The Rough Guide to Kenya

Rating:
Summary: good for women
Review: A helpful feature of Rough Guides is a listing of other reading for the Kenyan traveler. Included in that list is an exciting cross-cultural novel entitled Herdsboy.

Rating:
Summary: Rough Guides listing of other reading on Kenya
Review: A helpful feature of Rough Guides is a listing of other reading for the Kenyan traveler. Included in that list is an exciting cross-cultural novel entitled Herdsboy.

Rating:
Summary: good for women
Review: As a woman travelling alone in Kenya, the hotel information was very good- warned of bars and hotels you might not want to go to alone. Also, gave good advice on the best rooms in a hotel (e.g. not over the bar). This is true at least for hotels in the very cheapest level, as I was budget travelling and never stayed or ate in places above level 2 price range.
Additionally, directions on how to get to out-of-the-way places via local transport was really helpful.

Rating:
Summary: Revamped, looks better - but where's the spirit?
Review: Rough Guide definitely looks smarter today than it used to. Typeface and design overhauled, and even their hideous logo (which STILL looks like a fire exit sign) has been jazzed up into a more agreeable fuzzy pharmaceutical-looking symbol. There are more photos, and better ones. Information, from what I could see, is accurate, and there good practical tips, as usual.

The problem is their writing. They say in their preface that Kenya is a hugely rewarding country to visit - but there is no evidence of the authors having a good time. The text is dry, uninspired, shallow; again, it reminds you of tax return guidance notes.

It does not FEEL like they liked the country; and, while it is evident that a lot of effort has been put in, it does feel like a 'contractual obligation product' rather than an inspired writing from someone who is genuinely connected with Kenya.

While I found hotel descriptions helpful, dining advice is the most disappointing aspect. People who know Kenya better than I do confirmed to me, with bewilderment, that restaurants appear to have been picked at random or, worse, still, their names have been copied from leaflets lying around in upmarket hotels. It is a real shame in a country where you can have the best Ethiopian meal outside Addis.

The section on getting to Kenya is hardly helpful - essentially lots of hot air on theoretically available airline options, prices which were out of date before the guide was even printed and a stubborn refusal to admit that these days, if anyone is too thick to check the price on the net, perhaps that person would be better off staying at home.

It is commendable that the guide is more open to all kinds of readers and does not presume that everyone only has twenty dollars a day to spend, but its value is diminished by the lacklustre writing. An informative and accurate guide does not need to be this boring.

Rating:
Summary: Forget Lonely Planet and Let's Go.
Review: The Rough Guide Kenya is an indispensable guide and is useful for first-time and veteran travellers to Kenya. Sections on literature and history complement excellent, detailed, and often witty coverage of nearly the entire country. The best thing about this book is the author's attempt to introduce the reader to the social and political realities of modern Kenya which lie behind the facade of safaris and curio shops.

Rating:
Summary: Good value and informative
Review: This is the guide that locals buy! Earlier editions were selling well too in Nairobi. Lots of information, good research.

Rating:
Summary: Readable, accurate, entertaining
Review: We found this book to be extremely accurate and informative, both as we prepared for our 2 week trip and while we were in Kenya. The description of the "snake museum" was perfect - we read it out loud to the group as we stood in the park. Much of the information provided to us by our hosts from Nairobi matched what we already had learned from our reading. When we prepare for our next trip anywhere, we'll look first for a Rough Guide!

Rating:
Summary: Readable, accurate, entertaining
Review: We found this book to be extremely accurate and informative, both as we prepared for our 2 week trip and while we were in Kenya. The description of the "snake museum" was perfect - we read it out loud to the group as we stood in the park. Much of the information provided to us by our hosts from Nairobi matched what we already had learned from our reading. When we prepare for our next trip anywhere, we'll look first for a Rough Guide!

Rating:
Summary: very rough on some Kenya roads
Review: While I've come to depend on Rough Guides for travel in Africa, the 7th edition of this guide proved embarrassing when I recommended that my safari drivers take the "tarred lakeshore road" that it describes as "an excellent, fast highway" from Katito to Kendu Bay. In the summer of 2003, this was probably the worst road I've ever traveled in Kenya. Conversely, while the guide describes the Mombasa Highway as so "pot-holed, narrow ... and dangerous" that "you should count on two days to cover Nairobi-Mombasa comfortably," this was the best road I've traveled in Kenya, at least to the village of Mackinnon Road, enabling us to have breakfast in Nairobi and a late lunch in Mombasa. Shortcomings such as these result when some areas of the country are too infrequently revisited to yield accurate reviews in a subsequent edition of the guide. A design flaw in recent editions of Rough Guides is the placement of cost-estimate figures in white within small circles of color, rendering many figures difficult to discern. Furthermore, the thin type face makes reading Rough Guides more challenging than their predecessor Real Guides. These criticisms notwithstanding, I still consider Rough Guides the best available introductions to wonderful destinations.