Your Kenyan coast, simply booked

Watamu is a small coastal village in Kilifi County on Kenya's Indian Ocean shore, roughly 110 km north of Mombasa and 20 minutes south of Malindi. The bay has been protected as a marine national park since 1968, which is why the reef, coral gardens and sea-turtle populations off Turtle Bay and Blue Lagoon remain some of the most intact on the East African coast. Travellers come for three things: the beach — a three-kilometre crescent of powder-white coral sand that Tripadvisor has more than once voted among Africa's best — the deep-sea fishing, which between November and March targets billfish, sailfish, tuna and wahoo in the Pemba Channel, and the Watamu Marine Park itself, where glass-bottomed boat trips, snorkelling and diving put you within arm's reach of green and hawksbill turtles. Beyond the water there are the mangrove creeks of Mida, the Gede Ruins (a thirteenth-century Swahili-Arab settlement now swallowed by the Arabuko-Sokoke forest), Bio-Ken snake farm, and the dhow-building beaches of Mayungu. Food, inevitably, is fresh seafood — Swahili biryani, tamarind-smoked fish and coconut curries — and the pace is unhurried Swahili-coast relaxed. Nairobi is a 45-minute flight to Malindi airport, then a 20-minute taxi; or an eight-hour drive down the A109.

Kilifi is a laid-back coastal town about 60km north of Mombasa, built around the deep blue-green Kilifi Creek. The creek cuts inland for kilometres — lined with mangroves, baobab-studded cliffs, and a growing yachting and backpacker scene. Kilifi Bridge joins the north and south banks, with Mnarani Ruins perched on the south side and Bofa Beach stretching up the coast to the north. Less developed than Watamu but increasingly loved by in-the-know travellers.