Watamu Beach

Watamu is on the Kenyan coast north of Mombasa, a series of bays with white coral sand behind a fringing reef, and one of the oldest marine protected areas in Africa — the park was established in 1968.

The reef is close in and the lagoon shallow, and the defining feature is what the tide does. At low water the lagoon drains to ankle depth over much of its area and eroded coral heads stand clear of the surface in the middle of the bay; at high water the same bay is a swimming pool. The park protects the reef, the seagrass and the Mida Creek mangrove system behind, which together are a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

The beach is fine white coral sand, unusually bright, on bays sheltered enough for easy swimming at the right hour. Snorkelling in the park is done from boats over the reef; green turtles nest along this coast and a local trust runs a rehabilitation programme and a nest protection scheme that has operated since the 1990s. Turtle Bay, Blue Lagoon and Watamu Bay are the three main coves, separated by low headlands.

Development is low and set back — small hotels and lodges rather than a strip — with the village of Watamu and the ruins of Gedi, an abandoned Swahili town of the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries, a few minutes inland and well worth the detour. Malindi, twenty minutes north, is the older resort town with a Portuguese pillar left by Vasco da Gama, and Mida Creek's boardwalks behind the beach are the best birdwatching on this part of the coast.

Check the tide, then decide what kind of day it is: at low water the lagoon drains to ankle depth with coral heads standing clear, at high water it is a swimming bay. The marine park has been running since 1968, which is longer than almost any in Africa, and Gedi's ruins inland are worth the detour.