As a frequent traveler to places that often don’t have a lot of online information about them, I am a huge fan of well-written informative guide books.
My go-to brand for these is The Rough Guide Series.
Let me tell you about some of the Rough Guides that I depend on heavily when I am travelling in East Africa.
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Rough Guide Uganda
There is no Rough Guide to Uganda.
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Tanzania Guide Book: Rough Guide Tanzania/Tanzania Rough Guide
The Rough Guide Tanzania is one Rough Guide that I keep in soft copy on my phone, just because I refer to it so much.
I fell in love with the Rough Guide Tanzania, when one day while driving through Arusha on my way to Dar es Salaam, I was able to find a Standard Chartered Bank ATM that I desperately needed when I had no internet connectivity and couldn’t really stop to ask for directions.
It’s also what I rely on heavily when planning trips like this one that take me all over the country.
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The Rough Guide to Kenya
The rest of this post is about how I first discovered the Rough Guide brand of travel guides with the discovery of the very useful Rough Guide to Kenya .
Hi, everyone. How are you today? I hope all is well in your respective corners of the world.
For me, all is good, though I need to rave about a book, or should I say a series of books, that never fails to come in handy especially when I’m traveling. Allow me to start at the beginning.
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Planning a Budget Trip to Kenya’s Coast
Many years ago, I wanted to take my then-boyfriend traveling for his birthday.
He was turning 27 and, believe it or not, had never seen the ocean.
He was Ugandan, born and raised, and had never been outside Uganda.
My birthday present to him that year, I decided, would simply be: a visit to the ocean.
Sometimes, I have grand ideas without necessarily having the cash to fund them.
This was one of those times. 🙂
Still, not to be discouraged, I decided to take him on a surprise (therefore all expenses paid) trip to our very own coast, here in Kenya.
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We’d have to be doing some budget traveling because on top of the visit to the ocean, I had a number of other serious financial commitments to honor that same month.
As a first step towards planning our trip, I began to ask everyone I knew about how to make a budget trip to the coast.
I am not sure if it’s just that I have super posh friends or that Africans don’t do budget holidays, but whatever the case, I didn’t get much help from people around me.
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Discovering the Rough Guide Series
One day, I walked into a colleague’s office only to find her on the phone.
Not in a great rush, but really needing to speak to her, I decided to wait for her to finish her call.
The phone call took quite some time, so in the meanwhile, I began to thumb through a copy of The Rough Guide to Kenya that a friend had just returned to her.
Since I would be traveling soon, I immediately asked to borrow it.
This book seemed to have just the kind of information I needed to plan my surprise trip.
That was my first experience with a book from the Rough Guide series.
Let me just say, I’ve never looked back!
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The Rough Guide Kenya Helps Me Plan the Perfect Trip
The Rough Guide to Kenya helped me plan a fabulous budget getaway that included a night on Mombasa‘s south coast, and two nights in the enchanting town of Malindi.
Other highlights of this trip included a wonderful first-class train ride to the coast and a drive through the town of Kilifi.
Furthermore, this cost me no more than what a serious weekend of hanging out in Nairobi would have.
The Rough Guide to Kenya had detailed information about accommodation, transportation, and entertainment for travelers of all kinds. I loved that the information was so detailed that we managed to get from the railway station to our hotel on the south coast almost entirely using über-cheap public transportation.
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I hate to admit that I never did return The Rough Guide to Kenya to my colleague. (Sorry L.O., if ever you read this post.) I became just too attached to it.
I’ve used it while traveling many times since and even sometimes use it to get information for Nairobi, a city that I have lived in for many years and that I know pretty well.
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Rough Guide Zanzibar
There is a Rough Guide to Zanzibar that was published in 2010, but though this would still be useful to navigate Zanzibar today, it’s a little outdated.
The 2015 Rough Guide to Tanzania has a significant section on Zanzibar, so I would recommend that over the 2010 fully dedicated Rough Guide to Zanzibar.
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Photo Credits: Achieve Global Safaris, cardinalaye.tumblr.com; theguardian.com; plus.google.com/+roughguides
Hi Biche, thanks for the great recommendation. We’re updating the Rough Guide to Kenya for its ninth edition over the next few months (hard to believe the first edition was researched in 1985!), so all feedback on great places to visit and new things to do, plus the latest developments in Kenya’s social and political scene are greatly appreciated. Do check out the blog at http://theroughguidetokenya.blogspot.com and I’ll add a link for chickabouttown.com.
Safari njema
Richard
Hi Richard,
Welcome to ChickAboutTown! It’s a pleasure to see you here.
Thanks for writing a great book! I don’t know how you did it, but The Rough Guide to Kenya is exactly what anyone travelling through or living in Kenya needs. I look forward to reading the ninth edition.
Thanks for the link to ChickAboutTown on your blog. I’ll put a link to your blog in my blogroll too.
I wish you luck with the update for the ninth edition.
Cheers,
Biche
Very interesting website . . . I have found your timely and interesting information very helpful for my travels to Kenya as well as everyday life (dare I say which article . . . wink!). . . anyway keep them coming gal we love to visit and yes you deserve credit for ‘marketing’ for businesses and services like you do. Get paid lady!
Hi Roro,
Welcome to ChickAboutTown! Thanks a lot for your positive words. I am glad that you find my information timely, interesting, and useful – especially the article that you dare not mention. 😉
I would love to actually earn money for the marketing that I do for businesses and services here though I can’t quite think of how to structure that (especially without comprimising the impartiality of my reviews). If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear about them. Feel free to send me email at ChickAboutTown@gmail.com.
I hope to see more of you around in the comment sections of this blog.
Biche
I get the latest edition of Rough Guide when I am going home, just in case there are places I don’t know about that I want to discover.
I have found it useful, and a number of my Kenyan friends never return it, when they have a look,lol.
Lonely Planet is as good as well.
Lol,
So I guess I am like your friends who never return your copy of this book. Hehehe…on their behalf, I apologize. It’s beyond us, the book is just so good! 😉
How often do you return to Kenya to visit?
B.
Yes Biche,
I was ROFLMAO when I read about you not returning the book. I try and go home every year, but have not been back for a few years now. But will do soon, I hope.
LOL Tamtam,
I am laughing with you! I trust you’ll have the chance to visit Kenya again soon! 🙂
Biche