Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to Kenya, 8th Edition

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Last April, together with my son I went on a 10 days' self-drive safari in a small Maruti jeep from Nairobi to South Nyanza in Western Kenya, exploring Kenya's western highlands, the Lake Victoria coast and islands, and also the Ruma National park, bringing the Rough Guide to Kenya 8 with us. We found the book very helpful. The guidebook probably has the best coverage of this area. The safari was great!

I recently spent two months in Kenya, and I read a lot of guide books both before I left the U.S. and once I was in Africa. This was definitely the most useful and informative....it was far superior to Lonely Planet in both coverage and accuracy. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is going to be spending a substantial amount of time in Kenya.

Richard Trillo's guides to Kenya extend from the days of "The Real Guide," a span of time and editions that should suffice in achieving the ultimate travel guide. While it qualifies as the best available Kenya guide, the Rough Guide team's 8th edition could and should be better. Its inside front cover states figuratively that the book "concludes with all the small print," but the reader encounters literal small print throughout the discussions of reviewed places to stay and eat. The key to the guide's accommodation price coding system is somewhat obscurely presented on page 61 where tiny numerals 1-9 appear even more obscurely within solid green circles. Some rates are shown in Kenyan shillings while others appear in dollars. Although the nine-category breakdown is superior to systems employed by other guides, magnification and a calculator should not be required to interpret and compare costs. The appearance of the Rough Guide running man icon before some reviews is not explained, leaving the reader to assume it indicates reviewer preference. The exhaustive and detailed reviews are an outstanding attribute of the guide, and are complemented by thorough descriptions of parks and reserves with practicalities of accessing them. The research behind the 8th edition places it foremost among current Kenya guides, but its presentation lags in user-friendliness.

I think this guide about covers it all! Very comprehensive, info. on just about everything I wanted to know before traveling to Kenya. Since I bought the book used ( altho' I don't usually like to dis-member a book!), I took the book apart & separated the pages relevant to my trip ( eg, info. on the places I'll be visiting, guide to animals in Kenya, phrases in Swahili). Each of these sections I stapled together to bring along on the trip with me, not wanting to carry the weight of the whole book when I was not going to need most of the pages once I was actually traveling.

I purchased this book for an upcoming trip to Kenya...don't be fooled, it is a bit heavy at 700+ pages. Haven't decided if I'll take it along, but I enjoy the reading I've been doing. The book is easy to follow and navigate through, seems very comprehensive.

Just returned from Kenya and Tanzania and this book helped tremendously. Now that I'm back home, it has a new meaning because I can study where I've been. For my journal, I could not do without it. My notes are scarce, so the book is like having a new set of notes to refresh my mind. Highly recommend this before departing.