Kenya is, without doubt, a stunningly beautiful country. From the bleached sands of the eastern coast lapped by the aquamarine waters of the Indian Ocean to the primitive aridity of little-visited Turkana, Kenya offers a wonderful variety of landscape, a people that are utterly charming and friendly, a rich and fascinating culture and, of course, fabulous wildlife.

The picture many have of Africa, that of golden savannah dotted with game and studded with flat-topped umbrella acacias is actually the landscape of Kenya. It has featured in so many Hollywood movies and wildlife films that it is embedded in our psyches as the real Africa. This is the land of the classic safari and luxurious lodges, the land of wide blue skies and the land of enchantment.

The Masai Mara, Kenya's most popular game reserve, offers fantastic all-year-round game viewing in this most African of landscapes. The wide rolling plains allow you to find both variety and numbers of animals easily. In addition, the Mara shares the Migration with the Serengeti. Almost two million wildebeest, zebra and gazelle start from the southern Serengeti in May, arriving in the Masai Mara from late June. This is one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on earth and no one who has seen it will ever forget the heart-stopping excitement of a wildebeest river crossing or the sight of the grasslands of the Mara turned dark by the sheer volume of beasts.

There are many other areas in Kenya where the game viewing is also excellent. Amboseli and Tsavo National Parks both lie in southern Kenya. Amboseli offers views of Mount Kilimanjaro, as well as zebra, wildebeest, lion, buffalo, elephant, giraffe and the sinisterly elegant leopard among many others. The arid Tsavo is home to many of the wonderfully stout baobab trees, thought by the locals to have been planted upside down because of their small branches. Famous for the ferocity of its lions, Tsavo is a great wilderness area, yet the game and birdlife is prolific.

Mount Kenya, the second highest mountain in Africa, stands on the equator yet has a peak covered in snow. The Mount Kenya National Park covers the upper slopes of the mountain and some truly spectacular vegetation and scenery. To the north-west lies the rugged beauty of the Laikipia Plateau.

Lake Naivasha is a popular stop-over for those on their way from modern Nairobi to Mount Kenya or the game-rich triad of reserves at Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba. There are glorious colonial houses, a wildlife sanctuary on Crescent Island and the Hell's Gate National Park where blasts of steam issuing from the volcanic rock give the park its name.