COVID Travel to Kenya

Our family spent 4 weeks in Kenya during December 2021 during our trip around the world. We learned a lot about entering Kenya and safety with moving around. We want to share our lessons with you because Kenya is an amazing country! It is home to the white-sand Diani Beach, and the next day you can see the Big 5 on a safari in the Masai Mara. Read about how much Kenya costs here. Overall, we found Kenya to be affordable, enjoyable, and safe (with a few precautions). You can find our top activities to do in Diani Beach here.

So let’s get to it, our top tips for travel to Kenya during COVID-19. This is not prescriptive for your travel arrangements. Our experience may differ, and the rules are constantly changing. Be sure to check all of the latest guidance from official Kenyan websites before planning and booking your trip.

Travel to Kenya during COVID, December 2021:

All 4 of us had to get a negative PCR test in Uganda before arriving in Kenya. It was mandatory to have a QR code and for us to print each result. Also, there is an online health declaration form to fill out before arrival. That online declaration will generate a QR code: screenshot and save it to your phone.

Masks were required for the airport, planes, and public transportation. However, once we arrived in Diani Beach, we were always outdoors. We did wear masks when attending the local church and in the grocery store. Otherwise, there was no need. Kenya has been hit hard by the tourism decline from COVID, but everything was open and operating normally.

The vaccine is available to all Kenyans. Overall, we felt safe with travel to Kenya during COVID.

The Visa Process

Kenya does require an e-visa to be completed before arrival. The system for doing this isn’t spectacular: you must upload multiple images that have very small size requirements.

How to get an image to meet Kenya e-visa upload requirements:

• Prepare pictures of your passport (bio page and cover), an up-do-date selfie with solid background, and your yellow-fever vaccination certificate (we arrived from Uganda).
• Save all these images into a single folder, .jpeg works well for the next steps.
• Right click the image, select “properties”, and see the total image size. Likely, they are much too large to upload.
• Open “Paint” (if you are using a Mac, I’m sorry, and you are on your own) from your PC, copy and paste the first image into Paint.
• Using the default menu at the top, you should be able to resize the image. For a typical cell-phone picture, I found that resizing it to 20% was about right. “Save as” a .jpeg and then check the properties of the image.
• Aim for images that are around 200KB – that seems to be plenty for image size/quality but still easy to upload for your Kenya e-visa.
• You must print your visa and bring the paper copy with you. The rules state that it must be in color. However, the color printer we had accessible in Uganda printed in poor quality, so we also printed a clean black-and-white. The black-and-white page worked fine for our entry.

Last tip: if you are hesitant about putting your credit card information onto a Kenyan website (I was), create a virtual card for the payment. You can read about how we do that here.

Arriving to Nairobi International Airport

We arrived from Uganda and had to transfer terminals for our in-country flight to Mombasa. This was slightly confusing because they herded us into the “connecting flights” line upon showing our next boarding pass. That line puts you directly into the international terminal only.

If you are connecting to Mombasa (or elsewhere in Kenya), you should go through the “entry to Kenya” process as if you don’t have another flight. Then, go outside the international terminal, walk across the parking lot, and check back in for your next flight.

Arriving to Mombasa Airport

We arrived in Mombasa by plane. We had set up a driver to take us to Diani Beach ahead of time, with the help of our Airbnb host. This was perfect and do this! We walked directly out of the airport, our driver had our name on a sign, and we hopped in his car and took off. Knowing that you are in the hands of a trusted driver is a huge benefit. On the way back to Nairobi at the end of time, we opted to take the train as it was quite a bit cheaper than flying. We chose the ~$10 economy ticket, and it was clean, safe, and cheap! At $30 for first-class, this was still cheaper than flying if you want to splurge.

Arriving to Diani Beach

Here’s a lesson that we have now learned twice: secure dinner before leaving an African airport. The traffic from Mombasa to Diani Beach was insane. There is no bridge to get off the island, so all cars must be shuttled across a ferry, which made for the worst traffic jam of all time. We later found out one of the ferries broke down, compounding the problem. We planned to get pizza upon arrival at our Airbnb, but the journey took MUCH longer than planned. By the time we arrived, all delivery options were closed. We decided Jon shouldn’t walk around an unknown area in search of food at 10 p.m. in Kenya, so we shared a few ginger snaps and went to bed. When we did this reverse trip at the end of our stay, it was much better! 7 am traffic was no problem and all the ferries were working.

Safety tips for Kenya

Here are the top tips we learned, through both experience and talking with locals:

• Arrange a driver for longer transfers. Our 3-hour taxi between Mombasa/Diani only cost 4,000 KES (about $37) and was with a trusted driver. It’s a no-brainer.
• Don’t walk around at night. The locals advised Jon that it was relatively safe until about 10 p.m. At that point, even locals are careful.
• Don’t walk on the beach at all after sunset.
• In Nairobi, for short trips, use UBER instead of taxis. The platform increases the safety of knowing a driver is registered and has reviews.
• Eat and drink carefully. Be aware that ice may not be clean. Fresh fruits and veggies that you don’t peel or cook can also be contaminated. We drank and cooked with only bottled water.

So there you have it, a recap of our experiences and our top tips. We hope you found this enjoyable and informative to read!

To see all our travel adventures during a year-long trip around the world, head over to our Instagram page.

If you have questions or tips for travel to Kenya during COVID, let us know!  Happy Travels!