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Browse more guides: Kenya travel | Africa destinations Best Traditional Kenyan Coast Heritage Tour Destinations - Lamu, Mombasa, Watamu, Kilifi, Tsavo TL;DR Kenya's 480 km Indian Ocean coast holds a Swahili civilization older than most European capitals - stone towns, coral mosques, Portuguese forts, marine parks, and inland savannah where the man-eating Tsavo lions stalled the railway in 1898. Plan 7-12 days to do it justice. Lamu Old Town - UNESCO 2001, no cars, around 2,500 donkeys, Cultural Festival every November. Mombasa Fort Jesus - UNESCO 2011, Portuguese 1593-1596, Tusks on Moi Avenue from 1956. Watamu Marine Park - gazetted 1968, the first marine park in East Africa, whale sharks October-March. Tsavo East/West - combined 22,000 km², Patterson's man-eating lions 1898, around 13,000 elephants today. Diani Beach - repeatedly ranked top-10 in Africa, 17 km of coral sand south of Mombasa. Background The Kenyan Coast runs roughly 480 km from the Tanzanian...

Browse more guides: Kenya travel | Africa destinations TL;DR The Kenya coast packs five very different experiences into one strip of the Indian Ocean. Fort Jesus in Mombasa is a 1593 Portuguese stronghold and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2011. Lamu Island, listed by UNESCO in 2001, is the oldest continuously inhabited Swahili town in East Africa, with no cars and around 6,000 donkeys still doing the work. Watamu Marine National Park, gazetted in 1968 as one of the oldest in Africa, sits beside the 12th to 15th century Gede Ruins and the 420 square kilometre Arabuko Sokoke Forest. Malindi gives you the 1498 Vasco da Gama Pillar and the wild Marafa Hell's Kitchen canyon. Diani Beach delivers 17 kilometres of white sand on the south coast, plus the Kaya Kinondo Sacred Forest, a UNESCO 2008 cultural landscape. Add the 22,000 square kilometre Tsavo East and West parks, the sable antelopes of Shimba Hills, and the dolphins of Kisite Mpunguti, and you have one of Africa's ri...