Malindi holidays

Holidays to Malindi deliver a seven-kilometre white sand beach and fantastic snorkelling among the Indian Ocean's coral gardens. Not to mention, eight centuries of Swahili history is right under your nose.

Centuries-old pedigree

Malindi is a Swahili township on the Indian Ocean coast with a pedigree dating back to the 13th-century. A lot of its earliest buildings are still holding up and the old town is pretty much as it has been for years. But these days it rubs shoulders with dozens of resorts strung out along the pearl-white beaches to the south.

Beach stars

Silversands Beach is four kilometres south of the town and where a lot of the hotels are based. Most have claimed a strip of sand just for themselves. But for local beach culture, the stretch close to town is no pale imitator. It unfurls for seven kilometres around Malindi Bay and northwards to deserted dunes. And beneath the waves you can dive with tropical fish at Malindi Marine National Park.

Living history

Malindi’s old and new sit side by side. Tucked behind the Jumaa mosque and palace on the seafront is the old town. Its higgledy-piggledy streets and squares are home to old mosques and churches, plus local shops. Their Swahili spices and handmade jewellery make great gifts to take home. But head to Lamu Road to the north and it couldn’t be more different. Modern bars and clubs jam the strip. Come nightfall, they really turn up the volume.

The lost city of Gedi

Just off the main Malindi-Mombasa road, 15 minutes’ drive away, are the ruins of Gede, a city abandoned in the 17th-century and lost to the world until the 1920s. If the remains are anything to go by, its mysterious inhabitants liked the finer things in life. Peel back the forest layers and you’ll see ornate tombs and mosques, and a crumbling Swahili palace.