made from wildlife skins (this includes reptiles) and shells is forbidden.