Day Tours from Kisumu City
Kisumu is the principal city of western Kenya and the 3rd largest city in Kenya. The city is located on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria. It’s an historical city that dates back to late 19th century and has various tourist attractions that includes Lake Victoria (the largest Lake in Africa). The city is also the largest in Nyanza region and second most important city after Kampala within the greater Lake Victoria basin.
The port was founded in 1901 as the main inland terminal of the Uganda Railway named “Port Florence”. Although trade stagnated in the 1980s and 1990s, it is again growing around oil exports.
Attractions in Kisumu
Attractions in the city include Kibuye Market, Oile Market, the Kisumu Museum, an impala sanctuary, a bird sanctuary, Hippo Point,Shopping malls and the nearby Kit Mikayi and Ndere Island National Park.
Kisumu Museum
Kisumu Museum, established in 1980, has a series of outdoor pavilions laid out in a formation similar to that of a Luo homestead. Some of the pavilions contain live animals. For example, one pavilion contains numerous aquaria with a wide variety of fish from Lake Victoria, along with explanatory posters. Another pavilion contains terrarium containing mambas, spitting cobras, puff adders and other venomous Kenyan snakes. Additionally, out of doors, the museum has a few additional exhibits, including a snake pit and a crocodile container.
Other pavilions show weaponry, jewellery, farm tools and other artefacts made by the various peoples of the Nyanza Province. Additionally, there are exhibits of stuffed animals, birds and fish. One pavilion houses the prehistoric TARA rock art, which was removed for its own protection to the museum after it was defaced by graffiti in its original location.
The museum’s most important and largest exhibition is the UNESCO-sponsored Ber-gi-dala. This is a full-scale recreation of a traditional Luo homestead. Ber-gi-dala consists of the home, granaries and livestock corrals of an imaginary Luo man as well as the homes of each of his three wives, and his eldest son. Through signs and taped programs in both Luo and English, the exhibition also explains the origins of the Luo people, their migration to western Kenya, traditional healing plants, and the process of establishing a new home.
Dunga Beach and Wetlands
Dunga Beach and Wetland is known for its unique eco-cultural attractions due to its biodiversity and cultural rich and diverse papyrus wetland ecosystem and local community respectively. Eco-finder Kenya has established Dunga Wetland Pedagogical Centre at Dunga Beach is a grass-root led intervention whose overarching cardinal goal is empowerment of Dunga Wetland Community and improvement of livelihood security of its people. Therefore, some of the main focuses in the centre are promoting Eco-Cultural Tourism and facilitate the conservation of the Dunga Papyrus Wetland Ecosystem.
Kisumu Impala Sanctuary
During the British rule, Impala Park now sanctuary was called Connaught Parade. Measuring just 0.4 square miles (1.0 km2), the sanctuary is one of Kenya’s smallest wildlife preserves. As its name suggests, it is home to a herd of impala. Some hippos, as well as many reptiles and birds are also present. Additionally, several caged baboons and leopards who faced difficulties of one sort or the other in the wild are held in cages there. Over 115 different species of birds live there.
Day Tours and Attractions in and Around Kisumu City
Kisumu is home to a number of tourist attractions and this tours takes you to the primary sites in and around the city. These are short trips from Kisumu city to various touristic sites close to the city. Some trips and day tours include the cultural centers like the Museum and the Kit Mikaye, The Leisure Boat trips from Yacht Club, Kiboko Bay Beach Resort or Dunga Beach to Ndere Island, Impala Sanctuary and the Gulf.
Besides the day tour, Kisumu itself can be a starting point for a safari to the Masai Mara … and the journey from Kisumu can be as much a pleasurable trip in itself. The journey to Masai Mara from Kisumu will take you through Kericho and the tea plantations – with a most enjoyable refreshment stop!! – to Narok and just after Narok you start to see giraffes and other game even before getting to the official entrance gate!
