Do you like to travel solo? Maybe on a business or job trip, you have found yourself in a new town or city and you felt a bit lost. You did not have the slightest idea where you will catch your next meal or lay your head to rest. Stay with me as I share three great ways I have used myself to identify decent eating spots as well as accommodations around Kenya.

1. Locate the Local Police Station

You probably did not know this but our guys in blue love to eat well and will always find and frequent decent spots offering quality, pocket-friendly food.

That is why you need to seek out where the local police station in your new place is located first. Once you do that, you will be sure to find out where to eat quality food on a budget because it will not be too far from the station in most cases.

2. Follow the Trail of Tour Vans and NGO Vehicles

Having worked in the NGO world for a while, I can share a tip or two here. NGO and tour company staff attach a premium to safety and quality whenever they go.

Over the years, they have perfected the art of balancing budgets with comfort. The last thing they want is to wake up to a food poisoning incident or to find their KES 8 million company SUV gone!

Follow these guys and you will not go wrong with decent eating spots and accommodation. If you are new in town without a basic idea of where to stay, then look out for spots where these guys have parked and you will be alright. Their vehicles are usually conspicuously branded so you would not miss them.

3. Look For High-traffic Joints

The wisdom of the streets is that decent eating spots attract high traffic. In such places, you are assured of fresh food because everything gets sold out quickly. On the same breadth, popular accommodation facilities will follow the same law.

This, however, might not always be true so use your intuition. An empty place you come across might be newly opened and has not caught on among the locals yet it could be serving great food with amazing accommodations. Having said that, it is rare – Kenyans love new places and would often frequent them.

Do you have other ways you use to identify decent eating spots or accommodations? Please share!