A Photo Guide on What It's Like Traveling to Kenya Right Now

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Kenya has remained open to international travel. No shutdowns. No problems.

The country has proven a model destination for managing global tourism for visitors and public health for residents. That has not changed as other governments around the world fumble about trying to manage the latest Omicron variant.

If an African safari remains to be checked off your travel bucket list, now is the time and Kenya is the place.

Prior to leaving, completed Kenya eVISA and health surveillance forms (generated as a QR code) are required. Both can be completed in advance of travel dates. Printouts or digital copies will be needed for entry upon arrival.

The following documents are required to complete an eVISA application:

1. JPG of hotel reservation confirmation/voucher

2. JPG of passport-style photo (any picture of your face in digital version)

3. JPG cover photo of your passport (less than 293 KB)

4. JPG data page of your passport (less than 293 KB)

Visitors also need to take and have a documented negative COVID-19 PCR test and a completed Kenya Trusted Traveler form (generated as a QR code). The PCR test must be taken within 96 hours of arrival in Kenya - not departure from U.S. Information is accurate as of the publication of this article. It's a good idea to doublecheck current destination requirements for in-bound travel to Kenya prior to your trip by visiting the American Embassy in Nairobi website.

The Kenya Airport Authority website is also a good source of information.

No other vaccines are required for entry into Kenya from the U.S., however, the Centers for Disease Control has put this recommend vaccine help sheet together.

Most businesses in Kenya, including all mentioned in this article, accept U.S. dollars for payment and tips making money exchange thankfully unnecessary.

Kenya Airways' direct flight from JFK International Airport in New York to Nairobi, Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport represents the only direct route from the U.S. to east Africa. Debuting in October 2018, the flight instantly became a game-changer for American tourism to Kenya, eliminating the need for stopover in Europe or the Middle East, slashing travel time and expense.

Kenya Airways is a Delta partner for points collectors.

First class fares are expensive, but an "economy comfort" upgrade makes sense for additional legroom on the 13-hour trip over and 15-hour flight back.

Three in-flight meal services are provided en route to compliment basic seat-back entertainment options; Wi-Fi is not available.

Following a long travel day, the Four Points by Sheraton Nairobi Airport only minutes from Jomo Kenyatta provides welcome respite. The property mirrors what you'd find from any Four Points by Sheraton in the U.S..

Guests can enjoy two on-site restaurants, a rooftop bar with local craft beer on tap and rooftop pool. The hotel's breakfast buffet, included in the booking cost, exceeds all expectations. A wide variety of meats, fresh fruit and vegetables, cheeses, omelet station, juice bar, pastries and more offer fuel for a full day's adventuring. The spicy meatballs and mouthwatering dates are not to be passed by.

Strong, free Wi-Fi can be accessed throughout the hotel.

Venturing into Nairobi downtown is discouraged. For starters, the city center can take an hour or more to reach by car in the city's notoriously snarled traffic. The Four Points does provide accommodations for travel to Nairobi by automobile which is preferable to Uber or third-party transfer.

Tourists heading into Nairobi are encouraged to return by 8:00 PM out of an abundance of safety, driving at night in Africa, generally, being unadvisable.

Your dream African safari awaits at Basecamp Explorer's private Mara Naboisho Conservancy - 50,000 acres adjacent to Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve. Full-service safari tours with Maasai guides take guests up close to the ecosystem's famed wildlife: lions, elephants, leopard, cape buffalo, giraffe, hippopotamus, warthogs and many, many more.

The Mara Nabiosho Conservancy represents a partnership between local Maasai landowners and Basecamp Explorer which sees the company paying the Maasai a leasing fee to operate their small group safari tours and lodges there on land set aside for wildlife.

The Maasai continue grazing their livestock in areas designated for that purpose, while the wild animals have a large expanse of connected habitat to roam with tourism dollars being generated from their viewing. The progressive land and wildlife management solution values both the indigenous Maasai and native wildlife and has proven successful enough to be adopted elsewhere in the area.

Basecamp Explorer offers shuttle service from Jomo Kenyatta Airport to the Four Points upon arrival in Kenya as well as managing the roughly four-hour drive from Nairobi to the Mara Naboisho Conservancy. Vans come equipped with Wi-Fi and power chargers.

No better way exists for getting to the "bush," and once there, the magic happens.

With its operation based on private land and not inside a national park, Basecamp Explorer offers safari tours not allowed in the Maasai Mara National Reserve or nearby Serengeti National Park in bordering Tanzania. That's the Basecamp Explorer difference.

Basecamp Explorer safari tours are intimate. Activities can be arranged for couples or even individuals. Itineraries are personalized to suit each visitor's specific interests. Many of those activities are completely unavailable elsewhere, not only in Kenya, but across Africa.

Walking safaris put guest on ground level with the animals.

Delicious "bush" breakfast, lunch and dinners are also available for an al fresco dining experience unlike any other.

Basecamp Explorer safari tours allow for off-roading in safari vehicles to approach animals more closely. Bush bonfires. Night safaris incorporating infrared light to spot animals.

None of these experiences are available on safari tours inside the national parks due to governmental regulations forbidding them, but on the Mara Naboisho Conservancy, Basecamp Explorer, as the operator in partnership with the local Maasai landowners, make the rules.

With smaller groups, activities are allowed to be more intense, putting guests closer to the animals, more immersed in the landscape.

Basecamp Explorer offers the top safari vehicles of any tour operator in Africa. New, heavy duty, off-road vehicles provide individual seating for each passenger, open air viewing and elevated seating.

The trucks have on-board charging stations and… beer! Down a Tusker while coming face-to-face with impala, gazelle, ostrich, zebra, antelope and baboons almost immediately upon entering the Mara Naboisho Conservancy.

Full of wildlife and able to travel off-road, expensive camera equipment with massive telephoto lenses are not required to enjoy safari at Naboisho; binoculars are recommended.

Basecamp Explorer offers three fixed camping locations in the Mara Naboisho Conservancy as well as the Dorobo Mobile Camp for the truly adventurous.

While Eagle View, Leopard Hill and family friendly Basecamp Masai Mara offer a Kenya luxury safari experience - fine dining, Wi-Fi, hot coffee and tea delivered to tents each morning - it's still camping. Tents are screened for bugs, but not air conditioned or heated, and all of that amazing wildlife found just steps outside of each tent is not fenced off from guests.

Journeying beyond tents after dark requires a Basecamp Explorer Maasai guide to avoid run-ins with the animals who regularly pass through each night.

Nighttime inside the Mara Naboisho Conservancy proves every bit as dramatic as the day. Night safaris search for hunting lion prides.

Nowhere in Africa are visitors more likely to see lions than in Naboisho which boasts one of the highest concentrations of the big cat anywhere in the world.

Basecamp Explorer's expert Maasai safari guides work to put tourists on lion kills where the victim's crunching bones and snapping cartilage combines with the victors' ecstatic purr-growls and greedy snarls to create a wonderfully horrific symphony of nature's ultimate stakes.

The sounds of munching hippos at Eagle View and huffing lions at Leopard Hill are among the many animal sounds blowing through the tent's mesh walls throughout the overnight hours. From the comfort of bed, imagination runs wild looking upon an inky blackness no human eye can penetrate, underneath a sky unimaginably full of stars.

Those stars are put on full display through Leopard Hill's retractable tent roofs which offer stargazing from the comfort of bed.

"Bush Sundowners" should be a safari tradition guests take home. Basecamp Explorer guides set up cocktail hours across the Mara Naboisho Conservancy for visitors to enjoy beer, wine, gin and tonics - a remnant of the area's former British Colonial rule - and snacks among the wildlife while watching the sun set on the magnificent landscape.

Saying goodbye to the magical charm of Kenya won't be easy, but leaving can be on an AirKenya Express bush plane flight direct from the Mara Naboisho Airstrip to Nairobi's Wilson Airport. The flight reduces a four-hour car ride to 45 minutes, but the cramped cabin with less headroom than a full-size American SUV and takeoff from a dirt airstrip straight out of the movies may be more than skittish flyers are up for. The cost can also surprisingly high, over $300 for the short trip.

As of December 2, 2021, international travelers heading into the U.S. are required to take a COVID-19 PCR test and receive a negative result within 24 hours of departure. A copy of the negative test must be shown to the airline prior to boarding.

Checkups medical hub adjacent to the Four Points by Sheraton Nairobi Airport makes this easy with $50 walk-in tests 24-hours a day, seven days a week with a guaranteed six-hour turnaround that generally takes no more than three.

Book a day room at the Four Points while awaiting your results and outbound flight.

Basecamp Explorer provides shuttle service from Wilson Airport to the Four Points and the Four Points offers shuttle service from the hotel to the airport.

Give yourself plenty of time to navigate the occasionally chaotic check-in line at Jomo Kenyatta Airport which will put you through three separate security screenings.

Back at JFK in New York, travelers with long layovers are well advised to book another day room, this time at the vintage TWA Hotel connected to Terminal 5. Enjoy the hotel's on-site restaurant - with another fabulous breakfast buffet - quick service food options, café and Connie Cocktail Lounge which puts guests inside a 1958 Lockheed Constellation.

All areas of the retro-fabulous property are accessible to the general public without a room reservation except for the rooms themselves which take the mid-century modern vibe to an extreme by featuring rotary telephones.

"Naboisho" translates as "come together" in the native Maasai language. The coming together here includes more than 500 local families who have provided land to the conservancy. It also references the Maasai and Basecamp Explorer who have come together in creating a land and wildlife management program that benefits both.

More than 95% of Basecamp Explorer employees in Kenya are local Maasai residents, all of whom are vaccinated against COVID-19 and many of whom speak English.

Countless memories will be made on your Kenya safari, none more lasting than the beaming smiles and unfailingly warm hospitality shared by your Maasai hosts.