There is optimism on the part of Italians who are planning to travel to Kenya for the winter vacations and for all those who are used to spending a period in the warm during the European winter months.
The trend, beyond the expectations already stated yesterday regarding the prospect of reopening some tourist destinations to the travels of Italians in possession of Green Passes from November or at least before the Christmas holidays, is highlighted by the increase of requests, just in these last days, of houses for rent and rooms in bed & breakfast or boutique hotels on the Kenyan coast by citizens of our country.
The requests, which have also reached us through the email info@malindikenya.net (we are neither a real estate agency nor a service desk, but we limit ourselves to providing information and advising people to contact the activities that support the portal of Italians in Kenya), also concern airline flight bookings and this can be seen from the increase in prices and the decrease in the number of seats available on individual planes in the dates of the first days of November and from December 15 onwards. The real possibility that at least the Italian government will lift the ten-day quarantine on return from Kenya has literally excited many lovers of the African destination and also many newbies who have been confined to the peninsula for too long.
It must be said that in recent days, cancellations and consequent refunds (arrived in record time, it must be admitted) of flights already booked with the Turkish Airways company to Mombasa have also taken place. This also confirms the tendency of compatriots traveling to Malindi and Watamu to prefer Mombasa and the two or three hour transfer to Kilifi County, rather than changing destination, as suggested by Turkish Airways, and then embarking from Nairobi to Malindi.
Yet, Turkish has always guaranteed a flight to Nairobi and often for those who live in regions like Emilia Romagna, Sicily, but also near Turin, Pisa and other cities served by Turkish with the flight to Istanbul, it would only be a matter of making a stopover and customs in Nairobi and booking one of the many flights available today to Malindi. No way, the vast majority of travelers prefer to face a journey (often by train) to Rome Fiumicino or Milan Malpensa, both outward and return, rather than make the Nairobi-Malindi (with transshipment from one terminal to another at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the capital and any small outlay for excess baggage).
From October 31, moreover, the direct KLM Amsterdam-Mombasa line should be activated, with connections at various Italian airports. Flights, once a week, and tickets are already available online. There is a technical stopover in Dar Es Salaam on the way back, which makes the trip slightly longer. But you get to Mombasa, something that for now, as far as international flights with connections from our country are concerned, only Ethiopian Airways and Eurowings, the low cost airline of German Lufthansa, from Frankfurt, do.
The race to guarantee oneself a nice vacation in Kenya has in any case begun and also the prices of housing and rooms, which for now were understandably tempting, are beginning to increase.
Optimists and those "sick of Africa" should hurry up!