Accommodations in Kenya range from high-end luxury safari lodges or tented camps and beach resorts with a full range of facilities and entertainment to flea-ridden, $10-a-night local town hotels with simple beds and a shared bathroom. Camping is also popular in the parks and brings down the price of an organized safari considerably. The major international chains such as the Hilton, InterContinental, and Holiday Inn can be found in Nairobi. The Serena group, a popular East African chain, has one hotel in Nairobi, plus established properties in the parks and on the coast. Kenya does operate a star-rating system for accommodations; although it is below par compared to what you would expect in the U.S. or Europe, generally speaking you can assume four- and five-star hotels are of a good standard. There is also a clutch of world-class, luxurious, and intimate places in wonderful settings in the parks or the coast.
Hotels
Nairobi has a good selection of international chain hotels and cheaper three- and four-star individual establishments. The coast tends to have places where vacationers rarely venture out of the confines of their resort except to go on a short safari to one of the closer parks such as Tsavo. There are a few individual hotels that either have a lot of history or character; the Norfolk in Nairobi, for example, has been a Kenyan institution since the colonial days. If you stick to three stars or higher, you can expect clean rooms, a private bathroom with a shower, a swimming pool, and one or more fairly decent restaurants. At the lower end of the scale, the towns offer basic lodgings in one- or two-star hotels that are predominantly used by local people. Budget travelers need to look at a room and ensure that the sheets are clean and the plumbing works before committing.
Safari Accommodations
For all budgets, entrance fees to the parks are the same, and you can expect to have the same sort of game-viewing experience, but what you pay for an organized safari depends on the standard of accommodations and whether you choose to get to the parks by road or air. Generally, accommodations in the parks fall into three categories: high-end luxury tented camps, mid-range large lodges, and campsites. Intimate tented camps are usually comprised of a dozen or so spacious tents, each with a thatched or wooden roof, a terrace, and sometimes extras like a private plunge pool or an outdoor shower. Cuisine and service are excellent, and game drives and other activities are included. The benefit of these tented camps is that you are sleeping in the wild with animals at close proximity, and you'll have the personal service of knowledgeable guides. The large safari lodges in the parks also offer good service and are mostly in excellent scenic locations, but with a large number of rooms in either hotel-like blocks or individual chalets, they can feel a little impersonal. Nevertheless, they offer reasonable value and have a full range of facilities such as restaurants, bars, and swimming pools. Camping safaris offer the best value but are the least comfortable, with cold showers, primitive toilets, and the hard ground to sleep on. But again, the advantage is sleeping in unfenced campsites where you may hear the roar of a lion at night. Camping safaris usually have a cook who prepares meals over an open fire.
