Good diving options near Nairobi?

Hello Everyone,

We are planning a return to Africa and will be flying into Nairobi. Are there any good ideas and areas for diving near Nairobi or within a short flight from there? We have not dived in the east there. Operators and area/sites recommendations would be very much appreciated. Thanks so much!!

paquito

Hey,

Unfortunately diving is not that great in Kenya. There have been many trade in recent years for infrastructure project between Kenya and China. These manifest in a trade for say a built road in return for fishing rights to the Chinese. This has had some pretty drastic impacts on areas that are already fairly over exploited. Sad but true.

There are 3 options for marine parks Watamu in the north, Mombasa and Kisite to the south. Kisite is slighter further from Nairobi than Mombassa, but has probably the better reputation. Sorry not hugely encouraging but my experience is a touch limited, so I may have missed a gem

Hello Everyone,

We are planning a return to Africa and will be flying into Nairobi. Are there any good ideas and areas for diving near Nairobi or within a short flight from there? We have not dived in the east there. Operators and area/sites recommendations would be very much appreciated. Thanks so much!!

paquito

Hi Paquito,

As eefella pointed out, you would have to go to Mombasa/Watamu/Kisite ( flight: 45min to Mombasa, 60min to Malindi which is 20min drive from Watamu). I would advise to dive within the marine parks, outside there's not much fish life. I haven't dived around Kisite but Watamu is my favourite. Best time to dive in Kenya is around October to March, outside that period is highly weather dependent. As for operators in Mombasa Buccaneer Diving (buccaneerdiving.com) is a good operation with bases at various hotels and they have a complimentary shuttle. In Watamu I can recommend Turtle Bay (turtledive.com/). I would be happy to answer more questions or you could get in touch with one of the operators. Some of the sites in Watamu are great for macro (ribbon eels, weedy scorpionfish, nudibranchs, flatworms...); in Mombasa my favourite sites are Birthday reef, Sharkpoint, Mushroom and Brain.

Lev

Try posting a message for JBlennie on scuba diving message board. He used to live on the coast and raves about the diving. Whale Sharks, Rhinopias and lots of others.

Thank you Everyone!!

This is helpful and gives me some help I needed and I will research more of the areas you suggest and follow your leads.

I plan to be there in October, so hopefully the weather will be our friend. We could always fly to a different area out of Kenya, but I was hoping that we would have been able to convene both there.

Thanks again for the help you guys.

paquito