The Rough Guide to Kenya (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

The knowledgeable Rough Guide to Kenya was a constant companion during my visit The Times --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

INTRODUCTION

Lying on the equator, with the glaciated peaks of Mount Kenya – second highest mountain in Africa – rising from a natural environment of exceptional beauty, Kenya is a hugely rewarding place to travel. The country’s dramatically diverse geography has resulted in a great range of natural habitats, while its history of migration and conquest has brought about a complex social panorama. But if the world-famous national parks, colourful ethnic mix and superb beaches lend an exotic image, the glossy hype of the tourism industry ignores Kenya’s post-colonial poverty and deep political tensions.

In any case, treating Kenya as a succession of tourist sights isn’t the most stimulating way of experiencing the country. Travelling independently, or at least with eyes open (something this book is designed to facilitate), you can enter the very different world inhabited by most Kenyans: a ceaselessly active landscape of farm and field, of streams and bush paths, of wooden and corrugated-iron shacks, tea shops and lodging houses, of crammed buses and pick-up vans, of overloaded bicycles, and of streets wandered by goats, chickens and toddlers. Off the more heavily trodden tourist routes, you’ll find a rewarding degree of warmth, openness and curiosity in Kenya’s towns and villages. And out in the wilds, there is an abundance of superb scenery – vistas of rolling savannah dotted with Maasai and their herds, high Kikuyu moorlands, dense forests bursting with bird song and insect noise, and stony, shimmering desert – all of which comes crisply into focus when experienced in the context of an economically beleaguered African nation four decades after Independence.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 816 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 7th edition (May 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1858288592
• ISBN-13: 978-1858288598
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #273,124 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forget Lonely Planet and Let's Go., February 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Kenya, 6th Edition (Rough Guide Kenya) (Paperback)

The Rough Guide Kenya is an indispensable guide and is useful for first-time and veteran travellers to Kenya. Sections on literature and history complement excellent, detailed, and often witty coverage of nearly the entire country. The best thing about this book is the author's attempt to introduce the reader to the social and political realities of modern Kenya which lie behind the facade of safaris and curio shops.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Revamped, looks better - but where's the spirit?, July 24, 2004

By	Andrius Uzkalnis (Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Rough Guide definitely looks smarter today than it used to. Typeface and design overhauled, and even their hideous logo (which STILL looks like a fire exit sign) has been jazzed up into a more agreeable fuzzy pharmaceutical-looking symbol. There are more photos, and better ones. Information, from what I could see, is accurate, and there good practical tips, as usual.

The problem is their writing. They say in their preface that Kenya is a hugely rewarding country to visit - but there is no evidence of the authors having a good time. The text is dry, uninspired, shallow; again, it reminds you of tax return guidance notes.

It does not FEEL like they liked the country; and, while it is evident that a lot of effort has been put in, it does feel like a 'contractual obligation product' rather than an inspired writing from someone who is genuinely connected with Kenya.

While I found hotel descriptions helpful, dining advice is the most disappointing aspect. People who know Kenya better than I do confirmed to me, with bewilderment, that restaurants appear to have been picked at random or, worse, still, their names have been copied from leaflets lying around in upmarket hotels. It is a real shame in a country where you can have the best Ethiopian meal outside Addis.

The section on getting to Kenya is hardly helpful - essentially lots of hot air on theoretically available airline options, prices which were out of date before the guide was even printed and a stubborn refusal to admit that these days, if anyone is too thick to check the price on the net, perhaps that person would be better off staying at home.

It is commendable that the guide is more open to all kinds of readers and does not presume that everyone only has twenty dollars a day to spend, but its value is diminished by the lacklustre writing. An informative and accurate guide does not need to be this boring.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very rough on some Kenya roads, December 23, 2004

By	Vinnedge M. Lawrence "vlawrence5" (West Baldwin, ME United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

While I've come to depend on Rough Guides for travel in Africa, the 7th edition of this guide proved embarrassing when I recommended that my safari drivers take the "tarred lakeshore road" that it describes as "an excellent, fast highway" from Katito to Kendu Bay. In the summer of 2003, this was probably the worst road I've ever traveled in Kenya. Conversely, while the guide describes the Mombasa Highway as so "pot-holed, narrow ... and dangerous" that "you should count on two days to cover Nairobi-Mombasa comfortably," this was the best road I've traveled in Kenya, at least to the village of Mackinnon Road, enabling us to have breakfast in Nairobi and a late lunch in Mombasa. Shortcomings such as these result when some areas of the country are too infrequently revisited to yield accurate reviews in a subsequent edition of the guide. A design flaw in recent editions of Rough Guides is the placement of cost-estimate figures in white within small circles of color, rendering many figures difficult to discern. Furthermore, the thin type face makes reading Rough Guides more challenging than their predecessor Real Guides. These criticisms notwithstanding, I still consider Rough Guides the best available introductions to wonderful destinations.