If you had 4 days would you go to Zanzibar or Lamu?
 

Hi all,
I'm hard at work planning my Feb (yes, 2008) trip to Kenya to visit my daughter.

We'd like to spend about 4 days at the coast. I'm trying to decide between Zanzibar and Lamu. Both sound lovely and fascinating! We'll want to walk through and experience the streets and the history, relax, go snorkeling, wander around. We'd love to find something for around $50 a night.

Thanks for all your help so far!

I think the travel from Kenya to Zanzibar will add quite a bit of money... travel and visa. So being a cheap-skate I would head for Lamu.

Those things add up. I don't know if I found the cheapest airfare but it's $240 each RT NBO to Lamu on fly540; $320 each RT NBO to Zanzibar. Plus visa (is that $50 each?) so a difference of $260.

Hello rosetravels,
In Lamu you can definitely get a nice double room for $50.

Head to Lamu.

Besides, if you're traveling on a US Passport, the visa fees for Tanzania are now $100/person.

Perfect - the visa costs settle it, Lamu it is. Nyamara, what do you recommend for accomodation in Lamu?

Of course, my daughter is now stuck on the coast south of Lamu until the election troubles calm down. She may have had her fill by early February!

The unrest has put a crimp in my last-minute safari planning... ;)

Rosetravels, in 2005 I stayed at Yumbe House. It was 1,100 shillings for a single and I can recommend it.

Thanks Nyamara,
I sent the phone number to my daughter to call and check on availability (and to ask for the resident rate, if there is one, if she can receive it...)

I found a photo online and it looks like what I'm hoping for.

We really enjoyed Kizingo. Very nice folk. great accommodations. See the end of my trip report from Aug. 2006:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34868269

Kevin from California

Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the link to your trip report. I really enjoyed it. And I'm impressed that your persuasive skills are such that your wife and daughter wore those vests. No WAY are my daughter and I putting those on our bodies LOL!

Kizingo looks above our price range but lovely. I also have a very social daughter who will want to be chatting up strangers in Lamu. But now I'm rethinking my sandal selection, perhaps I need Chacos or something I can rinse off...?

The camps you stayed at sound fabulous.

You might want to email Mary Jo at Kizingo and ask her where she would recommend you stay in Lamu itself. She is very nice and would most likely assist you. You might want to drop my name. We still correspond. (we are sponsoring a child in secondary school there through her charity.)

Kevin

Thanks Kevin,
I'm now concerned that I may have to replan my trip. I'd be surprised if my daughter is still in Kenya. With the news I've read it sounds increasingly likely that she'll be pulled out. So for now, I have a plane ticket to NBO and...not sure what to do beyond that.

I've taken up a new full-time job: worrying.