When to go to Kenya

The weather in Kenya can quite simply be divided into 2 categories – when it is dry, and when it is rainy.

The Dry Seasons

January through to March, and June through to September, are classically the ‘dry seasons’. January and February are also the hottest months of the year.

For safari goers, this is a good time to spot game, for a couple of reasons – firstly as there is no surface water readily available, the game is concentrated around remaining rivers and waterholes, making finding the wildlife that much easier; and secondly, the bush and vegetation is dry and knocked back, so there is less cover for the wildlife to hide behind !

July onwards marks the start of the Great Migration, so this is possibly THE most popular time for visitors – but because of the popularity, be prepared for the Parks and reserves to be very busy and crowded, and for prices to be high.

The drier weather also means less mosquitoes, so this is another reason why these months are generally the busiest in terms of number of visitors.

The Rainy Seasons

The much needed ‘long rains’ begin in April, and can last through until the end of May.

Whilst the land and the wildlife embrace these rains, for tourists it is not so wonderful – many camps actually close over this period, as a lot of the roads become impassable, and those that do remain open have to cope with the roads that are still open turning from a driveable dirt track into a mud slick.

The vegetation very quickly turns into a lush green landscape, which is a wonderful backdrop to photographs but it does make spotting the wildlife much harder. However, on the plus side, this is the low season, so for the camps that are open, there are some very attractive rates being offered over these months.

November is when the ‘short’ rains fall, which typically last just a month.