Camping offers an alternative to famed East African safari tours

Modern facilities

Visitors to the Rapids camp can hire tents at the site at an affordable fee, and the tents come with a sleeping bag. Being exclusively a campsite, the Rapids camp has no cottages or rooms. However, it offers modern and clean sanitary facilities and the camp has electricity and running water, and you can carry your food and do self-catering.

Camping lovers in Kenya can also visit the Crayfish camp, which offers travelers an adventure by Lake Naivasha. This freshwater, approximately 177-square-kilometer lake is home to many varieties of flora and fauna found within Kenya's Great Rift Valley.

The camp features well-maintained grounds with all major amenities within easy reach of each other. The Crayfish Camp, located 18 km from Naivasha town, also has lush grounds that can accommodate 400 campers, and visitors can bring their own tent or rent one at the camp.

The tents for hire at the camp have sitting areas, terraces and sun decks giving a stunning view over Naivasha landscapes and surrounding areas. The washrooms and outdoor cooking facilities are within the camping grounds.

Most of the recreational activities on offer around the Crayfish camp are outdoor activities favored by campers, including boat rides at Lake Naivasha, rock climbing, football, bike riding and bird watching.

Visitors camping at the site have access to a number of other activities they can engage in as part of the tourist activities on offer at Naivasha town. These include game viewing, where you can spot various types of animals drinking water at the lake, boat cruises at Lake Naivasha and hot-air ballooning. Visitors can also participate in nature walks in the park, flying safaris, cultural visits in the surrounding community or horseback riding in the park.

For visitors who love touring coastal areas, Kenya offers Mike's camp on Kiwayu island, in the Lamu Archipelago. This private facility, formerly known as Munira camp, has lots of caves and coves to explore on Kiwayu island and the campsite sits next to two villages, Kiwayu, which is an hour's walk south of the camp, and Chandani, a 20-minute walk to the north.

Visitors to the camp have access to an extensive mangrove creek system on the island, which is ideal for birdwatching and light tackle fishing. The camp also offers other activities like water sports and safaris, and it has a 10-kilometer, virgin beach where visitors have access to spectacular snorkeling over a myriad of unspoiled coral reefs. The camp has spacious, comfortable tents, locally referred to as bandas, built of makuti, or locally weaved palms, which makes them blend harmoniously into the coastal environment.