When to go to Lamu

Best Time To Go To Lamu, Kenya; When To Go To Lamu

When you are looking to travel to such a place as Sub-Saharan Africa, the chances are you are not hoping to be rained on, especially when heading for an Indian ocean beach break. African holidays are made up mostly by time in the wilderness on safari and on the beach in a little slice of Indian Ocean paradise. For a beach holiday, it is generally better to travel in the drier months which are, as a rule of thumb, usually in the British Summer Time of end of June – October. All in all if you are looking for brilliant beaches, dry and sunny days then this period is really when you should be looking at going. However, East Africa’s (Kenya and Tanzania) coastline and Lamu has it’s own climate and there is a great window of opportunity for a fantastic beach break over the festive period and into February as well as over the classically dry season months.

So Lamu is on the Kenyan Coast, but a little to the north. It operates basically on the same seasons as the rest of East Africa with the short rains beginning at some point in October and continuing through to December. January and February are really excellent times to go to Lamu after a Kenyan safari, as this is actually the driest period, though it is a fairly short window. What does differ here in comparison to the rest of east Africa is that because it is just that bit further north, the rains can continue well into June, so when June is nice on Tanzania’s Coast and further south in places like Diani Beach in Kenya, it is probably wise to stick with July if you are considering visiting Lamu for a beach holiday. Lamu is an excellent place to combine with safari, and luckily the stars align as the best time to see excellent wildlife and to have a beautiful beach break is when the weather is dry in between the rains.