What easily comes to mind when travelers think about Kenya is “Safari”, viewing the large mammals of the East African plains and the wildebeest migration in Masai Mara. The wildlife is great but a sour note to the safari, especially for active people, is that it is a passive vehicle-bound experience with no activity. Unknown to many active people, it is possible to get off the safari bus and have a two-in-one holiday combining guided walking/birding with wonderful game viewing away from mass tourism.

Since 1996 Ontdek Kenya Ltd, based in Nyeri, Kenya, has been organizing walking and birding holidays for discerning nature travelers who want more from their Kenyan holiday than the vehicle-confined safari of “morning and afternoon game drives”. As birders and walkers we have used our personal experience of travel & extensive research in Kenya as well as the feedback from our valuable clients to build our tours from the ground up, putting in the elements that add value to our client’s experience and discarding those that don’t, even when they are considered a “must –do” for the regular safari tourist. 

We only organize walking and birding tours as these are tours that we are passionate about, are of the lifestyle we adhere to and are tours that 10 yrs down the line we are excited to be in the field guiding. Geographically we only cover Kenya meaning we are right on the pulse of all our tours. Lonely Planet, the respected travel guide recommends Ontdek.  .  

Walking in the Crater Lake game sanctuary.

What is an Ontdek’s tour like? An Ontdek’s tour is not a competition of the number of lions seen; it is about a responsible approach to wildlife viewing, your interests as well as your ability.  With our local knowledge we let you re-live the experience of a by-gone era of enjoying your favorite hobby, in unspoiled nature accompanied by our professional guides.

We design and deliver relaxed itineraries that have quality time outdoors devoted to safely planned walking and/or birding away from mass tourism. For total relaxation during the tour we stay in one of our selected lodges for 2-3 nights and this gives us a base away from home without the inconvenience of packing up every morning. We therefore have enough time to look at the birds, explore the areas on foot, meet the local people, enjoy the wildlife and have an in-depth photo exploration. In addition we provide full ground support so clients do not have to help with the daily chores of running the tour.  While we use vehicles to facilitate transfers we deliberately avoid long circuits that would turn our tours to exhausting road expeditions with endless hours of driving - this is a very important fact to consider when comparing itineraries. Yes, we never forget you are meant to be on holiday and you can’t enjoy a holiday when you are rushed and exhausted.

And how do we end the day? Not camping but in comfortable lodges or tented camps with en suite facilities and unfailing high standards of hospitality as well as good food.

We believe that our unique style of running tours, personal attention to our clients and our professional guiding based on our clients ability is what sets our tours apart not only from the standard safaris but also from many other “nature-themed” tours.   

Though our walking, birding and game viewing areas seamlessly overlap, we are alive to the fact that the needs for walkers and birders are different. We therefore run our walking tours and birding tours on separate itineraries for which we have small groups (max 12) selected departures. 

Relaxed birding in Masai Mara.

However from our own experience and that of a growing number of our clients, Kenya is a perfect place to have a holiday that simultaneously caters for your birding and walking needs and this is best met by our private tailor-made tours.  

Taking a break on the Mount Kenya Forest walk.

While we encourage our clients to compare different operators before committing to a tour, we deliberately avoid the use of marketing superlatives, prices that definitely compromise quality and the now common write-ups on past client’s comments that may not be independently verified. What we present you with, is clear info about our company so that you can choose to travel with us on the strong conviction that our style and pace of running safaris is what you are looking for.

Last but not least we acknowledge that satisfying travel is about trust and we would like you to consider that besides many individuals who privately entrust us with organizing their tours, we are trusted by some of the most respected (and we are happy to add demanding) operators of walking/birding holidays to run tours for them in Kenya, please see our references page.

We sincerely look forward to walking and birding with you in Kenya.

Peter and Anne Huysman

Owners and Operators
Ontdek Kenya Ltd
P.O. Box 2352
10140 Kimathi Way
Nyeri, Kenya
Tel +254-20-3524405
Contact us

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Ontdek = 'discover' in Dutch