Things to Do in Kenya: City Guides & Audio Tours

Looking for things to do in Kenya? This East African country brings together the Indian Ocean coast, highland farms, the Great Rift Valley, snow-capped Mount Kenya, wildlife habitats and some of the driest landscapes in the region. Its history and culture are just as varied, shaped by ancient human presence, migration, colonial rule, resistance and dozens of communities.

Neywo has free audio guides for 2 cities in Kenya, with 31 narrated places in total and 3 walking tours. Narration is available in 11 languages, so you can discover the country’s urban history while exploring at your own pace.

What to see and do in Kenya

Experience Kenya’s landscapes

Kenya’s geography offers a striking range of settings within one country. Low plains rise inland toward highlands divided by the Great Rift Valley, while the Indian Ocean coast gives the country a very different character. Further north and northeast, the landscape becomes arid or semi-arid, including the Chalbi and Nyiri deserts.

Mount Kenya adds another dramatic environment. Its cold, snow-capped peaks rise above forests, wildlife habitats and fertile farming areas. The contrast between mountain, plateau, coast and desert is one of the defining features of Kenya travel.

The country’s seasons follow a distinct rhythm. Long rains generally arrive during the first half of the year, while short rains come toward the end of the year, often as afternoon and evening downpours.

Discover Kenya’s wildlife

Kenya’s extensive wildlife habitats are among the country’s best-known attractions. Tsavo and the Masai Mara are two of the places associated with large annual migrations, when blue wildebeest and zebras cross the Mara River.

The Masai Mara is also home to all of Africa’s so-called Big Five. Wildlife is part of a wider national picture that includes farming, tourism and environmental action, rather than an isolated experience separate from everyday life.

Explore Mombasa and the Swahili coast

Mombasa offers a way to encounter Kenya’s coastal history and culture. The city’s narrated places on Neywo include Fort Jesus Museum, Holy Ghost Cathedral, Mombasa, Africa Hotel and East Africa Protectorate.

The coast is also central to understanding Kenya’s cultural diversity. Swahili communities have shaped the region, while Bantu communities are found along the coast and inland. Mombasa is a natural starting point for discovering this coastal dimension of the country. Explore Mombasa with a city audio guide that places its history in context as you walk.

Spend time in Nairobi

Nairobi is a major regional commercial hub and one of the most important cities to visit in Kenya. It also brings together several perspectives on the country’s modern history, culture and public life.

Among the city’s narrated places are the Karen Blixen Museum, Nairobi Railway Museum, Nairobi National Museum and Bomas of Kenya. Together, they offer different ways to approach Kenya: through literature and colonial history, transport and urban development, national heritage, and cultural traditions.

The city also reflects Kenya’s contemporary economy. Agriculture remains the country’s biggest sector, with tea and coffee as traditional cash crops and fresh flowers as a rapidly growing export. Services, including tourism, are also important. Discover Nairobi on foot and listen to its stories as you reach each place.

Learn about Kenya’s human history

Kenya’s human story reaches deep into prehistory. Fossil evidence has been found at Koobi Fora, where some of the earliest humans to evolve from ancestral members of the genus Homo lived in the region.

Later communities included hunter-gatherers similar to the present-day Hadza people. Over many centuries, Cushitic speakers settled in the lowlands, Nilotic-speaking pastoralists arrived from what is now South Sudan, and Bantu communities settled along the coast and inland.

European contact began with the Portuguese Empire. British rule later shaped modern Kenya through a protectorate established in 1895 and the colony that followed. Resistance included the Mau Mau rebellion. Kenya became independent in 1963 and later became a republic.

Listen to Kenya’s many cultures

Kenya has no single dominant culture. Its traditions come from dozens of tribes and communities, including Swahili communities on the coast, Bantu communities in central and western areas, and Nilotic communities in the northwest.

Many people speak their mother tongues within their own communities, while English and Swahili are the official languages used to communicate across populations. Music reflects this diversity, with regional forms of folk and popular music and drum rhythms influenced by traditions such as the Congolese cavacha rhythm.

Literature also preserves important memories of the country’s past. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is one of Kenya’s best-known writers. His novel Weep Not, Child explores colonialism, education, love and the effects of the Mau Mau rebellion on Kenyan lives.

See how Kenya is changing

Modern Kenya combines cities, farming, trade, transport, energy and environmental action. Road, rail, air and water projects have supported economic growth, while geothermal energy provides the largest share of the country’s electricity. Hydroelectric power from dams along the upper Tana River is another important source.

The country also banned single-use plastic bags in 2017. The national environmental authority reported that much of the public had followed the ban, making environmental policy part of the country’s contemporary story.

Explore Kenya with Neywo’s free audio guides

Neywo offers free audio guides for 2 cities in Kenya, with 31 narrated places in total and 3 walking tours. Each story plays as you reach the place, at your own pace: there is no group and no schedule. Choose a route through Mombasa or Nairobi, walk from one stop to the next and let the app explain the history and significance of each place as you arrive.