Guide to Mombasa

"On its 15-square mile island in an Indian Ocean creek, Mombasa is a tale of two cities – one a historic old town tangle of twisting streets and Arab dhows, the other an easy going spread of broad avenues and low rise buildings. It's an all-out assault on all the senses."

With causeways, bridges and the Likoni ferry linking it to the mainland, Kenya's second city feels like it has one foot firmly in Africa and the other in the Middle East. A trading post for centuries, and still a busy port, its historical old town is a maze of narrow streets, overhung by wooden balconies and sprinkled with mosques and minarets.

There's a real buzz here, a constant melee of hustle and bustle appreciated only on foot. And you can sightsee as you stroll as you shop - the area's crammed with little shops selling antique jewellery, bright khanga cottons, batiks and beautiful wood carvings. Overseeing it all is the 16th-century Fort Jesus – a relic of the city's Portuguese past - and an Anglican cathedral recalling the colonial days. And in the harbour, low slung dhows with big buff sails share the water with cargo ships.

Modern Mombasa fans out beyond the old quarter, marked by the famous twin 'tusks' and focused on Moi Avenue's central shops and the Mwembe Tayari market area. This is African Mombasa, slower, more relaxed, with speciality restaurants for European, Asian and Swahili cuisine, along with bags of seafood dishes and seasonal tropical fruits.

The city isn't known for its beaches, though the long sands of Nyali and Bamburi are near enough for a full day of watersports. An exotic idyll it's not – but it's timelessly intriguing.

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