Kenya things to see and do

At 4,986m (16,358ft) above sea level, this extinct volcano is the second-highest mountain in Africa. The Mountain Club of Kenya (www.mck.or.ke) runs mountain huts and publishes guides for climbers.

Spend an evening afloat on a romantic dhow (traditional Arab sailing boat), feasting on a delicious seafood dinner and watching the moon rise over Mombasa's old harbour (www.tamarinddhow.com).

Take in the sweeping views from the road between Nairobi and Naivasha. Here the 2,000m- (6,560ft-) high escarpment walls plunge to the flat-bottomed valley floor below, which is dotted by a small string of volcanoes and brackish soda lakes.

East Africa's first ice-skating facility, the Solar Ice Rink at the Panari Sky Center in Nairobi, can accommodate 200 skaters and measures 1,400 sq m (15,000 sq ft) (www.panarihotels.com).

Witness thousands of flamingos fringing the edge of the lake in pink. It is also one of Kenya's best rhino sanctuaries and you may spot a leopard in the giant yellowwood acacia trees.

Opened in 1974, the Maasai Mara National Reserve is the most popular game park in Kenya. Managed by the Maasai tribe, the area is named after this group of people who first migrated to South Kenya from the Nile Valley in the mid-17th century. The Maasai herdsmen are nomadic people who do not believe in the concept of land ownership and choose instead to live in harmony with the wildlife grazing in the area. The reserve, which occupies a 320-square-kilometre (124-square-mile) chunk of the famous Serengeti plains, is inhabited by many of Africa's most popular wild animals, including lions, cheetahs, elephants, leopards, black rhinos and hippos. There are also over 500 resident birds in the park including ostrich, lark, sunbird and 57 species of birds of prey. The area is famous for rolling grassland and for the Mara River, which runs through the reserve from north to south. It is also the place for one of nature's best spectacles - the annual migration from the dry plains of Tanzania of thousands of wildebeest crossing crocodile-infested waters in order to reach more fertile grazing.

Mount Kenya, which is an extinct volcano sitting on the Equator, is Africa's second highest mountain and stands at a height of 5199m (17,058ft). Opened as the Mount Kenya National Park in 1949, the mountain has been revered by local inhabitants for generations and is the official home of 'Ngai', the Kikuyu tribe's Supreme Being. The snowy peak of the volcano was first sighted by an outsider in 1849 - the missionary Johann Ludwig Krapf - although the idea that there could be snow on the Equator was not believed until the British geographer Halford John Mackinder reached the summit in 1899. The park itself, which covers an area of 600 sq km (232 sq miles), offers exotic mountain scenery, starting with upland forest near the bottom and progressing to mountain forest, bamboo forests and glacier peaks. A wide variety of wildlife inhabits the park, some unique to it, including Sykes and Colobus monkeys, buffalo, elephants, black rhinos, leopards, the elusive Bongo antelopes and giant forest hogs. It is also home to many species of birds such as the giant kingfisher, olive pigeons and red-fronted parrots.

Watch baby elephants play at this important sanctuary, where orphaned and abandoned elephants are hand reared before being re-released back into the wild. See www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org).

Go scuba-diving, snorkelling, sailing, waterskiing, swimming and surfing on Kenya's Coral Coast. The most popular resorts near Mombasa include Bamburi, Kikambala, Kilifi, Malindi, Nyali and the 10km- (6-mile) long, dazzlingly white Diani Beach.