Dress
 

Perhaps a silly question, but we're going in Februiary and we want to balance comfort with any cultural concerns (if any)--What do people wear on Safari? Pants? Shorts? Really long shorts?

Where are you going?

Masai Mara and Kakamega Forest.

Regardless of what you end up wearing, please tell us about Kakamega Forest upon your return!

Though I've never gone in Februrary, I find zip-off pants to be a great option in Africa and for other adventurous destinations. I usually do not zip to shorts.

I am working on a full trip report but thought I'd make a quick mention about the trip to Kakamega: very cool but not as rain-foresty as I thought... I was expecting jungle but since it was the dry season it was more like a forest in the Southeast US (plus monkeys). Rondo Retreat is very nice and quite reasonable. For a few hundred shilling, we got several very informative walks and a trip into a cave to see fruit bats. Certainly not as spectacular as other locations throughout Kenya but a great way to spend a few days if you're in the neighborhood.

For what it's worth, I wore pants just about all of the time, but had shorts on when we were hanging out on the veranda at Rondo.

Welcome back and looking forward to your full trip report!

Great! I can't wait to hear more.

Meichx:

If I may, I'd like to jump in on your thread.

One of the complaints I heard often in Kenya this month was about those women who wore the skimpy tank tops. The natives were not pleased about it. And the men seriously believe that women wearing these ("looking naked") were truly looking for an African man!

One of my guides stated he spent so much time trying to convince Kenyans that wearing shorts and sleeveless blouses was for comfort only and not for any other reason.

Thus if you are preparing for your first trip to Africa please know that you can wear pants or golf-type shorts (close to knee level) and sleeveless blouses, but please do not wear skimpy short shorts or tank tops. Try to keep things modest so no-one feels offended.

Jan, that was my experience as well. I'm a guy, so skimpy tank tops weren't much of a draw, but I never felt like I couldn't wear shorts, but I was certainly aware that I was often the only person over age 10 who had them on!

Meichx:

I saw quite a few guys with shorts on recently. The interesting thing is that I have stayed at Satao twice a year for five years and only the camp manager wore shorts. However, last month I saw two of tent stewards wearing them, so they are slowly realizing that in hot, humid weather they are comfortable!

Jan

I thought a few of the staff at Samatian Island had shorts on too or maybe it was just the owner. It can get well over 100 degrees at Lake Baringo.