Arriving in Nairobi on 30 December. After the New Year, January 1, plan to take the car in rent for 7 days, to move to Kenya. We will be 7 people. Let whether the park, and it is possible to the movement of the park and viewing animals on the rental car? If possible, it must be whether to take a special tour guide, or road map enough. As roads in Kenya? Whether dangerous to travel far from the cities? Is there a problem with petrol away from cities?. We plan to get to Lake Turkana.
I would welcome any recommendations and advice. Thank you.
Sorrу for my bad English.

I don't know whether you have any experience driving a car in Africa, but in my opinion this is not a good option, unless you are quite experienced. I haven't been to the Lake Turkana area yet, but many roads in Kenya are in a deplorable state, and in some places you have to search for some tarmac between the potholes, while in the parks themselves there are usually only dirt tracks, which quickly turn muddy if it rains.

The other thing to consider is that a tour guide is experienced in finding animals, and it never ceases to amaze me how they spot an animal where I just see a bush or a bunch of grass. If you rent a car the driver will have to concentrate on driving and will miss out on much of the action.

And lastly, driving standards in Kenya in general are quite bad, with a lot of speeding and dangerous overtaking going on. So apologies if I sound patronising, but unless you know what you're letting yourself in for you should consider going on a tour rather than a self-drive. For 7 people I'm sure you'll get some good offers.

Have a look through the Kenya forum here on VT, as the question about tour companies gets asked a lot, and you can also check out Homanded's Kenya page for tips on how to choose one.

And lastly: beware of anonymous members with no info about themselves and whose only contribution to VT is to recommend a certain tour operator or guides. More likely than not they are just touts trying to get you to book with them.

Look here for companies to rent 4x4s- http://tinyurl.com/3xopno

You can buy digital maps from T4A. www.Tracks4Africa.com Their map includes onroad and offroad tracks like what you need to tour the Masai Mara. Very inexpensive. You can download to your computer off the internet and plan your safari at home. you will need Mapsource software for that part. That comes with the map capable Garmin gpsr you use to navigate around Kenya and the parks. Included in the map is fuel station locations, campsites(remember those in parks need reservations)and many other common requirements you need to know for the selfdrive. There are many people it seems as of yet that are unaware of these maps, so don't let them dissuade you. Currently MAPA http://www.mapaproject.org/
is in the middle of recording wildlife protected areas throughout Kenya and Southern Africa. They will continue all of these areas are recorded and mapped. These will be reflected in the maps of Tracks4Africa, which are updated 3-4 times per year.

Thanks to all who responded.
To luangwablondes. You took on rent a car? Interested road up to Lake Turkana. And security in the region. In LP says that you can take the convoy, how much does it cost and, in general, need it or not. (May be there now quietly and calmly). Who may be visited northern Kenya?

Believe it or not, pretty much the standard vehicle that is used on game drives in such places as Masai Mara is a two wheel drive van with a top that opens (for better taking of photos). Despite the fact that they drive sometimes overland where there almost isn't a road (true off road driving is not allowed in the national parks due to environmental damage) in situations that most people where I come from would get a 4WD stuck, they do very well with 2 wheel drive vehicles. I never saw anyone actually stuck, except for someone who did really stupid things.

Even within Nairobi, you will find places with everything from domestic animals to large trucks on the roads. Driving can be a real tangle, and I would not want to do it until I became very familiar with local driving habits (not just the laws, but also the habit of the drivers).

As to safety, it is somewhat of a problem anywhere, but particularly in areas where outsiders are not seen often. Sometimes people will stick a long wire up through hotel windows just to see what they can hook. In the poorer areas, things can become fairly unsafe over very small things. I saw a 5-way fight over a writing tool of some sort (pencil? pen? crayon?). Do whatever you can to not draw attention to yourself (but that is a little bit of a problem just because of skin color) because many assume that just because you are an outsider you must be very wealthy.

There is a religious cult that is active in some cities that can be a particular problem. Around Oyugis they wear white hats with red trim, but their dress may vary a little bit with location. They are very agressive - to the point where they are somewhat dangerous - when demanding money from people. Try really hard to avoid contact with them.

I definitely suggest finding someone local to help out with familiarity of the communities that you will be visiting. This is particularly the case when it comes to language. Places that have a lot of contact with tourists have people that speak English, but if you go past the beaten tourist routes you very quickly run into places that have very limited numbers of English speakers, and even somewhat limited numbers of Kiswahili speakers. Finding someone who knows the local tribal language can be extremely important.

Glabah does provide alot of useful advice (re type of vehicles & park regs) - but the post also contain a lot of stereotyping, exaggerated cr*p.

This is especially so when he talks about the "5-way pencil fight".... If you are in town, and want a free pen, just walk into any banking hall of any of the major banks and help yourself to one.

Kenya has a high level of poverty and hence a high level of crime - especially in the cities... but which country can to have perfectly safe cities?

Just as with other cities of the world, there are places to avoid, places to be alert, places to be alert, and places that are safe.

All you have to do is keep your wits about you.

Glabah does provide alot of useful advice (re type of vehicles & park regs) - but the post also contain a lot of stereotyping, exaggerated cr*p.

This is especially so when he talks about the "5-way pencil fight".... If you are in town, and want a free pen, just walk into any banking hall of any of the major banks and help yourself to one.

Kenya has a high level of poverty and hence a high level of crime - especially in the cities... but which country can claim to have perfectly safe cities?

Just as with other cities of the world, there are places to avoid, places to be alert, places to be wary, and places that are safe.

All you have to do is keep your wits about you.

I can assure you that if you had wound up in the middle of the group that was fighting over the writing instrument, you would not consider it an exaggeration. My post is based very much on my own experience in Kenya. Have you been to Kisumu or the area surrounding it in the last few years? There are an awful lot of people that are pretty desperate there.

Hi,

Any luck in getting a rental car for your travel? If not, I could recommend travel agency that could help you to get one. Very reliable, just back home after holiday in Kenya and used their services.

hi, renting a p.s.v.(public service vehicle) for self drive might be difficult because of the license required to drive the vehicle that would carry the number of passages you will have.the best way for you is to hire a tour guide/ driver with a personal tour van, draw up an itinerary together and get your costs,(this for cost cutting measures). you can compare the costings with tour operators. 4wd not a must, it dry in Kenya in the months Jan,Feb,mar. you will get all types of roads in Kenya from the ones that you can drive at a speed of 180/200kms/h(prohibited) to roads that you will travel at 30kms/h. its advisable to travel during the day times.fuel is available in most parts of the country but will differ in pump price.more details?