How to travel to Diani On A Budget

The coastal town of Diani, located approximately 50 kilometers from Mombasa city, is considered one of the best beach destinations in Kenya, and some would argue, Africa at large.

Diani, you see, boasts of pristine beaches the likes of which leave you wishing you could buy a villa and settle right next to the ocean (like some rich folk down there have managed to do, cough cough)

The place also has good weather all year round, water sports like jet skiing, snorkeling and scuba diving to mention a few and proximity to wild life attractions like Shimba Hills National reserve.

I recently had the good fortune to travel to Diani for a few days and in this article I will endeavor to capture the highs and lows of my budget vacation in Diani for your benefit if Diani is one of those destinations in your bucket list.

Buckle up, My name is Dennis Ohuru, a youtuber and content creator living in Nairobi, Kenya and this is the story of my trip to Diani.

Being a Youtuber has several downsides, including but not limited to;

• Coming up with new content ideas every time.
• Wondering why no one is watching that recent upload you made after the many hours you put into it.
• Being a jack of all trades in the fact that you are the host, the camera guy, the sound guy, the video editor and the logistics team of your YouTube channel all wrapped up in one.

Sometimes though, and always when you least expect it, having a YouTube channel rewards you, and that is exactly what happened in this case.

The short of it is, a very nice viewer of my YouTube channel reached out and offered me a complimentary stay at their Airbnb in Diani.

All they asked is, once there, I would make an Airbnb tour video to share with my YouTube followers so that people planning trips to Diani might consider staying in said Airbnb.

It was in that way, a win win situation for us both.

I for one needed a change of environment, being a content creator who works from home and spends most of the time staring at the four walls of my rented space in Umoja Estate, Nairobi.

My benefactor, on the other hand, a doctor named Emily, needed a bit of marketing for their Airbnb in Diani.

And just like that, my accommodation in Diani was taken care of, yaay YouTube!

There are mainly three ways to travel to Diani from Nairobi, by air, or by road, either using a private car or public means and last but not least you can travel by train.

Let’s look at each of these options individually.

If you choose to travel to Diani from Nairobi by air, or more appropriately, if you have the financial wherewithal to travel by air to Diani (cough!) you have several options in the way you can do this.

You can fly using a Kenya airways flight to Mombasa town and take another flight from Mombasa to Ukunda airstrip in Diani.

However, a more appropriate methodology to employ would be to fly straight from Nairobi to Ukunda airstrip.

This way you would save yourself both time and the headache of having to find a plane to Diani from Mombasa.

In 2025, several local airlines provide this service including Safari link, Jambojet and Skyward Express to mention a few.

The table below breaks down the cost and logistic of each airline.

Travelling from Nairobi To Diani by road

If you choose to travel by road, you can either hire a car from one of the many car rental companies in Nairobi.

This option, however, will most likely be more expensive than travelling to Diani by air, for one you have to factor in not only the cost of hiring the car, but also how long you will spend in Diani.

All car rental companies use a day rate to charge for car rental services. The more days you spend in Diani, the more expensive renting a car will be.

To put this into perspective, picture renting a saloon car like a Toyota Axio, the average day rate for this type of vehicle is Ksh 5,000.

If you spend 3 days is Diani, that will come to Ksh 15,000. In addition to the car rental fee, you will have to factor in fuel costs for the journey to Diani and back.

A round trip from Nairobi to Diani is approximately 1,000 kilometers, with this in mind, we can speculate how much fuel you will use for a round trip;

Distance from Nairobi to Ukunda in Diani: 512 km

Fuel economy range: 20.6 km/L (optimistic) vs 13 km/L (conservative)

Estimated petrol needed (one-way): 25–40 L

Current petrol price: KES 185.31/L

Estimated one-way fuel cost: KES 4,600 – KES 7,300

Estimated round-trip cost: KES 9,200 – KES 14,600

Alternatively, you can opt to travel to Diani by road using public means, from Nairobi CBD.

Bus services like Mashpoa , Tahmeed and Ena Coach all ply the Nairobi- Mombasa route.

You can travel using any one of these bus services to Mombasa, once you arrive in Mombasa you will then find and board matatus headed to Diani.

The whole journey by road using public means will cost you approximately Ksh 2,000 to 3,000.

Travelling From Nairobi to Diani by Train (The cheapest option)

This was my choice, lacking the financial wherewithal to hire a car (I recently got my driver’s license yaaay!) or catch a flight to Diani (hopefully one day)

I booked the 10 pm SGR train from Nairobi SGR terminus to the Mombasa SGR terminus at Miritini.

I arrived at the SGR station at 8 PM, when using the SGR its recommended you arrive an hour to your set off time so I had plenty of time to get through security.

This is how the check in at the SGR goes in brief, you arrive at the SGR terminus and proceed straight to a screening area.

This is basically a makeshift space which can hold up to 100 or more people at a time.

In the middle of the room is a raised platform where everyone places their luggage in a line, and then security dogs are walked past the luggage to sniff out any contraband like illegal drugs and weapons.

Hopefully your group doesn’t have a criminal with a black heart embedded in it and the dog sniffing luggage routine goes smoothly.

After this, everyone picks up their luggage and places them into an X Ray machine as they enter the SGR station proper.

In the station, you then proceed to a ticket printing area where you will enter the unique code that had been sent to you in your payment confirmation message from SGR.

Don’t delete that payment confirmation message people!

After printing your ticket, you go through one more X ray machine and into the waiting lounge, a large open space where travellers wait for their departure.

This is of course assuming that you bought the economy ticket, I’m advised that VIP tickets have their own waiting rooms but I wouldn’t know about that.

Mine was an economy ticket worth ksh 1,500.

The good news is, the waiting lounge at the SGR station for mere mortals with economy tickets, has some food vending stations so if in need of some nourishment before your journey starts. You can order something in the way of food.

At around 9.45 pm, the Mombasa train was announced and boarding commenced, I made my way to the train and I’ve got to say, those economy seats are as tough, stiff and upright like the back of a malnourished rhino.

Madaraka Express (This is the company or brand that manages the standard gauge railway) , kindly do something about it.

Our backs suffer so much on what is a 5 hour journey all the way to Mombasa. Kindly make the seats reclinable or at least a little bit cushy, please?

We set off from Nairobi a few minutes past 10 pm and the journey was uneventful, apart from those very uncomfortable economy seats, the train ride down to Mombasa SGR terminus in Miritini was okay.

One very good thing about the SGR train from Nairobi down to Mombasa is that it has cut down what used to be a 10 to 12 hour road trip by bus to 5 hours and even though the economy seats are not the most comfortable seats in Christendom, five hours goes by remarkably quickly , especially if you sit next to strangers fond of making conversation like I did.

At 3.55 am in the morning, my train pulled up to the Mombasa SGR terminus, I disembarked and made my way out of the station.

You will be happy to know that several vans are stationed just outside the terminus to ferry people to various parts of Mombasa including Diani, at a fee of course.

But the convenience of not having to look for a means of transport to ferry you to your final destination in Mombasa is well worth the cost.

I boarded one such van to Diani and paid a very happy ksh 500, not only are the vans convenient but most of them are quite comfy.

Accommodation in Diani

I arrived to Diani at 5 am in the morning, checked into my Airbnb with the help of my very courteous host, and wet straight to bed.

Like I mentioned earlier, my stay at Diani would be courtesy of a viewer of my YouTube channel, who offered me their Airbnb in exchange for a shoutout and a Airbnb tour segment in one of my YouTube videos.

My Airbnb was very cozy and luxurious as you will see.

However, if you are travelling to Diani, you will be happy to know that accommodation options are abundant.

The only factor that will determine the luxuriousness of your stay is of course that pesky concern that bedevils all men, your pocket.

Where I stayed (Airbnb In Diani)

This is the space I stayed during my budget vacation to Diani courtesy of my youtube suporter.

The space is a cozy, rustic themed one bedroom apartment in Palm beach Diani.

Here’s the house on Airbnb.

If your choice of accommodation in Diani is an Airbnb, I recommend Hellenas Gem with gusto, vim and brio.

Not only is the space beautiful, but the area is quite, close to the beach, has a secure parking area (I don’t have a car yet but still) and the guy on the ground who helps with the check ins and stuff like that one Mr. Morgan, is very friendly and courteous and will answer all your meal and beach inquiries.

Eateries In Diani

When I woke up at around 10 AM of the following day, after a very beautiful sleep on the four poster wooden bed at my Airbnb.

It came to my realization, like some sort of heavenly revelation. That I was hungry, and so I decided to go in search of breakfast.

Not more than 500 meters from my stay, I bumped into my first eatery in Diani.

A beautiful local restaurant called Kitamu (Kitamu in the local Swahili parlance means delicious) and in tribute to its name, the food was delicious.

i ordered their breakfast special, a combination of two sausages, eggs, a small tea kettle, a mahamri (the brown one) and a banana.

This breakfast platter was priced at Ksh 500. Which I thought was fare because of how delicious the whole thing was.

After breakfast, I spent the rest of the day relaxing in my Airbnb and resting from the previous night’s journey.

In the afternoon, at around 3 pm, I decided to go to the beach.

Beaches In Diani

I like to walk and so I decided that the best way to get to the beach, which I’d been promised by a few locals to be walkable, was by foot.

Walking would afford me the opportunity to take in the local scenery and ambiance.

With that decided, I made my way blindly but jovially in the direction of the beach, unfortunately I made it to a beach area but not the beach, let me explain.

A beach as you and I both understand it is an area of the ocean with pure white sands stretching for miles where you can remove your shoes and enjoy the breeze of the wind, the lapping of ocean waves and the feel of sand between your feet.

Unfortunately where I ended up was basically a place where the ocean meets land. Hehehe. You will be able to see this in the full video of my trip to Diani which I will embed to this article at the end.

After asking around and talking to a few locals, I was able to find a very nice gentleman called Jacob, who agreed to guide me to the proper beach.

Trade winds, one of the famous Diani beaches was fortunately only a Km away from where I was. And so with the help of Jacob, I made my way across the face of the ocean to Trade Winds beach.

If you ever travel to Diani, to avoid going to a beach that is not a beach like I did, just take the local transport, TukTuks, and tell the drivers to drop you at Trade Winds, the trip will cost you only Ksh 30 to 50 shillings depending on where you are staying but will save you a lot of time and ensure you don’t end up in weird places.

To cut the long story short, I made it to Trade Winds beach and man was I in love.

The beach is beautiful, serene almost, not too many people in most sections, and an open and wide view of the ocean as far as the eyes can see.

I definitely recommend this beach to anyone who comes to Diani, its a public beach but remarkably good at that.

Activities at Trade winds beach include;

• Swimming in the ocean (You can rent floaters at Ksh 100 if you don’t know how to swim) I also liked that the beach has life saves watching over people swimming in the ocean
• You can take a walk on the beach (Free of charge)
• If you are a people person, you can chat up a stranger or join a beach football match, I spotted at least two
• You can Jet Ski, I was informed that a 30 minute Jet ski ride would cost Ksh 7,000 which I thought was outrageous but maybe that’s just me plus there are several Jet ski ride vendors so maybe others charge cheaper
• You can go on boat rides

Its basically a full fledged beach.

Other beaches in Diani which I wasn’t fortunate enough to go to are Bidi Badu and Kongo river beaches.

Activities in Diani

During my stay in Diani, I was fortunate enough to join an e-bike ride excursion by a local tour agency called Diani Bikes.

Again, my participation was complimentary, because of my Youtuber status, the manager of Diani bikes, after a bit of convincing from myself, agreed to my request to join a tour group in exchange of me making a YouTube video of the experience.

That, I convinced him, would benefit his brand in the long term as the youtube video would remain on my channel forever and keep contributing to lead generation for his brand Diani bikes.

My tour group was made up of German nationals but Diani bikes provided a translator for their benefit. The tour itself included visiting;

• A bustling local market called Ibiza
• A community school
• A Mijikenda village

Diani bikes is a good budget option if you are looking to explore Diani in a no frills, boots on the ground sort of way.

Apart from E-bike tours, the also offer Tuk Tuk excursions, Bike rentals, Marine excursions and Forest excursions.

Click here to go to there website and learn about their offerings.

A video of my trip to Diani

Summary

In the end, I had a wonderful time in Diani and would go back in an instant if I could.

Would I recommend Diani as a travel destination, absolutely, the weather is great, the food is good, the Ocean is breath taking and the beaches are heavenly.

At least Trade Winds is. Thank you for reading.