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In Conversation with Claudia Lloyd
1 August 2024
Kenya: a Local’s Guide with Claudia Lloyd
Full disclosure: our latest In Conversation With guest, the wonderful Claudia Lloyd, is much more than just a guest. A long-term family friend of Love To Explore’s founder, Ludo, she’s been a fixture in our lives for longer than we’d care to say. When it came to choosing someone to speak to for a local on perspective on Kenya, it was a no-brainer. Claudia moved there almost 20 years ago to produce the animated series Tinga Tinga Tales, swapping the hustle and bustle of London for, well, the hustle and bustle of Nairobi. Now back on English shores, we sat down with her to pick her brains on the best things to do in the country she called home for so long.
‘If I had only one day and one night in Nairobi and I’d never been to Nairobi before’, she tells us, ‘I’d leave the airport and head straight for Karen’, a leafy suburb in the city’s south west named after Danish author Karen Blixen, whose 1937 memoir, Out of Africa, was immortalised in the Meryl Streep / Robert Redford film. You can still visit her original house with its distinctive red-tiled roof, now home to an excellent little museum about her life.
It’s in this leafy suburb, home to some of Kenya’s most well-heeled inhabitants, that you can visit both The Giraffe Centre and The Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage on the same day – they’re well-trodden tourist destinations but well worth the effort: ‘nothing beats hand-feeding a giraffe or getting headbutted by a baby elephant. They’re memories that you and your children keep forever’.
Then it’s off to The Talisman for lunch: ‘I would literally fly back to Kenya just for their feta and coriander samosas!’. On the iconic Ngong road, one of the main thoroughfares of Nairobi, heaving with local tradesman and crafts and well worth a slow drive past, The Talisman is a gorgeous blend of international and Kenyan cooking and a must for any foodie in the area.
It’s time to move out of the city, though, towards the coast and some of the finest beaches in Africa. ‘For me, Lamu is still one of the most beautiful places on earth’, we’re told. ‘I know it’s quite bougie but it’s breath-taking, like stepping back in time with dhows gliding gracefully up and down the channel, donkeys plodding noisily through the narrow sand alleyways and fishermen hawking their catch of the day. I can’t get enough of it’. A small island halfway up Kenya’s north coast, it’s long been the go-to place for the country’s sun-seekers, with beaches that stretch for miles, a laidback atmosphere and crystal-clear waters for paddle boarding and swimming. For the more extreme, Shela beach also offers some of the best kite-surfing around.
Peponi is the jewel in Lamu’s crown, a waterfront hotel that is as much an institution as a place to stay. Guests can sip cocktails on the veranda as they watch the sunset dhow cruises slip back and forth, get measured up for some traditional garb and gorge on the crab linguine (‘to die for’). A little further south, Claudia says that Watamu is also a beach-goer’s paradise, with more never-ending stretches of coast and beach-front villas galore. Papa Remo’s does the best seafood in town, complete with ocean views across Watamu Bay.
Claudia’s not done on the beaches, though, rattling off another favourite in Diani Beach south of Mombasa. Nomads, she says, is a great option for staying and, staying true to her British roots, she gives us ‘a fab pub bang on the beach’, called 40 Thieves.
It’s pretty clear that Kenya is a country with an almost endless number of things to do. We barely even scratch the surface of its safari options in our hour-long chat (check out our interview with Asilia for more on that) and the names of gorgeous places to visit – Naivasha Lake, Samburu National Park, Olepangi Farm – keep coming up.
It’s also pretty clear that Claudia’s love of this wonderful country is quite infectious. She describes it as ‘everything’, a place that’s vibrant, safe and where everything’s possible. Whatever we may think from our side of things, she says she never felt unsafe there (swimming with hippos aside) and that the people are as welcoming as they come. We could easily fill another hour but, as our time comes to an end, I’m left with one main thought on travelling Kenya: you might need an extra week.